Wednesday June 15, 5-7:30pm we will continue our music series held at El Cerrito Natural Grocery Company Prepared Food Annex (The Annex) on first and third Wednesdays – “Neighborhood World Music Sessions at The Annex.”

The Natural Grocery Company is proud to present this series in partnership with Modupue (Javier Navarrette) and Sunjams (Amer Budayr).

Javier Navarrette’s Modúpue 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 2 years Navarrette has produced outdoors events that have proven instumental in enabling musicians to deal with some of the fallout of the pandemic and shutdown that followed. Most recently he has been curating “Modúpue Sundays at the Brooklyn Basin.” These musical productions ran from June–November 2021 at the new Oakland hot spot, the Brooklyn Basin, with internationally known, Bay Area musical legends.

SunJams is committed to funding children’s music education in underserved public elementary schools. Your donation will help support this ongoing program.

In addition, we need to raise funds to continue bringing you this exciting new live music 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 our 501(c)3 may qualify as tax exempt.

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.

Wednesday June 1, 5-7:30pm will continue our music series held at El Cerrito Natural Grocery Company Prepared Food Annex (The Annex) on first and third Wednesdays – “Neighborhood World Music Sessions at The Annex.” This show features Lars Tergis, Gopal Slavonic and Faisal Zedan. Weaving music form the Balkans, Spain, and the Middle East, this trio features gifted musicians, each with his own mix of cultures and influences, bringing us music from so many parts of Europe and beyond.

Lars Tergis- violin, oud, vocals

Gopal Slavonic – Flamenco guitar

Faisal Zedan – Arabic percussion

Lars Tergis was born and raised in San Francisco and started playing violin at 6 years old, learning the Suzuki method and playing Scottish fiddle. His family all went to Scottish fiddle camp and Lark in the Morning world music and dance camp where he first got into Balkan, Turkish, Arabic and Roma music. He played at the Renaissance Faire with the legendary santoor player Darioush Sami and many incredible dancers before traveling to Istanbul for a total of three years. There he found his wonderful teacher Husnu Tuzsuz, a Turkish Roman (Gypsy) violinist from the Ghazi Osman Pasha neighborhood in Istanbul, and Selim Sesler, a Turkish Roman clarinetist from Keşan in Northwestern Turkey. Lars now plays traditional and original Balkan and Middle Eastern music with his band Lars and in Charge, collaborating with some of the finest musicians and dancers in the Bay Area.

Gopal Slavonic trained at the prestigious ‘Fundacion de Arte Flamenco Cristina Heeren’ in Sevilla, Spain where he studied intensively with leading flamenco guitarists Miguel Angel Cortez, Jose Postigo, Antonio Carmona, Eduardo Rollabar, Tino Van Der Sman, and Joselito Galvez.

In his 29 years of dedication to flamenco guitar, Gopal Slavonic has returned to Spain to further his studies several times, most frequently to Jerez de la Frontera. Gopal Slavonic has performed with flamenco artists including Kina Mendez, Cerro Negro, La Fibi, Mark Taylor, Melissa Cruz, La Carola, Roberto Zamora, Pilar Moreno, Zahara, and Jose Galvez.

In 2008, Gopal Slavonic released his second CD ‘Dos Orillas’ and is the featured guitarist for Northern California’s Flamenco del Oro. Gopal was the featured guitarist in ‘Zahara Flamenco Al Andaluz’ at The Cowell Theater in San Francisco in 2010. Gopal currently lives in Oakland, California regularly performing and teaching flamenco guitar.

Faisal Zedan was born in Lebanon and raised in Syria.

An Arabic percussionist dedicated to preserving and teaching Arabic music and drumming, he has been teaching and performing Arabic and Middle Eastern music since 1991.

Faisal performs many Arabic music genres with focus on classical music and belly dance. In addition to Arabic and Middle Eastern music, Faisal performs Greek, Balkan and Eastern European music genres. Faisal teaches private lessons, workshops, seminars and music camps in the U.S. and abroad.

He has performed and correlated with many local and international artists both locally and throughout the United States.

