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Late last summer, I had the opportunity to photograph Terrence Brewer near Oakland’s City Hall for the cover shot of his now-released new album QuintEssential — which is currently #17 on the national jazz charts. Thanks for the good times Terrence!

Next up is an outstanding performance from the Mitch Marcus Quintet +13 playing live at the Metro Opera in Oakland on April 12, 2007. This was a seriously fun show, I mean how can you not like listening to a live big band with that many great musicians playing such a diverse set of songs? The lineup included Mitch’s standard quintet grouped together with a substantial horn section made up of lots of local talent. These guys don’t get together in this format too often, so make sure to keep an eye on Mitch’s Calendar so you can check them out the next time around. Trust me, it’ll be worth it!

Also, thanks to Mitch’s generous permission, I’m able to share this excellent recording made from a single stereo pair of mics placed dead center right in front of the action. My mics had the best seat in the house, and now you can hear the entire show from that exact same spot! Enjoy…

 Joey Rubber Special [12:52m]: Play Now | Download
 Pork Chops [10:34m]: Play Now | Download
 Mangoes [4:11m]: Play Now | Download
 Inditranego [18:12m]: Play Now | Download
 Hello Don [17:02m]: Play Now | Download
 Maggie's Mambo [Machito] [5:23m]: Play Now | Download
 3rd Movement of Big Castle Suite [8:46m]: Play Now | Download

Here’s a couple of nice photo’s of Gojogo opening for the Mitch Marcus Big Band at the Metro Opera House in Oakland on April 12, 2007.

I first met Terrence Brewer last year at the Fillmore Street Jazz Fest. Since then, I’ve stayed in touch and through an incredible coincidence ended up sharing a pizza with him, his wife, and my wife at John’s Pizzeria of Bleeker Street in the West Village of New York City last January. It was then when we hatched a plan for me to come photograph and record the Terrence Brewer Quintet’s upcoming performance at Yoshi’s in Oakland on March 20, 2007.

Well, just as planned two months earlier, I had the privilege of helping document the group’s first time playing at the historic Yoshi’s in Jack London Square on what was a particularly special night for the band and their fans. The quintet was led by Terrence on guitar, with Kasey Knudsen playing saxophones and Ben Stolorow on keys, and backed by the rhythm section of Ravi Abcarian on double bass and Micah McClain on drums. The band featured songs from Terrence’s The Calling Volume One and Volume Two, and they also treated the audience to several brand new songs, including the first-ever public performance of Kismet, that will be included on their upcoming studio album which is scheduled to be recorded later this summer at the famous Fantasy Studios in Berkeley.

Below, I’ve included my best pictures from the night, and Terrence was gracious enough to let me post three live audio tracks that I recorded of the first set. So, let me speak on behalf of all of Terrence and his band’s fans when I say thank you for letting me share some of this special evening with the world!

[Please note that more photos from the evening can be found in fellow Bay Area jazz blogger In2Jazz’s Photostream on Flickr.]

 Murray's Law [10:06m]: Play Now | Download
 Cat Nap [6:58m]: Play Now | Download
 Ray of Hope [10:25m]: Play Now | Download

Here’s a new post of an outstanding recording I made of D’Armous Boone’s Improv Consortium playing live as part of The Jazz House’s Free-Jazz Fridays Series at Scott Looney’s 8th Street Performance Space in West Oakland on January 19, 2007. With D’Armous Boone leading the group on tenor sax, he was joined by another talented sax player, Howard Wiley, as well as D’Armous’ old friend Matthew Goodheart on piano and the always-potent rhythms of Sameer Gupta on drums. The band grooved their way through an hour of fantastic improvisational free jazz for the packed house to enjoy, and they were gracious enough to let me release the recording under a Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial Share Alike 2.5 License.

 Introduction [0:42m]: Play Now | Download
 Acknowledgement [9:37m]: Play Now | Download
 Lines, Planes & Shapes [12:29m]: Play Now | Download
 Joyful Sorrow [17:58m]: Play Now | Download
 Soliloquy [9:02m]: Play Now | Download
 D'Armous Track 6 [10:23m]: Play Now | Download

I recently had the pleasure of meeting Rob Woodworth, who some of you may know as the Director of The Jazz House. Rob is a huge supporter of jazz in the Bay Area and for several years operated out of a small space in Berkeley before losing his lease when his landlord sold the building (which turned out to be a real loss for the community). Besides putting on 20+ shows a month when he had his place in Berkeley, The Jazz House was also formed as a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization run mostly by volunteers that provided youth with opportunities to learn through workshops, perform live, create and compose music, and share in a community-driven and family-friendly jazz environment with professional musicians offering guidance along the way.

Rob is a great guy, and despite the tragic loss of his lease two years ago, continues to sponsor events and live performances in the Bay Area whenever he can. Currently, Rob has organized a series of gigs dubbed Free-Jazz Fridays that take place at Scott Looney’s 8th Street Performance Space in his West Oakland studio space. After checking with the band beforehand, Rob invited me to come record and photograph the very first performance B-Free on what turned out to be a cold and rainy day that provided the perfect atmosphere to listen to live music in such a cozy and intimate underground jazz setting. The group featured Bill Crossman on piano, C. Schwartz on tenor and soprano sax, Nzingah Smith on flute and alto sax, and Akinyele Sadiq playing percussion. It was an adventurous free-jazz ride through improvisational pieces that spanned influences from world beat to jazz to avant-garde to classical and back again. It was truly a unique improvisational performance in a unique intimate underground venue — a combination that (for me) epitomizes what live music is all about.

So, I hope you enjoy these photographs and audio recordings from the night’s performance, and if you can find time in your busy schedules, make sure to check out the next Free-Jazz Fridays event put on by The Jazz House which will feature music inspired by the great Ornette Coleman. And, I’d also like to give a final shout out to the musicians of B-Free for putting on such a great show and for allowing me to share it with all of you!

 B-Free 1 [3:45m]: Play Now | Download
 B-Free 2 [9:18m]: Play Now | Download
 B-Free 3 [5:53m]: Play Now | Download
 B-Free 4 [3:45m]: Play Now | Download
 B-Free 5 [5:57m]: Play Now | Download
 B-Free 6 [6:46m]: Play Now | Download
 B-Free 7 [5:02m]: Play Now | Download
 B-Free 8 [4:41m]: Play Now | Download
 B-Free 9 [17:39m]: Play Now | Download