On Wednesday, November 12, 2025, 6-8:30pm “The Annex Sessions” will continue our music series held at El Cerrito Natural Grocery Company Prepared Food Annex (The Annex) with

Son de Fandango

Members: Claudio Vega & Lolis García

Guest Member: Saúl Sierra

 

Son de Fandango

Grupo de música tradicional del sur de Veracruz, México.  Este grupo se formó en Richmond, California con Claudio Vega y Lolis García.  El Son Jarocho que interpretan es una mezcla del campo y la ciudad.  Su principal idea del proyecto es con nuestras bases invitar a músicos renombrados tradicionales del Son Jarocho y músicos de otros géneros con la finalidad de enriquecer esta música de fandango.

 

Son de Fandango

Traditional Music Group from Southern Veracruz, Mexico. This group was formed in Richmond, California by Claudio Vega and Lolis García. The Son Jarocho they perform is a blend of rural and urban music. Their main objective is to invite renowned traditional Son Jarocho musicians and musicians from other genres with the goal of enriching this fandango music.

https://actaonline.org/artist_roster_item/son-de-fandango/

~

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 5, 2025, 6-8:30pm will continue our music series held at El Cerrito Natural Grocery Company Prepared Food Annex (The Annex), 10387 San Pablo Avenue, El Cerrito, with

 

The Sampaguitas

Jenevieve Francisco — vocals

Cristina Ibarra —  vocals, ukelele

Aireene Espiritu — vocals, guitar

 

Based in the San Francisco Bay Area, The Sampaguitas sing Filipino folk songs and inspired originals in three-part harmony. Drawing influences from folk, blues, doo-wop girl groups, and the Filipinx-American diaspora, Jenevieve Francisco, Cristina Ibarra, and Aireene Espiritu share music from their roots and explore what it means to be in a “third culture” between worlds. The sampaguita is the national flower of the Philippines and only fitting to describe the sweet sounds coming from their melded vocal textures, tones, and tight harmonies.

 

East Bay Express, Cover Feature – October 10, 2023
https://eastbayexpress.com/between-worlds/

~

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” Wednesday, October 29, 2025, 6-8:30pm will continue our music series held at El Cerrito Natural Grocery Company Prepared Food Annex (The Annex)

 

Chris Trinidad Collective

 

Chris Trinidad — bass guitar, synth bass

Erika Oba — piano, melodica, flute

Kevin Amos — drum set

Kira Hooks — voice, percussion

Paride Pignotti — guitars

 

 

Filipino-Canadian and San Francisco Bay Area-based musician, teacher, and learner Chris Trinidad has fallen into the place where everything is music. Originally from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, his relationship with music grew through exploring various instruments beginning with the voice, then the piano, followed by the bass guitar, and finally the drum set with little detours in the world of percussion and forays with the guitar.  Chris’s formal education includes undergraduate training in Jazz Studies and Secondary Education, graduate study in the fields of Philosophy and Sociology of Music Education and Theological and Liturgical Studies, and doctoral work in Educational and Interdisciplinary Leadership.  His compositions take inspiration from jazz musicians such as Ralph Towner, Pat Metheny, Bill Evans, Jack DeJohnette, Brad Turner, Chris Gestrin, and Chris Tarry as well as disparate genres including Cuban Timba, Original Filipino Music, British Progressive Rock, and Gregorian Chant.  All of these seemingly disparate disciplines, inspirations, and interests help to inform the music that he makes. He has discerned that the core purpose of his music is to explore the intersections of his identity and upbringing, while combining these into musical conversations with his current experiences and curiosities.  He currently divides his time between creating music, developing high school students into compassionate human beings, and working on defeating his addiction to improvising excessively in the saddest of all keys … D minor.

 

https://linktr.ee/christrinidad

~

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.

