BROTHER J & THE TESTAMENTS

Sat, Mar 14

*Doors open at 6pm for 7pm show* *Doors open at 9pm for 10pm show* 21+ | No dinner service The truth sets you free—but first, you have to say it. Brother J and the Testaments make classic soul music that navigates the gap between raw experience and social expectation. What we feel versus what we're told to feel. The sound pulls from late-'60s moral urgency and early-'70s refinement: The Delfonics' elegance, The Stylistics' ache, Curtis Mayfield's clarity. Brother J speaks from inside the struggle, not above it. The sonic palette is deliberate—warm, spacious, unhurried. Live horns and strings cut through—both unprocessed and immediate. The rhythm section moves with pocket and precision. Every arrangement favors depth over spectacle, impact over decoration. The result is soul music that trusts its audience to feel, not just listen. The project is the brainchild of Jesse Audelo, a founding member of The Sure Fire Soul Ensemble, co-founder of San Diego Latin Jazz Collective, and a presence in the region's soul and jazz circles for twenty years. His horn work threads through the Colemine Records catalog via The Sure Fire Soul Ensemble—a partnership spanning multiple albums, limited singles, and the kind of studio work that builds slowly and endures. He's recorded with members of Say She She and tracked sessions alongside original Sly and the Family Stone personnel. Stage work has placed him alongside George Clinton and Parliament Funkadelic, Mayer Hawthorne, Thee Sacred Souls, and B-Side Players. His arrangements have been heard in orchestral settings and horn-driven ensembles across rooms of varying intimacy and scale. Brother J and the Testaments marks a creative pivot—the same craft, now directed toward material that examines emotional truth and the distances we travel between feeling and expression. The production is warm, the execution assured, the intention unmistakable. It's better to love, so stop the hate. It's better to live than be afraid. Shine your light before it's spent— It's time to become a testament.