Happy Hour, a virtuosic collective acclaimed for its unique three-horn sound, will donate the proceeds of its February 5 concert at the Jazzschool in Berkeley to support Haitian Relief Efforts.

“We have all been shocked and overwhelmed by the unspeakable devastation in Haiti,” says the group’s bassist Peter Barshay. “Many of us have donated money to the relief operations already, and many of us would also go down there to help if we could. The need for assistance continues. To that end, the musicians in Happy Hour have agreed to contribute our efforts by donating proceeds from our upcoming concert at the Jazzschool.”

Happy Hour consists of bassist Barshay plus Erik Jekabson (trumpet, flugelhorn), Mike Zilber (saxophones), John Gove (trombone), and Jeff Marrs (drums). Special guests for the February 5 performance will include Linda Tillery, Faye Carol, Art Lande, Susan Muscarella, Mark Levine, and Dayna Stephens, with others still to be announced.

The show starts at 8:00 pm at the Jazzschool, 2087 Addison Street (near Shattuck Avenue), Berkeley. Tickets are $18 ($15 for Jazzschool students),  available online at this page.

“We want to have a truly great evening of music,” says Barshay, “giving people a chance to come by and hear some terrific players while supporting the crucial Haitian relief efforts of Sionfonds, Doctors Without Borders, and Partners in Health, organizations doing vital relief work on the ground in Haiti.”

 A full 100 percent of proceeds will go to the aforementioned organizations. A representative from Sionfonds for Haiti will be on hand to explain their project and answer questions.

“Finally, in lieu of asking audience members to turn their cell phones off,” says Barshay, “we plan to ask everyone to turn it on, as we’re accepting donations by text message!”

Trio 3

(oliver lake/ reggie workman/ andrew cyrille)

When: Tuesday, November 3
Where: Flying Goat Café
324 Center Street, Healdsburg
Time: Two Shows 7pm and 9pm
Cost: Tickets, $25.00 (available now)

Healdsburg is once again very fortunate to be able to experience in a very intimate setting an all-star partnership of jazz masters, with the group Trio 3.  In an extremely rare West Coast tour, Reggie Workman, Oliver Lake and Andrew Cyrille will be performing November 3 at the Flying Goat Café in Healdsburg, as part of a tour which includes Santa Cruz, the San Francisco Jazz Festival and Earshot Jazz Festival in Seattle.

Trio 3 is a group where music is the leader. The unconventional collaboration of internationally recognized jazz masters, Oliver Lake (multi-reeds), Reggie Workman (bass) and Andrew Cyrille (drums), formed to unify the members’ creative energies and promote a single governing principle: organic improvisation. Everyone is a distinct soloist, but it’s definitely an unadulterated group-based effort. Open to infinite possibilities, Trio 3 mixes and explores different sound colors traversing the whole vocabulary of jazz to take the music toward the future.

Hear samples of their music with this MySpace player. (Please wait for it to load.)

And what a glorious jazz vocabulary they have! Collectively, the group  spans over 130 years of jazz history have playing with playing with pivotal artists of jazz and modern music including John Coltrane, Mary Lou Williams, Herbie Mann, Art Blakey, The World Saxophone Quartet, Lou Reed, Richard Muhal Abrams, Cecil Taylor and more.

Deeply rooted in tradition, these jazz veterans describe their sound as “futuristic music within the idiomatic continuum of jazz.” Like musical alchemists, Trio 3 boldly carries the music forward spinning 3-dimensional jazz, reconfiguring jazz conventions of compositions, harmony, meter and melody.

Trio 3 is also a band without borders. According to Lake, “None of us assumes the positions of a drummer or of a saxophone player or drummer. We’re one third of a unit that makes music and we’re each capable of taking responsibility at the time that it is needed to make that music. With that in mind and with that kind of mind our music becomes unique.”

As so it is with Trio 3 – leaderless and borderless, freely taking flights of fancy from ragtime to no-time, fiery rapid-fire ostinatos to slow blues and modal vamps, mixing original compositions with traditional jazz, blues, bebop and beyond – with their audiences along for the ride.

» Tickets available now! By phone at 707 433-4644

» More info on the web at TrioThree.com

Mission Accomplished!

Today Operation Jazz Band finished their week in Healdsburg by playing in concert before all SIX fifth grade classes: Fitch Mountain Elementary, St. John School, Alexander Valley School, Geyserville School, Westside Elementary School, and Sonoma Country Day School! About 200 students in all filled the Raven Theater in Healdsburg to hear what Operation Jazz Band really sounded like.

During the past week Operation Jazz Band, led by Babatunde Lea, had broken down into the main sections of a jazz band: drums, rhythm, horns, and vocals. Those sections then visited all six schools to demonstrate their instruments, discuss the history of jazz, teach the different forms of jazz, and introduce the children to basic musical concepts. Criss-crossing the town every day, two teams of musicians in caravans dashed from one classroom to the next entertaining the kids and getting them introduced to their musical art form, the one true American musical art form: jazz.

