A wild mix of blues, jazz, cuban funk, oh my! Micah and I enjoyed so many genres in one day at this year’s San Jose Jazz Festival. On the main stage, we discovered Vanessa Collier, a passionate young blues singer from South Carolina. In addition to having a captivating voice, Vanessa sang the blues through her saxophone. On the cover photo, she is jamming with Laura Chavez, a brilliant blues guitar player from nearby Mountain View. ...
To see Micah run the San Francisco Half Marathon, I arose at 5:30 am. Driving up 280, I watched the most beautiful sunrise unfold over the East Bay hills. There was no traffic in San Francisco, so I arrived at the Golden Gate Bridge parking lot by 6:20 am and the clouds were still pink, with some sun coming in from the east. The top-ranked marathoners were already across the bridge. You can see just their heads in the photo, if you look carefully. ...
We’ve enjoyed Maria Schneider several times now, but this is the first time we’ve heard the Orchestra in San Francisco. The compositions were lush and original, and ranged across many of her albums. We were glad to have time to catch a quick meal of Thai food beforehand with Micah and Victoria. “Sputnik” was my favorite tune this time, with the encore “Walking by Flashlight” a close second. Audrey ordered a copy of the book of poems that inspired many compositions, 100 Postcards to Jim Harrison. ...
It was a cold and rainy Tuesday night. The smell of wet dogs and dry martinis wafting across the bay. The perfect night to slip out the door in an overcoat and head for an dark, dank watering hole. And so I gingerly nudged the Q5 into the wilds of Hayward to see Micah Roschelle take the lead on Trombone with the Berkeley Alumni Big Band. That Micah, always ahead of his time! He is not even graduated yet, and yet he is already in the Alumni Big Band. No mystery there; Micah is a first call trombone on the Cal Bears jazz scene. ...
Micah and I visited Jack London Square to hear one of the most amazing big bands on the planet, Gordon Goodwin’s “Big Phat Band.” And we were joined by an enthusiastic crowd with a line stretching out the door. Big band nerds of planet, unite! The music was energetic, dazzling in complexity, and unfailingly tight. We especially liked the theme song from “The Incredibles”, which this band wrote and performed. Also a tribute to Looney Toons called “Hunting Wabbits.” ...