Afro-Filipino Jazz Project at YBG Festival

Few artists have appeared at the Festival more frequently than flutist, percussionist and arranger John Calloway. Whether he’s leading his own band, performing in the sextet of longtime creative partner John Santos, or directing the Latin Jazz Youth Ensemble of San Francisco, Calloway is a Bay Area icon who’s been at the center of the San Francisco Latin jazz scene for some five decades. But his latest and most personal project yet, the Afro-Filipino Jazz Project, takes his music in a new direction. Founded in 2022 as a creative, interactive space, the Project is intended to bring together Afro Filipinx, African American and Filipino American musicians to explore a broad range of musical styles, with a particular emphasis on jazz idioms, African American roots and traditional and folkloric Filipino music. It’s one component of the larger Afro-Filipino Project, a platform dedicated to highlighting and celebrating, individually and collectively, the art practices and artists of the African American and Filipino American communities whose contributions have profoundly shaped our nation's artistic narrative. For this performance the AFJP features bass star Marcus Shelby, inveterately grooving drummer Deszon Claiborne, Latin jazz piano specialist Murray Low, saxophonist TJ Milan, Conrad Benedicto on kulintang, vocalist and dancer Ting Alvarez and guest vocalist Anna Maria Flechero.