Kasey Knudsen, saxophone.
Harvey Wainapel, saxophone.
John Wiitala, bass.
Jon Arkin, drums.

$20 cover charge (cash at the door, please); byob.
Students $10; kids free.
For reservation, call the bookshop at 415-586-3733

Kasey Knudsen and Harvey Wainapel, highly accomplished saxophonists acclaimed for their work in diverse genres and their mastery of the full range of wind instruments, join forces across generations in this new quartet setting with equally talented and experienced colleagues, bassist John Wiitala and drummer Jon Arkin, to perform a thoughtfully selected repertoire that works well in a “chordless” setting, without piano or guitar — music that’s at once accessible and fascinating in its complexity.

These four jazz musicians have long been mutual admirers and frequent collaborators while traveling individual paths in their careers. They’ve developed a unique quartet that they’re excited to bring to Bird & Beckett in its public debut.

Harvey Wainapel, the senior partner in this group, pursued foundational studies at Berklee College of Music in Boston in the early 1970s and proceeded to refine his skills across multiple European settings, among them a stint as lead alto and featured soloist in the Frankfurt-based German Radio Big Band. Returning to the United States, he spent ten months on the road with Ray Charles before making the Bay Area his base in 1982. Harvey went on to collaborate with McCoy Tyner, Joe Henderson, Johnny Coles and Billy Hart. His debut as a leader, At Home/On the Road, a post-bop session exploring compositions by the likes of Woody Shaw, Sam Rivers, and Wayne Shorter, appeared in 1994; and in 1996 he released the album Ambrosia: The Music of Kenny Barron, cut in Europe with both the Dutch National Orchestra and a Brazilian octet. He joined Joe Lovano’s ensemble for touring engagements in 1996, and has played in all manner of jazz settings to this day. But his devotion to Brazilian music, presaged by the work on Ambrosia with Barron’s Brazilian-influenced compositions, has developed and deepened profoundly in the past thirty years and justly predominates in the perception of his musical identity among his adoring fan base. He has made annual months-long sojourns to Brazil since the year 2000 disrupted only by the great whatsit in 2020 and has worked with a bazillion Brazilian masters. Read Harvey’s bio and listen to samples of his music on his website here. You’ll be floored and delighted.

Kasey Knudsen, about half Harvey’s age, earned a Bachelor of Arts in Jazz Composition from Berklee College of Music in 2002. As a composer, Knudsen has received commissions and grants from San Jose Jazz’s New Works Festival, InterMusic SF, Intersection for the Arts, de Young Museum, and the California Jazz Conservatory Emerging Artist Series. An avant garde musician of high repute with a love of the jazz canon, she leads many combos of her own devising and co-leads groups including the Schimscheimer Family Trio, the Holly Martins, and the Klaxon Mutant Allstars. Kasey has collaborated extensively with many of the Bay Area’s most distinctive musical voices, including performances throughout the United States and Europe with Tune-Yards; international tours and festivals with Fred Frith; and performances with Charlie Hunter, Scott Amendola, Erik Jekabson, Circus Bella, Ben Goldberg, the Electric Squeezebox Orchestra, Ian Carey, Beth Schenck, and many others. In a review of a 2018 SFJazz Hotplate focus on Joe Henderson’s 1965 post-bop lp “In and Out” which Kasey led with a quintet that including Henry Hung on trumpet, Michael Coleman on piano, John Wiitala on bass and Jon Arkin on drums, she was lauded and described as “one of the region’s most esteemed saxophonists” by Andrew Gilbert in San Francisco Classical Voice.

John Wiitala, a native East Bay denizen, from Richmond, started his musical studies in his high school years at the East Bay Center For the Performing Arts, and continued later at Laney College in Oakland. In the 80s, John apprenticed at Keystone Korner and countless other venues with Dick Gail, Hal Stein, Jessica Williams, Kitty Margolis and Vince Wallace, while the 90s found John at a long house band stint at Jazz at Pearls’ with Vince Lateano and Bruce Forman, with work with Madeline Eastman and Harvey Wainapel, as well. The new millennium had John working frequently with Anton Schwartz,as well as finding him ensconced in the jazz cabaret scene, backing Paula West and performing and touring with the legendary Wesla Whitfield. The last 15 years or so have had John collaborating with Patrick Wolff, Matt Renzi, Adam Shulman, Erik Jekabson, Kasey Knudsen, Kenny Washington, Smith Dobson, Susan Chen, Jack Tone Riordan, Scott Foster, Henry Hung and Simon Butler. The list of nationally known jazz figures he’s gigged with is long will be omitted here!

As an artist, Jon Arkin doesn’t fall neatly into one tidy category, genre or medium, but his work can always be relied upon to exhibit certain qualities: uniqueness, balance and inspiration. He.s known & sought-after as a drummer, composer and digital media wrangler. Arkin’s latest projects incorporate his self-designed hybrid electro-acoustic setup, which blends a vast palate of digital textures with organic sound. Drawing upon his extensive background as a tinkerer, hacker and an aficionado of all styles of music, his work brings a multitude of elements together within the contexts of traditional composition, spontaneous composition and algorithmic indeterminacy. He can be seen & heard using this setup with the Schimscheimer Family Trio (with saxophonist Kasey Knudsen and keyboardist Michael Coleman), with clarinetist Ben Goldberg (as a duo, and in other Goldberg projects), as a solo performer and in collaboration with various other artists. In addition to leading his own groups, he has performed around the U.S. and internationally with jazz greats including Lee Konitz, Gene Perla and Ira Sullivan, with singer-songwriters including Vusi Mahlasela, Stew and Meklit Hadero, Afrobeat bands Albino and Soji Odukogbe, folk musicians Ramblin’ Jack Elliott and John Doe, a multitude of experimental/new music collaborators including Nathan Clevenger, Jordan Glenn, Cuong Vu and MoeTar, as well as countless other musicians. Spanning three decades, his list of recording credits includes dozens of albums and guest appearances in a wide variety of genres, as he maintains an active recording schedule as a studio musician.