The Sunday Music Drop is a weekly radio series hosted by the KQED weekend news team. In each segment, we feature a song from a local musician or band with an upcoming show and hear about what inspires their music. West Oakland-based multidisciplinary artist, student and experimental saxophonist Zekarias Musele Thompson is, in their own words, “concerned with humanity’s conceptual and emotional organizational structures and how we bring them into material form.” This, almost by definition, demands a multifaceted approach, one that spans sound, image, performance and facilitation, involving photography, writing, sonic composition and collaborative performances. Thompson covers it all and seeks to bring about a sense of “deep, empathic listening.”Thompson has presented their work in exhibitions and concerts across the Bay Area and in Iceland, having collaborated with dozens of artists. They are a cofounder of Working Name Studios, “a collectively owned and organized arts institution with the mission of building institutional stability and equity for underrepresented creative practices, ideas, and people.”
