The Canadian born Oscar Peterson is undeniably one of the most influential pianists in jazz history. On June 12 at Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco, he will be acknowledged as a part of the 41st San Francisco Jazz Festival and his upcoming centennial. SF Jazz will introduce the U.S. premiere of Peterson’s previously unperformed “The Africa Suite” along with a full performance of his 1964 “Canadiana Suite” and a selection of his other notable compositions.
This concert will be anchored by a core quartet featuring Berkeley-raised pianist and Peterson’s protégé Benny Green, guitarist Russell Malone, bassist John Clayton and drummer Jeff Hamilton’s Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra. They will be joined by special guest pianists, NEA Jazz Master, and SF Jazz Resident Artistic Director Kenny Barron, Gerald Clayton and Tamir Hendelman, and bassist Robert Hurst. The evening will be hosted by SF Jazz Executive Artistic Director Terence Blanchard.
Peterson, who died in 2007, would have been proud to see his “Africa Suite” performed in public for the first time in the U.S. It originally debuted in 2020 at Koerner Hall in Toronto with a big band made up of all-star Canadian musicians, conducted by John Clayton with an accompanying piano trio of Benny Green, Christian McBride, and Lewis Nash.
Peterson started composing this expansive suite in the early 80s—or late 1970s, depending upon your references—but regardless, he only played a few of the pieces in concert, including “Nigerian Marketplace.” But he never performed the entire suite live, nor did he record it professionally. “It existed only in the form of home demos, using not acoustic piano but synthesizers, which enabled him to overdub many parts—from basslines to strings (Jazz Times, 2020).”
Alert people in the San Francisco area! For tickets, visit sfjazz.org.
The New Amsterdam Musical Association (NAMA) is the oldest Black musical organization in the U.S., founded in 1904. It was organized during segregation when the American Federation of Musicians Local 310 (now Local 802) denied admission to minority musicians while New York law stated only union members could perform in the city.
The association became a key cultural reference point for Black music during the Harlem Renaissance from the 1920s to 1950s. Members during the time included founder James Reese Europe, Eubie Blake, Will Marion Cook, and Charlie Parker, who was also a member of Kansas City’s Local 627, then known as the Colored Musicians Union, founded in 1917.
The organization has since become the Mutual Musicians Foundation; the original renovated space at 1823 Highland Avenue continues to serve as a social center for musicians with regular live performances.
Since purchasing their building at 107 West 130th Street on June 26, 1922, NAMA is now celebrating their 102nd anniversary. Like their Kansas City counterpart, the association is a testament to the history of African American musicians, having maintained their reputation as a venue for live music, as well as an influential voice for the promotion of jazz, blues, and beyond in Harlem and the greater Tri State area.
On June 16, NAMA will present its annual Men’s Legends Father’s Day Show (107 West 130th Street). The Gentlemen of NAMA will portray the lives and music of such artists as Nat King Cole, Duke Ellington, James Brown, Bill Withers, and Arthur Prysock. Presentations will be given by Dawn L. Jones and DaKota Pippins of Harlem Late Night Jazz.
The evening will be hosted by WHCR radio personality Lamon Fenner. Live music will be presented by a string of talented artists, including percussionist Manny Montanez Band with bassist Robb Roberts, pianists Eric Smith and Charles Lovell, and drummer Sam Newton. The roster romps on with pianist and vocalist Santiago Edie; vocalists Kaushik, Calvin Cody West, and Lorenzo Von Smith; spoken word poet Ras Amon; and drummer Glenn Goldman. The Ladies of NAMA will pay tribute to their dads: Harmony Bartz to her father Gary Bartz, and Imani Scott to hers, Martel Welsh Scott.
For tickets and a full listing of NAMA’s June events visit namaharlem.org.
The bassist, composer, poet, author, and community activist William Parker is a creative inventor, a musical explorer. His music exemplifies life’s daily existence of improvisation in the unknown of now and moments yet to arrive, it reflects not only Black American Music but the many cultures that invigorate the globe. Parker’s music, like his poetry, is a vibrant source of inspiration. It brightens the soul and enhances the spirit, and it’s the link to his commitment to community activism, bringing people together for the common good to feel better, to do better. All of which are absorbed in his music of avant-gardism, voices of modern jazz to string quartet, duo, vocal art songs, big band, classical, and folk music. Two albums that best describe his totality: in “The Mayor of Punkville,” William Parker and The Little Huey Creative Music Orchestra (AUM Fidelity 2000), the entire album electrifies, but the track “James Baldwin to the Rescue,” sums it up vocally and instrumentally; and his epic 10-album CD box set “The Music of William Parker: Migration of Silence Into and Out of the Tone World, Volumes 1-10” (Centering Records, AUM Fidelity 2021). Each album focuses on a single band or performer and concept, presenting the vast magnitude of Parker’s musical kaleidoscope.
Parker will be presented with the Lifetime Achievement Award on opening night of the Vision Festival 28 on June 18, a festival that he co-founded with his wife, dancer and activist Patricia Nicholson Parker in 1996 on the Lower East Side. The bassist’s showcase night will happen both in-person and online, streaming on Roulette Intermedium from downtown Brooklyn (509 Atlantic Avenue). The evening (6 p.m. – 10:30 p.m.) will feature the New York native in varied configurations; Roots and Rituals (with indigenous instruments), Parker playing doson ngoni (a West African string instrument), Joshua Abrams on gimbre (Moroccan ancient flute), and Jackson Krall on Ibo bells (Nigerian iron bells of different sizes with varied tones). “The Ancients” features the compelling group of Parker, the Chicago penetrating tenor saxophonist Isaiah Collier, drummer William Hooker, and pianist Dave Burrell.
The bassist has two new albums out June 21, on AUM Fidelity/Centering Records (Parker’s independent company) to coincide with the bestowal of this latest recognition. The albums are entitled “Heart Trio” and feature his longtime collaborators, pianist Cooper-Moore and drummer and percussionist Hamid Drake, as well as “Cereal Music,” his first spoken word album of original poetry.
Vision Festival 28 comes to a finale on June 23 with a grand celebration of the 100-year orbit of saxophonist Marshall Allen as he leads the famed afrofusion group Arkestra (he’s led since 1995). The Vision Festival, with its enthralling avant-gardism blended with interpretative dance, prose, and multimedia concepts, is a nest of virtual movement. The days in between will be motivated by the likes of Davalois Fearon; James Brandon Lewis and Chad Taylor; Matthew Shipp Trio CMA; and Nasheet Waits: Tarbaby. There will also be commissioned works by Matana Roberts, Melanie Dyer’s new large ensemble, and Mendoza Hoff Revels.
For a complete listing and tickets, visit roulette.org.