Tucson, Arizona

Tucson, Arizona

Tucson is a city in and the county seat of Pima County, Arizona, United States. The city is located 118 miles southeast of Phoenix and 60 miles north of the U.S.-Mexico border. The 2010 United States Census puts the city's population at 520,116 with a metropolitan area population at 1,020,200...

 has a strong, growing independent music culture that focuses on locally-grown and locally-derived musical genres. The city is home to musical organizations that seek to nurture artists from the local music scene as well as introduce the community to other musical styles from beyond Southern Arizona.

Regional musical genres

Tucson is home to both home-grown and imported musical styles and influences, including:

• Desert Funk / Desert Groove / Roots Music — influenced by Sly and the Family Stone, Miles Davis, Stevie Wonder, Willie Nelson and Billie Holiday
• Desert Noir
• Desert Rock
• Mariachi
  Mariachi
  Mariachi is a genre of music that originated in the State of Jalisco, in Mexico. It is an integration of stringed instruments highly influenced by the cultural impacts of the historical development of Western Mexico. Throughout the history of mariachi, musicians have experimented with brass, wind,...
  
   — an integration of stringed instruments highly influenced by the cultural impacts of the historical development of Western Mexico
• Native American Jazz — blends Native American and non-Native musical traditions
• Sonoran Dirty Rock
• Tohono O'odham waila
• Western Cowboy

Musical organizations

• Arizona Friends of Chamber Music — brings chamber music artists to Tucson
• Arizona Opera
  Arizona Opera
  Arizona Opera is an opera company which operates in both Phoenix and Tucson, Arizona.Arizona Opera was established in 1971 as the Tucson Opera Company, under founding general director James P. Sullivan, and presented its first production, of Rossini's The Barber of Seville, in 1972. By 1976 the...
  
   — baroque, bel canto and verismo works, turn-of-the-century masterpieces, operettas and American operas
• Desert Bluegrass Association — promotes traditional bluegrass music in Tucson and Southern Arizona
• Mexican Institute of Sound
  Mexican Institute of Sound
  Mexican Institute of Sound is an electronic music project created by Mexico City-based DJ and producer Camilo Lara. By day, Lara is the president of EMI Mexico and at night he is mastermind of M.I.S. Along with groups like Nortec Collective and Kinky, M.I.S...
  
   — electronic music project created by Mexico City-based DJ and producer Camilo Lara
• Tucson Jazz Society — helps develop local jazz and brings jazz musicians to perform in Tucson,
• Tucson Kitchen Musicians Association — acoustic music and other folk arts
• Tucson Symphony Orchestra
  Tucson Symphony Orchestra
  The Tucson Symphony Orchestra, or TSO, is the primary professional orchestra of Tucson, Arizona. Founded in 1928, when the season consisted of just two concerts, the TSO is the oldest continuously running performing arts organization in the Southwest...
  
   — the oldest symphony orchestra in the American Southwest

Tucson Area Music Awards (TAMMIES)

The annual public-choice music awards — nicknamed the TAMMIES — seeks to recognize local talent by highlighting Tucson's best musical performers. The awards are held in the fall and are sponsored by Tucson Weekly

Tucson Weekly

The Tucson Weekly is an alternative newsweekly that was founded in 1984 by Douglas Biggers and Mark Goehring, and serves the Tucson, Arizona metropolitan area of about 900,000 residents. The paper is a member of the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies...

 magazine.

Recurring musical festivals and fairs

• Tucson Film & Music Festival
  Tucson Film & Music Festival
  Tucson Film & Music Festival celebrates the past, present and future of the Tucson, Arizona music and filmmaking scene. TFMF’s focus is on music-related content, as well as films and filmmakers with a connection to Arizona or the Southwest...
  
   celebrates the past, present and future of the Tucson, Arizona music and filmmaking scene

Prominent local musicians and bands

The following Tucson-based artists have been featured in a variety of local and national media.

• Alter Der Ruine
  Alter Der Ruine
  Alter Der Ruine is a power noise group from Tucson, Arizona. After self-releasing their first album The Ruine Process in August 2006 the band began playing shows across the southwestern United States and Mexico.In 2007 the group was signed to Sistinas Music, expanded to four members and produced...
  
   — power noise / electronic music / industrial music
• Black Sun Ensemble
  Black Sun Ensemble
  Black Sun Ensemble is a Tucson Arizona, USA based psychedelic rock band, led by Jesus Acedo that was formed in the mid 1980s. The initial albums garnered rave reviews from Rolling Stone and several of the independent music journals of the time. Black Sun Ensemble opened for Camper Van Beethoven...
  
   — psychedelic rock
• Cadillac Steakhouse
• Calexico — musical style is influenced by traditional Latin sounds of mariachi and Tejano music; blends "jazzy-rock with traditional Mexican music"
• Friends of Dean Martinez
  Friends of Dean Martinez
  Friends of Dean Martinez is an instrumental rock/post-rock band featuring members of Giant Sand, Calexico, and Naked Prey. FoDM music may be described as a combination of americana tunes with bits of electronica, ambient, lounge, psychedelia and dub intertwined with surf rock inspired lead...
  
   — instrumental rock/post-rock band, americana tunes with influences from electronica, ambient, lounge.
• Los Gallegos
• Mostly Bears
  Mostly Bears
  Mostly Bears are an experimental rock group from Tucson, Arizona. Their music is a difficult to categorize fusion between alternative, progressive and newer indie rock, like "Radiohead circa 1996 getting in a gang-fight with Arcade Fire."...
  
   — experimental rock
• Overcast Off
  Overcast Off
  Overcast Off is a three piece indie rock band based out of Tucson, AZ that started to gain an underground buzz in early 2009. Their debut album is in the works...
  
   — indie rock
• Sergio Mendoza y la Orkesta — psychedelic, indie, mambo, cumbia and jazz

Established choirs and choral groups

• Tucson Boys Chorus
• Tucson Girls Chorus
• University Community Chorus, University of Arizona
• Tucson Symphony Orchestra Chorus

Major music performance venues

• Temple of Music and Art — brings Broadway musicals to Tucson audiences
• Tucson Music Hall

External links

• ReverbNation Charts: Pop: Tucson, Arizona, eMinor Inc. Retrieved: September 5, 2011.
• Tucson Rock Alliance