|
Amanda's Feel Good Fresh Food
Sunday, August 30
Anna's Jazz Island
Friday, August 28
Premier jazz critic Nat Hentoff described Anna and her music when he wrote the liner notes for her recent album with the great Kenny Barron: "A rather rare phenomenon in jazz, she is a club owner [Anna's Jazz Island] who, to say the least, identifies with the musicians. Her sound and phrasing are so intimately evocative that her music will stay in your mind. ... But it's the soul thrust of blues and gospel that fuels the spirit in her voice; and the blues and gospel, after all, are at the core of the jazz that endures." Yes. Tonight, Anna sings from the Great Soulful American Songbook. She is joined by the stellar Shota Osabe on piano, Ruth Davies on bass, Dave Rokeach on drums. 
Berkeley Farmer's Market
Saturday, August 29
Whether their name refers to the rarity of their appearances or the celebratory nature of their shows, one thing's for sure: an Aux Cajunal performance is always an invitation to good times! Two true veterans of American roots music, Eric and Suzy Thompson, regale us with old-time Cajun and Creole dance music with heart, soul, and gusto. Eric and Suzy always offer a deep, rich repertoire, including material both contemporary and archaic, spanning selections from Suzy's collection of super-rare 78s and material learned directly from Cajun and Creole master musicians like Dewey Balfa, Danny Poullard, and Dennis McGee.
Freight & Salvage Coffeehouse
Sunday, August 30
We ask you, what Freight opening weekend would be complete without a pull-out-all-the-stops, raise-the-roof Bluegrass Blowout? Tonight's show promises to set faces to grinning and toes to tapping, when a fabulous lineup of stars from the East Bay bluegrass/roots music constellation—Laurie Lewis & the Right Hands, Bluegrass Intentions, the Kathy Kallick Band, High Country, Jim Nunally & Keith Little—converges for a super-hot jam session and celebration of the multiplicity of talent that is part of the Freight's hometown community.
Bobby G's Pizzeria
Friday, August 28
Old school in a new way; blues, soul, R&B, jazz . . . the music that moves you, all performed in a blue state.
Bobby G's Pizzeria
Thursday, August 27
Charles Wheal & his band play some of the highest quality traditional blues and roots music on the scene today. In his live performances as well as his recordings, the authentic arrangements are delivered by veteran performers, with passion and flawless musicianship.
the Jazzschool
Sunday, August 30
New Orleans native Michelle Jacques is on a lifelong journey to keep Creole history, language and culture alive. Come join her in this celebration of the people of New Orleans and their remarkable music! Featuring Michelle Jacques, vocals and percussion; Rhonda Crane, vocals; Bryan Dyer, vocals and percussion; Donna Viscuso, woodwinds; Sam Bevan, bass; and Adam Goodhue, drums.
Freight & Salvage Coffeehouse
Friday, August 22
You're invited for an afternoon of workshops, live performances, group and family activities, tours of the New Home, and more! Bring your friends; bring your family – come on over and join the celebration as we open the doors to our New Home in the heart of downtown Berkeley.
Tapioca Express
Thursday, August 27
Jupiter
Saturday, August 29
CV Dub is an all instrumental mash-up of classic Jamaican dub grooves, psychedelic guitar, and beautiful jazz-improv. Clyde Sutliff (Dogslyde) leads the ensemble on trumpet and melodica, who's excursions-on-the-version are accompanied by old friends E. Blake Davis (Papa's Culture, Opal Book Club) on guitar/pedal board/loops/fx, Harley White Jr. (Seventy, Papa's Culture) on bass, and Eddie Sassin (Undercover SKA) on drums/percussion.
Freight & Salvage Coffeehouse
Friday, August 28
Tonight the David Grisman Quintet helps put a shine on the Freight's beautiful new listening room with virtuoso musicianship and plentiful good vibes. In a concert that highlights the expansive potential of traditional music, the marvelous mandolin innovator and his quintet follow an opening set by wild originals, Greg Liszt & the Deadly Gentlemen.
