“The Annex Sessions” Wednesday, June 19, 2024, 6-8:30pm will continue our music series held at El Cerrito Natural Grocery Company Prepared Food Annex (The Annex)

La Zuli

Briana Di Mara – violin

Anis Sehiri – guitar

Aaron Kierbel – drums

La Zuli combines the virtuosic talents of violinist Briana Di Mara and guitarist Anis Sehiri, weaving fresh original melodies and danceable rhythms influenced by music everywhere from Spain to North Africa to the Balkans and beyond. With lush harmonies and improvisations combining with powerful bass and drums, their genre-bending music is unique and uplifting. They are so grateful to be joined by the amazing Aaron Kierbel on drums.

Briana Di Mara

Eclectic violinist Briana Di Mara brings her love of the instrument and its soulful expression to every performance. She was trained in western classical music as a child and has since gone on to study and perform a wide variety of traditional styles including Celtic, Balkan, Turkish, Arabic and beyond. She harmoniously weaves these influences into her own unique sound and compositions. She is known for her evocative improvisations and skillful ability to play a broad range of genres from many different cultures.

She has performed and recorded with numerous projects, some of whom include Stellamara, Dirtwire, the National Arab Orchestra, Ali Paris, Beats Antique, Sharafat Parwani, Dan Cantrell, Moh Alileche, the legendary Lounès Kheloui, and many more! She has also collaborated with well known dancers such as Zoe Jakes, Rachel Brice, Miriam Peretz and Jill Parker. These projects have led her to perform in a wide variety of venues, theaters and festivals around the globe, inspiring audiences with her expansive interpretation of world music and exciting interaction with dancers.

Her award-winning debut album “Haven” earned rave reviews and reflects the dynamic collaborations that she has built around her original compositions.

“Haven is a masterfully crafted album which is almost like a trip around the world, stuffed into one record.” -Johnathan Robinson, Bucketlist Music

Briana also has an established teaching career both in her own private violin studio as well as various folk music education camps such as Lark Camp and Middle Eastern Music and Dance Camp in Mendocino, CA.  In the San Francisco Bay Area, she runs a summer day camp for kids, Camp Fiddle ‘N Fun, and also a year round Fiddle Club dedicated to community service.

www.brianamusic.com

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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” Wednesday, June 12, 2024, 6-8:30pm will continue our music series held at El Cerrito Natural Grocery Company Prepared Food Annex (The Annex)

Melissa Cruz Flamenco +

Melissa Cruz – flamenco, dance, percussion

Bob Sanders – guitar, bass

Jesse Torre – guitar

With special guests!

“Melissa Cruz presents a special show for The Annex, highlighting the spontaneous nature of Flamenco. The show will be created in the moment with live communication and connection between humans. Featured artists are Melissa Cruz (flamenco dance and percussion), Bob Sanders (guitar and bass) and Jesse Torre (guitar) with special guests.”

Melissa Cruz is a Bay Area-based flamenco professional and has been a full-time flamenco artist and instructor for the past 15 years.  She began training with the Bay Area’s acclaimed flamenco master Rosa Montoya and soon thereafter, joined Ms. Montoya’s professional company. Melissa has performed as a soloist in the San Francisco International Arts Festival and has presented in eight San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festivals, twice as a featured soloist. In 2013, she was commissioned to present a solo representing the genre of flamenco in the San Francisco Isadora Duncan Awards Ceremony.  She teaches a full schedule of classes and mentors her students in their development of flamenco knowledge and interpretation culminating in formal annual recitals, of which she has produced eight consecutively.  Enjoying a concurrent musical career, she is percussionist/drummer/dancer with several active musical projects.  She currently continues as principal dancer and choreographer for the San Francisco Flamenco Dance Company and has collaborated with Flamenco Fever (Dallas) Oleaje Flamenco (Seattle), Quiero Flamenco (Spokane), Arte y Pasion (San Antonio), Ballet Flamenco La Rosa, (Miami), Tuscon Flamenco Festival (Tuscon) St. Louis Flamenco Society (St. Louis MO), Flamenco Pacifico (Portland OR) Theatre Flamenco of San Francisco and Caminos Flamencos (San Francisco).  Recently, she was Artistic Director of “The Flamenco Room” San Francisco’s longest running cabaret flamenco show.  Summer 2021 saw Melissa featured in the one-woman flamenco theater play, “Flamenco on my Own” produced in collaboration with Ballet Flamenco La Rosa in Miami and as a featured performer and instructor at the 2021 Festival Flamenco Albuquerque presented by the National Institute of Flamenco. From 2020 to 2022, she was a Producer for Arts in the Basin, curating the program’s Friday night live performances.  This year 2023, Melissa was a featured performer in the Yerba Buena Gardens Festival, the Peninsula International Dance Festival and the World Arts West Dance Festival.

