Independently owned, organic grocery store. Our Annex serves prepared foods and offers a selection of wine and beer. Our florists are here to help you with fresh local cuts and dried bouquets.
“The Annex Sessions” will continue our music series held at El Cerrito Natural Grocery Company Prepared Food Annex (The Annex) on Wednesday, November 6, 2024, 6-8:30pm with
Raquel Berlind Filipina Jazz Quintet
Raquel Berlind – vocalist and band leader
Alexey Berlind – drummer, musical director
Kevin Gerzevits – pianist
Mark Williams – bass
David Ferrazares – sax
Raquel Berlind is an award-winning singer and songwriter. Her new album, Filipina Jazz, shines with original songs in both English and Tagalog. It features a lineup of Manila heavyweights and longtime Bay Area collaborators. Recorded in Manila, mixed in Berkeley, and mastered in Nashville, TN, the album marks a new milestone for Filipinos and Asian-Americans contributing to the jazz tradition.
Growing up in a musical family in Manila, Raquel was inspired by her pianist father and touring-musician brother to sing and compose. By her teens, she was singing her originals at Manila’s famous folk house, Hobbit. She fielded invitations to record singles and to perform internationally and on TV as a professional dancer. After resettling in the SF Bay Area, she developed her career with compositions and performances across multiple genres. She won three awards at the International Festival de la Canción for her Latin Pop compositions and the Pamana award for cultural achievements in the Bay Area Filipino community. She performed with her band on cruise ships in the Caribbean and the Pacific Coast and recorded an album of Filipino world music, Filipina Roots, with legendary Bay Area producer Greg Landau. At the same time, Raquel established herself as a jazz performer, becoming a sought-after vocalist at private events for clients visiting from around the world, and built a body of original jazz compositions. Filipina Jazz marks the culmination of this process.
Bandcamp: https://raquelberlind.bandcamp.com/album/filipina-jazz
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/raquelberlind/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RaquelSingerSongwriter
Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@raquel.berlind
Webpage: https://www.jazzbandsinger.com
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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 register.
“The Annex Sessions” will continue our music series held at El Cerrito Natural Grocery Company Prepared Food Annex (The Annex) on Wednesday, October 30, 2024, 6-8:30pm with
The Dans of Steel
Raliegh Neal – keyboards, vocals
Ronnie Smith – drums, vocals
Waddell Bell – bass, vocals
Bill Hampton – Guitar
Make tonight a wonderful thing with The Dans of Steel…
Bay Area based band The Dans of Steel celebrates the music of Steely Dan, the prolific American rock band founded in 1972 by masterminds Donald Fagen and Walter Becker.
Started in 2017, it’s a deserving tribute from five deeply soulful musicians who came together in admiration of the detailed craftings and artistic splendor of Steely Dan.
The Dans of Steel — Raliegh Neal, Ronnie Smith, Waddell Bell and Bill Hampton— explore, “funkafy” and lovingly recreate songs from throughout the Steely Dan canon that brings together jazz, rock, and r&b sensibilities.
As seasoned musicians, they look to the actual session players that enrich each album Steely Dan has produced.
The Dans, all of them fathers (and at times Men of Steel in their everyday lives), enjoy heated conversations and long listening sessions together. Having a reverence for Steely Dan’s body of work, they often go deep into the large list of supporting musicians who lend their talents to creating the music’s aesthetic, including the individual guitarists, bassist, drummers, pianists and vocalists.
The band aims to go beyond just Donald Fagen and Walter Becker by reaching in the bag of the often-unsung session musicians, whose skills created the groves, riffs, vibes and arrangements that still thrill us today. Members of bands like The Crusaders, The Doobie Brothers, Toto, Weather Report and so many others.
The music and compositions of the support musicians can be related back to the Steely Dan discography and in turn we begin to see how truly prolific this music was and still is.
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The Natural Grocery Company is proud to present this series in partnership with SunJams and Javier Navarrette Music.
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 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.
“The Annex Sessions” will continue our music series held at El Cerrito Natural Grocery Company Prepared Food Annex (The Annex) on Wednesday, October 23, 2024, 6-8:30pm with
Javier Navarrette’s “Modupue Wednesday” with Hector Lugo y La Mixta Criolla
Featuring:
Hector Lugo – percussion/ vocal
Roman Ito Carrillo – percussion/vocal
Pedro Pastrana – cuatro
Ayla Davila – bass
Javier Navarrette- percussion/ vocal
And Special Guests!!