On Wednesday, October 15, 2025, 6-8:30pm “The Annex Sessions” will continue our music series held at El Cerrito Natural Grocery Company Prepared Food Annex (The Annex) with

Javier Navarrette Presents “Modupue Wednesday” with
The Javier Navarrette Afro Latino Jazz Quintet

featuring

Hector Lugo – Percussion/ Vocals
Javier Navarrette – Percussion/ vocals
Bob Crawford – Piano
Julio De la Cruz – Bass
Raul Navarrette- Trombone
And Special Guests

 

Musician Bios

 

Héctor Lugo: Percussion/Vocals

Héctor Lugo is a percussionist, singer, songwriter, and educator. Born and raised in Puerto Rico, he moved to the San Francisco Bay Area in 1989 to pursue graduate studies in sociology at UC Berkeley. Shortly thereafter, he began to perform with some of the great bands and artists in the local Latin, Jazz, and Afro-Caribbean music scenes, dedicating himself to what would become the lifelong study and teaching of Latin American and Caribbean music, history, and culture.

Lugo has performed and recorded with a wide range of artists such as Bobby Céspedes and Conjunto Céspedes, Louie Romero and Grupo Mazacote, Modesto Cepeda and Cimiento the Puerto Rico, Luis “Chichito” Cepeda and the Los Cepeda Ensemble, Jackeline Rago and the Venezuelan Music Project, Larry Vuckovich, the John Santos Sextet, Salsa legend Pete “El Conde” Rodriguez, Los Pleneros de la 21, Cuban son ensemble Pellejo Seco, Chuchito Valdés, Mono Blanco, Edgardo Cambón y Candela, and Zimbabwean traditional dance troupe The Chinyakare Ensemble, to name a few.

Lugo is the founder and director of the Latin-Roots band La Mixta Criolla, producing its debut album AfroTaíno (RoundWhirled records, 2011), and a founding member of the bomba ensemble Grupo Aguacero. He has written music for two plays — “Living in Spanish” and “Burnt American Dreams” — and numerous children’s and youth performances. His compositions and arrangements have been featured in the documentary film “Dolores,” about the life of the great labor organizer and feminist leader Dolores Huerta, and the acclaimed compilation “Salsa de la Bahía,” vol. 2 (Patois Records, 2015).

Lugo has designed, managed, and implemented educational and cultural arts programs in collaboration with SFJAZZ, the San Francisco Symphony, Stern Grove Festival, Oakland Public Conservatory of Music, Oakland Youth Chorus, San Francisco Community Music Center, and the San Francisco, Berkeley, and Oakland Unified School Districts. He has also developed classes and workshops for children and youth at community centers such as La Peña Cultural Center, Mission Cultural Center, the San Francisco Boys and Girls Club, Youth Art Exchange, and Loco Bloco, among others. He is the founder and co-director of the Bay Area Bomba y Plena Workshop which since its creation in 2000 has promoted the appreciation, study, and performance of Puerto Rican folkloric music through regular classes and workshops, master classes with visiting artists, concerts, class recitals, and music festivals. He is the founder and co-director of Las Quenepas Youth Ensemble, dedicated to the study and performance of traditional Puerto Rican bomba and plena music and dance, and has coordinated and led study trips to Puerto Rico for groups of children and youth from the Bay Area.

Lugo has done extensive research on Latin American history, politics, and culture, with particular emphasis on the sociology and historical foundations of Latin-Caribbean music, literature, and culture. He has lectured at UC Berkeley, Stanford University, UC Santa Cruz, San Francisco State University, Mills College, City College of San Francisco, and Humboldt State University. Mr. Lugo has a B.A. in Sociology and Latin American Literature from Haverford College, an M.A. in Sociology from UC Berkeley with specializations in social theory and the political economy, history, and culture of Latin America, and has done extensive Ph.D. level coursework and research as a Ph.D. candidate at the University of California at Berkeley’s Sociology Department. In his spare time, he likes to read, cook, work with wood, and travel.

