Joe Henderson Lab at SFJAZZ: January, 2019

The Joe Henderson Lab of the SFJAZZ Center can join the ranks of Old First Concerts and the Center for New Music in having a list of events for this coming January that will not have to deal with conflicting options. Sadly, two of those events has already sold out all of their tickets; and, just as sadly, Henderson concerts will not begin until the middle of next month. So now seems like a good time to account for them before the tickets are gone for the rest of those events.

Like most of the Henderson offerings, all of these concerts will be given twice on the same evening, at 7 p.m. and 8:30 p.m., respectively. The last of them will also have a total of eight performances (at the same times) on four successive evenings. Each offering has its own event page, which has separate hyperlinks for purchasing tickets to the different concerts. Each of the dates in the enumeration below will have a hyperlink to the appropriate event page. The SFJAZZ Center is located at 201 Franklin Street, on the northwest corner of Fell Street.

Saturday, January 19: January will begin at the Henderson Lab with a series called Sing, Sing, Sing I, which will feature four female vocalists. Unfortunately, tickets are no longer available for the first two of those vocalists, Pamela Rose and Kat Edmondson. The third is San Francisco’s own Lori Carsillo, whose repertoire has brought the torch song into the 21st century. She brings emotionally restrained, unfussy sensibility to her interpretations of classic ballads. However, she also performs with Project: Pimento, which describes itself as the first “Theremin-lounge band.” (For those gigs Carsillo performs under the name Lola Bombay.) Her accompaniment at the Henderson will be more conventional, a quartet led by Adam Shulman at the piano with rhythm provided by Jeffrey Burr on guitar, Eric Markowitz on bass, and Vince Lateano on drums.

Sunday, January 20: The final vocalist in the Sing, Sing, Sing I series definitely deserves to be classified as “legendary.” Now in her ninth decade, Sheila Jordan has been recognized as an NEA Jazz Master. Her career began in Detroit in the Forties, where, like many of that time, she fell under the spell of saxophonist Charlie Parker, who would subsequently champion her own efforts. Her 1963 debut album for Blue Note in 1963 was history-making, since it was that label’s first release of a vocalist. Her Henderson program will have only one instrumental accompanist, Cameron Brown on bass.

Thursday, January 24–Sunday, January 27: This will be a four-night celebration of the 30th anniversary of the trio of guitarist Peter Bernstein, organist Larry Goldings, and drummer Bill Stewart. The group now has the honor of being the longest-lived and most virtuosic organ trio in existence. The group’s roots were planted in the organ trio tradition of Jimmy Smith, Jack McDuff, and Larry Young; but they have used the repertoire of these past masters to venture into fresh and exciting new territory. Much of the repertoire for their eight performances will be drawn from their latest album on the Pirouet label, Toy Tunes.