2017 April

Cali a Cuba Fundraiser with ESO

Sunday, April 30, 5:30 pm at Doc’s Lab | Get tickets |

Celebrate International Jazz Day at this benefit for the SOTA World Music + Dance and Latin Band. Proceeds will help 37 students travel to Havana in this June.

Opening will be the SOTA Latin Band under the direction of Melecio Magdaluyo. The Ruth Asawa School of the Arts (SOTA) is the nation’s only public high school program with hands-on world music ensembles. Students learn not only what music is, but why it is—what music means to its practitioners and audiences around the globe. Through this ethnomusicological approach, young artists gain a deep appreciation of music for its own sake and for the purpose of creating sounds to heal, inspire, and unite people.

Saxophonist Harvey Wainapel sits in as guest artist with Electric Squeezebox Orchestra, led by Erik Jekabson. The line up for the evening is Mary Fettig, Alex Murzyn, Larry De La Cruz, Greg Johnson, Charlie Gurke, Bill Theuer, Henry Hung, Ian Carey, Rob Ewing, Chip Tingle, Patrick Malabuyo, Jon Brummel, Steve Blum, Scott Thompson, Phil Thompson, and Rick Vandivier.

Attend this fundraiser and receive a free ESO T-shirt!

Doc’s Lab serves excellent food and beverages, but note that seating is limited and first-come, first-served.

124 Columbus Avenue, San Francisco
Tickets: $20 with proceeds to SOTA

John Schott Trio

Friday, April 28, 6pm at Copperfield’s Books, San Rafael | Free event!

A free concert by the guys who started playing a monthly gig back in 2011 at the now shuttered Actual Café in Oakland.

All acknowledged masters on their instruments, the Actual Trio have spent years playing together in the studio and on the road, forging a singular group voice in the crowded world of modern guitar-oriented Jazz. John Schott’s compositions put groove, free improvisation, humor, melody, and harmony into a blender, and bring out the stellar musicianship of bassist Dan Seamans and drummer John Hanes. “Together, we are committed to the joys of swinging, playing what you hear, being in the moment, and sharing with audiences,” says Schott. Paul de Barros of the Seattle Times has written,” If you like swinging jazz guitar with a zany, eccentric bent, see this threesome.”

Jon Jang & Francis Wong: 30 years of Asian Improv Arts

Saturday, April 22, 8pm at Community Music Center

Presented as part of the 30th anniversary celebration of Asian Improv Arts, Jon Jang, piano, and Francis Wong, sax, will be joined by special guest Hafez Modirzadeh on sax with Gary Brown on bass and Deszon Claiborne on drums. Our emerging artist will be William Berg, who will perform as a member of Francis Wong & the Truthful Tenor Trio.

To start the evening, the Jazz Journalists Association will honor Jang and Wong with the 2017 Jazz Heros Award for their work as jazz activists and advocates who have made a significant impact in their local communities. Jazz in the Neighborhood is honored to be hosting the awards presentation, which was announced after we had booked the group some months ago.

The musical portion of the evening begins with a saxophone trio improvisation by Francis Wong, Hafez Modirzadeh, and emerging artist William Berg.

Next will be a quartet performance with Jang on keys, Modirzadeh sitting in for Francis Wong, with Gary Brown on bass, and Deszon Claiborne on drums. Their set will encompass the music of resistance that is part of the legacy contributed by Charles Mingus and Max Roach as well as tunes representing the hybrid of Chinese folk music in a black context.

After the intermission, Jang and Wong will be joined by Deborah Wong, UC Riverside music professor and author of Speak It Louder: Asian Americans Making Music, to reflect on the important and influential history of Asian Improv Arts, co-founded in 1987 by Jang and Wong to produce, present, and document artistic works that represent the Asian American experience.

Jon Jang is a pianist, composer, bandleader and activist whose music reflects his thirst for social justice and his gift for merging jazz with traditional Chinese musical forms and cadences. He has created an ambitious body of epic works that is nothing less than a strikingly vivid history of the Chinese American experience. Though a brilliant saxophonist, Francis Wong has often put his performing career on the back burner to serve the Bay Area arts community. He’s been particularly involved in supporting artists seeking to create music inspired by and growing out of movements for social justice.

As always, Jazz in the Neighborhood and Community Music Center present music at prices people can afford. Please join and support us as we honor these two great musicians.

544 Capp Street, San Francisco
$15 general. $10students & seniors.

Neighborhood Session with the Ruth Davies Blues Band

Tuesday, April 18, 7pm at The Back Room, Berkeley

Chase your blues away with these powerful women of the blues:

Ruth Davies on bass, Pat Wilder doing vocals and guitar, Tammy Hall on piano, and Daria Johnson, drums and vocals.

Following our usual format, the session begins with a set by the pro musicians. Our masterclass participants will be Minor F from Oakland School of the Arts, who are Camille Collins on tenor sax, Hannah Mayer on piano, Arielle Zakim on bass, and Jayla Hernandez on drums.

By popular demand, we have expanded the jam session portion of the evening when members of the audience are invited to take the stage. All instruments and vocalists—amateur to pro—are welcome at every session. Signup sheets will be available at the door. Although vocalists must provide charts in the desired key for the accompanying musicians, both instrumentalists and vocalists need to have their material under their belts—no charts or sheet music allowed!

The Back Room is four blocks from Downtown Berkeley BART. BYO if you’re over 21. And don’t forget to bring your instrument.

1984 Bonita Avenue, Berkeley
$10 general admission. CJC-degree-students: free with ID.

Mads Tolling and John R. Burr

Thursday, April 13, 7:30 pm at Piedmont Center for the Arts —

Get tickets —

Don’t miss this very special concert where Mads Tolling and John Burr present their premiere performance as a duo. The evening will be a journey of vibrant jazz and spirited renditions of some great American standards, including music by Ramsey Lewis, Hoagy Carmichael, and many more.

Mads Tolling is an internationally renowned violinist and composer, two-time Grammy Award winner, and the 2016 Downbeat Critics Poll Rising Star violinist. He’s a former nine-year member of both Turtle Island Quartet and bassist Stanley Clarke’s band, and has performed with Chick Corea, Ramsey Lewis, Kenny Barron, and Paquito D’Rivera as well as his own ensembles. He’s been featured on NPR’s Morning Edition, with his recordings receiving rave reviews in Downbeat Magazine, Strings Magazine, Washington Post, and the San Francisco Chronicle. Classically trained, Mads has spent most his professional life touring internationally. He recently had his CD release of The Mads Men Playing the 60s at Yoshi’s, and he’ll be returning home from a European tour for this event.

John R. Burr is that rare pianist who combines jazz technique with a genuine love for folk music. His playing is as likely to be inspired by James Taylor or Doctor John as by Oscar Peterson or the Yellowjackets—although he says it is his love of folk music that has influenced him most. Burr explains, “I play a sort of jazz piano version of the vocal music that I love to listen to. That’s what influences me. I love to play and study jazz, but I listen to vocal folk/singer/songwriter music. I’m always searching for that melodic song-like quality when I improvise.” A propos this concert venue, Burr’s debut solo album is Piedmont Avenue, a project described as “cohesive in its conception, inspired in its execution.”

If you’re mad about Mads, this is going to be a fabulous evening at the lovely, intimate Piedmont Center for the Arts.

Plus, Mads is bringing some fantastic young talent to start off the evening, a string ensemble called Where to Now? They are Aerie Walker, Tuki Walker, Raphaella Brown, and Allison Marten. Students at Oakland School of the Arts, they play a quintessentially Bay Area style of string fusion music, oft described as “neo-Celtic with a jazz twist”.

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