Saturday, January 19, 2019

Joe Henderson Lab at SFJAZZ: February, 2019

I am afraid that I have been somewhat negligent in my efforts to keep up with the events at the Joe Henderson Lab on the ground floor of the SFJAZZ Center. February 8 is the currently the earliest date for a Henderson gig for which tickets are still available. So I had better get moving to account for the rest of next month!

It continues to be the case that Henderson offerings are given two performances on a single evening. Times are at 7 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. except for Sundays, when the events usually take place at 6 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Each offering has its own event page, which has separate hyperlinks for purchasing tickets to the different time slots. 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.

Friday, February 8: The only performer in the Banjo, Blues, & the Bayou series for whom tickets are still available is Don Vappie. Described by NPR as “banjo picker, singer, and purveyor of Creole Culture,” Vappie is celebrating the 300th anniversary of his hometown, New Orleans, with music from his new trio album. The other members of the trio have not been named on the event page, so there is a good chance that this will be a solo performance.

Thursday, February 14: Valentine’s Day will mark the beginning of the Week of Love series, which will offer concerts in both Miner Auditorium and the Henderson Lab. Oakland soul singer Lilan Kane will kick things offer in the Henderson with a program of classic love songs. She fronts a six-piece band called Hella Fitzgerald. This offers both a tribute to Ella Fitzgerald and a mashup of vintage jazz, swing, jump blues, and classic soul styles.

Friday, February 15: Kane will present a second program, which will be a tribute concert for soul icon Etta James.

Saturday, February 16, and Sunday, February 17: Vocalist Faye Carol will wrap up the Henderson Week of Love activities with two-set evenings on both Saturday and Sunday. Her repertoire takes in jazz, blues, and rhythm and blues. She is equally comfortable with crooning standards, delivering torch songs, and improvising scat singing in bebop improvisations. For these concerts she will be accompanied only by pianist Joe Warner.

Thursday, February 21: This week drummer Jaz Sawyer will present a series of concerts under the general title Percussion Discussion. The first of these will be the next Hotplate offering, which reproduces a landmark recording from one of the major jazz masters of the past. For this concert the album will be Dance of the Sun, which was led by drummer Eddie Marshall, who was joined by vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson. Steve Nelson will join Sawyer to reproduce Hutcherson’s contributions to the sessions recorded on that album. The other performers will be Edward Simon on piano, James Mahone on saxophones and flute, and David Ewell on bass.

Friday, February 22–Sunday, February 24: The remainder of the Percussion Discussion performances will focus on Hutcherson. The same quintet will perform. Selections will span Hutcherson’s career, beginning with his contribution to Jackie McLean’s One Step Beyond Blue Note album in 1963, proceeding through other classic Sixties Blue Note sessions, and moving to albums of the Seventies released by Columbia and Landmark.

Thursday, February 28: The month will conclude with a solo piano performance by Lisa Hilton. She will perform music from her latest album OASIS. Hilton is an eclectic performer whose influences come from jazz, blues, and a few hints of classical. Composers that have inspired her include Count Basie, Horace Silver, George Gershwin, Robert Johnson, and Sergei Rachmaninoff. Hilton will give only one performance, which will begin at 8 p.m.

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