“The Annex Sessions” Wednesday, April 17, 2024, 6-8:30pm will continue our music series held at El Cerrito Natural Grocery Company Prepared Food Annex (The Annex)

Classical Revolution San Pablo String Quartet

Jeremy Cohen violin

Anthony Blea violin

Charith Premawardhana viola

Joel Cohen cello

Classical Revolution was founded in the fall of 2006 with the goal of making classical music more relevant in our neighborhoods and communities.

After a successful first year of weekly shows at Revolution Cafe in San Francisco’s Mission District, the organization began to receive invitations to perform at other local venues including the Red Poppy Art House, the Legion of Honor, and Yoshi’s SF.

In its 10th anniversary year, Classical Revolution undertook a cycle of Beethoven’s 9 Symphonies, performed at venues around San Francisco including the de Young Museum, Fort Mason’s Cowell Theater, and a performance of the 9th Symphony at Grace Cathedral in front of a 1000 person audience.

Press articles from the New York Times, Strings Magazine, Wall Street Journal, and The Economist brought wider attention to Classical Revolution’s efforts.

As interest grew outside of San Francisco, the network of chapters began to develop, with over 40 cities hosting regular Classical Revolution around the US, Canada, Europe, Australia, as well as Indonesia, Argentina, South Korea, and Japan.

Over 1200 musicians have performed at more than 1500 Classical Revolution events in over 150 different venues in the Bay Area alone. Audiences enjoy the accessibility of the venues and the fun laid back approach, as well as the diversity and quality in programming. In San Francisco, Classical Revolution hosts regular events at Mission District venues as well as guest appearances around the Bay Area.

https://www.classicalrevolution.org/

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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.

Wednesday, April 10, 2024, 6-8:30pm will continue our music series held at El Cerrito Natural Grocery Company Prepared Food Annex (The Annex)  – “The Annex Sessions”

Maestro Jorge Alabê & Friends

Maestro Jorge Alabê – surdo, vocals and persussion

Catia Machado-Lund – vocals and percussion

Brian Moran – cavaquinho and vocals

Abel Damasceno – percussion

Brian Rice – pandeiro

Samba Pagode! Beautiful, danceable, sing along and feel-good!

World-class Brazilian percussionist Jorge Alabê brings the rich musical culture of Brazil to the U.S. as a performing artist and master teacher.

His deep history and skill developed as he grew up playing Afro-Brazilian and samba rhythms in Rio de Janeiro, and took him around the world as director of percussion with the legendary performing company Oba Oba. Jorge is an acknowledged percussion master, and a popular and dedicated performer and teacher now based in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Maestro Jorge Alabê

Master drummer Jorge Alabê grew up in Rio de Janeiro immersed in the rich musical culture of Brazil, becoming a master in samba percussion as well as in the Afro-Brazilian religious tradition of candomblé. He is an “Alabê” connected with the oldest candomblé house established in Brazil, Casa Branca; the title of “Alabê” means that he has obtained the highest level in drumming and leading of rituals in the candomblé religion and signifies deep experience and authority. Jorge played percussion with the highest level samba groups in Rio and was the rhythm director of Minas Gerais Samba School in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. He has performed in recordings with Brazilian stars Milton Nascimento and Martinho da Vila and appeared on Globo TV in Brazil during 1978–1980 on the entertainment program Brasil Pandeiro.

He went on to become percussion director of the internationally known Brazilian performing group Oba Oba in 1980. During 15 years working with Oba Oba, Jorge toured with the group through Europe, Asia, South America, and the United States, including three runs at the Marquis Theater on Broadway in New York. Since 1993, Jorge has conducted workshops on samba and candomblé in the U.S.

Jorge moved to New Orleans in 1996, where he presented a series of workshops on traditional Afro-Brazilian religious drumming and dance, gave workshops in Brazilian rhythms at local universities (Tulane, Loyola, Southern universities, and various elementary schools), and worked with community organizations during Black History month. During his time in New Orleans, he worked closely with the cultural group Casa Samba, under the direction of Curtis Pierre, and built the musical and performance skills of the group, including artistic direction of their yearly participation in Mardi Gras and the New Orleans Jazz Festival and their performances throughout the year. In addition, he worked on the development of an after-school cultural arts program at Eden Park Elementary School in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and for four years, 1995–1999, taught Afro-Brazilian culture for the New Orleans Recreation Department’s Teen Camp summer program, with Young Audiences, and was honored by the mayor of New Orleans for his contributions.

