Hurray for the Riff Raff, with Sen Morimoto
With nine increasingly accomplished albums to her credit, Alynda Mariposa Segarra — who performs as Hurray for the Riff Raff — is going from strength to strength. Should Segarra — who uses they/them pronouns and came out as non-binary in 2022 — achieve mainstream musical success, it may only be a matter of time before a film is made about them.
At 17, this New York native ran away from their uncle and aunt’s home in the Bronx. Segarra traveled across the country, jumping on and off freight trains, hitchhiking, dumpster-diving for food, shoplifting and busking. They were arrested and charged with trespassing after being caught on a boxcar.
Being a queer teenager riding the rails further solidified Segarra’s outsider status. After two years, Segarra landed in New Orleans, where they bonded with a group of fellow street musicians who encouraged their songwriting.
Segarra’s newest album as Hurray for the Riff Raff, “The Past is Still Alive,” is very likely their best to date. It’s an enticing collection of well-crafted songs about survival, perseverance and transcendence.
Or, as the 36-year-old Segarra sings on “Snake Plant”: I was young when I left home / I never stopped running / Used to think I was alone / But nothing will stop me now / Nothing will stop me now.
Having wisely turned away from the electro-pop foray that marked their 2022 album, “Life On Earth,” Segarra returns to their foundational folk and Americana-music roots on “The Past is Still Ailve,” and infuses them with a haunted — and haunting — sense of melancholy.
8 p.m. Thursday. Voodoo Room, House of Blues, 1055 Fifth Ave., Gaslamp Quarter. $37. livenation.com
Juilliard alum Joel Wenhardt is shown performing with the Juilliard Jazz Ensemble.
(Hiroyuki Ito / Getty Images)
Joel Wenhardt Quintet, featuring Georgia Heers
San Francisco-bred pianist Joel Wenhardt and South Carolina-bred singer Georgia Heers are both recent graduates of the Juilliard School in New York.
Wenhardt’s credits include working with the Wynton-Marsalis-led Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, Paul Simon and Brooklyn Rider. His debut album will be released this year and Marsalis has already hailed him as an “original” whose playing “is filled with creativity, sensitivity, and absolute brilliance.”
Wenhardt’s San Diego-area debut came when he performed a svelte version of “Stella by Starlight” at the 2013 Kyoto Prize gala in San Diego. He was a Santa Ana high school junior at the time. He returns this weekend for shows at two different venues here, leading a band that features the promising, Sarah Vaughan-inspired singer Georgia Heers.
8 p.m. Friday. Dizzy’s Arias Hall (behind the Musician’s Association building), 1717 Morena Blvd., Bay Park. $20 (cash only). (858) 270-7467, dizzysjazz.com; and 6:15 p.m. Saturday. The Jazz Lounge, 6818 El Cajon Blvd., San Diego. $40, or $65 with dinner. thejazzlounge.live
Singer-songwriter Victoria Canal, who was born without a right forearm, writes songs and performs concerts on piano and guitar.
(Roberto Finizio / Getty Images)
Victoria Canal, with Lucy Clearwater
Being born without a right forearm would be a major challenge for almost any musician, but not singer-songwriter Victoria Canal. Born in Germany to Spanish and American parents, she uses the term “limb difference” to describe herself.
Canal ably plays guitar and piano using both limbs — albeit with a modified technique — to accompany her supple, carefully calibrated vocals. She sings with admirable candor and vulnerability about issues of body image on her songs “Shape” and “She Walks In,” both from her 2023 debut recording.
Witness such unflinching lyrics as: She walks in / Music fades in like she’s moving in slow motion / Everyone’s staring ‘cause she’s truly magnificent / Sometimes I wish someone would stare at me /But for that reason / Sometimes I get fooled for a second / But they’re staring ‘cause my body’s different / My body’s different.
Canal, 25, made her San Diego debut — if memory serves — in 2018 at Humphreys Concerts by the Bay, where she opened for Michael Franti & Spearhead. Her headlining gig Saturday at House of Blues, where she also played last fall, should be a memorable one.
8 p.m. Saturday. Voodoo Room, House of Blues, 1055 Fifth Ave., Gaslamp Quarter. $27.50. livenation.com