“The Annex Sessions” will continue our music series held at El Cerrito Natural Grocery Company Prepared Food Annex (The Annex) on Wednesday, December 4, 2024, 6-8:30pm

 

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/

~

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.

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

 

Rachael Magidson West Coast Jazz Quartet

Rachael Magidson – vocals, trumpet & percussion

Terry Bijohn – guitar

Leonie Hey – upright bass

Tony  Fill – drums & percussion

 

 

“A really good jazz sound has come out of France …Rachael Magidson hails from San Francisco, California and is a swing singer in addition to playing trumpet and percussion. Tim Taylor – Audiophile Audition

Described by CJ Bond of Jazz Music Review as “…frighteningly hedonistic impact…Magidson is one of those song stylists … that pretty much has her way with you emotionally. You could easily succumb to a state of bewitched, bothered bewilderment”

 

Joining Rachael is a killer quartet from Bordeaux, France, united by their shared passion for jazz and world music. Their unique arrangements infuse each song with a rich tapestry of global colors, transcending the boundaries of jazz to include beloved hits from the worlds of pop, soul, and funk.

 

Terry Bijohn, a virtuoso guitarist, has graced stages worldwide, from The Forbidden City Music Hall in China to Madagascar. Known for his diverse cultural fluency and heartfelt arrangements, his artistry adds an unmistakable depth to the quartet’s sound.

 

On drums, Tony Fill brings a wealth of international experience, having studied and performed in iconic music hotspots like New York, Cuba, Puerto Rico, and Rio de Janeiro. His wife, Leonie Hey, a seasoned upright bassist from Stuttgart, has jazz in her blood, having played since her youth under the guidance of her father, a big band leader. The two met playing for the Late Night shows in Germany  while performing with a roster of renowned artists, from Will Smith to Cindy Lauper. The pair met Terry and Rachael after relocating to Lacanau, a serene surf town just an hour from Bordeaux.

 

Join us to feel the dancing waves , the sunsets and the  laid-back vibes of the West Coast.

 

rachaelmagidsonjazz.com

bookrachelsjazz@gmail.com

~

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 register.

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

 

Warango 

Javier Trujillo – guitar

Pedro Rosales – cajon, percussion and vocals

Kyla Danysh – violin and vocals

Pierr Padilla – band leader, cajon, percussion and dance

Alex Farrell – bass

Carmen Roman – performer

 

Warango is a musical project born in Oakland, California, based on the vibrant rhythms of Afro-Peruvian music. This proposal is a meeting of traditional sounds represented by the Cajon which symbolizes Afro-Peruvian roots; with harmonies and melodies from classical music and jazz. These two worlds coexist in Warango’s sounds creating a unique musical proposal.

~

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, 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

 

~

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.