Mark Levine wrote the book on jazz piano… specifically, The Jazz Piano Book (Sher Music, 2005 — but originally published in 1989), and has been instrumental in the education of many thousands of  jazz pianists… He himself studied in Boston and New York with legendary figures Hal Overton, Herb Pomeroy and Jaki Byard. Along the…

Two Laureates on one stage… and you in the open mic… Mike Tuggle, Sonoma County Poet Laureate Emeritus (2008-9), is celebrating the upcoming publication of The Motioning In, New & Selected Poems by Petaluma River Press due this spring.  He is also the author of Absolute Elsewhere (2004, Philos Press) & The Singing Itself (2009, Running…

Eugene Pliner, piano Adam Gay, bass Omar Aran, drums A classic piano trio, led by one of the key players on the local scene for decades, often heard at Les Joulins Jazz Bistro. Eugene began his musical career at an early age in Riga, Latvia (formerly Russia). In his early twenties, he migrated to the…

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,…