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Take That

Welcome in to my weekly performance program, In The Moment, recorded in San Francisco Bay Area Jazz venues.  I'm Jim Bennett. My In The Moment Concert Series, continues with three in March, at Musically Minded Academy, located at 5776 Broadway in Oakland, 5 blocks from Rockridge BART. They include pianist Erika Oba this Saturday March 4th, with a tribute to Carla Bley at 8PM… on the 18th, pianist Anne Sajdera will be doing a tribute to Kenny Kirkland, and on March 25th vocalist Suzanna Smith will present a musical ode for Helen Merrill. This Saturday, Erika Oba will be joined by electric bassist Ariane Cap and tenor saxophonist Eli Maliwan to present an evening of music exploring the sonic possibilities of a drummer-less trio. In addition to the tribute to Carla Bley, the trio will present original compositions and exploratory improvisations. If you'd like more information, go to Musically Minded's website http://musicallyminded.org, or write me at inthemoment1@gmail.com, and I will put you on my mailing list. 

Here on Soundcloud, the first two listeners to leave a comment that you want to go to this concert this Saturday March 4th,with Erika Oba, I will put you on the gust list for a pair of tickets, if you leave your name… You can also email me if you prefer, at inthemoment1@gmail.com. 

On In The Moment, we present, as part of the 2014 Rising Stars Summer Concert Series, at the California Jazz Conservatory, in Berkeley,  a repeat with this week's feature at Musically Minded, pianist and flutist Erika Oba, recorded July 12th, 2014.  Erika was joined by Chris Bastian on bass, and Ben Salomon on drums, with special guest Tim Kim on violin and vocals.  The trio is dedicated to merging their backgrounds in Western classical music, jazz, electronic music, and experimental improvisation in an exploration of loosely structured improvisations and collaborative compositions.You'll hear at least two pieces written by each member. Erika Oba is a graduate of Berkeley High School, and participated for several years in the Oakland Youth Orchestra. She received her BM in Jazz Piano Performance from Oberlin Conservatory and her MA in Music Composition from Mills College.
She is the sister of saxophonist and composer, Hitomi Oba, who has also appeared on this program. Let's begin In The Moment with Erika Oba's composition Modal Thing.

3-2-17 In The Moment Erika Oba at the California Jazz Conservatory

In The Moment is currently just posted on SoundCloud.com on Thursday afternoons. You can search for JImmyb94114, under the artist's name, or jimbennettinthemoment  I hope to return to the Bay Area airwaves soon. 
Welcome in to my weekly performance program, In The Moment, recorded in San Francisco Bay Area Jazz venues.  I'm Jim Bennett. My In The Moment Concert Series, has one more performance in March, at Musically Minded Academy, located at 5776 Broadway in Oakland, 5 blocks from Rockridge BART. This Saturday March 25th, at 8PM, vocalist Suzanna Smith will present a musical ode for Helen Merrill, and her early work with trumpeter Clifford Brown. If you'd like more information, go to Musically Minded's website http://musicallyminded.org, Here on Soundcloud, the first two listeners to leave a comment that you want to go to Suzanna Smith's concert this Saturday the 25th, I will put you on the gust list for a pair of tickets, if you leave your name… 

On this In The Moment, we present a previous performance from the In The Moment Concert Series with Suzanna Smith's Peggy Lee Project and "Beauty and The Beat, Reimagined," recorded March 5th, 2016. Suzanna Smith and The Peggy Lee Project paid tribute to Peggy Lee’s first collaboration with pianist George Shearing — the album ‘Beauty and the Beat.’ Suzanna was joined by pianist Lee Bloom, bassist Sam Bevan, and drummer Jon Arkin. 

We'll start off In The Moment with compositions by Peggy Lee, George Shearing and original lyrics by Suzanna Smith, who has been truly inspired by Peggy's writing. We'll then present Beauty and The Beat pretty much in its entirety, except for an instrumental, as performed by our featured artist, who has indeed been featured numerous times on In The Moment, rightfully so. Let's begin with Peggy Lee's I Love Being Here With You…

Recording engineer: Jim Bennett
http://suzannasmith.com
http://musicallyminded.org

In The Moment 3-23-17 Suzanna Smith "Beauty and the Beat Reimagined"

