On Friday the 4th, Dred Scott hits town for the Fillmore Jazz Festival. With vibes player Tom Beckham, they’ll perform a duo set at 5pm, delving into the crystal silence of the classic Chick Corea collaborations that produced three sparkling albums in the early 1970s. Dred is a jazz pianist of the first water, based in NYC for many years since his days as a key figure in the Berkeley High contingent that spearheaded the west coast acid jazz days, soaked in a heavy Latin vibe. Check his site and calendar here.

Guitarist Duncan James brings a trio in on the duo’s heels, with guitarist Ned Boynton and bassist Simon Planting, from 7:30-9:30 Friday the 4th, reflecting on Duncan’s experience with the legendary, groundbreaking guitarist George Barnes. Duncan, along with local heroes Dean Reilly (bass) and Benny Barth (drums) made up Barnes’ quartet in the final few years before Barnes passed of a heart attack in 1977, at the early age of 56.

Born in 1921, at age 10 Barnes was likely the first person to play an electrically amplified guitar — a Sears Roebuck Silvertone fitted with a pickup by his brother and fed through an amplifier. Barnes joined the Musicians Union in 1932 at age 12, and launched a 45-year career. Between 1935 and 1937,  he toured throughout the Midwest gigged around Chicago with his own bands, and by the time he was 14 he was accompanying blues vocalists such as Big Bill Broonzy and Blind John Davis. In 1937, he was discovered by Tommy Dorsey’s clarinetist Johnny Mince, and his career really took off.  On March 1, 1938, still just 16, he recorded “Sweetheart Land” and “It’s a Lowdown Dirty Shame” with Broonzy, the first commercial recordings of an electric guitar. Later in 1938, age 17, he was hired as a staff guitarist for the NBC orchestra in Chicago and took on arranging and conducting duties as well. He never stopped swingin’.

Barnes made two lps in 1960-61 that he orchestrated for a 10-guitar choir, and guitar duos became a successful format for him soon after, first with Carl Kress, from 1961 to 1965, and then with Bucky Pizzarelli from 1969 to 1972. A quartet with cornet player Ruby Braff followed, producing 5 lps between 1973 and 1977, the last four with Concord Records, an association which prompted Barnes’s move with his wife to the Bay Area in 1975.

Once here, he put together the George Barnes Quartet, with Duncan James on guitar, Dean Reilly on bass and Benny Barth on drums. This was Barnes’s last quartet, as he died of a heart attack in 1977 at the young age of 56. The quartet burned bright in those two years and is captured in live dates on two lps, “George Barnes Plays So Good” and “Don’t Get Around Much Anymore.” The quartet played intricate arrangements written by Barnes and performed like a chamber group, but with room to stretch out during solos and the freedom to respond to what was going on in the ensemble at any given moment.

This Bird & Beckett date harkens back to Duncan’s experience in that quartet, under the tutelage of one of the jazz greats, chapter 2 in Duncan’s exploration building on a date with Ned last summer.

Tonight’s date is presented with the generous financial assistance of Jazz in the Neighborhood, a 501(c)3 dedicated to spreading the joy of live jazz in alternative venues throughout the Bay Area. Learn more at jazzintheneighborhood.org

More live jazz in the bookshop to come this weekend!

On Saturday the 5th at 7:30, it’s chamber jazz with tbd (a quintet), pairing Erik Jekabson and Mario Guarneri on trumpets, with John Wiitala on bass and Akira Tana on drums, and making a welcoming space for the rising trumpet talent of young Lucas Davis. Once again, Jazz in the Neighborhood has stepped up to help us pay the musicians a guaranteed fair wage, and to make way to support an emerging artist tonight. We can’t exaggerate our appreciation of the work they do. Do please consider making a tax-deductible donation to JitN to help them in their mission to make live jazz ubiquitous in San Francisco, with a laser-like focus on developing the sustainable economic viability that our wonderful pool of professional musicians needs, especially in  this perilous era.

Sunday at 5pm, the Yoav Konig Sextet plays a set and hosts our monthly student-centric jam session. Six fine high school students showing that the future is bright indeed for jazz in our America!