Our Story:

The Soto Six was founded in June 2017 in Oceanside, California and has grown to establish themselves as one of the chief proponents of jazz in San Diego’s North County. In January 2019, The Soto Six founded Oceanside’s only live jazz series with the establishment of their monthly residency at Brown Cup Café in the heart of Oceanside’s coastal downtown. The residency became quickly acclaimed, routinely playing to “standing room only” crowds and drawing the attention of such institutions as San Diego’s Jazz 88.3FM, the San Diego Reader magazine, and more. Barring a brief hiatus in 2020, the Brown Cup series ran from 2019-2021.

Spurred off the heels of the Brown Cup residency, the band accepted hosting duties of North County’s premier jazz jam session located at Vista, California’s Aztec Brewing Co. The jam has run continuously since 2019 taking place every 1st/3rd Sunday of the month. Presently the jam community has grown to larger heights than ever and it has become an essential outlet for musicians of all backgrounds to unite in jazz.

In the Fall of 2019, the Soto Six began a wide-ranging collaboration with pianist/composer Bob Weller. In the Summer of 2020, this collaboration resulted in a series of recordings featuring Weller’s original reharmonizations of jazz standards utilizing the concept of Negative Harmony. Available to stream on YouTube, the recordings were captured by Peter Sprague at SpragueLand Studios and feature the quartet firing on all cylinders with a vigorous, raw improvisational intensity. 

After being forced into a performance hiatus for most of 2020-21 due to the global Covid-19 Pandemic, Summer 2021 marked a return to form for The Soto Six. The band added a range of regular appearances at venues throughout the county that continue to the present day. Among these new bookings have been routine appearances at Dizzy’s, The Jazzy Wishbone, Vigilante Coffee, and the establishment of Oceanside’s only jazz jam session - which took place for several years - at Frankie’s in downtown Oceanside. 

In January 2022, The Soto Six began their first weekly residency at Baba Coffee in the heart of Carlsbad Village. Baba has become the Soto Six’s “second home”, and every Friday the group can be found performing on the venue’s patio. Several years in, the Baba residency continues to go strong. Additionally, since 2023 the group has staged concerts at many libraries throughout the county (including several at Carlsbad Library’s Schulman Auditorium), and the band also established Oceanside’s only weekly “Jazz Brunch” taking place at The Brick Hotel on Sunday mornings.

Presently, The Soto Six continues to expand their live performance schedule and works tirelessly to bring live jazz to diverse audiences one performance at a time. The band routinely performs in a variety of settings, with varied instrumentation/personnel, and often with less than six total band members, but one thing is always present: love and passion for the music. There is no telling what the future holds for The Soto Six, but the band would like to thank everyone who has been supportive of their endeavors over the years. 

January, 2025