We are proud to present this series in partnership with Modupue (Javier Navarrette), with support from the El Cerrito Natural Grocery Company. We thank BAY AREA NEUROINTENSIVISTS ( Dr. Moussa Yazbeck) for their generous unrestricted grant to support this series.

Javier Navarrette’s Modúpue 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 2 years Navarrette has produced outdoors events that have proven instumental in enabling musicians to deal with some of the fallout of the pandemic and shutdown that followed. Most recently he has been curating “Modúpue Sundays at the Brooklyn Basin.” These musical productions ran from June–November 2021 at the new Oakland hot spot, the Brooklyn Basin, with internationally known, Bay Area musical legends.

SunJams is committed to funding children’s music education in underserved public elementary schools. Your donation will help support this ongoing program.

In addition, we need to raise funds to continue bringing you this exciting new live music 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 our 501(c)3 may qualify as tax exempt.

COVID RELATED SAFETY MEASURES

Please be safe. Feel free to wear a mask if you prefer.

TICKETS

Tickets are encouraged, we are happy to offer you a reserved seat (limited seating available) if you RSVP with a donation that will go towards paying for the music. Tickets are NOT required for this venue, you can simply come in, order food and beverages at the Annex counter.

Neighborhood World Music Sessions at The Annex

10387 San Pablo Avenue, El Cerrito

Session #4

May 18, 2022 at 5-7:30pm

Bob Crawford Latin Jazz Quartet:

Bob Crawford- keys

David Pinto- bass

Colin Douglas- drums

Javier Navarrette , percussion

Weaving between Cuban, Brazilian, Peruvian and Jazz, virtuosity and creativity.

Presented by

Modupue Productions ( Javier Navarrette Music)

Music at Sunjams ( Amer Budayr)

The Annex (The Natural Grocery Company )

The Natural Grocery Company is featured in a new video sponsored by The Independent Natural Foods Retailer Association. We will be premiering it in The Annex, 10387 San Pablo Avenue, El Cerrito at 6:00pm. Bob will be there to say a few words, we’ll have sparkling beverages available, food and live music from The George Cole String Band from 5:30pm-7:30pm. Come early for the music and stay after the video presentation for more music, more food, more drinks and gather with community.

SunJams is partnering with us to provide the music for the evening. Please consider making a donation towards their mission to provide music education in our schools.

For this event in The Annex Dining Room we are requiring proof of vaccination or a negative Covid Test to attend. All individuals must wear face masks while inside the Annex except when actively eating or drinking.

The video will be published on our social media for those who cannot attend the event; after the premiere.

Join us for live music, order a glass of wine and a pizza, get an early start on the weekend, support music education in schools!

For over a thirty years Fito Reinoso has made the Bay Area his home and is the only Cuban born based sonero in the area performing a variety of styles, from the most recent urban Havana grooves to “timba” to the classic son and cha-cha-cha, all with a voice reminiscent of the late and beloved legendary Cuban singer, Beny Moré. His dynamic personality and showmanship has led him to collaborate with some of the top musicians who reside in Cuba and the United States. Most recently, he has been in the studio recording his fourth album, featuring special guests such as Kina Mendez (Gitana Master Vocalist from Spain), Mayquel Gonzalez (Cuban Trumpet player with Mezcla and Irakere), Grammy-Nominated Cuban Bay Area vocalist Jose Luis Gomez, as well as showcasing young Bay Area talent including Patricio Angulo (timbal), Colin Douglas (traps), Matt Lucas (congas), Sam Bevan (bass), and Bob Crawford (piano).

Fito Reinoso relocated to the Miami, FL area after the start of the pandemic. He is in the Bay Area for a short visit, and we are thrilled to be able to share this event with the community.

ABOUT SUNJAMS FOUNDATION

COVID RELATED SAFETY MEASURES

For each person eating or drinking inside this business, please provide:

– Proof of full vaccination against COVID-19

OR

– A negative COVID-19 test result from the past 3 days

– Photo ID

Face coverings are required indoors unless actively eating or drinking.

We are having some live music at The Annex on Friday, October 29, 2021  from 4:00pm-6:30pm!