The Annex Sessions will continue on Wednesday, July 23, 2025, 6-8:30pm at The Annex (El Cerrito Natural Grocery Company Prepared Food Annex) 10387 San Pablo Avenue, El Cerrito with
George Brooks: Horn and Taal Corp
Horns:
Carnatic saxophonist Prasant Radhakrishnan
Indian jazz saxophonist George Brooks
Taal:
Multi-Indian percussionist Jim Santi Owen
Tabla jazz innovator Sameer Gupta
Raga and Jazz collide with Indian brass band, New Orleans second line and a touch of drum and bugle.
Prasant Radhakrishnan is a versatile saxophonist steeped in both South Indian Classical (Carnatic) and jazz disciplines. The foremost disciple of Carnatic saxophone pioneer, “Padmashri” Dr. Kadri Gopalnath, Prasant began developing his music over the course of nearly a decade of intensive musical training under his guru, waking at 5am each morning in his teacher’s home and practicing through the day under his guidance.At age 17, Prasant released his first album, Swara Sudha (2000), featuring some of the most respected names in Carnatic music.
After Prasant’s move to the Bay Area in 2005, he founded VidyA and established himself as an exciting Bay Area artist known for blurring musical boundaries while steeped in traditional roots. “Prasant is redefining the way to play saxophone, and the way for us to listen to it.” (San Francisco Chronicle).
Jim Santi Owen is an American percussionist, educator, producer, and performer specializing in the classical percussion traditions of India. He has worked with Pharoah Sanders, Hamza el Din, L. Shankar, Selva Ganesh, and Alonzo King and has served on the faculties of the California Institute of the Arts, Dominican University, The California Jazz Conservatory, and the Ali Akbar College of Music. A fellow of the American Institute of Indian Studies, he is known for his innovative work arranging and composing for world percussion ensembles and is a featured composer/producer on Meta’s (Facebook’s) Sound Collection. Owen served for six years as Chair of the Funding Advisory Committee for the Cultural Affairs Division of the City of Oakland and was recently appointed as a Cultural Affairs Commissioner by Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao.
Sameer Gupta is a musical bridge between cultures who is as comfortable with jazz drumming as he is with the intricate rhythms of North Indian classical music. Gupta’s unique sound blends these seemingly opposite worlds, drawing on his Indian heritage and American upbringing. He’s a founding member of the genre-bending Brooklyn Raga Massive and brings his tabla magic to groups like The Supplicants and the Marc Cary Focus Trio. He has performed at Lincoln Center; Birla Auditorium, Kolkata, India; SFJAZZ; Nehru Centre, London; MoMA, NYC; and Yerba Buena Gardens, San Francisco. He has performed with Jon Baptiste, Brandee Younger, Falu Shah, Rez Abbasi, Richard Howell, Wallace Roney, Karsh Kale, Krishna Bhatt, Ravichandra Kulur, Mysore Manjunath, Prasant Radhakrishnan, Chitresh Das, Jason Samuels Smith, Ramesh Mishra, Anindo Chatterjee, and numerous other luminaries.
George Brooks is an award-winning saxophonist and composer, acclaimed for successfully bridging the worlds of jazz and Indian classical music. He is the founder of seminal Indian fusion groups; Summit with Zakir Hussain, Kai Eckhardt, Steve Smith and Fareed Haque; Bombay Jazz with Ronu Majumdar and Larry Coryell; Raga Bop Trio with Steve Smith and Prasanna; Kirwani Quartet with Pt. Hariprasad Chaurasia and Elements with Kala Ramnath and Dutch harpist, Gwyneth Wentink.
Brooks began his study of jazz with Count Basie saxophonist, Frank Foster, and continued his studies at the New England Conservatory of Music with George Russell, Joe Allard and Jaki Byard. After graduating, Brooks traveled to India where he met master vocalist Pandit Pran Nath and began his study of Indian Classical Music. His albums, “Lasting Impression” and “Night Spinner”, released on Zakir Hussain’s Moment Records and subsequent recordings “Summit” and “Spirit and Spice” for Earth Brother Music are regarded as groundbreaking work in the realm where jazz and Indian classical music intersect.
