Wednesday, December 6, 2023, 6-8:30pm will continue our music series held at El Cerrito Natural Grocery Company Prepared Food Annex (The Annex)  – “The Annex Sessions”

El Tren Quartet:

Julio Pérez – percussion
Carlos Caro – percussion
Saul Sierra – bass
Marco Diaz – piano

With roots in Mexico. Cuba, Puerto Rico and US-Guatemala, El Tren quartet has been performing together for over twenty years. Their musical range captures music styles from the late 1800’s to their modern day composition and arrangements of Latin American and American Classics.

Julio Perez: Conga

Born in Puerto Rico, Julio Perez shares a long history with other band members Marco Diaz, Saul Sierra, and Carlos Caro making music in the San Francisco Bay Area and also when he visits home in Puerto Rico. Julio plays all the percussion instruments with precision and feeling, and from memory as well, since he lost his sight as a young boy. Julio brings great musicianship and great friendship to VibraSON and co-stars in a number of other productions around the area including concerts by Bobi Cespedes, John Santos, Marco Diaz and other local bands.

Carlos Caro: Percussion

Carlos Caro, originally from Cuba, has a long and distinguished career in music. He has played with many other great musicians as one of the best percussionists in the world. Carlos plays with a number of Salsa bands in the Bay Area, including his own band called Vission Latina. He also is a great instructor for aspiring musicians, and a 2014 GRAMMY® Award Winning percussionist.

A native of Havana, Cuba. Born on August 13 on 1967. Carlos Caro was musically educated throughout his youth, graduating from the Alejandro Garcia Cultural Conservatory in Havana and the ENIA (National School of Arts Instructors), after which he began his professional career with the group “Clave.”

He has performed on tour with and has recorded for some of Cuba’s biggest names in music including Paulo Fernandez Gallo and Jackeline Castellano’s best selling “La Dama Del Son”Caro immigrated to Mexico City in 1993 where he was commissioned to record and perform a work in the Danzon style with the Mexico City Philharmonic.

He then appeared on the West Coast music scene in 1996 to quickly become one of the most sought-after Latin percussionists, simultaneously playing in the best Cubano, Salsa, and Latin Rock bands throughout the San Francisco Bay Area.

Carlos Caro released his first album with Vission Latina and the second one in April of 2010. Music from this CD was recently chosen for a movie soundtrack!

Saùl Sierra-Alonso: Bass

Saùl Sierra-Alonso has played with many of the Latin bands in the Bay Area and studied at the famous Berklee School of Music in Boston. Saùl has worked extensively in the Salsa and Latin music scene and offers great expertise and musical experience.

Saúl Sierra Born and raised in Mexico City, where he started playing professionally in 1990. He moved to Boston Mass. in 1995 and attended the Berklee College of Music where he graduated in the summer of 1999, with a major in Performance. Some of his teachers included Oscar Stagnaro, Rich Appleman, Daniel Morris, and Jim Stinnet. He received the US Scholarship tour award and the Outstanding Performer award at Berklee.

As a resident of the San Francisco Bay Area since the fall of 1999, Saúl has performed, toured or recorded with Nestor Torres, Jimmy Bosh, Eddie Montalvo, Johny Rodríguez, Orestes Vilató, Bobi Céspedes, Antonio Sánchez, Miles Peña, John Santos, Jesús Díaz, Rebeca Mauleón, Mark Levine, Greg Landau, Mike Spiro, Jackeline Rago, Chuchito Valdez, Alexander Livinali, Wayne Wallace, Aquiles Baez, Marco Granados, Anthony Blea, Doug Beavers, and María Márquez, among others.

For the past 10 years Saúl has been a member of some of the leading bands in the Bay Area, including The John Santos Quintet/Sextet, Bobi Cespedes’ band, Dr. Loco’s Rocking Jalapeño Band, El Tren Trío, Anthony Blea y su Charanga, The Snake Trío, Jesús Díaz y su QBA, The Bay Area Afro-Cuban All Stars, The Venezuelan Music Project, Corazón Sur, and Sababa band.