Since moving to the U.S., Jorge has given frequent workshops at schools and universities, and with student groups around the country, including New York, Philadelphia, Boston, Washington DC, Chicago, San Francisco, San Diego, Portland, Seattle, Austin, and San Antonio. In 2005, he taught for the fall semester as a visiting artist in the Department of Music at the University of Richmond. He has been the samba director of California Brazil Camp since 1997. Currently, Jorge is based in the San Francisco area and directs the samba group Grupo Samba Rio. He is developing musical and educational projects locally, while continuing to travel throughout the U.S. to perform and conduct workshops.

https://www.jorgealabe.com/index.html

~

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.

Wednesday, April 3, 2024, 6-8:30pm will continue our music series held at El Cerrito Natural Grocery Company Prepared Food Annex (The Annex)  – “The Annex Sessions”

Key Elements Latin Jazz Ensemble

Patricia Thumas – keyboards

Robin Nzingah Smith – saxophone

Sue “Suki” Kaye – percussion

Sylvia Sherman – bass guitar

Joyce Baker – drums

Key Elements Latin Jazz Ensemble is comprised of some of the SF Bay Area’s most seasoned instrumentalists who perform exceptional original and Latin Brazilian classics for your listening and dancing pleasure. Their music has a fresh, new vibrant flair with infectious exotic rhythms to enchant you with!

Patricia Thumas

Patricia Thumas is a native San Franciscan, who emerged as the Bay Area’s first female Salsa pianist with the highly acclaimed “Ritmo ’74”, opening for the international stars of New York-based Fania Records label at many of San Francisco’s finest venues. She has had an extensive career as a Salsa Pianist, including working with John Santos’ late seventies Cuban Charanga band “Tipica Cienfuegos,” and was also a member of legendary Afro-Cuban Master Drummer Francisco Aguabella’s band. In the early 1980s, she formed part of Escola de Samba Batucaje, directed by Jose Lorenzo, which won first place in Carnaval. In the late 1980s she toured throughout the California State Dept of Correction System with Jazz Guitarist Eddie Duran & Saxophonist Madeline Duran’s Band. Later in the 1980s/early 1990s, she toured nationally and recorded 2 CDs with the internationally acclaimed “Blazing Redheads” on the Reference Records label. In the late seventies/eighties, she co-led “Chevere” & “Bahia,” both Latin & Brazilian jazz ensembles. From 1994-2002 she played piano with the “Julio Bravo & Salsabor Orchestra,” performing locally & nationally, and is a twenty-five year veteran of “El Grupo Sinigual”. Patricia was selected and served as a Judge for the 2017 SF Carnaval Parade. She is featured in Jim McCarthy’s book “Voices of Latin Rock.” She is also featured along with other veteran community artists past & present on a mural at Casa Bandido, located at 25th & York Streets in San Francisco and will soon be featured in a book about the Mission District’s artistic community.  Since 2017, she has been leading Key Elements Latin Jazz Ensemble which recorded its debut album, “Arrival” in 2020.  Also in 2020, she was commissioned to create a song about a Mission District Mural, leading to the composition, “Maestra”.  The same year she was commissioned by Music in Place to write a composition inspired by the Pandemic entitled “Next Chapter”.  In 2021/2022 Patricia was commissioned by Jazz In The Neighborhood to perform Livestream concerts at Oakland Public Conservatory with Key Elements.  In 2022 she was a Yerba Buena Center For The Arts grant recipient for Sustainability during Pandemic.  She also was featured in Holly Near’s Digital Archive/Gallery about the history of women’s music.

