Dillon Baiocchi recalls a gig where everyone in the crowd was lying down as he and his fellow Hermano bandmate Michalis Michailidis created soundscapes in the middle of the room. The floor was draped in blankets and rugs, and the mood was transcendental, almost meditative.
What struck Baiocchi was how he could watch everyone transition back to reality after their hour-long set.
“Everyone’s quiet for a minute or two,” Baiocchi says. “It’s cool. It’s like slowly reawakening or something.”
Not every Hermano set inspires the entire crowd to bypass all social norms and engage in public napping, but they do generally take the audience on a journey. The duo’s music isn’t structured like standard pop, with repeating verses and choruses, but rather like musical journeys with slow builds and eventual transitions.
“I feel different from the gigs I played with past bands,” Baiocchi says. “This is like you created something beautiful and maybe meaningful. It feels really good to play.”
The previous groups that Baiocchi has played in are primarily jazz. In fact, when he was a high schooler he played in the Kuumbwa Honor Jazz Band here locally. Eventually he moved to New York to study jazz, and then returned to Santa Cruz where he was the director of the Kuumbwa Honor Jazz Band for a few years. He moved to the Netherlands in 2016 to go to grad school, continuing his jazz studies. Later that year, he started Hermano with fellow jazz grad student Michailidis. On March 29, the duo will play their first ever show in Santa Cruz.
For both students of jazz, the simple melodies and soundscapes of Hermano was an entirely different kind of music to be making. Everything Baiocchi had done up to that point was not just rooted in jazz, but more often than not was focused on extreme technical difficulty.
“There’s a lot of pressure when you solo to show off what you can do,” Baiocchi says. “When you play soundscape music, the goal for us is to create a sonic space for us and the audience to just relax into and transport ourselves somewhere else. It’s not about what I can do, it’s about how we can make a sound and space together for everyone to connect in.”
The collaboration started between the two of them after some conversations revealed that they had similar musical interests outside of the jazz they were studying. Groups like Sigur Rós were at the top of their list, along with film score music.
“We’re both getting our master’s, and I think we were getting tired of studying the way that most jazz people study, learning scales, licks and patterns, and all of these really complicated things, which are really challenging to play. But we wanted to make things that we’re a little more musical. We were trying to explore that,” Baiocchi says.
In Baiocchi’s early years, he had been more of a jazz traditionalist, which is precisely why he moved to New York and then the Netherlands to study music. Gradually, his ideas about the kind of original music he wanted to play began to evolve. But his background in jazz came in handy, and he didn’t approach soundscape music in an entirely different way. He and Michailidis utilized the skills and musical phrasings that they’d studied so hard in school to create this music. The school encouraged it.
At this week’s show in Santa Cruz, the band will be playing music from their full-length album, North of the World. The record allowed them to really showcase the unique experience that the music creates, as one song blends into the next. In fact, they tell friends that if they are going to listen to it, they need to set aside time to really take it in as a full experience.
“With the music I’ve been making before, you can just put it on in the background,” Baiocchi says. “This is like—it’s really cool to get into it. We kind of zone out and then we realize we’ve been listening to this already for a half hour. It’s kind of a different listening experience.”
Hermano performs at 7 p.m. on Thursday, March 29, at the Kuumbwa Jazz Center, 320 Cedar St., Santa Cruz. $20/adv, $25/adv. 427-2227.
Founded in 2009, Santa Cruz Naturopathic Medical Center is celebrating its ninth anniversary this year.
In May, the Flower Shack will celebrate 30 years under the ownership of Cathy Britton.
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Pipeline is celebrating 40 years of providing the essential gear to the Santa Cruz cannabis community.
Through their Roofs for Troops program, Knox Roofing gives veterans a $250 rebate, and it also supports the Boys and Girls Club.
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Breakfast is served all day; they are most famous for “The Hungry One” breakfast that includes three pancakes; two eggs any style; a choice of bacon, sausage, or ham; and potatoes.
In Spanish, the word “burrito” means “little donkey,” and there are multiple theories as to the exact origin of the food item and how it got its name.
The owners of the Capitola fixture continue to modernize and renovate the restaurant’s one-of-a-kind atmosphere, staying current while retaining a classic feel.
It is still operated by the Zoccoli family, now in its third generation of owners, making it one of the oldest family-run businesses in all of Santa Cruz.
