A little more than a week ago, I was lucky enough to attend the first annual Switchboard Music Festival live at Dance Mission Theater on March 30, 2008. It was a full day of inspired music that s best described in their own words: The Switchboard Music Festival is an eight-hour music festival bringing together composers and musicians who are all pushing the boundaries of their respective genres. No other Bay Area music festival or concert series is dedicated to the idea of bringing together such an eclectic, genre-crossing/-breaking/-bastardizing group of experimentalists, innovators, and musical omnivores. Some of the finest musicians in the Bay Area played over the course of the eight-hour music marathon, including Aaron Novik, Amy X Neuburg, Christopher Adler, Dan Becker, Del Sol String Quartet, Jeff Anderle, Edmund Welles, Erik Jekabson, Gamelan X, Ian Dicke, Ian Dickenson, Inner Ear Brigade, Jonathan Russell, Robin Estrada, Ryan Brown, and Slydini. This really turned out to be a tremendous day of live original music, so please enjoy the photographs and this audio sample of Erik Jekabson s trumpet solo (using a delay) called Opening Fanfare, which was the appropriately-named first song played at the festival (thanks Erik!). And don t forget to help support this very-worthy festival when it comes around next year.