In addition to her accomplished artistic career, Melissa is a Bachelor of the Arts graduate of UC Berkeley and holds a Juris Doctor degree from University of San Francisco.

As described by Rachel Howard of the SF Chronicle: “Any dancer could make pained faces. But Cruz is clearly possessed by the duende — the spirit that drives this deeply introspective art.”

http://locuramusica.org/

http://istanbulconnection.net/

http://artsatthebasin.com/

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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” Wednesday, June 5, 2024, 6-8:30pm will continue our music series held at El Cerrito Natural Grocery Company Prepared Food Annex (The Annex)

Kayombe y sus Yumberos

Kai Lyons

Ernesto Mazar

Javier Navarrette

Christelle Durandy

Einar Leliebre Nunez

Tobias G

Dear Friends,

We’re thrilled to share that the group Kayombe y sus Yumberos led by the talented Bay Area musician, Kai Lyons, has been invited to perform at the 2024 National Changui Festival in Guantanamo, Cuba, from June 23rd to 30th.

Kai Lyons formed the changui project in the San Francisco Bay Area after winning first prize at the 2022 National Changui Festival. His team has been praised by John Santos as “the best changui group in the Bay Area” and has received positive reviews and patronage from percussionist Michael Spiro. Kayombe y sus Yumberos began through a monthly residency at many local venues in the Bay Area. The group eventually found itself playing intimate concerts at SF Mellow Sessions and the Verdi Club and giving performance-workshops at the California Jazz Conservatory and Stanford University. The band features: Ernesto Mazar of the world-famous timba band Charanga Habanera; Javier Navarrette, highly-regarded for his percussion work with legendary singers Bobi Cespedes and Linda Tillery; and Einar Leliebre Nunez, internationally touring percussionist, vocalist and musical director of Danza Caribe and Folkorico Oriente of Santiago, Cuba. They will be joined by special guest Tobias G, one of Sandy Perez’s most advanced bata students.

Changui is a music that developed in Eastern Cuba, in the province of Guantanamo (about 80 km north of Cuba’s former capital, Santiago) around the 1890’s as a recreational acoustic percussion-based music of Congo (West-African) origin. It is more syncopated than the Cuban son style (i.e. Buena Vista Social Club) and is considered “the father of Cuban music”. It utilizes a scraper (guayo), shaker (maraca), marimbula (bass kalimba), bongo de monte (a special kind of drum that is tuned with fire and water), and a Cuban-style guitar called a tres, to create social gatherings that lasted for several days at a time.

To make this experience even more memorable, we’ve invited filmmaker, visual artist, and local musician Fabio Reis to document the trip and interview extraordinary changui musicians.

After completing the trip, we will edit the film and produce a special event with live changui and a screening of the documentary.

To help make this project a reality, we’re reaching out to our community for support. Your donations will help cover travel expenses, equipment rental, and pre and post-production costs, ensuring we can capture the magic of this incredible music journey.

Please consider attending our fundraiser and sharing our project with your friends and family who appreciate the beauty of music and culture. Due to relations between Cuba and The United States, and economic hardship within Cuba, we are turning to our Bay Area community for financial assistance. With your help, we can bring this unique experience to life and share the music of Guantanamo with the world.

Thank you for your support and generosity. We look forward to sharing this unforgettable journey with you!

Javier Navarrette

~

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.