Heshima Mark Williams presents The Jazzling Twintet at Bird & Beckett’s Saturday night jazz club…

Vivian Warkentin, violin, is Assistant Concertmaster of Oakland Symphony, and an active freelancer. She’s studied jazz with David Balakrishnan.  Her credits include string section work withBurt Bacharach, Sammy Davis Jr., Tony Bennett, Sara Vaughn, Doc Severinsen, Chris Botti,Smokey Robinson, George Benson, Henry Mancini, and also film scoring at Skywalker Ranch
and other local studios.

Michael McCarthy, guitar, played bass with the proto-punk-country band Orgasm Spasm, and studied jazz guitar with Rich Parker, Jeffrey Burr, Alan Klein, Steve Erquiga, and Brian Pardo.  He’s played guitar with the Berkeley Jazz School Adult Big Band, and also leads a music group for the developmentally disabled called All Together Now.

Wanda Warkentin, cello, is a member of the Berkeley and Santa Rosa Symphonies, and an active freelancer. She’s played Principal cello with Santa Rosa Symphony and Midsummer Mozart Festival, soloed with the tango orchestra SF Camerata, and has also done film scoring at Skywalker and Fantasy Studios.  She’s always loved blues and jazz music and dance, and is excited to now be playing jazz and improvising.

Patrick McCarthy, bass and arranger, is Principal bass of Oakland and Stockton Symphonies, and an active freelancer. He’s been a substitute/extra bassist with the SF Opera, Symphony and Ballet, and done film scoring at Skywalker Ranch and other local studios. He’s played jazz with Jim Lowe, Steve Mitchell, Jerry Granelli, Charles and Charnett Moffett, Mose Allison, Bobby McFerrin, and Regina Carter. He studied with Charles Siani, Bruce Moyer, Rafael Garrett, and Gary Peacock.

Pat notes:  “I’ve been playing jazz since I was a teenager, and collecting tunes along the way.  It turns out that some seem to have been written just for our band, they fit us so well!  I feel like I’m walking through the Garden of Eden, picking all the best fruit; not that it isn’t a lot of work to do some of the arrangements!

“For this gig we’ll have compositions by Marvin Gaye, Tom Harrell, Michael McCarthy, Duke Ellington, Claus Ogerman, Oliver Nelson, Elmer Gibson, Woody Shaw, and Herbie Hancock.

“We are a family band: Viv is my wife and Wanda is her twin sister, and Mike is my twin brother, hence the name Twintet.  Jazzling is a new word I can’t find in a dictionary, not coined by me, but I think it will have more than one definition.  In our case I take it to mean one who has been found by jazz, or had their soul captured by jazz.  The suffix  also has a diminutive context, as in something not yet fully fledged (we are humble).  Could jazzling also be a present participle?”

jazz club! when lights are low… every Saturday night at Bird & Beckett from 7:30-10 pm.  $10 cover charge.