Seen & Heard: Bay Area Women in Jazz & Beyond

We kick off this special series with Tammy L. Hall’s celebrated Realtime Collective, featuring special guests Tiffany Austin (vocals) and Dr. Angela Wellman (trombonist and founder of the Oakland Public Conservatory of Music). Part performance and part conversation, this first class will amplify the stories of Bay Area female trailblazers and illuminate their multidimensional career paths. From the band room to the board room, from the recording studio to the stage, we elevate the stories of some of our local “sheroes” in jazz music and education. 

PERSONNEL
Tammy L. Hall piano & musical director
Kristen Strom sax
Ruth Davies bass
Sylvia Cuenca drums

SPECIAL GUESTS
Tiffany Austin vocals
Dr. Angela Wellman trombone

A woman’s place is...in the big band! During World War II, as men were called or volunteered to go and fight, women instrumentalists came forward and kept us swinging on the dance floors across the country. From the International Sweethearts of Rhythm and Ina Ray Hutton’s Melodears, to the groundbreaking work of trombonist-composer Melba Liston and pianist-composer Mary Lou Williams, we know that these women—and many others—held their own on stage and on the road despite enormous obstacles. This evening, we are proud to present MELBA’S KITCHEN—an all-women big band founded and rooted in the Bay Area—presenting music composed by Mary Lou Williams and Melba Liston, along with Bay Area composer-arrangers Nzingah Smith and Tammy L Hall. We also feature two rising stars making waves in jazz as our special guests: drummer Jay Hernández and trumpeter (and SFJAZZ High School All-Star) Skylar Tang. It’ll be a great night for swingin’! 

PERSONNEL
Nzingah Smith musical director, co-leader, woodwinds
Pat Mullan co-leader, trombone
Georgianna Krieger alto sax, soprano sax
Cynthia Mah alto sax, flute
Jeunesse Monroe-Speed tenor sax
Brenda Thompson bari sax, clarinet
Marina Garza trumpet
Meghan Ingle trumpet
Sue Leonardi trumpet & flugelhorn
Jessica Hom trombone
Dr. Angela Wellman trombone
Debra Temple piano
Susanne DiVincenzo bass
Nancy Geimer drums
Renaye Brown percussion
Deborah Tisdale vocals

SPECIAL GUESTS
Jessica Jones tenor sax
Jay Hernández drums
Skylar Tang trumpet

Since her arrival in 1959 from her native Cuba, vocalist, bandleader and cultural icon Bobi Céspedes has carved a unique place in the Bay Area music scene. Lauded as the first female Cuban artist to establish her own groundbreaking band in Northern California—Conjunto Céspedes—Bobi has upheld both the sacred Afrodiasporic traditions of the santería religion and the dance-inducing grooves of the Cuban son and bolero. As a songstress, bandleader and educator, Bobi continues to maintain her deeply entrenched praxis in Afro-Cuban music and ritual in her decades-long career as a performer and recording artist. In this third installment of our Discover Jazz series, Bobi is joined by a host of celebrated musicians, each of whom has also embodied a deep love and advocacy for the music of Cuba right here in the Bay Area.  

PERSONNEL
Bobi Céspedes bandleader, lead vocals & percussion
Marco Diaz piano, trumpet & musical director
Lichi Fuentes vocals, guitar & percussion
Chloe Scott flute
Elizabeth Sayre batá, congas, percussion & coro
Mena Ramos batá & coro
Michaelle Goerlitz bongos & percussion
Javier Navarrette batá, percussion & coro
Ernesto Mazar Kindelán bass
Camilo Landau tres
Rebeca Mauleón piano, vocals & arrangements

Vocalist, bandleader, songwriter, producer, arranger and cultural warrior Linda Tillery is not only a prolific artist and iconic figure among the women we amplify in this series, she happens to be a native San Franciscan! Encompassing multiple genres and spanning several decades, Tillery launched her singing career at age 19 with Bay Area rock band, The Loading Zone, and went on to establish herself as a pioneer in the Women’s Music movement after stints as a session musician and vocalist for Huey Lewis and the News, Boz Scaggs, Coke Escovedo, Bobby McFerrin and Carlos Santana, among many others. Tillery founded her groundbreaking ensemble, the Cultural Heritage Choir, in 1992, dedicating herself to deeper exploration of Afro-descendant traditions through her love of ethnomusicology. For our final class in this series, we pull out all the stops and present a star-studded tribute to Ms. Tillery with some of her long-time collaborators and dear friends. Join us in celebrating a true Bay Area icon!

PERSONNEL
Linda Tillery vocals, percussion & musical director
Vicki Randle percussion & vocals
Aya de Leon narration
Rhonda Benin vocals
Tammi Brown vocals
Zoe Ellis vocals
Bryan Dyer vocals
Naia Tillery vocals
Calvin Tillery vocals
Jackeline Rago vocals & percussion
Kristen Strom tenor sax
Melecio Magdaluyo alto and bari sax
Jeff Cressman trombone
Marina Garza trumpet
Ray Obiedo guitar
Tammy L. Hall piano
David K. Mathews keyboards
Rebeca Mauleón piano
Kofy Brown bass
Mark Van Wageningen bass
John Santos percussion
Javier Navarrete percussion & vocals
Leon Joyce Jr drums