Robin Nzingah Smith

Robin Nzingah Smith has been playing music since the age of six. She studied jazz at the New Muse in Brooklyn, the Creative Music Studio in Woodstock, and Billie Taylor’s Jazzmobile under the tutelage of Frank Foster, Frank Wess, and Bill Baron. Nzingah attended Rutgers University where she received a degree in flute performance. While there, she had the honor to perform with the University Big Band at the funeral of Thelonius Monk. Nzingah’s musical styles run the gamut from Jazz to Salsa, R & B, Funk, and Classical music. She frequently performs with the Oakland Civic Orchestra, the Mary Lou Williams Tribute Band, as well as with Bay Area Funk and Blues legend, Johnny Tolbert. A member of all woman Big Band: “Mary Lou’s Apartment” (a tribute band honoring the music of Jazz Pianist/Composer/Arranger “Mary Lou Williams”), which morphed into: “MELBAS’ KITCHEN”, (all woman tribute big band honoring the music of Jazz Trombonist/Composer/ Arranger “Melba Liston”) & Nzingah has been Co-Director, since 2021. Nzingah has been a dedicated music educator in the Bay Area of San Francisco for over two decades. She teaches band, Jazz, Improvisation, and gives private music lessons.

Sue “Suki” Kaye

Sue “Suki” Kaye, originally from NYC and now living in the Bay Area has been playing congas, ngoma, kalimba, and other percussion for over 40 years. She has been deeply influenced by many amazing teachers, studying the music of the Congo, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Brazil, Trinidad and more! Over the years, Suki has performed with many bands, including Azucar con Ache, Rita Lackey and Friends, Liquid Girlfriend, Montuno Groove, Omeyocan, Pura Vida, Zakiya Hooker, Bole Bantu, Azucar y Crema, Samba Ngo, and the Ngoma Players, and is now very excited about playing with this new project-Key Elements. She has had the pleasure of opening the show and sharing the stage with such well-known artists as King Sunny Ade, Sheila E, and Babatunde Olatunji (RIP). Suki has also been a dance accompanist, playing for both classes and performance groups. She is a former member of Taller Bombalele, a Puerto Rican Folkloric group. She is also an educator, teaching elementary, preschool, and after school programs as well as conducting drum workshops for adults and kids. She is on the faculty of Born to Drum, a Bay Area women’s drum camp. Suki also enjoys writing and arranging music and of course playing and being creative with other musicians!

Sylvia Sherman

Sylvia Sherman is an alumna from community arts workshops at La Pena Cultural Center and Mission Cultural Center, with a focus on percussion in Cuban music, including opportunities to participate in clinics with master Cuban artists such as Los Muñequitos de Matanzas and Anga Diaz and to study with Bay Area based Michael Spiro and Jesus Diaz.  She brings her experience with percussion to her bass playing and performs with several groups including Key Elements, El Guajiro, Ray Martinez and the Latin OGs and Sinigual.  Sylvia is Program Director at Community Music Center where she works to develop community arts programs for people of all ages.

Joyce Baker

Joyce Baker has been playing drums since she was a small child with her famous father “Buddy” Baker. Joyce has played with Lavender Country for many years and recently at SXSW; as well other greats such as Emmy Award Winning Songwriter Lisa Nemzo, Mel Graves, George Marsh, Opie Bellas, Lea DeLaria, Carolyn Brandy, Michaelle Goerlitz, Vicky Grossi, Janice Beard, Mimi Fox and the Cable Car Award Recipients Nicholas Glover and Wray. Joyce has also shared the stage with Con Fun Shun, Jefferson Starship, and ”Blondie’s” Debra Harry. Over the years, she has also been seen and heard with Theatre companies Contra Costa Theatre, Hootchie Doo Productions “Nunsense” series, orchestras with Sonoma Valley Chorale, Contare Con Vivo, and Oakland East Bay Symphony. Joyce is a recording artist and can be heard on multiple CD’s with Amy Meyers, Liquid Girlfriend, Doug Stevens and The Outband, Nicholas, Glover and Wray, D. Anthony, Bad Ass Boots, “Gotta Give me Somethin’,” and Lavender Country’s guitarist Mark Newstetter. By day she is an award winning music teacher in OUSD, and Jazz and Blues Camp for Girls @ the Berkeley Jazz School. By night she can be heard with Lavender Country, Bad Ass Boots, Big O’, Mary Lou’s Apartment, and her own swinging jazz group. Otherwise, she lives with her lovely wife of 29 years, the best dog in the world, Santita, her cat, Sir Lumley, in her hideway home in the hills of El Sobrante.

https://keyelementslatinjazz.com/

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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.