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 register.
Join Winery Representative, Murray Proska, from Terre Rouge and explore their Sierra Foothills wines on Thursday, October 17 from 5pm-6pm at The Annex.
Terre Rouge was founded in the late 80s by husband and wife team Bill Easton and Jane O’Riordan. Winemaker Bill Easton creates wines that are balanced and elegant, with complexity that develops as the wines age in bottle. The French call it élevage, which is “raising” the wine in the bottle. There is an art to this style of winemaking and great pleasure in a wine that is ready to drink, while still showing great promise for future aging. Bill is one of the original Rhône Rangers and pioneered the Rhône varietals in the Sierra Foothills. He received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Rhône Rangers in 2016.
TERRE ROUGE means “Red Earth”. This vermillion-colored soil is one of the hallmarks of the region. Their vineyards are in soils that are largely granite and volcanic-based. The TERRE ROUGE portfolio is composed of wines made from Rhône varietals grown in the rugged and varying terroirs of this region: Syrah, Grenache, Mourvèdre, Viognier, Roussanne, Marsanne. High elevation sites up to 3200’ contribute to the complexity of their wines.
https://www.terrerougewines.com/About/Our-Story
There is a $5 tasting fee and you must be 21+ to participate
“The Annex Sessions” will continue our music series held at El Cerrito Natural Grocery Company Prepared Food Annex (The Annex) on Wednesday, October 16, 2024, 6-8:30pm with
Hadley Loudon & Bridges Jazz Ensemble
Hadley Louden – Keyboard
Karl Hartmann – Upright Bass
Aaron Kierbel – Traps
Orlando Obligacion – Percussion
Special Guest
Kia Hamm – Vocals
Join Hadley Louden and Bridges Jazz Ensemble as they roll out their upcoming album: “The Longer Shorter Sessions”!
In the works for over 20 years, the album showcases modern re-workings of the Great Wayne Shorter, featuring original lyrics.
Catch some Hard-hitting old school jazz paying homage to the great Wayne Shorter on Wednesday the 16th, featuring Bay Area heavies: Hadley on Keys, Karl Hartmann on Upright, Aaron Kierbel on traps, Orlando Obligacion on percussion, and special guest Kia Hamm on vocals.
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.
Calling all chocolate connoisseurs!
Join us for a lecture and chocolate tasting of Auro Chocolate on Tuesday, October 15, 2024 with a presentation at 7:00pm at the Natural Grocery Company Prepared Food Annex, 10387 San Pablo Ave., El Cerrito, CA 94530 (510) 526-5150. There is not a charge for this event.
Auro Chocolate is an internationally awarded tree-to-bar chocolate brand that promotes sustainability by working directly with local farmers to create fine Filipino cacao beans, ingredients and retail products with unique and bold tropical flavors.
The lecture will include a tasting of samples.
Learn about sourcing, processing and quality!
Join Cider Makers, Thomas & Tracy Henry , from Mt. Diablo Cider Company to taste and learn about their ciders on Thursday, October 10 from 5pm-6pm at The Annex.
Thomas & Tracy believe that like all things in life, what you get out of something depends entirely upon what you put in and cider is no different. The quality of a cider is only as good as the fruit it’s made from. They use heirloom apple varieties that were widely grown on the North Coast and Central Valley of California in the days before Prohibition. This was before large commercial farming practices gave rise to monocultures of “supermarket apples.” Today, such apples come from small, family-owned-and-operated orchards. The growers there keep alive the tradition of working the land just as their forefathers did, to produce fruit of incomparable quality.
