Burnt Sugar The Arkestra Chamber

Burnt Sugar The Arkestra Chamber is a sprawling improvisational collective that channels what Rolling Stone calls "cool telekinesis between the lustrous menace of Miles Davis' On The Corner, the slash-and-om of 1970s King Crimson, and Jimi Hendrix' moonwalk across side three of Electric Ladyland." This New York-based "multiracial jam army" brings their euphoric funk, space jazz, power-packed rock, sweet soul and avant-garde experimentation to three nights at SFJAZZ, caramelizing the psychedelic music of the 1960s.

Founded in 1999 by the late Village Voice icon Greg Tate and co-led by bassist Jared Michael Nickerson, Burnt Sugar operates as what they call "a territory band, a neo-tribal thang" with a fluid membership that has included pianist Vijay Iyer, Living Colour guitarist Vernon Reid, and The Roots' Captain Kirk Douglass. Their performances center on Butch Morris's "conduction" system — hand and baton gestures that direct live improvisation — creating what JazzTimes describes as performances that "scramble genres, paying homage to everyone from Ellington to Sun Ra to Hendrix to Parliament-Funkadelic in the process."

Expect a transformative experience where the nine-piece ensemble operates "like a single, multi-phonic organism." Recent performance accounts describe audiences lost in trance-like states as the band creates "sonic lasers" from keyboards, Hendrix-esque guitar detonations, and robotic vocal solos reminiscent of Zapp and Roger's electro-funk. The conduction system allows for spontaneous transitions — one moment channeling Jefferson Airplane's "White Rabbit," the next delivering Aretha Franklin's "Respect" completely reimagined.

The current lineup features vocalists Shelley Nicole, Bruce Mack, and Miss Olithea alongside trumpeter JS Williams, multi-instrumentalist V. Jeffery Smith, guitarist Ben Tyree, keyboardist Leon Gruenbaum with his talk box and samchillian, drummer Chris Eddleton, and Nickerson on electric "bubble" bass. Their 22 releases on the AVANT GROIDD Musica label reflect their mission to create "exciting hybrids" that honor the "first post-modernists of American music — Duke Ellington, Sun Ra, Parliament Funkadelic and The Art Ensemble of Chicago."

This is music that defies easy categorization, existing in what founder Tate described as having "one foot in the prehistoric, the other in the post human" — a cosmic journey through the African diaspora's musical legacy reinvented for the 21st century.