AUG 15-18 | INDIGENOUS SONGBOOK
Aug 17, 2024
Joe Henderson Lab
Please note: Dance floor is General Admission standing room only. If you would prefer seats, please select a different level for this show.
Oakland-based rapper, producer, and songwriter Chhoti Maa is the brainchild of educator and organizer Vreni Michelini Castillo, with music based in cumbia, migrant soul, neufolk, R&B, hip-hop, and the oral tradition.
Hailing from Guanajuato, Mexico, Castillo is a multidisciplinary cultural producer and curator who co-edited the 2019 book Color Theory, created the Fluid Mutualism Symposium, and is co-founder of Aguas Migrantes, an artist collective that runs programming in Mexico.
Chhoti Maa began in 2007 within the migrant rights movement and hip-hop scene of Richmond, VA. They’ve released a pair of full length albums, Agua Corre in 2016 and 2018’s Caldo de Hueso featuring saxophonist and SFJAZZ Resident Artistic Director Howard Wiley, flautist Kymberly Jackson, cumbia accordionist Ivan Flores, and Native emcee Dioganhdih. Their newest album, 7 Luminarias, is set to release this year.
With a name that translates from Hindi as “little mother” and is used to refer to younger individuals who exhibit nurturing qualities, the project reflects Castillo’s passionate interest in decolonial living, ancestral medicine, queerness, migrant empowerment, love, and radical sisterhood.
Their latest track is 2023’s “Reinota,” a tribute to the under-recognized Colombian vocalist Nelly Chavez.
Oakland-based rapper, producer, and songwriter Chhoti Maa is the brainchild of educator and organizer Vreni Michelini Castillo, with music based in cumbia, migrant soul, hip-hop, and the oral tradition.
A feminist rapper, poet, and all-around fierce lyricist.
The Buzz on Chhoti Maa
A feminist rapper, poet, and all-around fierce lyricist.
The Buzz on Chhoti Maa
Watch & Listen
Chhoti Maa
Reinota (Tributo a Nelly Chavez)
Chhoti Maa
Tome Nota (feat. Howard Wiley)
Chhoti Maa
Reinota (Tributo a Nelly Chavez)
Chhoti Maa
Tome Nota (feat. Howard Wiley)
AUG 15-18 | Summer Sessions Week 6: Indigenous Songbook
AUG 15
Indigenous Jazz Funk
DELBERT ANDERSON QUARTETAUG 16
Native American Jazz Vocalist
JULIA KEEFE QUARTETAUG 18
Veteran Jazz Greats
BRAD GOODE AND ERNIE WATTS