Jupiter
Saturday, August 29
Brooklyn-based Dawn Drake is a multi-instrumentalist and singer who writes eloquent yet accessible music for the groove-loving listener and dancer. An active musician in New York City's African, Brazilian and Latin music scene, she is known as an electric bassplayer and percussionist, and most recently, a singer-songwriter, composer and bandleader. She offers a lot to the stage with her inspired lyrics and her ability to combine all of the elements from her eclectic palate of musical experiences. "Dawn Drake and her band ZapOte are at the beginnings of a fascinating journey to enthusiastically bridge chasms of cultural and gender disconnect that plagues so much of pop music's body politic. To hear them is to imagine early period jam sessions between Laura Nyro and Carole King with Sly Stone and Sergio Mendes sitting in. Theirs is a playfully intense dynamic that needs to be seen more." -Darrell McNeill, Brooklyn Academy of Music.
The Other Change of Hobbit free
Jupiter
Thursday, August 27
Jup-booker and DJ-ace DJ Delon opens it up on a night of electronic and organic soul, blending varying styles from downtempo, nu-jazz, drum&bass, all with a shiny sheen of funk on it . . . always a tasty musical stew that'll go perfect with your pint.
Jupiter
Friday, August 22
Two seminal artists in the DJ/Electronic realm that have sent shock waves locally as well as internationally, both DJ fflood and vocalist Audio Angel have a long track record of bringing the goods. The Jamaican-born Mr. fflood has long been submerged in a multitude of music and art scenes, from the dancehall street dance, to junglist, house and rave culture, to dubbed out glitch hop & soulful lounge 
Anna's Jazz Island
Saturday, August 28
Presenting the Great American Songbook at its most wonderful! This is classic vocal jazz steeped in the tradition of Johnny Hartman. Ed has recently appeared with Marian McPartland on her NPR show and at the Jazz Standard in NYC and at Yoshi's with Ernestine Anderson. Tonight, Ed is accompanied by the Larry Dunlap Quartet. What a few jazz treasures have to say about Ed Reed: "A great new voice... he really swings!" - Tootie Heath.... AND "Where have you been hiding, Ed Reed? The entire jazz world needs to hear you!" - Sheila Jordan.... AND "So swingin', so genuine; he's something else!" - Dena Derose.... AND "A brilliant idiosyncratic song stylist who turns each piece into an emotionally taut tale." - Andrew Gilbert
Half Price Books
Friday, August 28
Freight & Salvage Coffeehouse
Thursday, August 29
Dig out your party hats, folks: it's time for Freight & Salvage's Opening Night at 2020 Addison! Come on over and help throw wide the doors and exorcise the "new car smell" with a rousing evening of fiddle magic steeped in talent and tradition...the 21st annual Freight Fiddle Summit. You'll be in excellent company, with host Alasdair Fraser and some of traditional music's most notable players—Natalie Haas, Liz Carroll, Darol Anger & the Monster String Quartet—as they bow, strum, and pluck up a storm tonight to help heat up the Freight's new home. www.freightandsalvage.org 
the Jazzschool
Friday, August 28
Greek roots band specializes in traditional music from Greece and its neighbors, with upbeat dance tunes from Thrace, mellow sounds from the Islands and the trance-like music from Epirus. Featuring Mary Hofer Farris, clarinet; Gari Hegedus, oud, violin; Tom Farris, laouto; Michele Simon, vocals, percussion.
|
Jupiter
Thursday, August 27
An amazing Rhodes/keyboard player and best known as the bad-ass keyboard player for the mighty Crown City Rockers, KAT 010 will be performing solo in support of her debut album "Natural Phenomenons" a hip, cutting-edge, sample-free, electro-acoustic, urban instrumental album full of sweet music to mentally massage your mind, produced, composed, arranged, and with all the instruments played by Kat.
