Soundsation, an annual public showcase for San Diego City College students to gain experience performing in front of live crowds, returns for its latest edition on Saturday – and like last year, with a twist.
This year, in addition to the amateur musicians who’ll perform, there are a couple of professional artists: co-headliners RIVA and David Cultura.
Each will play a set on the main stage during the five-hour music and arts festival, which takes place at the college’s Curran Plaza.
RIVA, who is recording his debut album, will perform at Soundsation. (Courtesy of the artist)Cultura (his first name is pronounced dah-veed) is a saxophonist originally from Panama who came to the U.S. in 2010 to attend college. He moved to San Diego a little over a year ago after living in St. Louis for about eight years.
RIVA, whose stage moniker comes from his given name, Richard Aulbert IV, is also asaxophonist. Originally from Texas, he moved here in 2017 to study at San Diego State’s jazz music program.
Both are performing at Soundsation at the invitation of SDCC music program supervisor Louis Valenzuela, who’s running this year’s event.
Soundsation originated in 2022 thanks to students in the City College Music Club who wanted to showcase the club’s student artists. After the first event was a success, it became an annual tradition. Beginning in 2024, students in SDCC’s Commercial Music 220: Music Marketing & Promotion class began spearheading the event’s planning, allowing Soundsation to grow.
At this year’s event, 13 artists – 11 are students – are scheduled to perform across two stages. The student performers represent a range of genres, including rock, electro-pop, hip-hop and EDM. The two headliners are both Latin jazz artists.
David Cultura, who will co-headline Soundsation, would like to show that Latin jazz “is a little more broadthan it has been.” (Photo courtesy of the artist)This is just the second time that professional musicians have headlined. Last year,indie rock act The Band Cope and hip-hop group The Neighborhood Kids closed out the show.
Cultura said that for this year’s event, Valenzuela wanted to find headliners who aren’t traditional low-tempo smooth jazz musicians.
“The new face of jazz is more danceable,” Cultura remarked. “That’s what he was looking for, a modern take on jazz, a younger approach.”
The performer, whose given surname is Gomez, released his debut album, “Cultura,” last September. He said that he and his co-headliner represent a more musically expansive brand of Latin jazz.
“I feel like me and RIVA, what we’re trying to do is show that this music is a little more broad than it has been,” he explained. “We’re trying to make it leave that niche market. We’re trying to make it more available for everybody. I just feel like that’s the way to go, you know? If the music does not evolve, you cannot expect it to be relevant. So I think like that’s what we’re trying to do, to keep it relevant because otherwise it’s just going to be stagnant.”
RIVA, who’s in the midst of recording his debut album, “JazzHouse Vol. 1,” with a six-piece band, said one of his goals as a musician is to incorporate a more upbeat sound into jazz. Or actually, re-incorporate.
“One of the ways that we approach this jazz language is to introduce dance back into the mix of our sound,” he told Times of San Diego. “That is, of course, how jazz started, in the dance hallclubs, the swing clubs in the ‘20s. And 100 years later, we’re carrying on the rich tradition of dance and bringing young people to jazz in that way.”
“One thing that we always say on stage,” he added, “is that jazz music is dance music.”
See the Soundsation website for full lineup and set times.
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