John Schott, guitar
Dan Seamans, bass
John Hanes, drums
with guest pianist Maya Kronfeld

$20 cash cover charge; byob.
Doors open ten minutes before the show.
Reservations, call the shop at 415-586-3733.

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Pianist Maya Kronfeld, a Berkeley native and a long-time friend of Actual Trio’s leader John Schott, has performed with such visionaries as Samora Pinderhughes, Georgia Anne Muldrow, Aja Monet and Thana Alexa. She’s returned for the holidays from her “day job,” teaching philosophy and literature at Princeton University, and thus is able to join John’s trio for the occasion of this Bird & Beckett date.

Trio members Dan Seamans and John Hanes are, and have been for decades, key players in the Bay Area’s jazz community, particularly prized by its adventurous, cutting edge avant garde.

As for John, a cornerstone of the community with a global reputation, he notes that his early music training was courtesy of the Seattle Public Schools. During high school, he took private lessons from Gary Peacock, one of the giants of jazz. John studied classical composition at Cornish College of the Arts, and was influenced by Bay Area ex-pats Roger Nelson, Thomasa Eckert, Janice Giteck, Jerry Granelli and Julian Priester in school and while gigging in jazz combos around the Seattle area.

John moved to Berkeley in 1988, and soon formed the band Planet Good with Scott Amendola and Trevor Dunn, and then T.J. Kirk with Charlie Hunter and Will Bernard. T.J. Kirk signed with a major label, released three records and toured as John was simultaneously forming Junk Genius with Dunn, Ben Goldberg and Kenny Wollesen. Junk Genius toured in Europe and released records on Knitting Factory and Songlines. Along the way during those years John was active with the Rova Sax Quartet, John Zorn, Tom Waits, Ledisi and Peter Apfelbaum.  John has four records under his own name, on Tzadik, New World Recordings and his own label Smash the State!

In 2002, he taught for a year at UC Berkeley, including an upper-division seminar on Duke Ellington. He has been a frequent guest with the Paul Dresher Ensemble, including performances all over the United States of Steven Mackey and Rinde Eckert’s opera Ravenshead. Other current bands include the Baguette Quartette, Sarah Wilson’s Kaleidoscope, the Compositions of John Coltrane Band and, of course, the Actual Trio, which plays the first Sunday of every month at the Actual Café in Oakland.