Thomas Aguilar Email & Phone Number

Thomas Ramon Aguilar and his sobriquet Chalé Brown is an artist, curator, and DJ based out of San José. Since 2001, he's presented visual artists, DJs, filmmakers, literary authors, and musicians from all over the globe under the moniker Universal Grammar (UG). On the music front, he has consistently produced with a forward-thinking mission to present quality artistry and emerging contemporary voices. UG has helped introduce artists into the Bay Area market and influenced music festivals nationwide. Since 2007, he's worked with San Jose Jazz to curate performances on the Jazz Beyond Stage at the annual SummerFest and Winterfest. He co-founded the groundbreaking culture hubs Sonido Clash (2009) and POW! WOW! San José (2017).From 2010 - 2013, UG’s “Live at the Pagoda” music series transformed the San Jose Fairmont’s seldom-used restaurant into "a temple for fine music", creating an environment for an eclectic line-up of musicians. In 2014, he launched the weekly gathering The Changing Same, an exploration of the black music diaspora focusing on influential emerging, future, and past sounds through the presentation of DJs and live performances.Grammy-nominated or winning artists presented by Universal Grammar include Robert Glasper Experiment (Live At The Pagoda), Kaytranada (Live At The Pagoda), The Internet (Jazz Beyond), Aloe Blacc (The Changing Same), La Santa Cecilia (Live At The Pagoda), Hiatus Kaiyote (Live At The Pagoda), Flying Lotus (The Changing Same), Thundercat (Jazz Beyond), Little Dragon (Live At The Pagoda), Ana Tijoux (Live At The Pagoda), Questlove of The Roots (Universal Grammar presents), and Jazzy Jeff (Universal Grammar presents). He is an alum of the National Association for Latino Arts and Culture’s (NALAC) Leadership Institute, as well as the Multicultural Artists Leadership Institute (MALI) in San José, and is a Fellow in the American Leadership Forum, Silicon Valley Chapter's Urbanist class of 2015.