UpSurge is a free-pushing jazz band with two strong poets out in front, Raymond Nat Turner and Zigi Lowenberg, who chant, shout, sing, whisper, dance and speak their message.

Combining poetry and jazz, male and female, Los Angeles and New York, Jewish and African American, UpSurge crosses boundaries, twists expectations, moves minds, and incites action while always holding true to the rhythm. Their performance will create a stunning movement of unity for your audience.

With imaginative compositions, innovative arrangements and in-your-face consciousness, UpSurge is honing one of the most original group sounds on the music scene today. Their sound is a compelling mix of jazz, poetry and politics.  But UpSurge isn't afraid to challenge fans or themselves by incorporating other elements such as funk, klezmer, calypso and found sound.

Voted 2003 "Best of the East Bay" (San Francisco-Oakland Bay Area, California), the group was founded in 1990. Their second release, Chromatology, mixes conscious words with assorted grooves and feels, dissolving boundaries that separate genres and people. This isn't surprising. UpSurge's diverse influences range from Abbey Lincoln, Sonny Rollins, to Allen Ginsberg, Amiri Baraka, Bertolt Brecht and Langston Hughes. The group's critically acclaimed debut CD, All Hands on Deck, garnered them an Indie Award nomination by the Association for Independent Music (AFIM) in 2000.

UpSurge has appeared at major festivals and venues including the Monterey Jazz Festival (with legendary drummer, Donald 'Duck' Bailey), Vallejo Jazz Festival, Panafest (Ghana, West Africa), Yoshi's, Cornelia Street Cafe (NYC), as well as Brown and Tulane universities.