Anna's Jazz Island
Sunday, August 30
Yugoslavian born pianist Larry Vuckovich, has performed with top musicians including Anita O'Day, Joe Williams, Cab Calloway, Charlie Haden, Bobby Hutcherson; toured with Dexter Gordon & Philly Joe Jones; accompanied vocalist/lyricist Jon Hendricks for 25 years; & has appeared at major festivals and clubs in the U.S., Canada, and Europe. "He adorns his ballads with lustrous harmonies and decorates with runs that lace through his chords like bright ribbons" -DownBeat AND "A pianist whose evocative touch and poetic sensibility convey the wisdom of deep musical life experience" -Thomas Conrad, Jazztimes.com
Amanda's Feel Good Fresh Food
Sunday, August 30
Hotel Shattuck Plaza
Sunday, August 30
With a sound that's hard to define, yet instantly identifiable, The Llamas are a new quartet whose music is informed by jazz, jam, and world music. Their name is derived from their origin, as the group was first put together to play for His Holiness the Dalai Lama when he visited Berkeley this spring. The unique instrumentation of woodwinds (Amy Shen), guitar (Jesse Engel), bass (Joe Constantini), and tabla (Shaunak Adkar) gives The Llamas a sound truly all their own when interpreting songs from modern composers such as Bill Frisell, Wayne Shorter, and Avishai Cohen.
the Jazzschool
Saturday, August 29
Undisputed tango queen María Volonté continues exploring the rich vein of musical treasure that is Argentine music. A Latin Grammy nominee, winner of the Carlos Gardel Prize (Argentina's Grammy) and a member of the Tango Hall of Fame, Volonté is an artist who is both deeply connected to tango traditions and willing to push the boundaries of the music, ably fusing the roots of tango with jazz and bossa nova.
Jupiter
Wednesday, August 26
Quinn DeVeaux and the Blue Beat Review is a dance and groove band with hopping mad rhymes and rhythms! Quinn has been playing soul and blues in the Bay Area for years and has finally started his own band The Blue Beat Review! It's sweet melody and soul music with a groove that makes you wanna use your feet for moving. This band is at the root of it and keeps the people in a state of joy. Don't miss em.
Freight & Salvage Coffeehouse
Saturday, August 29
The Freight's new home opening weekend continues with yet another amazing show, as the icon of American music, Ramblin' Jack Elliott, takes the stage. Jack weaves amazing stories in and out of song, sharing stream-of-consciousness nuggets from the richly checkered career that he launched the day he ran away from home at age 14 to join Colonel Jim Eskew's Rodeo. After various detours, Jack ended up at the side of Woody Guthrie, learning the craft that made him a leading figure in folk music, influencing a generation of musicians. During his years on the road, Jack also spent time with many luminaries, from Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, and Phil Ochs to Jack Kerouac and Alan Ginsberg—and he's got stories about them all.
Meridian International Sports Café
Friday, August 28
Jupiter
Sunday, August 30
Representing our summertime Sunday series, Americana Unplugged, brought to us by the talented artist and Jup-bartender Kurt Caudle, and now its 6th illustrious year! And finally, some swing in the mix!! The Saddle Cats are a Western Swing pocket orchestra that is enlivening Cowboy and Western Music with a singular energy and drive. Their avowed goal: to celebrate the swing tradition of Bob Wills, Milton Brown and Spade Cooley and bring it to the new millennium with a blazing mix of abandon, finesse and exuberant spirits. Amplifiers? What amplifiers?! Perennial favorites, the Saddlecats are always a great show. Richard, Bing, Gordo and of course, pedal steel man Bobby Black are back to cook up their trademark style of Western Swing. It's dancin' time!!
Jupiter
Saturday, August 29
Sang Matiz play very cool, energetic and original Latin Flamenco and Fusion music, reflecting the diverse musical experiences we all have gathered through our lives. Many South American, Caribbean and European rhythms have been fused with flamenco, reggae and jazz to bring you this new sound that is making people dance all over the Bay Area.
