Wednesday August 3, 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.”
Latin Jazz Trio w:
Marco Diaz – piano
Anthony Blea – violin
Javier Navarrette – percussion
-Marco 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 with 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, VL Trio, and his own group.
Marco Diaz has been part of the faculty at the Community Music Center (CMC) in San Francisco and 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. Marco had the honor of playing at the opening of the National Museum of African American History and Culture with Bobi Céspedes.
Marco is currently a teaching artist with SFJazz and has released his second self produced album, Insight.
-Anthony Blea began studying the violin at age 8 and was awarded a full scholarship to attend the San Francisco Conservatory of Music at age 11. While a student in Joan Murray’s Aptos Jr. High Orchestra, Anthony discovered the joy of playing chamber music, as well as having solo experience with an orchestra.
Upon completion of his preparatory music studies, Anthony traveled to New York City to continue his musical and academic enrichment at the Manhattan School of Music where he received his Bachelor’s degree. His formidable skill on the violin landed him work with many international legends such as Israel “Cachao” Lopez, Ray Charles, Boz Scaggs and Leonard Bernstein to name a few. Most notably Anthony has played with the San Francisco Opera Orchestra. Anthony’s 8-piece salsa band has been in existence for ten years and their debut CD has enjoyed critical acclaim. Anthony received his Master’s degree from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, concentrating on String Quartet.
Javier Navarrette is a professional percussionist, musician, composer, arranger and educator living in Oakland, California, specializing in Afro-Caribbean music. Javier’s performance and recording career spans over three decades.
Amongst the many greats he has played with are: Poncho Sanchez; Los Van Van; the Conga Kings: Francisco Aguabella, Carlos “Patáto” Valdez, and Milton Cardona; as well as with jazz legends such as Jon Faddis; Tootie Heath; Jerry Gonzalez; Trini Lopez; and Nestor Torres.
He had the honor to perform with the late Aretha Franklin at the Oakland Coliseum in her last concert tour. He toured with Linda Tillery and the Cultural Heritage Choir, and Bobi Céspedes, as well as performed with popular groups such as Ozomatli, and Los Mocosos. Javier has recorded on three Grammy-nominated albums with John Santos and the Machete Ensemble/Folklorico Kindembo.
Javier studied with masters in Cuba such as Miguel Angá Díaz; Jose Luis “Changuito” Quintana; Folklorico Nacional de Cuba; and with Bay Area masters John Santos; Michael Spiro; and Jesús Díaz. In 2022, Javier received the artist scholarship award with Plaza Cuba Travels to study music at La Escuela Nacional de Arte in Habana, Cuba.
He teaches music in public/private schools and in adult workshops. For the past 10 years, Javier has been teaching with Living Jazz Children’s Music Project in the Oakland public schools and at the summer Jam Camp for Children.
Javier produces Modúpue Sundays with Arts at the Basin, Rocky’s Market, Brooklyn Basin, Oakland, and the Neighborhood Sessions at The Annex in El Cerrito, both musical events presenting the Bay Area’s legendary musicians in the Afro-Latin music Scene.
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.
