Bebop and Latin Jazz are Coming to the Cadillac Hotel at the Beginning of Next Month

The Concerts at the Cadillac series at the Cadillac Hotel in the Tenderloin will kick off next month with a free concert by Orion’s Joy of Sextet Jazz and Latin Jazz. Orion is the leader playing drums and cowbell. The group has two saxophonists, Ruben Salcido on alto and Jim Grantham on tenor; and the rest of the rhythm section consists of Steven McQuarry on piano, Dave Casini on vibraphone, and Jim Shearer on bass. As the group’s name suggests, the repertoire is a heady blend of Latin with bebop, somewhat in the spirit of how Dizzy Gillespie worked with both bebop and Afro-Cuban influences.

This concert will begin at 12:30 p.m. on Friday, August 5, and last for about an hour. The Cadillac Hotel is located at 380 Eddy Street, on the northeast corner of Leavenworth Street. Those serious about their jazz know that this site is a short walk from where the Black Hawk nightclub used to be, a venue where musicians such as Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk, and Cal Tjader made some of their recordings. The performance will take place in the hotel’s lobby, which is the home of the Patricia Walkup Memorial Piano, a fully-restored 1884 Steinway Model D Concert Grand. The purpose of the Concerts at the Cadillac series is to provide high-quality music to the residents of the hotel and the Tenderloin District; but all are invited to visit the venue that calls itself “The House of Welcome Since 1907.”