click to enlarge

"If Rupa were a movie she would be Amélie meets Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown meets Latcho Drom meets Do the Right Thing. She'd be set in India and Berkeley...She would be (and, in fact, is) an instant cult classic"
   - San Francisco Weekly

MAY 2010 – After several years of leading rousing performances with San Francisco's boundary crossing global agit pop band Rupa & the April Fishes, the San Francisco songstress Rupa returns to Yoshi's San Francisco with special performance of new and re-worked material in collaboration with Mark Orton of Tin Hat Trio and upright bassist and composer Todd Sickafoose, leader of Todd Sickafoose’s Tiny Resistors and bassist for Ani DiFranco. The evening features two sets music, both with songs by Rupa interspersed with that of composer Todd Sickafoose. 

Rupa will perform songs recorded on her two acclaimed albums as well as new tunes all arranged for string quartet by Mark Orton. Rupa will also perform new songs written in collaboration with the dynamic Todd Sickafoose that indicate a shifting direction for the polyglot composer. The show is a unique opportunity to hear the intimate side of Rupa's music brought to the surface with arrangements for cello, violin, viola, upright bass, marimba, clarinet, and carnatic saxophone.

Known for their multilayered sound drawing from many traditions, Rupa & The April Fishes, have played major venues and festival stages in the US, Europe and Canada including the Montreal Jazz Festival, Central Park Summer Stage and the Dranouter Folk Festival. The UK’s Guardian says, “[Rupa] deserves to become something of a global celebrity thanks to her cheerfully cool and soulful vocals and ability to write songs that switch between Gypsy and mexican styles, reggae, French chanson and Indian themes.”  Before leaving the Bay Area for the band’s extensive summer tour, Rupa is excited to share a unique and experimental performance at Yoshi's, one of her favorite local clubs.

Todd Sickafoose is a Bay Area native who the San Francisco Chronicle describes as "a captivating improviser, imaginative composer, and master of collaboration". He is fond of grand melodies, shifting textures, and thick rhythms, and his most recent record, Tiny Resistors, was featured on 'Best Of' lists from the Boston Globe to the Village Voice. JazzTimes wrote "here is jazz for 2008: thoroughly original, endlessly creative...one of the year’s most compelling listens." Sickafoose, a 2009 Downbeat Rising Star Bassist, will lead the overlapping ensemble through music from Tiny Resistors and beyond. Since 2005, Sickafoose has been living in Brooklyn, NY and returns to San Francisco for this special show.

*/