Joshi Marshall, tenor saxophone.
Sam Heminger, upright bass.
Micah McClain, drums.

$20 Cover Charge / BYOB.
Students $10; kids free.
For reservations call (415) 586-3733.

The Joshi Marshall Project will be performing music ranging from bebop to Bob Dylan, including selections from Joshi’s 2009 debut album “In the Light.”

Joshi had a large role in the Acid Jazz and Hip Hop Jazz scene in the San Francisco club area known as South of Market, culminating perhaps with the locally renowned and internationally famous touring outfit Mingus Amungus. Coming out of the fertile Berkeley High jazz generation of the late 1970s to early 1990s, he played and recorded with seminal groups of the era including Groove Shop, Daddy Goddess, Human Flavor, The Mofessionals, Jungle Biskit, Alphabet Soup and Bop City. By 1995 Joshi had established himself as one of the premier sax players in the Bay Area and became one of the founding members of the popular, innovative jazz band, Mingus Amungus, which won the Bammy Award for Best Jazz Club Band in 1997, the Bay Area’s equivalent to the music industry’s Grammy awards.

Over the years that have followed, Joshi has continued to play and record with an ever growing number of local, national and international musicians and groups, including John Santos, Pete Escovedo, Blackalicious, Goapele, Nicodemus, Big Youth, Sister Carol, reggae icon Don Carlos, rock legend Carlos Santana and Southern rockers The Black Crowes. He works prolifically as a freelance drummer. The Joshi Marshall Project is the latest phase of Joshi’s continuing musical evolution, taking his music to the core with the trio formation performing at Bird & Beckett tonight.

Joshi reflects on his teaching career and its roots: “I have worked with drum set students of all ages for 32 years, and 2024 marked my 20th year of teaching music in the classroom. I constructed my first drum set at age five from a collection of tupperware bowls and pan lids. Family inspiration, a strong school music program, and generous mentorship from Shawn Pelton, Kenwood Dennard, and Kenny Aronoff paved the way for early performances with jazz luminaries David Baker, Dave Liebman, James Moody, and Red Rodney. I attended Indiana University on a jazz studies scholarship and later landed in Chicago where I immersed myself in the rich jazz, funk, and soul traditions that still survive there. I have performed music on six continents, and studied West African drumming and dance in Ghana, North Indian classical music, and royal Ugandan court music. I am a certified in the Orff Schulwerk approach to teaching music and movement. I have lived in the San Francisco Bay area since 2004 and currently teach drum set and music and movement classes at East Bay Montessori in El Cerrito and my home studio in Oakland.”