Wednesday, March 27, 2024, 6-8:30pm will continue our music series held at El Cerrito Natural Grocery Company Prepared Food Annex (The Annex)  – “The Annex Sessions”

Charged Particles with Tod Dickow 

Tod Dickow – Tenor Saxophone

Greg Sankovich – Piano

Doug Pohorski – Bass

Jon Krosnick – Drums

Bay Area super-band Charged Particles plays a blend of funky Latin jazz.  Downbeat Magazine said, “Charged Particles dazzle”, and Jazz Times Magazine said the band members are “tight and enormously talented.”

The jazz trio Charged Particles (www.chargedparticles.com) has played funky Latin jazz in Indonesia, the U.K., Canada, Germany, Switzerland, Sweden, and Italy, and across the U.S., at famed venues including Yoshi’s, Ronnie Scott’s, Birdland, Blues Alley, the Musical Instrument Museum, the Columbus Jazz Festival, the Stanford Jazz Festival, the San Luis Obispo Jazz Festival, the Eureka Springs Jazz Festival, and hundreds of others.  The band recently sold out Ronnie Scott’s (in London) and Birdland (in New York City) with tenor saxophonist Tod Dickow and world class trumpeter, Randy Brecker, playing new arrangements of compositions by the late great jazz saxophonist Michael Brecker on the CD, “Live at the Baked Potato!” (Summit Records).

The CD was named among the best 2021 jazz releases in JazzTimes Magazine, Jazzwise Magazine, the San Jose Mercury News, the Jazz Journalists Association, the 16th Annual Jazz Critics Poll, Glide Magazine, Nippertown Magazine, and more publications.

In a concert review, Downbeat Magazine called the band “something special” and “inventive, invigorating, mesmerizing, beautiful, virtuosic, and lyrical.”  Nippertown Magazine said the band’s performance at the Albany Riverfront Jazz Festival was “often thrilling” and “the peak set of the day”.  The Oxford Times said their performance at the Spin Jazz Club was “brilliant”.

While studying music at the College of San Mateo, tenor saxophonist Tod Dickow began performing in the Bay Area with small groups and big bands, and he is a powerful voice on the Bay Area scene today. His playing has been recognized by outstanding soloist awards at the Pacific Coast Jazz Festival and was awarded the Outstanding Soloist award by Down Beat Magazine.  He has appeared with numerous celebrated artists, including Ella Fitzgerald, Nancy Wilson, Joe Henderson, Bobby Hutcherson, Jackie & Roy, Harry Connick Jr, Steve Allen, Terry Gibbs, Frank Sinatra Jr., Dave Brubeck, and many more.

A East Bay native, Greg Sankovich began his keyboard journey with classical piano training and was inspired by jazz pianists include Herbie Hancock, Dr. Lonnie Smith, Keith Jarrett, and Bill Evans.  After graduating from UC Berkeley, Greg moved to Tokyo to perform with his jazz fusion group, Taikun, where he lived for over 10 years, performing and recording with a long list of top Japanese artists and music production companies.  He is currently a keyboardist, producer, and music educator in the Bay Area while leading his band, Times 4.

Doug Pohorski is a Bay Area bassist, recording engineer, producer, and composer. He has been performing on the upright and electric bass for over 35 years with a host of instrumentalists and vocalists, including at jazz festivals such as the Monterey Jazz Festival, the San Jose Jazz Festival, and the Montreux Jazz Festival.  Doug has shared the stage with many talented musicians including; Bobby McFerrin, John Stowell, Bruce Forman, Mark Levine, Michele Hendricks, Gary Meek, Calvin Keys, and Denise Perrier.  Doug also owns and operates his own recording studio: Acoustic Sound Shop Studios.