Brazil Fresh Squeeze Café
Wednesday, August 26
Meridian International Sports Café
Sunday, August 30
Jupiter
Wednesday, August 26
The Soul Burners features members from two sucessful Bay Area Bands, Oakland's The Blue Roots and The Jury Blues band. Michael Small (guitar, drums, vocals)/ Aaron Hammerman (guitar, bass, drums)/ Max Lopez (bass, drums, vocals). With a stripped down sound, strong vocals, raw electric guitar, and deep house-stomping rhythm, The Soul Burners keep the audience grooving and the room full of energy.
Berkeley Farmer's Market
Saturday, August 29
With Evie Ladin calling a Square Dance!
Jupiter
Friday, August 28
The Steve Carter Group is taking the art of the jazz piano trio into the 21st century. They are modern, fresh, edgy and dramatic. They are edgy whether they are playing an up-tempo, hi-energy groove tune or a beautiful ballad. The members of the band have been at the forefront of Jazz, R&B, Rock, Latin, Smooth Jazz and World Music. They use these influences as a launching pad to create a modern, funky style all of their own.
Bobby G's Pizzeria
Saturday, August 29
Meridian International Sports Café
Thursday, August 27
Jupiter
Friday, August 28
Supertaster is the latest offshoot of the Jazz Mafia, San Francisco's eclectic and highly talented musical collective. Formed in late 2007, the band features Adam Theis on bass, trombone, and electronics, Jon Monahan on guitar and electronics, Matt Berkeley on keyboards, Joe Bagale on drums, vocals, and electronics and the dynamic Karyn Paige on vocals. They share an encyclopedic (and shameless) knowledge of pop, rock, and hip-hop music, reinventing these songs with every performance. In the last year the band has played regularly at Bay Area festivals, lounges, nightclubs and as the house band for the well-known Wednesday Night Sessions at Royale in North Beach. Known for their incendiary live performances at venues and parties throughout the Bay Area, Supertaster is currently writing original music for their debut album.
Berkeley Public Library
Saturday, August 29
Dance to the music of Tango No. 9 in the Historic Reading Room of the Central Library. Tango No. 9 is a Bay Area quartet that plays the fiery music of Argentine tango, both traditional and cutting edge, in their own unique arrangements. Since 1998, the group has delved deeply into the world of tango, playing countless concerts and milongas, collaborating with dancers, and releasing three critically acclaimed albums. The library invites you to savor this passionate music as dancer or listener.
Anna's Jazz Island
Thursday, August 27rd
Hammond in the house!!! In the 1950s, the "Organ Trio" became a common musical ensemble in big city jazz clubs. Organ trios used the sultry and powerful amplified sound of the Hammond B-3 with its ability to fill multiple musical roles—bass lines, chords, and lead lines. The most famous of the early [organ trio] grinders were Bill Doggett, Brother Jack McDuff and the great Jimmy Smith. Wayne de la Cruz carries on this tradition. His versatile group of dynamic musicians brings a repertoire that not only represents the organ trio genre but a full spectrum of jazz and blues. Wayne De La Cruz on the Hammond B3, Joe Cohen on saxes, and Kendrick freeman on the drums.
Bobby G's Pizzeria
Wednesday, August 26
Here is what Haybert K. Houston of Jazz Direct Catalog has to say about Wendy DeWitt . . .
Meridian International Sports Café
Saturday, August 29
Berkeley Farmer's Market
Saturday, August 29
|
scenes, to sound collage art openings, to live hip hop collaborations, to political circus theater and beyond. The one called Audio Angel is actually Rashida Clendening, a transplant from St. Petersburg, Florida who was destined to become one of the distinct voices of the San Francisco, US and worldwide drum and bass scenes. You may have heard Rashida's voice in commercials, cartoons, and video games as her other career is in voice overs. (Yes that's her vocal talent you hear cheering you along on Konami's "Dance Dance Revolution UltraMix" videogame!).