The Annex Sessions will continue Wednesday, March 25, 2026, 6-8:30pm at The Annex (El Cerrito Natural Grocery Company Prepared Food Annex) 10387 San Pablo Avenue, El Cerrito with the
Silvestre Martinez Quartet
Alex Aspinall: Drums
Erick Peralta: Keyboard
Sam Bevan: Bass
Silvestre Martinez: Percussion, Vocals
Silvestre Martinez
Silvestre Martinez was born in Puerto Angel, Oaxaca, Mexico. He grew up in a large family of musicians, who played chilena, merequetengue and charanga music, which is Afro-Mexican music from the coast.
When Silvestre was very young, he would often attend concerts with his father, who played congas in the band, Los Angeles del Puerto. Silvestre would sit backstage and absorb the rhythms of the coast, and by age 10, he began performing and recording with his father’s band. At age 15, Silvestre moved to Oaxaca City to study percussion. One of his first teachers, a Latin percussionist exposed Silvestre to the world of Latin Jazz. There he discovered the recordings and was inspired by musicians such as Giovanni Hildalgo, Poncho Sanchez, Mongo Santamaria and Ray Barreto. He developed a reputation in Oaxaca for being an excellent percussionist, and worked with many salsa bands.
In 1999, Silvestre was invited to live and perform in Bali, Indonesia, where he played salsa, Latin jazz and world music. Silvestre continued to travel and perform in various countries in Europe and Asia. Once Silvestre returned to Mexico, he traveled to Cuba to deepen his understanding of the roots of Afro-Cuban music.
Silvestre’s ultimate dream was to play percussion in the United States, and his dream became realized with he moved to the Bay Area in 2002 and began performing with legendary Latin jazz musicians such as Louie Romero (percussionist, Fania All Stars and Mazacote), Jerry Gonzalez (the fort apache band,. los comandos de la clave), larry Harlow (el Judio Maravilloso). Eddie Santiago, Paquito D’ Rivera, Oscar Stagnaro, Karl Perazzo (percussionist, Santana), Orestes Vilato (Fania All Stars)(Cachao)(John Santos), Coto Pincheira (Modern Sound Project) and Jorge Santana (Malo), as well as many other bands who played various types of music from Latin America.
About the CD, Heritage:
Silvestre Martinez debuts his new Latin jazz project with his album, Heritage. The rhythms of the coast of Oaxaca, combined with Afro-Cuban rhythms and Silvestre’s unique, modern Latin jazz sound makes Heritage a truly an exciting new sound.
Heritage features seasoned Latin Jazz musicians including Grammy nominated pianist Hector Martignon and three time Grammy Award winner, drummer Antonio Sanchez. Silvestre also teamed up with Bay Area Latin Jazz musicians, including Sam Bevan (bass), Sheldon Brown (saxophone), Erik Jekabson (trumpet), Eric Crystal (saxophone), Coto Pincheira (piano), Alan Hall (drum) and Colin Douglas (drums).
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The Natural Grocery Company is proud to present this series in partnership with SunJams and Javier Navarrette Music Productions.
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.