Drummer Jon Krosnick has been in the Bay Area for 20 years, performing with Charged Particles as well as the nine-piece Latin jazz group, The Lunar Octet.  Jon began his jazz drumming by studying with celebrated jazz superstar Peter Erskine.  He worked with a range of bands playing jazz and other genres, including the Jon Krosnick Quintet, State of Mind, the New Jazz Sextet, Pangaea, the Kristen Strom Quartet, the Dewayne Oakley Trio, and many more.  Recently, he performed with two trios, including (1) Chick Corea and John Patitucci, and (2) Bill O’Connell and Lincoln Goines.

www.chargedparticles.com

https://www.facebook.com/charged.particles/

https://www.instagram.com/chargedpart/?hl=en

https://twitter.com/chargedpart?lang=en

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.

Wednesday, March 20, 2024, 6-8:30pm will continue our music series held at El Cerrito Natural Grocery Company Prepared Food Annex (The Annex)  – “The Annex Sessions”

Melissa Cruz “Flamenco Pars Fortuna” 

Join us for a special evening of music and dance with this ensemble presenting impromptu flamenco, showcasing the unique proclivities of each artist.

Featuring:

Melissa Cruz: flamenco dance and percussion

Azriel “El Moreno”: vocals

Jesse Torre and Bob Sanders: guitar

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.”

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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.

Wednesday, March 13, 2024, 6-8:30pm will continue our music series held at El Cerrito Natural Grocery Company Prepared Food Annex (The Annex)  – “The Annex Sessions”

George Brooks Quartet 

George Brooks – saxophone

Kai Eckhardt – bass

Dillon Vado – vibes

Scott Amendola – percussion

George Brooks

George Brooks is a prolific and diverse saxophonist and composer, acclaimed for successfully bridging the worlds of jazz and Indian classical music. He is the founder of Indian fusion groups Summit with Zakir Hussain, Steve Smith, Kai Eckhardt and Fareed Haque; Bombay Jazz with Larry Coryell and Ronu Majumdar; the Raga Bop Trio with Steve Smith and Carnatic guitarist Prasanna and Elements with Indian violinist Kala Ramnath and Dutch harpist Gwyneth Wentink.

Brooks began his study of jazz with Count Basie saxophonist, Frank Foster and continued at the New England Conservatory of Music, with George Russell, Joe Allard and Jaki Byard. While attending the Conservatory, Brooks was introduced to Indian classical music and became entranced by its melodic beauty, rhythmic complexity and deep spiritual core. After graduating, Brooks traveled to India where he met master vocalist Pandit Pran Nath, the giant of north Indian music who deeply influenced pioneering composers LaMonte Young and Terry Riley. Brooks immersed himself in study with Pran Nath, cooking and caring for his “Guruji”, in exchange for knowledge. This is the traditional Indian style of learning known as “guru-shishya parampara”.

Returning from India, Brooks settled in California and began his long association with pianist Terry Riley. For the past thirty years they have performed throughout Europe, the US and Asia as a duo, in trio settings with sitarist Krishna Bhatt and with a variety of larger ensembles. While touring with Riley and developing his unique voice as an artist, Brooks also became a mainstay of the Bay Area blues scene, arranging and leading horn sections for Sonny Rhodes, Frankie Lee, Albert Collins and Johnny Taylor and touring internationally with R+B icon Etta James.

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.

Want to know more? Visit George’s Website for a more detailed biography and links to hear him play.

http://www.georgebrooks.com/

Kai Eckhardt

Kai Eckhardt began to play bass guitar in 1976 at age 15. His first major undertaking came in 1985 when European guitar prodigy Torsten de Winkel asked him to join his recording ensemble with Michael Brecker and Alphonse Mouzon, making quite a splash in the European scene, and later his touring band with Ernie Watts and Steve Smith, leading to an invitation to Eckhardt and Torsten to join Smith’s US-based group Vital Information. The two German musicians also appeared together in a TV production with Randy Brecker and Simon Phillips in Swiss National Television.

