For much of his career, Oakland saxophonist Steve Heckman has worshipped at the altar of John Coltrane, with every gig a veritable quest to attain the spiritually charged intensity that defined Trane’s epochal recordings of the early 1960s. He left no doubt about his mission with first two albums, 2003’s With John In Mind and […]
Berkeley Hillside Club
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Knocking on Heaven’s Door: Do we die a good death?
Katy Butler was living in Mill Valley, pursuing a successful freelance writing career, when she got the call we all dread: her father, a successful, dynamic 79-year-old retired Wesleyan professor, had had a debilitating stroke. Butler flew back to Middletown, Conn. and unknowingly entered into an nine-year medical and moral odyssey that would bewilder and […]
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The It List: Five things to do in Berkeley this weekend
1ST ANNUAL WEST COAST URBAN SKETCHERS’ SKETCHCRAWL The inaugural Sketchcrawl started in San Francisco in 2004, but in its nine years of global expansion – from France to South Korea to Texas – this is the first time that an organized Sketchcrawl has touched down in Berkeley. The creator, Enrico Casarosa, is a Pixar story […]
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Brazil in Berkeley: The Ricardo Peixoto Group
Rio de Janeiro native Ricardo Peixoto has spent almost his entire adult life in the United States, but his music is still steeped in the luscious melodies and insinuating rhythms of Brazil. The Oakland-based guitarist joins forces with another Brazilian master, pianist Marcos Silva, Saturday at the Hillside Club, performing his original music with flutist […]
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Sheldon Brown to honor overlooked genius Herbie Nichols
When it comes to jazz and new music, the Bay Area is a medium-sized pond that sustains a dazzling array of small, often intermingled scenes. It’s an ecosystem in which a tropical profusion of players has found a niche, and among the most versatile and gifted is reed master Sheldon Brown, who is equally accomplished […]
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In Berkeley: Trumpeter Erik Jekabson, singer “El Cigala”
Trumpeter Erik Jekabson isn’t among the Berkeley High Jazz Band’s best known alumni, but that says more about program’s glittering roster of graduates and Jekabson’s far-ranging musical interests than any deficit in talent or imagination. Since graduating in 1991, Jekabson has collected several degrees from conservatories (Oberlin and San Francisco Conservatory of Music) and extensive […]
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Out in Berkeley: Ian Dogole pays tribute to Wayne Shorter
By Andrew Gilbert Ian Dogole has a knack for assembling singular, talent-laden bands. A percussionist with a global vision and a truckload of instruments from far-flung lands, he’s turned his attention to the vast and wondrous world of Wayne Shorter, the saxophonist and composer who has shaped jazz ever since joining Art Blakey’s Jazz Messenger […]
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‘Mostly I just make cups’: Artist highlights impact of war
By Susan Anglin Berkeley ceramicist Ehren Tool is less concerned with our position on war, than with making sure that all non-veterans are made very aware of its consequences. Tool’s vehicle for achieving this end are the thousands upon thousands of clay cups he has thrown, decorated and fired over more than a decade. Tool […]
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Ravenous: Dayna Macy faces her food obsessions
For much of her life Dayna Macy has had a complicated relationship with food. An overeater who sought comfort in cheese, chocolate, and charcuterie, Macy watched as her weight began to balloon as she aged: she went from being a size 10 as a young adult to a size 18 in her 40s. She felt […]
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Capacity crowd turns up to hear “tiger mom” Amy Chua
The lines were literally out the door Thursday night at the Hillside Club, where Amy Chua, author of Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, was on stage for a KPFA fundraiser. Chua’s views on parenting have triggered an explosion of heated debate internationally after the Wall Street Journal ran a provocative excerpt of her book on […]
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The Hillside Hop: A chance to dance
“The kids have Gilman Street, we oldies have the Hillside Club.” So says Sylvia Paull who is helping spread the word about The Hillside Hop, a must for people who like to dance with friends to the kind of rock they couldn’t get enough of in the 50s, 60,s 70s and 80s. Hosted by Joan Blades — […]