Karl Evangelista
Guitarist, Composer
Filipino-American guitarist/composer Karl Evangelista (b.1986) ranks among a new wave of musicians pushing the traditions of jazz and experimental music into the 21st century. Synthesizing the heavy legacy of contemporary improvised music with popular song and 20th century composition, Evangelista explores multicultural concepts with sonic intensity and political fervor.
Signal to Noise magazine hails Evangelista as "one of the most original instrumentalists and composers of his generation," and as the creative force behind boundary-breaking group Grex, Evangelista's music has been called an "otherworldly experience" (Eugene Weekly) and "a near-seamless blend of modern jazz, contemporary structuralist composition, indie rock, and blues rock" (Tiny Mix Tapes).
Evangelista has performed with the likes of Andrew Cyrille, Fred Frith, Oliver Lake, Louis Moholo-Moholo, Bobby Bradford, Scott Amendola, and Ben Goldberg, as well as Asian Improv aRts masters Francis Wong, Jon Jang, Tatsu Aoki, and Hafez Modirzadeh. He currently lectures in the department of Race and Resistance Studies at SFSU.
Job Title
3rd Generation
Bay Area, CA, USA
AIR Artist
Photo by Lenny Gonzalez