Popular music: A look at San Francisco Jazz's spring season - San Jose Mercury News
Britney done Weimer-era style? That's something I
Popular music: A look at
San Francisco Jazz's
spring season
By Jim Harrington
jharrington@bayareanewsgroup.com
Posted: 02/18/2010 12:00:00 AM PST
The 2010 San Francisco Jazz spring season kicks
off in a big way this weekend.
The festivities begin Friday with two shows, at 8
and 10:30 p.m., by Cuban pianist Issac Delgado at
San Francisco's Bimbo's 365 Club. At 8 p.m.
Saturday, retro German crooner Max Raabe and his
Palast Orchester visit the Paramount Theatre in
Oakland. The weekend offerings conclude with
world-music/psychedelic-rock ensemble Tinariwen
at 7 p.m. Sunday at the Palace of Fine Arts Theatre in
San Francisco.
From there, San Francisco Jazz, the same
organization that presents the San Francisco Jazz
Festival each fall, will host some 40 concerts during
a schedule that runs through early June. It's another
top-notch lineup, one that strikes a pretty good
balance between tried-and-trusted jazz veterans and
rising stars of the genre. Still, some dates do stand
out as the can't-miss shows. Here's a few that are
definitely on my radar:
Max Raabe and Palast Orchester: Veterans of the
Carnegie Hall stage, the 47-year-old Raabe and his
solid orchestra reconstruct the sound and feel of
1930s-era Germany, by far the most delicious time
in that country's musical history. The vocalist puts a
contemporary spin on the show by covering such
hits as Britney Spears' "Oops! ... I Did It Again."
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have to see. (8 p.m. Saturday; Paramount Theatre,
2025 Broadway, Oakland; $25-$75)
Sacred Space: These "Sacred Space" shows, where
elite players are allowed access to the amazing
acoustics in Grace Cathedral, rank as San Francisco
Jazz's most treasured tradition. There are two such
events on tap for the 2010 spring season. The first
features Berkeley's own saxophone colossus Josh
Redman, while the second spotlights one of the
genre's true titans, Pharoah Sanders. Go see both, if
you can. (Redman performs at 8 p.m. Feb. 26;
Sanders at 8 p.m. April 16; Grace Cathedral, 1100
California St., San Francisco; $25-$50.)
Zakir Hussain: Bay Area fans are spoiled because
this percussion king — who ranks as one of the
most influential Indian musicians of all time —
appears locally on a fairly consistent basis. If you
haven't seen this tabla wizard, however, now is the
time, as he leads the latest edition of his Masters of
Percussion ensemble in an evening of both
contemporary and traditional Indian music. (7:30 p.
m. March 10; Herbst Theatre, 401 Van Ness Ave.,
San Francisco; $30-$70.)
Hiromi and Robert Glasper: One of the best jazz
concerts I saw last year was a performance by
bassist Stanley Clarke's trio at Yoshi's-San
Francisco. Clarke, of course, was incredible, but the
player who really made this night memorable was
Hiromi. The young Japanese pianist is simply one of
the most energetic and exciting players in all of
jazz. Opening this show is fellow pianist Robert
Glasper, who's touring in support of the highly
acclaimed two-disc set "Double Booked." (8 p.m.
March 20; Herbst; $25-$55)
Tomasz Stanko Quintet: I try to make it to at least
one San Francisco Jazz show each year at the
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Popular music: A look at San Francisco Jazz's spring season - San Jose Mercury News
intimate Florence Gould Theater, which ranks
among the best-sounding rooms in the Bay Area.
This concert — featuring the tremendous Polish
trumpeter Stanko — looks like just the ticket. (2 p.m.
April 11; Florence Gould Theater at the Legion of
Honor, 100 Legion of Honor Drive, San Francisco;
$25-$40.)
Others worth your time:
Al Di Meola (guitar god from Return to Forever); 8
p.m. Feb. 27; Palace of Fine Arts Theatre, 3301 Lyon
St., S.F.; $25-$65
Booker T. (anyone hungry for "Green Onions"?); 8 p.
m. April 23; Herbst; $25-$55
Charles Lloyd (one of the top saxophonists in jazz
history); 7 p.m. April 25; Palace of Fine Arts;
$30-$70
Faye Carol and Jamie Davis (two of the Bay Area's
best blues/jazz vocalists); 7 p.m. May 23; San
Francisco Conservatory of Music, 50 Oak St.; $25
Regina Carter Quintet and Mads Tolling Quartet (a
true jazz violin summit); 8 p.m. May 28; Herbst;
$25-$60
Marcus Miller (bassist revisits his work on the 1986
Miles Davis record "Tutu"); 8 p.m. June 11; Herbst;
$35-$75
For more information on San Francisco Jazz's
spring season, call 866-920-5299 or visit www.
sfjazz.org .
Music on film
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I saw Leonard Cohen three times in 2009 — at the
Paramount in Oakland, at the mighty Coachella
festival in Southern California and, finally, at the HP
Pavilion in San Jose — and yet I still didn't get my fill o
f the master singer-songwriter. Thankfully, I'll have
the chance to top off the tank when "Leonard Cohen
Live at the Isle of Wight 1970" screens at 7 p.m.
Friday at the Roxie Theater, 3117 16th St. in San
Francisco.
The Murray Lerner-directed film, boasting a run
time of just over one hour, was shot at the
legendary five-day British music festival. The event
drew some 700,000 — at the time, the largest
gathering ever assembled for a concert — and
featured such headliners as Jimi Hendrix, Miles
Davis, the Who and the Doors. Cohen took the stage
on the festival's last day and performed such
selections as "So Long, Marianne," "The Stranger
Song," "Hey, That's no Way to Say Goodbye,"
"Suzanne" and "Bird on the Wire." For more
information, call 415-863-1087 or visit www.roxie.
com .
Contact Jim Harrington at
jharrington@bayareanewsgroup.com . Read his
Concert Blog at http://blogs.mercurynews.
com/aei/category/concerts .
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