A tribute to one of the great and profound pianists, composers and educators in my lifetime, the late Geri Allen, who passed away in the last week of June, having just turned 60.  On In The Moment Radio, we are proud to present one of the great recordings I have ever been a part of, with the Mary Lou Willams Collective, featuring the much loved and highly influential Geri Allen, bassist Kenny Davis, and legendary drummer Andrew Cyrille. The trailblazing Mary Lou Williams wrote over 350 compositions and on this program the Mary Lou Williams Collective performed one of her most important works, Zodiac Suite. The Mary Lou Williams Collective revisited this work in 2005, for the Mary Lou Williams Foundation's Mary Records. Our recording, took place April 6th, 2007 at the Herbst Theatre in San Francisco, as part of the 8th annual SFJAZZ Festival Spring Season. The Zodiac Suite has only been performed in its entirety a handful of times. Jim Santella, in All About Jazz, described the studio recording of the Collective in this manner.. "Zodiac Suite: Revisited combines traditional elements from jazz history with the kind of progressive energy that has always followed great artists."  One of those great artists is the widely influential and certainly underrated Geri Allen, who will be sorely missed. Geri made her mark as an adventurous improviser on notable albums with the saxophonist-composers Ornette Coleman, Oliver Lake, Steve Coleman and Charles Lloyd; drummer Ralph Peterson, Jr.; bassist Charlie Haden and drummer Paul Motian; and many others. Her recent collaborations were with drummer Terri Lyne Carrington, in separate trios featuring bassist Esperanza Spalding and tenor saxophonist David Murray. Geri was always a ceaselessly exploratory musician, constantly probing for new harmonics and dynamics. Geri's 1996 encounter with Ornette Coleman, documented on the albums Sound Museum: Hidden Man and Sound Museum: Three Women, stands out, in part, for its historical significance: this was the first time since Walter Norris on Somethin' Else!!!! in 1958, that an acoustic pianist recorded with Ornette. As indicated by Anastasia Tsioulcas and David Adler, on NPR,  the piano has had little use in Coleman's free-floating music, because it tended to impose a conventional chordal structure. This was not true with Allen on the bandstand. She played a multifaceted role, in terms of textures and counterpoint.  Geri's deep harmonic knowledge and her melodic voice, too, sometimes moving in unison with Coleman, brought a clear and unique intensity that remains unique in Ornette's output. The pulse and momentum of her performances and compositions point clearly toward a rhythmic sensibility and influence heard from such celebrated pianists as Craig Taborn and Vijay Iyer.

Please check out KPFA's Art Sato and his great interview with Geri from 1988. It will remain on the KPFA archives until July 15th. Go to https://kpfa.org/episode/in-your-ear-july-1-2017/.

In The Moment 7-6-17 Geri Allen Tribute The Mary Lou Williams Collective Zodiac Suite

On this month's Soundcloud edition of In The Moment Radio, the debut performance of Sepia, featuring Faye Carol, Denise Perrier, Frankye Kelly, the founder of Sepia, and Lady Mem'Fis, recorded at Yoshi's in San Francisco on February 11th, 2008. This amazing collaboration of four of the bay area's greatest resident vocalists celebrates the breadth and diversity of the Black Diaspora. An all star line up includes Tammy Hall, leading the band and playing piano. Tammy is the first choice of many a vocalist with her incredible ear, beautiful playing and arrangements. The ever in demand John Wiitala is heard on bass; Marlon Green, drums and Bobby Tynes, saxophone. Bobby is based in Boston and has recorded with Lady Mem 'Fis, among others. We send our love and healing thoughts to Frankye Kelly, Marlon Green, and  Lady Mem 'Fis, who have had some health issues in recent times, and dedicate this In The Moment to them. This was, without a doubt, a true highlight of my 10 plus year run at KCSM. I have never had the opportunity to air the entire performance, with both shows lasting over three and a half hours. We had to limit each vocalist to two pieces, to make it fit into the original hour long broadcast. Although there is some repetition, we get to hear the mini sets within the set by each vocalist  and the full power and diversity of the performance. This was also from the time when I was doing live to 2 track mixes, with no multi-track technology available to me. There are some minor flaws, but the balance is good, and the performance is amazing and compelling. Our concert was mc'd by KCSM's own Melanie Berzon and she set the stage for each vocalist. Our presentation begins with Nina Simone's Four Women, a very appropriate start. Lady Memfis, Frankye Kelly, Denise Perrier and Faye Carol are heard in successive verses, followed by our MC, Melanie Berzon. Each artist is then heard in the same order from the stage of Yoshi's San Francisco. Each set at Yoshi's opens with this amazing piece and concludes with a rousing version of Duke Ellington's It Don't Mean A Thing, If It Ain't Got That Swing, again featuring all 4 of the vocalists.

3-8-18 In The Moment Radio Sepia at Yoshis SF Feb 11 2008

From my KPFA archives, and one of just a handful of recordings made at the Yerba Buena Theatre in San Francisco: The World Saxophone Quartet with African Drums, recorded 1-22-94. This edition of the WSQ included David Murray on tenor sax, Eric Person, alto saxophone, Hamiet Bluiett, baritone saxophone, and Oliver Lake, alto saxophone. On African percussion and vocals: Mor Thiam, Mar Gueye, and Tito Sampa. Thanks to Cedric Lathan of the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. This is the complete concert I recorded that Saturday in January of 1994

World Saxophone Quartet Live at Yerba Buena Theatre 1-22-94 Complete Recorded for KPFA

The Jan Garbarek Group, recorded for KPFA in Berkeley, at the Herbst Theatre in San Francisco on March 13th, 1993. 

