Dick Whittington. Photo courtesy of Berkeley Jazzschool If Berkeley had a hall of fame for musicians, pianist Dick Whittington would be inducted as part of the inaugural class. As an educator, presenter, and ebulliently swinging player, he left an indelible mark on the city’s jazz before decamping for the Monterey Peninsula in the mid-1990s. In […]
Berkeley JazzSchool
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A love fest in Berkeley for local jazz legend Merrilee Trost
Merilee Trost: nurtured some of the biggest names in jazz As the mother of seven daughters who started going through high school in the 1960s, Merrilee Trost thought she had hit on a foolproof plan to help keep the kids away from drugs. Born on the eve of the 1929 stock market crash, she herself […]
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The It List: Oakland Gospel Choir, pianist Michael Wolff
The Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir In the Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir, the glorious harmonies on stage flow directly from the harmonious vibe off the bandstand. Maintaining smooth sailing in any creative endeavor involving 55 people is no easy feat. After a quarter century, however, the ensemble has learned a little something about coexistence and how […]
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Roseanna Vitro interprets Randy Newman’s songbook
Roseanna Vitro: singing Randy Newman's songbook at the Jazzschool The idea seems so obvious it’s hard to explain why no one beat Roseanna Vitro to the project, but her recent album “Sail Away” is the first featuring a jazz singer applying her acute interpretive skills to Randy Newman’s vast and vivid songbook. A veteran improviser […]
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Out in Berkeley: From Brazil, a street party, a songstress
A Brazilian street party on Sunday at BrasArte on San Pablo Avenue will celebrate the Lavagem No one is likely to mistake Berkeley for Salvador de Bahia, the northeastern Brazilian city famous as the heartland of Afro-Brazilian culture. But on Sunday, at least for a day, San Pablo Avenue will resound to the thundering pulse […]
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Out in Berkeley: Tenor saxophonist Anton Schwartz
Anton Schwartz performing at Filoli. Photo: Matt May By Andrew Gilbert Though he moved to Seattle last year after more than a decade as an essential player on the Bay Area jazz scene, tenor saxophonist Anton Schwartz still finds plenty of opportunities to return to the East Bay. The fact that he owns a loft in […]
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Out in Berkeley: reed expert Steven Lugerner
Steven Lugerner. Photo: John Rogers By Andrew Gilbert In a recent, much commented upon East Bay Express cover story, Rachel Swan detailed the various reasons why there’s a steady flow of jazz artists from the Bay Area’s relatively small pond to New York City’s teaming sea. One fish that Swan missed in her list of […]
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Out in Berkeley: Soulful crooner Kenny Washington
Kenny Washington: a soaring tenor who can evoke Stevie Wonder By Andrew Gilbert The Bay Area is blessed with an exceptionally deep pool of jazz vocal talent, but, even among the dozen or so singers who tour and perform nationally and abroad, Kenny Washington stands out as an extraordinary talent. A soulful crooner whose soaring […]
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Berkeley’s Jazzschool gets star treatment
A student performance at the Jazzschool The San Francisco Chronicle gave Berkeley’s Jazzschool the star treatment on Sunday, devoting the cover of its pink arts section and seven articles to the 13-year old institution founded by pianist Susan Muscarella. The Jazzschool, located in the basement of the old Kress dime store on Addison near Shattuck, […]
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Music for everyone at Downtown Berkeley MusicFest
The first man to play the first show at Freight & Salvage in 1968 will be the kickoff headliner event for the Downtown Berkeley MusicFest, a nine-day extravaganza of music. Phil Marsh, described as a “folk-to-country-to-blues troubadour” will reunite with the Energy Crisis band for a performance Friday August 20 at 8 pm the newly-remodeled […]