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  • Artist Highlight – UC Jazz Ensembles

    by Ranie Smith, Executive Director of the UC Jazz Club

    “The UC Jazz Club wishes to thank all its members and the community at large for your continued support. “

    “An Evening at Yoshi’s “

    On November 12, 2007 the UC Jazz Ensembles performed their First Annual Fundraising Concert. The performance was stellar. Ted Moore, the Musical Director, Brad Brennan, Associate Director of Student Musical Activities together the Carol Suveda, Head of the Fundraising committee were pleased with the community response. It was clear that the community was greatly pleased with the students performance.

    The fundraiser could not have been as successful without the strong support of Linda Marquardt, mother of Megan Marquardt. Megan dazzled audiences with her stellar performance. Members of the audience who had not experienced a UC Jazz Ensembles show expressed their astonishment. They applauded the performances, the flawless timing and the amazing solo performances, and the creative interplay between the instruments. 

    Enjoy the performance! Eddie Lankford Productions filmed a large part of it for your enjoyment. We hope that you will agree with the UC Jazz Club members that this is a worthwhile music program that provides these committed and talented students a chance to deepen their talent. Your continued support is much appreciated. 

    Frank Martin’s Advanced Combo brought a performance worthy of the beautiful and renown venue at Yoshi’s. Megan Marquardt, tenor sax, and Rolf Olson, tenor sax, gave a stunning performance together with Jeff Wiguna. Ryan Finch, bass, and Alex Wheatley, drums and Luke Hardesty, drums grounded the performance with their flawless rhythm section. They opened up with “Steps” by Chick Corea, brought the house down with “Sonnymoon for Two” by Sonny Rollins. Rosette Diaz, special guest vocalist, stole the show with her spirited and ravishing performance of “Straighten Up and Fly Right”. Megan Marquardt and Rolf Olson amazed the audience with their rendition of “Nardis” by Miles Davis, and Jeff Wiguna, held the audience spell-bound with his performance of “Armando’s Rumba” by Chick Corea. 

    Ted Moore’s Advanced Combo gave a performance that gave you the feeling of being in the presence of greatness. Amy Shen shined on both the flute and the alto saxophone. She was complimented and supported by Andrew Baltazar on tenor sax, whose performance was flawless and mature giving you the feeling of listening to a much older jazz great. Richard Conway, trumpet, amazed as always with his precision and technique. Kirk Danielson, an award-winning pianist, carried off a performance that silenced the room with the audience spell-bound. Gary Johnson, bass, captured the audience and left them hungry for more. We hope he will keep playing because we want to hear him any chance we can get. He is hugely talented. Yanik Jayaram, drums, has a light touch that gave this ensemble a light-hearted backdrop. They performed Invitation by Kaper/Washington, Tuties, by Gary Johnson – we will keep watching his career. Please Gary keep playing! The classic of “Love for Sale” by Cole Porter was followed by the Killer June by Ted Moore and Rubidium, by Amy Shen. This ensemble touched the soul and left you wishing for more. 

    The second set began with Dann Zinn’s Advanced Combo who showed Amy Shen and Andrew Baltazar on woodwinds. Amy is so amazing! She composes and is stellar on every instrument she plays. Charles Chen gave a piano performance that was passionate and showed off his technique. Clayton Ernst and the superbly talented Benny Amon played with a majority beyond their age in supporting the band. The entire ensemble played in a way that gave the impression that these complex pieces were easy for them to play. They performed “Free for All” by Wayne Shorter, “Mei Hua” by Amy Shen, “Solace in a Dream” by Amy Shen, and “Eat the Piano” by Charles Chen. 

    The show ended with a stellar Big Band performance, which we unfortunately could not film this time around. They were amazing and we encourage you to read the UC Jazz Newsletter regularly to make sure you can catch them next time. Steve Campos organizes regular performances with his Big Band and we encourage you to check out his impressive background. His experience is transmitted to the Big Band who play together as though have have been together for years. 

    Please join the UC Jazz Club and join in the fun. Our club members learned quickly that the joy we get out of supporting this wonderful program greatly outweighs the effort we put into supporting them. Join in the fun of keeping this all important cultural program alive. Come to the performances or give a secure online donation using your credit card at: https://egiving.berkeley.edu/urelgift/jazz.html 

    We appreciate your support! And, we hope you enjoy this and future shows! 

    Warm Regards, 

    Ranie Smith
    Executive Director, UC Jazz Club

    We have much to appreciate this year! 

    Enjoy the photo library

  • UC Jazz Ensembles Kick-off Concert -September 2007

    Friday, Sept. 14, 2007 
    UC Jazz will present it’s kick-off concert for the new year. The performance will feature UC Jazz Faculty along with special guest, electic bassist Kai Eckhardt.