A founding member of Vission Latina, the band that he co-leads with Carlos Caro, percussionist extraordinaire, and Marco Díaz, virtuoso multi-instrumentalist (piano/trumpet ), Saúl keeps himself busy performing, composing, arranging and teaching in the world class musical community of the San Francisco Bay Area.

Marco Diaz: Piano

Marco Diaz was born and raised in San Francisco and was introduced to the trumpet in the fourth grade at E.R. Taylor Elementary School. His formal training in both piano and trumpet began at the age of 14. He earned a scholarship from the Community Music Center in San Francisco, and began playing professionally at the age of 17 throughout the Bay Area with various Latin Jazz, Salsa, Reggae, and R&B bands. Upon graduating from high school, he continued his studies at San Francisco State University pursing a Bachelors of Arts in Popular Music and a minor in Economics.

In addition to his studies Marco has been influenced by Afro-Cuban music through world renowned musicians, such as, Jesus Diaz, who he played and recorded with for eight years, John Santos, Orestes Vilato, Edgardo Cambon, and Carlos Caro.

Today, Marco is part of the faculty at the Community Music Center in San Francisco and has been a part of the SFJAZZ teaching artist program since 2017. He is an accomplished recording musician who has shared the stage with Grammy Award winning artist, Israel “Cachao” Lopez, Nelson Gonzales, Jimmy Bosch, Pete “El Conde” Rodriguez, Ska Cubano (Europe), Tito Rojas, Nino Segarra, Anthony Cruz, Anthony Blea, Jovino Santos Neto, Joe Santiago, and is an integral member of the John Santos sextet, and the musical director for Bobi Cespedes.  Marco has participated in the San Francisco Symphony AIM program since 2000 and currently produces records and performs music throughout the country while also co-leading Vission Latina, an Afro-Caribbean dance band, and director of his own quartet, The Marco Diaz Quartet.

In 2011, Marco Diaz was part of the faculty at Jazz Camp West. He toured the San Juan Islands off the coast of Washington State with Bobi Cespedes, teaching children and adults the roots of Afro-Cuban music. Marco also performed at the San Francisco, Tanglewood, and Monterey Jazz Festivals, and the Smithsonian Museum with world renowned ethno-musicologist, John Santos and his Sextet. In the Fall, Marco began his ninth season with the San Francisco Symphony’s AIM (adventures in music) program.

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, November 29, 2023, 6-8:30pm will continue our music series held at El Cerrito Natural Grocery Company Prepared Food Annex (The Annex)  – “The Annex Sessions”

“Cuero y Cuerdas” is a duo composed of two of the most active and prolific Latin Musicians in the Bay Area.

Bolivian born Gabriel Navia on Guitar/vocals and Percusionist/vocalist Edgardo Cambón a native of Uruguay.

Both multiple recording artists are deeply immersed in many Latin styles from South America, the Caribbean, Europe and North America.

The repertoire spans from Spanish Flamenco forms, to Afro Cuban Son, Boleros, Cha-Cha-Cha, Guaracha, Uruguayan Candombe, and opens up at times to more contemporary rhythms and Jazz, as well as an occasional original composition.

“Cuero y Cuerdas” translated as “Skins and Strings” says it all!

Edgardo Cambón

Born in Montevideo, Edgardo Cambón is a Percussionist, Vocalist, Educator and Band Leader with over 36 years of professional experience. A much in demand musician in the U.S.A, he has performed or recorded with artist like Jesús “Chucho” Valdés, Eddie Palmieri, Santana, Jerry Rivera, Eddie Santiago, Keith Terry, Omar Sosa, Andy Narell, Rebeca Mauleón, Giovanni Hidalgo, Eddie Montalvo and Johny Rodriguez among many others. He is an LP (Latin Percussion) instruments endorser and has traveled worldwide as an LP clinician.