 

Javier Navarrette: Percussion

Javier Navarrette has had the honor to perform with such greats as Poncho Sanchez, Los Van Van, the “Conga Kings” (Francisco Aguabella, Carlos “Patáto” Valdez, Armando Peraza and Milton Cardona), as well as with Jon Faddis, Jerry Gonzalez, Trini Lopez, Nestor Torres, Jimmy Heath, and Bobi Cespedes. In addition, Javier has had the privilege of recording with world-renowned artists Giovanni Hidalgo,Anthony Carillo, Sandy Perez, Jimmy Bosch, José Fajardo, Orestes Vilató, Carlos Del Puerto, Dafnis Prieto, Pedrito Martinez and Andy Gonzalez. He also recorded on three Grammy nominated albums with John Santos’ Machete Ensemble and El Coro Folklorico Kindembo.

More recently, Javier has had the honor to perform on stage with Jerry Gonzalez, at the John Santos Concert, “Not In Our Name” at the Brava Theater in San Francisco. He has also had the opportunity to be a guest musician for the Stanford University Big Band.

Javier is frequently involved in a myriad of projects such as the featured artist in “Proyecto de Congueros” at Yoshis Jazz Club in San Franciso, and organizing Bomba y Plena workshops and performances with Los Pleneros de La 21, Aguacero, and La Mixta Criolla as part of the “Caminos de Mi Cultura” series at the Brava Theater in San Francisco.

Javier’s musical ventures have included touring with Los Mocosos, Bobi Cespedes, Josh Jones’ Latin Jazz Ensemble, Hector Lugo and Cacique y Congo, to name a few. Javier is currently a percussionist with Jesus Díaz y su QBA, Anthony Blea y Su Charanga, Carne Cruda, La Mission Band, Hector Lugo and La Mixta Criolla, The Cuban Cowboys and Los Mocosos. Javier is currently working on a new project, Machina Sol, along with three other San Francisco Bay Area artists. Javier continues to create new musical ideas, in order to expand his musical knowledge. He also enjoys teaching music to the next generation.

 

Bob Crawford: Piano

Bob Crawford was born in Long Beach California, and raised in the Bay Area with his 12 brothers and sisters.  He started playing in bands with his saxophone playing twin brother during their college years.  After graduating, Bob gained experience in various Bay Area ensembles, playing jazz, funk, Latin and Brazilian music.  In 2001 he was offered the keyboard chair in Michael Franti’s band Spearhead.  Bob logged multiple tours throughout the United States, Australia, Canada, Europe and Japan.  Bob also recorded on several of Spearhead’s albums and appeared on a number of international TV programs with the band.  Also with Spearhead, Bob found himself performing with a who’s who of international stars (who had a habit of sitting in with the band), including Tre Anastasio, Chuck D,  Ani DiFranco, Jack Johnson, Robert Randolph, Woody Harrleson,  as well as members of Ozomatli, Zap Mama, and Galactic.
Bob took time off from extensive touring to spend time with his family, and to pursue his own musical vision.  Now residing in the East Bay, Bob continues to perform and record with a variety of artists.   He’s performed and /or recorded with  Pete Escovedo, John Santos, Sheila E., Taj Mahal, Ray Obeido, Fito Reinoso y su Ritmo y Armonia,  Mazacote, Los Angelitos, Wild Mango, Boca De Rio, Greg Errico (Sly and the Family Stone), Lee Oskar (War), Lenny Williams  and Mic Gillette (Tower of Power), Pedrito Calvo and Yeni Valdes(Los Van Van) Richard Bean (Malo), Jorge Santana, The New York Gypsy Allstars, as well as members of El Chicano, Santana, Tierra, Big Brother and the Holding Company,  and many more.
Bob has served as the musical director for the Latin Kings All Star band, which features members from Tower of Power, Malo, and The Whispers.  He has worked with the Alayo Dance Company and the Stagebridge Theatre Group.  He has also worked for two years with the San Francisco Symphony’s “Adventures in Music” program,  bringing music to every public elementary school in San Francisco.   He teaches jazz ensembles and piano at Marin Country Day School and EPACenter in East Palo Alto.  Bob also leads his own piano trio, and  is founding member of the Latin jazz-funk band Machina Sol.