Meanwhile, he had accepted a scholarship to the Berklee College of Music and began to establish himself in the US, working with the likes of Aydin Esen, Stanley Clarke, Tiger Okoshi and Bob Moses. In 1988 Kai joined the John Mclaughlin Trio with percussionist Trilok Gurtu and John McLaughlin. The trio toured extensively in the years to come and recorded a number of albums, including Que Alegria in 1992. Afterwards, Eckhardt moved to the San Francisco bay area and turned his attention to composing, while performing with the Billy Cobham International Quartet and with Garaj Mahal. As a session musician he recorded an performed with Jazz legends Dewey Redman, Donald Byrd and Bob Moses.

In 2000, he released his first CD as a leader, entitled “Honour Simplicity, Respect the Flow” and featuring Aydın Esen, Courtney Pine, Zakir Hussain and others. He is also working with his own new group the Kai Eckhardt Reslilience (which released an album entitled Zeitgeist in 2014). Eckhardt also runs a mentor-ship program for young musicians.  Today Kai is the co-leader and co-producer of the influential jam band Garaj Mahal. The band played over 1000 shows in the US and Canada between 2000 and 2019. Garaj Mahal released 9 albums during those years and won the independent music awards in the Jam Band category in 2007. Most recent collaborations include live performances with R&B saxophonist Ronnie Laws and guitarist Stanley Jordan.  Kai lives in Berkeley, California with his wife and two children and works as an associate professor for the University of California, Berkeley as well as the California Jazz Conservatory.

Dillon Vado

Dillon Vado is an active professional drummer and vibraphonist in the San Francisco Bay Area. He grew up in San Jose, California, and started playing music at the age of 8. Dillon learned a lot from a family friend early on in his life, but also played in school band programs throughout middle and high school. This fueled Dillon’s interest in eventually marching snare drum with the Santa Clara Vanguard and studying music full time at West Valley College.  At West Valley, Dillon started playing the vibraphone, which eventually lead him to being a more serious multi-instrumentalist.

In 2012 Dillon transferred to the California Jazz Conservatory in Berkeley, and went on to earn his Bachelor’s degree there in 2017.  His  performance experiences include playing in the South Bay scene at venues like the Art Boutiki, and Cafe Stritch, marching snare drum with the Santa Clara Vanguard, recording at Fantasy Studios,  and playing with other professionals at The Freight and Salvage, Yoshi’s, and the SF Jazz Center. He has played at local festivals such as the San Jose Jazz Summer Fest and the Fillmore Jazz Festival in San Francisco. He has also performed overseas at the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland and the Umbria Jazz Festival in Italy. Dillon has performed with Art Lande, Marcus Shelby, Hafez Modirzadeh,Royal Hartigan, Erik Jekabson, Jeff Denson, Alan Hall, and Marcos Silva.

​In 2014, Dillon won 1st place in the Jazz Search West competition on vibraphone, and in 2017 was also selected for the Buddy Montgomery Jazz Legacy Award through the California Jazz Conservatory. Dillon can be found playing actively with Alan Hall’s Ratatet, Erik Jekabson’s String-tet, the Electric Squeezebox Orchestra and many other creative musical endeavors lead by his peers around the Bay Area. He also leads several projects of his own,  including Never Weather, Beyond Words: Jazz and Poetry, and The Table Trio.

Scott Amendola

Scott Amendola is an American drummer from the San Francisco Bay Area. His styles include jazz, blues, groove, and rock.

Amendola is originally from New Jersey and studied at the Berklee School of Music in Boston. After relocating to California, he rose to popularity in the 1990s as a member of the band T.J. Kirk with Charlie Hunter, Will Bernard and John Schott. Their second album, If Four Was One, received a Grammy Award nomination. Amendola has led his own bands and trios, which have included musicians such as Nels Cline, Jenny Scheinman, Jeff Parker, John Shifflet, Ben Goldberg and Devin Hoff. He has recorded with Pat Martino, Jim Campilongo, G. E. Stinson and Tony Furtado, among others. He is an original member of the Larry Ochs Sax & Drumming Core and has been a session percussionist for Cris Williamson, Noe Venable, Carla Bozulich, and Odessa Chen, to name a few.

In 2011, Amendola premiered his orchestral work Fade to Orange, performed in conjunction with the Oakland East Bay Symphony as one of their New Visions/New Vistas premieres. The drummer was joined by Nels Cline and Trevor Dunn.

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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.