Wednesday August 24, 5-7:30pm will continue our music series held at El Cerrito Natural Grocery Company Prepared Food Annex (The Annex)  – “Neighborhood World Music Sessions at The Annex.”

Mbira dzaSoko: Salani and Friends celebrate Mbira Music from Zimbabwe

Celebrate mbira music with Mbira dzaSoko-led by Zimbabwean mbira player, Salani Wamkanganise and friends

Mbira dzaSoko performs celebratory and spiritual mbira music from Zimbabwe, led by mbira maker, musician and teacher, Salani Wamkanganise, along with his musical friends. The mbira is a sacred instrument created and played by the Shona people of Zimbabwe. It is made of metal keys attached to a wooden soundboard, and usually has bottle caps or shells which help create a buzzing sound along with the tones. Mbira music instantly draws people together. Mbira music blurs the lines between audience and musicians, excluding none. The music is celebratory-come and be transformed by the joy of Zimbabwe!

Salani Wamkanganise is a Zimbabwean mbira maker and player, teacher, and cultural ambassador, who now resides in the San Francisco Bay Area. After performing, recording and touring nationally and internationally, Wamkanganise moved to the San Francisco Bay Area, California, and continues to build mbira, teach, and perform. He has worked with The KTO Project, PIWAI, and heads the group Mbira dzaSoko with his solid bass singing and rhythmical mbira playing.

When asked about making mbira instruments, Salani stated in an interview: “The art of making the mbira instrument requires persistence for perfection, precision, attention to detail, mindfulness, a sense of beauty and commitment. There is a mixture of three trades in one, carpentry, metal fabrication, and a musical soul; thus, mbira making falls between art and engineering.”

We are proud to present this series in partnership with Modupue (Javier Navarrette) and SunJams.

Please note the next Neighborhood World Music Session will be held at The Annex, 10387 San Pablo Avenue on Wednesday, August 24, 2022 from 5:00-7:30pm.

Join us for an evening of Latin Jazz with Marco Diaz, Anthony Blea & Javier Navarrette at The Annex in El Cerrito next Wednesday, August 3rd from 5:00 – 7:30 p.m. Come and enjoy some great organic food, drinks, atmosphere and music!

We are proud to present this series in partnership with Modupue and SunJams.

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.

Join us for an evening of Son, Chachachá, Cumbia and much more, with Danilo y Grupo Universal at The Annex in El Cerrito next Wednesday, July 20th from 5:00 – 7:30 p.m. Come and enjoy some great organic food, drinks, atmosphere and music!

Wednesday July 20, 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.” We are proud to present this series in partnership with Modupue and SunJams.

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 in El Cerrito on July 6, 2022, 5-7:30pm
‘Sandunga, Madera y Cuero!’ Trio:

Javier Navarrette – percussion, vocal
Pedro Rosales – percussion , vocal
Hector Lugo -percussion, vocal

Rhythms from Cuba, Peru, Puerto Rico! Weaving between Festejo, Lando, Plena, Bomba, Son, Rumba y Orisha!

Pedro Rosales- Proyecto Lando director Pedro Rosales is a renowned cajon player celebrated for his fierce, energetic playing, his expressive vocal interpretations, his sensitivity as an accompanist, and his creative and prolific compositions.

Born in Lima, Peru, Pedro discovered his passion for the cajon at the age of fourteen, taking classes with maestro Ernesto Sandoval at the Museo de Arte de Lima. By 1989, he had joined folklorist Julio Casanovas’ Tradiciones Peruanas ensemble as a percussionist. In 1992, Pedro moved to San Francisco, where he co-founded the experimental ensemble Malambo Kombo with pianist Jorge Molina. In 1995, he co-founded De Rompe y Raja Cultural Association, who released four albums under his musical direction through 2013: “El Retorno” (2001), “Diaspora Negra” (2009), children’s album “Huaranguito” (2011) and Marina Lavalle’s “Sutil” (2010). In 2009, Pedro founded Proyecto Lando, releasing a number of original compositions in collaboration with arranger Felipe Pumarada, and performing extensively throughout Northern California.

Hector Lugo- Héctor Lugo is a percussionist, singer, song-writer, and educator. Born and raised in Puerto Rico, he moved to the San Francisco Bay Area in 1989 to pursue graduate studies in sociology and Latin American history at UC Berkeley. Shortly thereafter, he began to work with some of the top artists in the Bay Area’s Latin, Jazz, and Afro-Caribbean music scenes, dedicating himself to what has become a lifelong of study, performance and teaching of Latin-Caribbean music, history, and culture. Héctor has recorded with a wide range of artists and performed in venues across the United States and internationally with the likes of Louie Romero and Grupo Mazacote, Bobby Céspedes and Conjunto Céspedes, Modesto Cepeda and Cimiento de Puerto Rico, the late great Luis “Chichito” Cepeda, Jackeline Rago and the Venezuelan Music Project, Larry Vuckovich’s Jazz-Latin Quartet, the John Santos Sextet and The Machete Ensemble, Salsa legend Pete “El Conde” Rodriguez, Chuchito Valdés, Los Pleneros de la 21, Pellejo Seco, Rico Pabón, Román “Ito” Carrillo and “Herencia de los Carrillo,” and Haitian folkloric ensemble Afoutayi, among others. He 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 and Las Quenepas youth ensemble, and a founding member of the Afro-Puerto Rican bomba group Aguacero. His compositions and arrangements have been featured in the documentary film “Dolores,” about the life and work of the great labor organizer and feminist leader Dolores Huertas, and in the acclaimed compilation “Salsa de la Bahía,” vol. 2 (Patois Records, 2015). Héctor has been a teaching-artist with SFJAZZ Education since 2012, developing and implementing curricula that explores the connections between music, American history, and language arts. He is also an artist in residence at La Peña Cultural Center and faculty member at the Community Music Center and the Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts.

Javier Navarrette- is a percussionist/educator living in the Bay Area who has dedicated himself to the study and performance of music, specializing in Afro Caribbean rhythms. Javier has studied in Cuba with musicians from Folkloric Nacional de Cuba and has had the opportunity to perform with such greats as Aretha Franklin, Poncho Sanchez, Los Van Van, The “Conga Kings”: Francisco Aguabella, Carlos “Patáto” Valdez, Armando Peraza, Jon Faddis, Tootie Heath, Jerry Gonzalez, Trini Lopez, Nestor Torres, and Bobi Cespedes. Javier has recorded on 3 Grammy nominated albums with John Santos and the Machete Ensemble/ Folkloric Kindembo and continues to create and teach music in the San Francisco Bay Area. Javier leads his own group “ Javier Navarrette Socially Distant Friend” that include some of Bay Area most prolific musicians on the scene today. Javier is also the producer of ‘Modupue Sundays’ Music Events at the Brooklyn Basin, and also co producer of “ Neighborhood World Music Sessions at the Annex in El Cerrito

Presented by
Modupue Productions ( Javier Navarrette)
Music at Sunjams ( Amer Budayr )
The Annex (An Employee Owned Company)

#Nieghborhoodworldmusicsessions #bayarea #festejo #lando #originalmusic #livemusic #ELCERRITO #theannex #modupuesunday #javiernavarrette #sunjams #Cuba #puertorico #peru #BOMBA #plena #son #orisha #rumba

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.