 

Julio De la Cruz: Bass

Julio De la Cruz was born and raised in Havana, Cuba. In 1980 at the age of 12, he first began his studies as a musician, specializing in percussion instruments while simultaneously studying music theory and composition.

From 1987 to 1992, Julio participated in several projects and festivals in Havana and other provinces in Cuba. In 1992 left Cuba to perform on tour with the Puerto Rican Singer José Feliciano as part of the released production: “Calle Latina.”

From 1993 to 2009, Julio moved to Mexico, where he lived and worked accompanying Celio Sanchez, one of the famous Sonora matancera singers, along with Salsa Queen Celia Cruz. Then moved to Los Cabos ( also in Mexico), where he became part of the house band rocker Sammy Hagar’s club Cabo Wabo and accompanied American guest performers such as Toby Keith and Sammy Hagar himself, among others.

During this time in Mexico, Julio continued to perfect his skills as a percussionist but also taught himself to play the Piano and Bass, making him a multi-instrumentalist performer. In 2009, Julio moved to The United States, joining many bands in the San Francisco Bay area in California.

 

Raul Navarrette: Trombone

Originally from Fresno, California, Raul Navarrette started playing trombone at the age of 9, and has been working as a New York City musician for the last 25 years. He has shared the stage with a wide range of artists exploring an array of genres along with artists from around the world in a variety of musical settings, locally and nationally.

Having received his master’s degree at The Aaron Copeland School of Music, at City University of New York’s Queens College in Flushing, NY, Raul has also devoted part of his professional career to being an active participant in the educational field as teacher, private instructor, invited guest speaker for schools in classrooms for young and old students on both the west and east coasts of the USA.

Raul works in the areas of Classical music, jazz, salsa, Broadway/theatre/musicals recordings and as a solo artist and he chooses to utilize top quality equipment for his line of work. In virtually any field required, Raul Navarrette’s extensive background of performing arts programs and involvement as both student and teacher have given way to emboldening his perspective that the importance of arts and the humanities is the true meaning of what’s most important to the growth of the individual. Raul is currently working on a solo latin jazz project currently of his own compositions, he looks to feature musicians from both California and New York.

~

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.

On Wednesday, October 8, 2025, 6-8:30pm “The Annex Sessions” will continue our music series held at El Cerrito Natural Grocery Company Prepared Food Annex (The Annex) with

Rolf Johnson & Friends

Rolf Johnson – Trumpet and composer

Lincoln Adler – Saxophone

Greg Sankovich – Keys

Karl Hartmann – Bass

Bob Blankenship – Drums

 

Trumpeter and composer Rolf Johnson will be joined by a group of the Bay Area’s finest musicians to perform Rolf’s own compositions as well as a selection of Jazz standards and Brazilian classics.  The musicians will include Lincoln Adler on saxophone, Greg Sankovich on keys, Karl Hartmann on bass, and Bob Blankenship on drums.

 