This was the ninth year for Operation Jazz Band, sponsored by the Healdsburg Jazz Festival. This year Operation Jazz Band members were:

• Babatunde Lea: band leader, drums, and percussion
• Clairdee: vocals
• Ken French: piano accompanist
• Dave Bass: piano
• Gary Brown: acoustic bass
• Angela Wellman: trombone
• Khalil Shaheed: trumpet
• Richard Howell: saxophone

As mentioned, the musicians took to the stage as a full band all together to play for the children. The kids, having become acquainted with the musicians in the intimate settings of their classrooms, greeted them as they took to the stage with screams and raucous applause akin to the screaming teen girls meeting The Beatles at JFK!

All week long the musicians prepped the kids to not only listen to jazz, but to participate as well. Babatunde Lea took to the stage with his call-and-response chant in Yoruba (from Nigeria, and presented phonetically):

“Ah-go ee-lay ah-go! Ah-go ee-lay ah-go! Ah-go ee-lay ah-go YA! Ah-go ee-lay ah-go YA”

… all the while keeping the beat on a shekere. Then the band launched into an vibrant take on Dizzy Gillespie’s “Birk’s Works”:

Then the band brought the lovely Clairdee onstage to the roars from the kids, and she cooled the children down a notch with a wonderful version of Irving Berlin’s “Blue Skies”:

Highlights for the kids include audience participation; Dave Bass had taught the kids Ray Charles’ version of “Hit The Road Jack”, with boys and girls singing the parts appropriately! Clairdee got the whole audience singing “Let The Good Times Roll”, and then brought up a select group to join her in free-form scat:

With our culture in full gear to the future, our children often do not get introduced and familiar with so much of our cultural history such as art, music, and literature. Mainstream media focuses on the here and now, with radio pretty much focusing on the hear and now. Many kids only know about jazz as background music for car commercials or guys in Ray-Bans and berets. Operation Jazz Band is unique to Healdsburg, and to-date thousands of kids have been introduced to the musicians who perform jazz for a living, hear jazz from swing to Afro-Cuban to bebop, and come to understand that it is part of their musical heritage that they can embrace and enjoy.

Next Friday is the 11th Annual Healdsburg Jazz Festival Gala Dinner, Dance, and Auction at the Vintners Inn in Santa Rosa. This annual Gala raises money to fund Operation Jazz Band and other jazz education programs sponsored by the Healdsburg Jazz Festival. Please come, enjoy a wonderful dinner, dance to great jazz, and bid high and often – knowing your dollars will help our children know and appreciate jazz.

Title: ”The Big Trio” w/Wayne De La Cruz
Location: Palette Art Café
Link out: Click here
Description: Wayne De La Cruz – Hammond B3 Organ
Paul Bannin – Guitar and Saxophones
Kendrick Freeman – Drums
Date: 2009-03-26

Wayne de la Cruz

A captivating versatile group of dynamic musicians with a repertoire that not only represents the organ trio genre but a full spectrum of jazz and blues.

Title: Benny Barth Trio

Benny Barth

Location: Palette Art Café
Link out: Click here
Description: Randy Vincent – Guitar
Chris Amberger – Bass
Benny Barth – Drums
Date: 2009-03-19

Belated Birthday Party Celebrating Benny’s 80th Birthday which was February 16th. Come and enjoy this jazz legend playing with his long time working trio.

See Benny Barth at the Healdsburg Jazz Festival on Monday, June 1

Title: Eric Muhler Quartet feat. Sheldon Brown
Location: Palette Art Café
Link out: Click here
Description: Eric Muhler – Piano
Sheldon Brown – Saxophones
Michael Wilcox – Bass
Brian Andres – Drums
Date: 2009-03-12

Eric Muhler

Eric Muhler’s chord voicings are his own, his improvisations are full of constant surprises and, although quite aware of the jazz tradition, he sounds unlike any of his predecessors. His writing is fresh and personal, evolving before listeners’ ears and expressing a wide variety of emotions and moods.

Title: BBC Trio with Bob Drew, Bill Fouty & Carl Vast
Location: Palette Art Café
Link out: Click here
Description: Bob Drew – Alto Saxophone
Bill Fouty – Bass
Carl Vast – Guitar
Date: 2009-03-05

The BBC Trio

The BBC Jazz Trio (sax, bass and guitar) plays mainstream jazz, Bossa Nova and swing, emphasizing intuitive ensemble music. Since 1984, the Trio (Bob Drew, Bill Fouty and Carl Vast) has continued to define its style and expand its repertoire, delighting audiences throughout the Bay Area.