African Skies Makes Best Lists in 2018

Happy New Year!  I am so thrilled that this past year, 2018, my bands album, “African Skies”, made Andrew Gilbert’s (prominent jazz advocate and correspondent for all jazz music being made and produced in the greater San Francisco Bay Area) best of the Bay Area albums by Jazz Musicians.  I rarely consider myself a jazz […]

The Jemal Ramirez Group Has Shows In The San Francisco Bay Area–August 11-14, 2018.

A string of great shows and the next installment of recordings from the Jemal Ramirez Group are just around the corner.  We would love to play music for you and yours, live in person.  We’ll have copies of our records to sign for you as well as a limited first run of Joyful Beat Records T-shirts. […]

African Skies Reviewed by Downbeat Magazine

It was 30 years ago that I first heard about the Downbeat Magazine (Jazz, Blues and Beyond) as a teenage drummer in the Merced High School jazz band, located in the California Central Valley, under the band direction of Gregory Christiansen. Since learning about this magazine I have spent many years reading several issues of […]

African Skies on 180 gram vinyl (with digital download)

This new double album is my best work to date. It is always a pleasure to work with my dream team band. On African Skies we explore some of my original compositions–as well as compositions from some of my favorite musicians who compose. Warren Wolf is so amazing here on this recording–you will truly enjoy […]