Musician Bios

Rolf Johnson

When Rolf Johnson arrived in the Bay Area in 1974 he began playing trumpet in Salsa de Berkeley and co-leading a contemporary jazz group called Child’s Fancy with drummer Craig Oakley.  Since then he has continued to be active in the Bay Area’s Jazz an Latin jazz scenes, as well as playing Salsa and Brazilian music. The bands he has recorded with, both as a trumpeter/flügelhornist and composer/arranger include Child’s Fancy, John Birdsong’s Kaleidophone Ensemble, Kombo Kwela, the Connel-Purves Group, Captain Tonic, Marimba Pacifica, the Amandla Poets, Samba do Coracao, Sonora USA, the Yellow House Orchestra, Funk Dub Division, the Riff Rats, Jay Johnson’s Orchestra Deluxe, Jeff Sanford’s Cartoon Jazz Band, the Contemporary Jazz Orchestra, the New Oakland Jazz Orchestra, and the Mike Vax Jazz Orchestra. Rolf’s Latin compositions and arrangements have been recorded by the USAF Band of the Golden West, Javier Cabanillas’ Cabanijazz Project, and the Pacific Mambo Orchestra. His big band arrangements have been recorded by groups such as the DVC Night Band,  the Reno Jazz Orchestra, and Orquestra do Jazz de Algarve in Portugal.

 

 

Lincoln Adler

SF Bay Area based saxophonist, producer and composer Lincoln Adler can be heard on tracks by Katy Perry, Killy, Funkadelic, Gift of Gab, Zion I, K.D. Lang, The Jets and Olivia Newton John as well as performing with Jeff Goldblum, Taj Mahal and his own band, Times 4. As a producer/songwriter he’s had songs on the charts in the U.S. and U. K., and as a composer, his music is included in movies, national TV commercials, industrials and on numerous albums. His boutique production company – Groove Tonic Media– helps talented artists realize their creative artistic recording potential. He’s profoundly interested in all aspects of creativity, in what makes us tick as both individuals and as artists, and in how to lead a life of success and happiness in the modern world.

 

 

Greg Sankovich

Greg Sankovich has been performing on keyboards and producing music professionally since he was 12 years old. He currently enjoys a wide variety of freelance musical performance, recording, production and education projects.

 

His performance experience includes feature dates at the JVC Jazz Festival, SF Jazz, Russian River Jazz Festival, Koseinenkin and NHK Halls in Tokyo, Blue Note, Birdland NYC, Ronnie Scott’s, Yoshi’s, Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society, Mountain Winery, Blues Alley DC, Freight and Salvage…

 

 

Karl Hartmann

Karl Hartmann is a SF Bay Area based bassist proficient in both double and electric basses and comfortable in a wide variety of music styles. With 35 years of performance under his belt Karl finds his joy in making music with others but mostly in Jazz and the Classical worlds. In Jazz Karl has worked around the Bay Area from duets to big bands and has performed and/or recorded with; Phil Woods, Bob Brookmeyer, Louie Belson, Bob Mintzer, Grant Geiser, Toshiko Akyoshi, Clark Terry, Craig Handy, Gerald Wilson and many others local and global. Karl studied at Cal State Hayward but cites the bandstand as the greatest teacher one can have, the harshest and best lessons come from being in the moment regardless of type of music or situation.

 

 

Bob Blankenship

Bob Blankenship is a busy Bay Area drummer who is fluent in a wide variety of styles.  In addition to playing with Bay Area luminaries such as Smith Dobson and Marcos Silva, he has played with John Handy, Eartha Kitt and Bill Watrous.

 

~

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.

On Wednesday, October 1, 2025, 6-8:30pm “The Annex Sessions” will continue our music series held at El Cerrito Natural Grocery Company Prepared Food Annex (The Annex) with

Shirley Kazuyo Muramoto & Brian Mitsuhiro Wong

Shirley Kazuyo Muramoto – Koto, Japanese Zither

Brian Mitsuhiro Wong – Koto and Shakahachi, Japanese Zither and Bamboo Flute

 

Come discover traditional instruments of Japan! Shirley and her son, Brian, will play koto and shakuhachi, Japanese zither and bamboo flute.  They play a range of traditional Japanese pieces to jazz on these instruments.