Since 1986 he leads on Congas and lead Vocals the acclaimed Salsa Band “Candela,” with four recordings available of mainly his own compositions.

Gabriel Navia

Born into a musical family, Gabriel Navia is an artist, producer, guitarist, multi-instrumentalist and composer. He has collaborated on two albums nominated for the Latin Grammys. (“Piano & Charango” and “Carnaval in Piano Charango” by artists Chuchito Valdes and Eddy Navia.)

​Gabriel is one of the most foremost exponents of Latin music in the Bay Area, combining Latin music with flamenco, jazz, and contemporary sounds with a unique style.

​He started his professional music career as a charango player, touring and recording with the Andean music band Sukay at the age of eleven. Led by his father Eddy Navia.

He has continued working on stage and in the recording studio with artist such as Chuchito Valdes, Eddy Navia, Fito Reinoso, Daniel Fries (Gabo & Daniel), Wayne Wallace, Jack Douglas, Richard Howell, Charlie Musselwhite, Orestes Vilato, Karl Perazzo, John Santos, Calixto Oviedo, Marc Van Wageningen, Joe Craven, Jeff Massanari, Colin Douglas, Netta Brielle, Edgardo Cambon (Candela), Sandy Perez (Muñequitos de Matanzas), Fogo Na roupa, Los Kjarkas, Willy Claure, Grillo Villegas, Savia Andina, Melecio Magdaluyo, Fernando Jimenez, Carlos Caro, John Calloway, Greg Sudmier, Georges Lammam (Hola Yallah a Latin Arabia duo), Sukay, Diablo Ballet and the San Francisco Symphony among others.

A post-graduate from Conservatori Del Liceu de Barcelona. He has also studied with great masters from Bolivia, Cuba, Spain and the U.S. After attending the Instituto Eduardo Laredo in Cochabamba, Bolivia and the School of the Arts of San Francisco, California, he went on to attend the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, the Jazz School of Berkley CA and in 2002 he received Outstanding Musician Awards at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA. In 2007 he also received a scholarship from Fundación Carolina to do a music postgraduate with flamenco master Manuel Granados at the Conservatori Del Liceu de Barcelona.

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, November 15, 2023, 6-8:30pm will continue our music series held at El Cerrito Natural Grocery Company Prepared Food Annex (The Annex)  – “The Annex Sessions”

LoCura Trio

Melissa Cruz , cajon

Bob Sanders, guitar

Kata Miletich, vocals

LoCura Trio plays acoustic versions of your favorite LoCura songs as well as lively rumba flamenca tunes and in-the-moment improvisations. @locuramusica

For the past 11 years, Oakland-based LoCura has crafted their own unique musical identity: “Califas Mestizo Music,” a blend of Latin American and Iberian rhythms such as rumba, cumbia, salsa and flamenco influenced by punk rock, ska, rap, dub, reggae, dancehall with local and global lyrical themes. The band’s name (“it cures it”) reflects their ethos of making music a remedy, a theme which permeates lyrics such as “la cultura cura la locura (culture cures the madness).”

With three powerhouse women at the helm, their live shows are a soul-stirring punk-edged party mixing cajon-driven rhythms with mutilingual lyrics that reflect the unique intersection of cultures in the Bay Area. Ana Tijoux meets Manu Chao with a touch of Lhasa.

Spanish-American vocalist Kata Miletich, expanding on the group’s influences, notes “one big inspiration for the ways we consciously and unconsciously connect different music is this idea that styles and rhythms travel from Africa, Europe stretching across the Americas and mixing with indigenous sounds. Culture is alive in so many different ways, and shows up in different places to tell a story.”

LoCura has toured the U.S, Canada, Nicaragua, Mexico and Spain playing music festivals and sharing the stage with artists such as Bombino, La Cuneta Son Machin, Ziggy Marley, Beats Antique, Quetzal, and Nortec Collective. In the California Bay Area they have opened for Sergio Mendes, La Santa Cecilia, The Seshen & Bomba Estereo and have sold out The Great American Music Hall and The Independent in San Francisco. LoCura has released three full length albums and is currently writing and recording music for their fourth album.

