Thursday, February 29, 2024

SFJAZZ to Celebrate Women’s History Month

In addition to presenting its Discover Jazz series curated by SFJAZZ Lead Teaching Artist and pianist Tammy L Hall, SFJAZZ has created an impressive series of five programs, all taking place in the Joe Henderson Lab, in celebration of Women’s History Month. As I browsed through this impressive collection of events, I noticed that one of the events has already been marked as sold out. So time is of the essence for those that appreciate the value of the occasion. For those that do not already know, the Henderson Lab is on the ground floor of the SFJAZZ Center, which is located at 201 Franklin Street, on the northwest corner of Fell Street, where the main entrance doors are located. Performance dates, times, and hyperlinks for purchasing tickets are as follows:

Thursday, March 7, 7 p.m. and 8:30 p.m.: The first concert will be led by jazz and blues pianist Lisa Hilton. She will perform with a quartet that will be familiar to those readers that saw last December’s article on this site about her latest album, Coincidental Moment. She will perform with the same quartet musicians that accompanied her on that album: : Luques Curtis (bass), Igmar Thomas (trumpet), and Rudy Royston (percussion). Her visit to SFJAZZ will include music from that album.

Friday, March 8, 7 p.m. and 8:30 p.m.: Caroline Davis plays alto saxophone. She has formed Alula, a forward-looking electro-acoustic band. For her visit to SFJAZZ, she will be joined by two of her instrumentalists, Chris Tordini on bass and drummer Eliza Salem. However, the program will involve a balance of improvised and composed material amongst electronic samples from freedom fighters held in captivity for wrongful convictions.

Saturday, March 9, 7 p.m. and 8:30 p.m.: Katie Thiroux is a vocalist, who accompanies herself on bass. In other words, this will be a solo gig! Her performance will be based on her new project, Mothers of the Music. Her approach to performance was inspired by motherhood and the advice she received from fellow female musicians about the life of an artist with children. Some readers may recall reading about her “sophomore” album Off Beat on this site in August of 2017.

Sunday, March 10, 6 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.: Readers should be aware that, as of this writing, tickets for the 6 p.m. set are almost sold out. Vocalist Pamela Rose specializes in both jazz and blues. Her album Wild Women of Song: Great Gal Composers of the Jazz Era was conceived to bring attention to those women that contributed to the Great American Songbook. The title of her SFJAZZ program will be Blues is a Woman.

Thursday, March 21, 8:30 p.m.: (The 7 p.m. performance is already sold out.) Christina Galisatus is both a singer and a pianist. Her program will be a celebration of Joni Mitchell’s 1974 album Court & Spark. She was impressed by Mitchell’s synthesis of jazz with folk rock, and she will form a band with whom she will be able to reflect on that synthesis.

Friday, March 22, and Saturday, March 23, 7 p.m. and 8:30 p.m., and Sunday, March 24, 6 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.: The entire final weekend of the series will be taken by vocalist Jacqui Naylor. On each of the three nights, she will perform two different shows. Those performances will feature music from her new album Treasures of the Heart. Her arranger is Art Khu, who is also co-writer of her original works and will accompany her at the piano (and sometimes on guitar). The other rhythm players will be Richie Goods on bass and drummer Josh Jones.

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