 

Shirley Kazuyo Muramoto – Koto musician, teacher, band leader, filmmaker, event producer

Shirley Kazuyo Muramoto, is a teacher and performer on the Japanese koto. Shirley received her Shihan with honors and DaiShihan master koto credentials from the Chikushi Kai in Fukuoka, Japan. She has expanded the repertoire of traditional koto music through her jazz fusion group, the Murasaki Ensemble, collaborating, arranging and composing music for the koto in various styles and genres. Shirley has collaborated with many artists and performed with amazing musicians, and performed for celebrity notables starting from childhood with her mother, and later in her own presentations for over 60 years.  Shirley researched Japanese traditional performance arts in the World War II concentration camps, inspired by her mother’s experience learning to play the koto from koto teachers at Topaz and Tule Lake camps.  In 2012, her project was awarded a National Park Service, Japanese American Confinement Sites grant to turn her decades-long research into a documentary film.  Hidden Legacy: Japanese Traditional Performance Arts in the World War II Internment Camps premiered in 2014 and aired on public TV and PBS stations in the U.S. and universities here and in Japan. She was awarded the Bunka Hall of Fame (Japanese cultural arts) in 2012, and in 2021 curated a program of Japanese koto music with the SF Symphony for their virtual CURRENTS series. Shirley is a recipient of the Taproot Fellowship 2024, supported by the Mellon Foundation and Alliance for California Traditional Arts. For the past three years and ongoing she leads the module “WWII Japanese American incarceration” with the Golden State of Song teaching 4^th graders about this history through music of that time, administered by the Freight and Salvage education program.

Brian Mitsuhiro Wong, an American of Japanese and Chinese heritage, carries on the musical family koto tradition that he inherited from his mother and grandmother.  Brian’s grandmother learned the koto as a little girl in the WWII American concentration camps at Topaz, Utah and Tule Lake, California.  Brian’s mother, Shirley Kazuyo Muramoto, started teaching him the koto when he was four years old.

In the tenth grade, Brian experienced the most important musical influence of his young life: a concert performed by Kazue Sawai in San Francisco. When the performance started, Madame Sawai turned out to be everything but conventional.

He was fortunate to meet Madame Kazue Sensei after the concert and she invited Brian to come to Japan to study the koto with her at the Sawai Conservatory in Tokyo. Brian became an ‘uchi-deshi’, a live-in student. Brian has also studied jiuta shamisen while he was studying there. He achieved the Koshi “instructor’s” certification in 2005 and was awarded Grand Prix distinction.

From 5^th grade through college, Brian also studied the saxophone under Steve Parker and Dan Zinn.  Brian played jazz in the Oaktown Jazz Workshop with mentors Khalil Shaheed and Ravi Abcarian. In college, he traveled to Europe with the Cal State University East Bay (CSUEB) at Hayward Jazz Ensemble directed by Professor Dave Eshelman.  He performed Toshiko Akiyoshi’s composition, “Kogun”, on the koto as a soloist with the jazz ensemble at the Umbria Jazz Festival in Italy and the Montreaux Jazz Festival in Switzerland.

During this time, Brian also started learning the shakuhachi (bamboo flute) from Robin Hartshorne, and continued training with Shigeo Tachibana, Kanow Matsueda and Kaoru Kakizakai.  In 2007, Brian attained his B.A. in music composition from Cal State University East Bay. After college, he decided to focus on Japanese music.  He has been performing in festivals, events and concerts around the San Francisco Bay Area and Los Angeles, and helps his mother with performances and workshops.  Shirley Kazuyo Muramoto Brian produced a CD album together, “Oyako Don Koto” (“Parent and Child Koto Music”).  He has enjoyed recent collaborations with Nakamura Gankyo which had Brian performing in nagauta style music on shamisen, vocal and koto.  Brian was a finalist in the prestigious Kenjun Koto Competition in Kurume, Japan in 2019.  He provided koto, shamisen and shakuhachi music for the video game “Call of Duty II: Modern Warfare”, for the Michelin-starred restaurant Omakase Restaurant Sushi Battle with Chef Jackson Yu, and the San Jose anime convention Crunchy Roll.

