On Wednesday, October 8, 2025, 6-8:30pm “The Annex Sessions” will continue our music series held at El Cerrito Natural Grocery Company Prepared Food Annex (The Annex) with
Rolf Johnson & Friends
Rolf Johnson – Trumpet and composer
Lincoln Adler – Saxophone
Greg Sankovich – Keys
Karl Hartmann – Bass
Bob Blankenship – Drums
Trumpeter and composer Rolf Johnson will be joined by a group of the Bay Area’s finest musicians to perform Rolf’s own compositions as well as a selection of Jazz standards and Brazilian classics. The musicians will include Lincoln Adler on saxophone, Greg Sankovich on keys, Karl Hartmann on bass, and Bob Blankenship on drums.
Musician Bios
Rolf Johnson
When Rolf Johnson arrived in the Bay Area in 1974 he began playing trumpet in Salsa de Berkeley and co-leading a contemporary jazz group called Child’s Fancy with drummer Craig Oakley. Since then he has continued to be active in the Bay Area’s Jazz an Latin jazz scenes, as well as playing Salsa and Brazilian music. The bands he has recorded with, both as a trumpeter/flügelhornist and composer/arranger include Child’s Fancy, John Birdsong’s Kaleidophone Ensemble, Kombo Kwela, the Connel-Purves Group, Captain Tonic, Marimba Pacifica, the Amandla Poets, Samba do Coracao, Sonora USA, the Yellow House Orchestra, Funk Dub Division, the Riff Rats, Jay Johnson’s Orchestra Deluxe, Jeff Sanford’s Cartoon Jazz Band, the Contemporary Jazz Orchestra, the New Oakland Jazz Orchestra, and the Mike Vax Jazz Orchestra. Rolf’s Latin compositions and arrangements have been recorded by the USAF Band of the Golden West, Javier Cabanillas’ Cabanijazz Project, and the Pacific Mambo Orchestra. His big band arrangements have been recorded by groups such as the DVC Night Band, the Reno Jazz Orchestra, and Orquestra do Jazz de Algarve in Portugal.
Lincoln Adler
SF Bay Area based saxophonist, producer and composer Lincoln Adler can be heard on tracks by Katy Perry, Killy, Funkadelic, Gift of Gab, Zion I, K.D. Lang, The Jets and Olivia Newton John as well as performing with Jeff Goldblum, Taj Mahal and his own band, Times 4. As a producer/songwriter he’s had songs on the charts in the U.S. and U. K., and as a composer, his music is included in movies, national TV commercials, industrials and on numerous albums. His boutique production company – Groove Tonic Media– helps talented artists realize their creative artistic recording potential. He’s profoundly interested in all aspects of creativity, in what makes us tick as both individuals and as artists, and in how to lead a life of success and happiness in the modern world.
Greg Sankovich
Greg Sankovich has been performing on keyboards and producing music professionally since he was 12 years old. He currently enjoys a wide variety of freelance musical performance, recording, production and education projects.
His performance experience includes feature dates at the JVC Jazz Festival, SF Jazz, Russian River Jazz Festival, Koseinenkin and NHK Halls in Tokyo, Blue Note, Birdland NYC, Ronnie Scott’s, Yoshi’s, Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society, Mountain Winery, Blues Alley DC, Freight and Salvage…
Karl Hartmann
Karl Hartmann is a SF Bay Area based bassist proficient in both double and electric basses and comfortable in a wide variety of music styles. With 35 years of performance under his belt Karl finds his joy in making music with others but mostly in Jazz and the Classical worlds. In Jazz Karl has worked around the Bay Area from duets to big bands and has performed and/or recorded with; Phil Woods, Bob Brookmeyer, Louie Belson, Bob Mintzer, Grant Geiser, Toshiko Akyoshi, Clark Terry, Craig Handy, Gerald Wilson and many others local and global. Karl studied at Cal State Hayward but cites the bandstand as the greatest teacher one can have, the harshest and best lessons come from being in the moment regardless of type of music or situation.
Bob Blankenship
Bob Blankenship is a busy Bay Area drummer who is fluent in a wide variety of styles. In addition to playing with Bay Area luminaries such as Smith Dobson and Marcos Silva, he has played with John Handy, Eartha Kitt and Bill Watrous.
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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.