    Kai Eckhardt performs with the UC Jazz Club faculty to kick off the 2007 Semester of the UC Jazz Ensembles
    Kai Eckhardt performs with the UC Jazz Club faculty to kick off the 2007 Semester of the UC Jazz Ensembles

    The Bay Area based bass legend, Kai Eckhardt, has performed all over the world with many great artists including John MacLaughlin, and recorded a critically acclaimed live concert with him in the Royal Albert Hall in London. The concert will also feature many new compositions and arrangements of the UC Jazz director, Ted Moore. 
    This is a free concert and will be held in the Choral Rehearsal Hall at 8PM in the basement of the Cesar Chavez Center on campus. For more info contact Ted Moore; tmoore@ucjazz.berkeley.edu

  • Introduction to the UC Jazz Club

    The UC Jazz Club was founded by the students of UC Jazz Ensembles and its faculty. Our goal is to share our fine tradition of Jazz with our members and the community at large. UC Jazz Ensembles have been teaching students since 1966. We hope our members will enjoy our monthly newsletter, our performances and most importantly we hope you will support our effort to expand our popular program. We invite donors and volunteers to contineue to support our growing program and to join us now. The UC Jazz Club offers several unique sponsorship opportunities which will support us in our goal to remodel the UC Jazz studios. With your support we will also maintain and grow our current resources in the studios. This includes the purchase and maintenance of our equipment, expanding and renovating our practice areas, adding to our jazz library and ultimately making recordings of live performances of our big band and ensembles. Our goal is to uphold the UC Jazz tradition which has enchanted the world. We have taught students how to carry on this wonderful musical tradition with great success. Jazz has become mainstream and is becoming increasingly popular. Please contact Ted Moore, director of UC Jazz Ensembles to learn about the program. You may also contact RioVida Networks for assistance to set up interviews with the faculty, students and fund-raising committee.

    Meet the UC Jazz Team

    Ted Moore – Director of the UC Jazz Ensembles

    Robert Cole – Cal Performances

    Doug Warrick– Cal Performances

    Brad Brennan– Student Musical Activities

    Carol Suveda – Student Musical Activities

    Amy Shen – UC Jazz Ensembles Advisor

    Scott Hayes – Alumni

    Ranie Smith – Writer/Executive Editor

    Ralph Baker – Executive Editor

    Rodney Brooks – VP Marketing

    Jim Dennis – Photography?

    Justin Nakamura – Public Relations

    Rolando Morales – Musical Performer

    Kevin Lynch – Technical Director

    Edie Okamoto – Writer/Producer

    Amy Shen – UC Jazz Ensembles Advisor

  • Artist Highlight – Frankye Kelly

    Frankye Kelly – photography Jim Dennis 

    “Music makes people feel! That’s what it’s all about.”
    — Frankye Kelly 

    When people hear Frankye Kelly sing – they understand first hand what a true Diva is all about. Listening to her perform makes you feel like you are in the presence of true greatness. Her passion and sweetness comes across in some songs, her passion and strength in others and at all times it is performed with true class. 

    It was obvious from an early age that Frankye Kelly would be a singer. Living in Jackson, Mississippi for a few years with her grandparents, she remembers performing in a play when she was just three. Since her father was in the Air Force, her childhood was spent living in many different locations including California, Minnesota, Germany and Delaware and back to California. She heard the music of Duke Ellington, Count Basie and Sarah Vaughan along the way as well as Fats Domino and Little Richard although most of her early singing was in church, acapella groups and choirs. She got married very young and devoted herself to her children until they were grown. 

    After her children were grown Frankye Kelly decided to start performing jazz. At a family reunion Frankye received important guidance from her cousin, the late great blues master Albert Collins, click to see U-tube Albert Collins famous “Iceman” performance. The main thing Albert told her is that it is up to her to please and reach her audience, and he told her to always sing what she felt. He flew Frankye Kelly to a lot of his concerts to have her experience life of a musician and to see what is was like. She saw how hard he worked and was inspired.

    Nine years after Frankye had moved to San Francisco, in 1989, Frankye Kelly pursued her dream of being a jazz singer. She explained: “I wanted to sing jazz because of its freedom and because that way I could express myself the way I wanted. I studied jazz not only to learn the music but to learn about myself. I didn’t want to listen too closely to singers because I didn’t want to copy anyone, so instead I listened constantly to Miles Davis. I always loved the way he played. He would take his time, not rushing into it, and he played with a lot of feeling.” 

    Frankye has recorded three CDs: The Night is Young was recorded at Kimball’s West and showed those at the time who were unfamiliar with her just how talented a jazz singer she is, serving as a strong introduction. My Life, More Than It Is: Not Just the Blues is an appealing mixture of pop, blues, R&B and jazz, displaying a great deal of variety but staying consistently rewarding. Her most recent CD, Live at Yoshi’s, Frankye Kelly Sings Songs For My Father, was recorded on several occasions at Yoshi’s Jazz House, and is a collection of some of her favorite jazz songs. It is dedicated to her father who was at all of the sessions and has since passed away.

    Frankye Kelly will be leaving for Thailand for a four month tour next month. We are fortunate to have this living legend chose the Bay Area as her home. In 2006, Frankye Kelly spent six months singing in China, performing in Shanghai during a pair of lengthy visits. She regularly performs in France, Mexico, Japan and China and throughout the US. She has sung at many jazz festivals including the San Francisco Jazz Festival, the San Jose Jazz Festival and the Fillmore Jazz Festival. Frankye Kelly has performed in the Bay Area at Yoshi’s, “Top of the Mark” at the Mark Hopkins Hotel (with pop superstar Ricardo Scales), Jazz at Pearl’s, Kimball’s East, Kimball’s West and at the Ritz Carlton Hotels.

    Frankye Kelly is a busy woman aside of touring and performing locally, she teaches Jazz workshops in Napa, CA and France, spends time with young girls in the community, hosts a TV show “Jazz with Frankye” now in its 10th season, watch her interview with another Bay Area Great – Wayne Wallace. 

    Frankye Kelly often performs at the prestigious JAZZschool in Berkeley, CA.