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” will continue our music series held at El Cerrito Natural Grocery Company Prepared Food Annex (The Annex) on Wednesday, September 24, 2025, 6-8:30pm with

 

Key Elements Latin Jazz Ensemble

 

Inés Vargas Fraenkel – Peruvian singer/percussionist

Patricia Thumas – keyboards

Cynthia Mah – saxophone/flute

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 and Peruvian Singer/Percussionist, Inés Vargas Fraenkel, who together 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!

 

Inés Vargas Fraenkel

Inés was born in Peru of Peruvian-Chinese descent. She has lived in the Bay Area since her family immigrated to the US. She is now retired from being an attorney for the cities of Oakland and San Francisco.

Latin music and dance have been her passions. She is a percussionist and vocalist. She plays bongos and hand percussion, and has been a vocalist of Latin and salsa tunes for over 15 years. She has performed with a number of Bay Area bands, some of them, all-women bands. She now performs with Key Elements Latin Jazz Ensemble.

 

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.

 

Cynthia Mah

Cynthia Mah is a native Bay Area multi-instrumentalist who got an early start in music taking piano lessons from her mother’s lap and classes at the East Bay Center for Performing Arts.  Playing music for the pure joy of it, she has performed at Yoshi’s, the Freight & Salvage, SF Jazz, the California Jazz Conservatory, the National Women’s Music Festival and Ashkenaz in genres as diverse as big band jazz, R&B, Funk, harmonica ensemble, body music, Brazilian choro and Latin jazz.  Cynthia is currently a member of several bands including small jazz combos, the UC Alumni Big Band, Tin Sandwich, Melba’s Kitchen (all woman tribute big band honoring the music of Melba Liston and Mary Lou Williams) and Key Elements Latin Jazz Ensemble.

 

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.

On Wednesday, September 17, 2025, 6-8:30pm “The Annex Sessions” will continue our music series held at El Cerrito Natural Grocery Company Prepared Food Annex (The Annex) with

Lars and In Charge
Lars Tergis – violin
Joe Rosato Jr. – upright bass
Benezra Tergis – keys
Gregory Masaki Jenkins – clarinet
Faisal Zedan – percussion

 

LARS AND IN CHARGE performs high-energy original and traditional music of Turkey, Greece and beyond. Lars Tergis leads the charge on violin with driving, gritty interpretations of traditional party tunes as well as original compositions based in regional scales and rhythms. Joined on stage by dancer Nicole Maria, Lars and In Charge brings a big sound and an even bigger party!

https://www.facebook.com/LarsAndInChargeBand

 

Nicole Maria Dance

Nicole Maria is a multi-award-winning dancer based out of the San Francisco Bay Area. She has been studying and performing contemporary and traditional forms of Arabic dance for over a decade. In 2019, she was a featured soloist in the prestigious San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival. As one of the most in-demand professional belly dancers in the Bay Area, Nicole Maria has entertained at countless events in the region and around the world. She performs regularly at weddings, birthdays, special occasions, cultural events, and in restaurants and nightclubs. She is known for being an engaging and charismatic entertainer, for elevating the level of the art form, and for her elegance and grace as a dancer.

www.nicolemariadance.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 will continue Wednesday, September 10, 2025, 6-8:30pm at The Annex (El Cerrito Natural Grocery Company Prepared Food Annex) 10387 San Pablo Avenue, El Cerrito with

 

“The Hogan Brothers”

Jazz Funk Fusion

 

Steve Hogan – Electric Bass

Colin Hogan – Keys

Julian Hogan – Drums

 

East Bay natives “The Hogan Brothers” play an exciting blend of Jazz Fusion informed both by their musical upbringing in the culturally-rich SF Bay Area and their extensive world travels, studying with master musicians all around the globe. The sibling trio has collectively performed on five continents and are now pleased to be bringing their unique sound back to El Cerrito, full circle – the city in which they all attended elementary school.

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.