After returning from India in the early 80’s Brooks began his long association with composer/pianist Terry Riley with whom he toured extensively in duo settings, in trios with sitarist Krishna Bhatt and as a founding member of Riley’s Khayal Ensemble. He has performed at prominent venues and festivals throughout the US, Europe and Asia including the Barbican and Queen Elizabeth Hall, London; Hong Kong Cultural Center; Esplanade, Singapore; Symphony Hall, Chicago; Nehru Center and NCPA; Mumbai; Music Academy, Chennai; Chowdiah Hall, Kamani Auditorium; Saptak Festival, Jaipur Literature Festival, Kala Ghoda Festival, Jazz Yatra, Jazz Utsav and jazz clubs and festivals world-wide. Brooks has performed with leading artists from Hindustani, Carnatic and Indian folk traditions including Kadri Gopalnath, Ganesh-Kumaresh, Shujaat Khan, Sivamani, Vikku Vinayakram, Bickram Ghosh, Rashid Khan, Kaushiki Chakraborty and sufi-rock pioneers, Indian Ocean. In addition to his work with India’s leading musicians, Brooks has performed with such genre defining artists as Etta James, Anthony Braxton, Jaki Byard, Talvin Singh, Kronos Quartet, The Temptations, Michael McClure and Ray Manzarek. Brooks was a featured soloist on John McLaughlin’s 2008 Grammy nominated “Floating Point” CD.
As a composer, Brooks has received commissions and grants from the American Composers Forum, EnActe Arts, Natya Dance Theater, Opera Piccola, Navarasa Dance Theater, Intermusic SF, Arts International, California Jazz Conservatory, USArtists, New Music USA, Mosaic America, Real Vocal String Quartet, SFMOMA, Met Life Creative Connections and Gwyneth Wentink. His compositions have been performed by Yo-Yo Ma, members of the Liverpool Philharmonic, and can be heard in the Merchant/Ivory film, “The Mystic Masseur”.
In addition to performing and composing, Brooks has taught on the faculties of UC Santa Cruz, Mills College and the California Jazz Conservatory in Berkeley, CA and leads master classes at colleges and schools around the world.
“The music on this recording has blown me away. Brooks plays the saxophone with a tone, rhythmic concept and harmonic concept that sounds totally new to my ears. The result is one of the most exciting saxophone records I have ever heard.” Saxophone Journal
“The Alchemy…is a transformational fusion of Eastern and Western traditions. Brooks soprano work is some of the finest in almost any genre – light, fluid and precise.” Ralph Miriello, Notes on Jazz
“Bristling with east meets west polytonality and rhythmic intrigue and tinged with a Trane-like spirituality… Blowing gorgeous tones and fluidly unravelling complex ideas…(Brooks) succeeds to a startling and almost rapturous degree.” SF Bay Guardian
The Natural Grocery Company is proud to present this series in partnership with SunJams and Javier Navarrette Music Productions.
SunJams is committed to funding children’s music education in underserved public elementary schools. Your donation will help support this ongoing program.
All of the proceeds will go directly to our network of local musicians, each of whom have been severely impacted by the lack of events during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Whether you donate $10, $100, or $1000 – any amount helps and will allow us to keep bringing music to our community! As always, your donation to SunJams 501(c)3 may qualify as tax exempt.
Javier Navarrette Music Productions continues to bring live music to several venues around the Bay Area. Javier has been a professional musician and music educator in the Oakland Unified School District for the past 20 years. Over the past few years Navarrette has produced outdoors events that have proven instrumental in enabling musicians to deal with some of the fallout of the pandemic and shutdown that followed.
COVID RELATED SAFETY MEASURES
Please be safe. Feel free to wear a mask if you prefer.
TICKETS
Tickets are NOT required for this venue, you can simply come in, order food and beverages at the Annex counter and pay at the registers.