This was recorded in KPFA's infamous Green Weenie step van.The Yamaha PM-1000 in the van sure sounded good, although one of the pre-amps was starting to fail by this time.

This was presented by SF Performances in cooperation with the Norwegian Consulate. Jan adopted the sounds of jazz, classical and world music at a very early age. He has collaborated with artists from various folk traditions, including India and Brazil, as well as age-old European traditions, including his remarkable partnership with the Hilliard Ensemble. Early jazz influences include Albert Ayler, and later period John Coltrane. He was mentored by George Russell. In addition to coming to prominence on the ECM label and the quartet he co-led with Bobo Stenson, he was also part of Keith Jarrett's "European" Quartet. 

For this performance Jan was joined by Eberhard Weber, bass; Rainer Bruninghaus, keys, and Marilyn Mazur, percussion.

KPFA Recording Jan Garbarek Group Herbst Theatre SF 3 - 13 - 93

Available on our debut album, Kaleidoscope.
www.thetamborays.bandcamp.com

Indian Summer

On December 21st, 1989, I recorded Doug Sahm, Augie Meyers, Flaco Jimenez, and Freddie Fender at Slim’s in San Francisco on a DAT for KPFA. This was on stage, the birth of the Texas Tornados, which was indeed a supergroup. This tape is 29 years old, and I’m glad to report that I was able to successfully transfer it with no glitches in the last couple of days... No one knew how long DATS would hold up, but this is a nerdy audio engineer happy moment..... Doug led the fledging Texas Tornados in the First set, with Augie, Flaco, George Rains, Louie Ortega and Rocky Morales. Freddie Fender did the second set, and he was joined by Doug Sahm, Augie Meyers and Flaco Jimenez later on and that was the real birth of the Texas Tornados that night at Slims In San Francisco. In those days, we recorded live to 2 track, with no multi-track option available. Often times, there was an incomplete or little sound check, and you had to mix on the fly for the first couple of tunes. I had to excise an off mic sax solo on the first tune, and then you hear Rocky come into the mix in the second tune. Then we get a real groover's paradise happening!!! Thanks to Harry Duncan of Slim's and Bari Scott, then of KPFA for making it happen!!!
I’m also pretty sure Jesse Chuy Varela assisted me that night...

Doug Sahm Augie Meyers Flaco Jimenez Freddie Fender 12 - 21 - 89 Slims SF

The late pianist Geri Allen, recorded on November 19th, 1988, at Koncepts Cultural Gallery in Oakland. She performed solo, in what was her West Coast debut performance. Special thanks to Art Sato for making this recording possible. This performance was recently digitally transferred and mastered from the analog recording. It was recorded for KPFA in Berkeley, in our remote van on reel to reel tape. Pianist Ethan Iverson, spoke of Geri on her 60th birthday, in his blog, shortly before her passing:

"Allen has had a long career of triumphs and remains one of the key musicians in jazz, but she may not always get enough credit for the degree of influential innovation on display from about 1984 to 1989.

Kenny Kirkland took the virtuosic McCoy Tyner/Herbie Hancock/Chick Corea axis to its logical endpoint. Around the time of Kirkland’s greatest prominence, Geri Allen broke something open by offering a radically different approach, bringing back the surrealism of Thelonious Monk and Eric Dolphy.

Allen’s solution would go on to be vastly influential. There were other avatars from the late 80s and early 90s, perhaps most notably Marcus Roberts and Brad Mehldau. Many of the celebrated younger pianists of the current moment — a recent poll has names like Jason Moran, Vijay Iyer, Craig Taborn, David Virelles, Kris Davis, Matt Mitchell, Aruán Ortiz — don’t play like Kirkland, Roberts, or Mehldau. They play like Allen."

Geri Allen Koncepts Cultural Gallery 11 - 19 - 88

Recorded live at Crystal Lake Ballroom in Ellington CT, 6/21/74
WHO PUT THE GARLIC IN THE GLUE?
HEY! BABY
YOU CAN'T HIDE
WE'LL MAKE LOVE
WHITE LIGHTNIN'

Steve Ferguson - guitar / Al Anderson - guitar / Terry Adams - Clavinet & pianos / Joey Spampinato - bass / Tom Staley - drums / Donn Adams - trombone, percussion

Dom Placco, Phil Collison - sound and equipment

In The Moment 7-6-17 Geri Allen Tribute The Mary Lou Williams Collective Zodiac Suite

Jimmyb94114

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