Smith Dobson, tenor sax     and vibraphone Luke Westbrook, guitar Noah Schenker, bass Hamir Atwal, drums Smith Dobson debuts a new quartet to explore some of his own writing and aspects of the jazz canon that inform his sensibility. Without doubt, Smith is one of the key players on the San Francisco jazz scene…

Come on out to our 2nd Sunday Surf-a-billy Swing Time Dance Party! This month, it’s The Pleasure Palace, featuring the guitarero of North Beach, Ned Boynton; organ grinder Lorenzo Farrell and drummer/raconteur Rolf Wilkinson!  You’re going to love this little band and their swinging little repertoire. They’re beyond category, so we won’t assay to pigeonhole…

Walker Talks!  A monthly series of ruminations by Walker Brents on diverse subjects — from individual writers and philosophers, to bits of mythology, epic tales and cultural turning points.   Today, Walker will plumb the subject of the Greek mystery religions- cults that persisted for centuries and even millennia, each with its own secret rituals,…

Part elegy, part memoir, part early-stage movie script, Naked takes the reader into a specific time and place from Donnelle McGee’s life and connects us to his origins. McGee is a confessional poet for today, unflinching but not distant, self-aware but not self-absorbed. He doesn’t shy away from hard terrain; instead, he forces the reader…

Guitarist Calvin Keys has been featured on many acclaimed recordings since the early 1970s, both as a leader and a sideman, with such artists as Ahmad Jamal, Ray Charles, and Bobby Hutcherson.   He’s also long been a mainstay of the Oakland jazz scene.  We are more than pleased to welcome him for his second appearance…