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, November 8, 2023, 6-8:30pm will continue our music series held at El Cerrito Natural Grocery Company Prepared Food Annex (The Annex)  – “The Annex Sessions”

Classical Revolution Electric Quartet

Anthony Blea violin

Charith Premawardhana violin

Keith Lawrence viola

Lewis Patzner 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 preform 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.

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, November 1, 2023, 6-8:30pm will continue our music series held at El Cerrito Natural Grocery Company Prepared Food Annex (The Annex)  – “The Annex Sessions”

Boricua Soul: The Creole Music of Puerto Rico

This talented and dynamic trio brings to life the soulful música criolla of Puerto Rico, highlighting the color and range of the cuatro puertorriqueño, Puerto Rico’s national instrument, and the cadence and elegance of the décima, the ancestral poetic form at the core of the Island’s creole musical traditions.

Featuring:

Pedro Pastrana  – cuatro

A music creator re-thinking the concept of Puerto Rican music, Pedro crosses over invisible frontiers with an (extra)ordinary approach to music. He aims at fusing the earthy quality of folk music with forward looking compositions and live performances, reflecting the mixed identities of his heritage and influences.

Born and raised in Puerto Rico, Pedro José Pastrana grew up in the “jíbaro” music tradition and surrounded by the vocabulary of other popular sounds. His work has been reviewed and play-listed by LatinJazzNet, KCSM Jazz, Puerto Rico Jazz and PRPop. As a sideman Pedro has redefined the versatility of the Puerto Rican Cuatro in Latin Jazz by performing and recording with artists like John Santos, Barrio Manouche, Jerry Medina, Juango Gutierrez, Orestes Vilató, Atabal, Gary Nuñez, Andy Montañez, among others.

His 2022 debut album, “Crónicas de la Pierna Inquieta”, selected by prpop.org among the top 20 best recordings of that year, consists of eight original tracks, serving as snapshots of self-discovery, inspired by the coming of age events of the past 13 years. This work combines incisive, Cuatro generated groove based songwriting with the sounds of Puerto Rico as the color palette.

Héctor Lugo – vocals and percussion

Héctor Lugo is a percussionist, singer, songwriter, and educator. A native of Puerto Rico, he grew up immersed in the creole musical culture of Puerto Rico and the the Latin-Caribbean. He has recorded and performed in stages across the world with artists such as Louie Romero y su Grupo Mazacote, the late great Luis Daniel “Chichito” Cepeda and his Los Cepeda Ensemble, Bobby Céspedes and Conjunto Céspedes, Modesto Cepeda and Cimiento de Puerto Rico, salsa legend Pete “El Conde” Rodriguez, Larry Vuckovich Jazz-Latin Quartet, The John Santos Sextet, Gilberto Gutierrez y Mono Blanco, and Román “Ito” Carrillo and Herencia de los Carrillo, to name a few.  His compositions and arrangements have been featured in the acclaimed compilation “Salsa de la Bahía,” vol. 2 (Patois Records, 2015), the documentary film “Dolores,” about the life and work of the great labor and civil rights leader Dolores Huertas, and in La Mixta Criolla’s album “AfroTaíno” (Round Whirled Records). Héctor is the founder and director of the Latin roots band La Mixta Criolla, founder and co-director of the Bay Area Bomba y Plena Workshop, a founding member of bomba group Aguacero, and one of the pioneers of the bomba movement in California.

Ayla Dávila – bass

Ayla Dávila grew up in a musical household and started playing music as soon as she could hold an instrument. As a child, she performed traditional Guatemalan and Mexican music, and studied percussion, guitar, and clarinet, but at 11 years old she found her voice on the bass. She began playing bass professionally at 14, and went on to earn a degree in Bass Performance and Film Scoring from Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA. Ayla plays with many different groups in a wide variety of musical styles.

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.