Quick primer on a falafel wrap: it’s basically a vegetarian Middle Eastern sandwich in a pita featuring falafel balls—which are made of fried chickpeas and spices—along with tahini sauce and vegetables.
The most popular menu items are gyros and souvlaki plates (grilled meats, salad, rice, pita, and tzatziki), and they also offer gluten-free and vegan items as well.
The restaurant’s name comes from a combination of Capitola and Soquel—two villages which back in 1929 flirted with the idea of merging townships.
Not much has changed in the décor or on the menu at Cassidy’s since it first opened in 1970—and loyal customers like it that way.
On the first and third Monday of the month, students can sign up for the advanced hip-hop class “Monday Madness,” where a rotating cast of distinguished guest instructors teach choreography.
Laura Ellen Hopper, who created the quirky country station 30 years ago as the spiritual successor to KFAT, was among the recipients of the first-ever Gail Rich Awards in 1997. Hopper is credited with popularizing the Americana genre.
This unpretentious, no-nonsense dive bar in downtown Soquel just celebrated its 30th anniversary as JJ’s Saloon, named for co-owners Joe and Judy Vierra, the latter of whom still presides over the bar.
This retro saloon is housed in a restored vintage office building on the site of the city’s original Wells Fargo stagecoach stop.
Fast Eddy’s gets its name from the main character of the 1961 film 
Electronic bike sales have more than doubled in the past year.
The toughest hole on DeLaveaga’s 18-hole course is the notorious 10th hole, a 590-yard monster par-5 with little room for error on its narrow fairway.
Luma Yoga has had more than 95,000 studio visits since opening in 2012.
Opened in May of 2017, this brand new collective is one part workspace and one part storefront, located on the main drag of Soquel Village. Owned by florist and designer Julie Martin of Willi Wildflower, Craftsmen Collective sells and promotes the work of 11 female artisans. A workspace toward the back of the store currently houses the antique printing press rescued from antiquity by Lauren Rhodes of the custom letterpress outfit Waldo Press. Martin says they’re looking for another artist, or maybe even two (inquire within or on their website—being male is not a deal-breaker). The storefront is a living, breathing (thanks to a variety of lush houseplants) oasis filled with quality, handcrafted jewelry, furniture, perfumes and body care products, woven baskets and textiles, glassware, ceramics and more. As if that’s not enough, the walls are studded with a killer selection of vintage bags. This is the one-stop-shop to find gifts and home decor while supporting local female artists. Workshops are offered regularly—check the website, 
When in search of towering waterfalls, there’s no need to go to the Sierra Nevada or up to Oregon. An 11-mile loop through Big Basin Redwoods State Park will take you past the towering Berry Creek Falls and a few other massive falls just upstream. This walk also takes hikers along gorgeous creeks, through beautiful sunny clearings and into the county’s impressive old-growth preserve. It’s no secret that most of the county’s redwood forests were logged a little more than a decade ago, so thank goodness for Big Basin, which happens to be California’s original state park. Its 18,000 acres just outside Boulder Creek are the difference between our region having quite a few ancient giants and having very few. 
This place appeases the curious, but is not for the faint of heart. If the stunning display of snakes and lizards doesn’t grab your attention, Jeffery, their 100-plus pound Asian water monitor lizard, will. The awe doesn’t stop at the reptiles, as they have some impressive sea anemones, silkworms, and a dog named Fish. The business is a family affair—owners Aaron and Brandyn are always hanging around the shop with their kids, willing to talk about all things fishy and slimy. Even if you’re not a pet owner, it’s well worth a stop in to take a gander at this wild bunch. 
The cheese section at Deluxe Foods of Aptos is epic, a portal to cheese-lovers’ fantasies that features products from Italy, Finland, Denmark, France and many other exotic ports of fromage. Need a good English cheddar infused with Irish Whisky? Don’t we all? It’s here! Deluxe doesn’t scrimp on excellent California cheese either (may we suggest Humboldt Fog goat cheese?) In those moments when nothing less than cave-aged Gruyere from Switzerland will do, this is your place. 
Rosie Eckerman is a native Santa Cruzan born into a family of artists. At a compound in Midtown, she learned to create art in many forms. A graphic designer by trade, her love for her hometown was only magnified by 10 years spent living on the island of Oahu. She has since returned home and embraced the flow of California life—and her art—once again.