Come learn about this small, local, family owned and operated cider company specializing in making premium cider where quality is valued over quantity, the journey just as important as the destination and family is valued and celebrated above all else.
https://www.mountdiablocider.com/
There is a $5 tasting fee and you must be 21+ to participate
“The Annex Sessions” will continue our music series held at El Cerrito Natural Grocery Company Prepared Food Annex (The Annex) on Wednesday, October 9, 2024, 6-8:30pm
Rhonda Benin Quartet
featuring:
Rhonda Benin – vocals
John R. Burr – keys
Ron Belcher – bass
Alcide Marshall – drums
Jazz, Blues, Soul, and Pop
Musician Bios:
RHONDA BENIN – Vocalist, Producer, Artist Teacher
“Benin’s got a coolly hip vocal, with a bit of hush and sugar and an undercurrent of big booming power. She can bend notes with a bass, talk serenade with a piano and steam the kettle from the drums”. Ran Pacifica Tribune
San Francisco Bay Area vocalist, Rhonda Benin has earned a reputation for not just a good voice but showmanship, magnetic stage personality, humor, and of course her great dancing. Rhonda’s impressive resume includes performances at SF Jazz, Yoshi’s, MOAD, The Healdsburg, Sonoma, Burlingame, Sausalito, Filmore, and Calistoga Jazz Festivals. In the summer of 2012 Rhonda traveled to Hangzhou, China for a 3 month engagement at the JZ Jazz Club and was 2014 USA headliner for The Kigali Up Music Festival in Kigali, Rwanda. In addition to singing, Rhonda is producer and founder of the annual Women’s History Month show “Just Like A Woman” a tribute to Bay Area Women In Music. Benin is a 26 year member of The GRAMMY nominated vocal ensemble Linda Tillery and The Cultural Heritage. She appears on the CHC’s 7 Cd’s and has toured 30 countries performing and recording with legendary artists such as Taj Mahal, Wilson Pickett, Richie Havens, Odetta. Al Green, Keb Mo, Santana, Patti Austin, Janis Ian, Jackson Brown, Hugh Masekela & Sweet Honey In The Rock.
In 2006 Rhonda produced her first solo CD, A Matter of the Heart a classic mix of jazz, blues, and soul and is currently working on her 2nd CD.
Rhonda is on the teaching staff of Healdsburg Jazz ‘s Operation Jazz Band, San Francisco Arts Project, LEAP, California Conservatory of Music, Cal Performances and conducts her own school assemblies and workshops, “The Voice, The Hands The Feet” “Twist and Shout” and “Love Letters Make Me Misty Blue”.
JOHN R. BURR – Pianist
John R. Burr is that rare pianist who combines jazz technique with a genuine love for folk music. The Philadelphia Weekly said, “Pianist extraordinaire John R. Burr has the most sparkling style since former Allman Brother-turned-Rolling Stone hired hand Chuck Leavell.” Discology wrote, “John R. Burr ranks with the best of the elegant jazzers.”
Years of touring and recording sessions with such artists as Maria Muldaur, The Alison Brown Quartet, Paul McCandless, Michael Manring, and Kathy Kallick, and recognition including a feature spot on Windham Hill’s Piano Sampler II are a testament of his talent.
Living in the San Francisco area, John R found himself at OTR Studios often recording on other people’s albums. There he met Cookie Marenco, the engineer on those sessions. When Cookie founded Blue Coast Records, she knew it was a matter of time before John R had a recording under his own name. The first solo piano album of many to come is called Quarter Tones and displays John R’ intimate relationship with the piano.
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. compassrecords.com/artist/john-r-burr
RON BELCHER – Bassist
Bassist Ron Belcher travels the world from France to Japan and throughout the United States bringing his rhythmically buoyant, emotionally uplifting style to the stage for a wide diversity of jazz artists.
Performing or recording with such international stars as Branford Marsalis, Regina Carter, Rodney Franklin, John Handy, and Pete Escovedo, as well as a literal “who’s who” of the San Francisco jazz scene, Ron has garnered a reputation as one of northern California’s first-call jazz bassists.
A passionate teacher and advocate for children’s education, Ron has served on the faculty of the University of California, Berkeley, Young Musicians’ Program, and has contributed to several seasons for the San Francisco Symphony’s Adventures In Music outreach program. Ron ‘s own studies include jazz improvisation and acoustic bass at several Bay Area colleges, culminating in a degree from Texas College, where he had the honor of membership in the East Texas All-Stars.
ALCIDE MARSHALL – Drums
Alcide has enjoyed a rewarding career as a drummer, band leader and booking agent in the SF Bay area. He has performed and recorded with local and nationally known artists including El DeBarge, Michael Franti and Spearhead, Mary Wilson (of the Supremes), Rich Little, Sly Stone, Bobby McFerrin, NDea Davenport (Brand New Heavies) just to name a few.
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.
