James Mahone, saxophone
David Udolf, piano
Curtis Aikens, bass
Akira Tana, drums

$20 cover charge (cash, please), byob.
To reserve a seat, call 415-586-3733

Charlie McCarthy had to bow out of tonight’s show, but his superb rhythm section has all the star power needed to carry the torch, especially with James Mahone and his tenor saxophone subbing in for Charlie. You’re in for a great jazz experience, when lights are low…

James studied the sax at Cal State Northridge, forming Black Note in 1991 alongside bassist Marcus Shelby and pianist Eric Reed. They won the John Coltrane Young Artist Competition in that year, and his power as a saxophonist has only grown through the three-plus decades that have followed.

As for Akira, leading the combo tonight, he made a huge mark with TanaReid, the combo he co-led from the same year, 1991, for the better part of a decade, releasing eight albums between 1991 and 1998. He grew up in Palo Alto, earned a BA in sociology at Harvard and did his grad work in music at the New England Conservatory of Music. En route to TanaReid, he worked with giants of jazz including James Moody and Zoot Sims, as well as Warne Marsh, Jim Hall, J. J. Johnson and Tete Monteliu. He takes his group Otonowa to Japan a couple times a year to raise money for and celebrate the residents of Fukushima. And when he has a minute and KCSM needs a sub, you’ll hear him playing d.j. — a role he fits to a t with his abiding affection for the jazz canon and its many roots and branches. The first Sunday of each month, he leads his trio with Keith Saunders and Eric Markowitz to host a jam session at Bird & Beckett for student musicians.

Pianist David Udolf marks 1991 as a key year as well, the year he came to San Francisco, after touring the world for several years as a musical director for Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines. He toured for six years with San Francisco’s own legendary New Pickle Circus and has played with Terri Bryant of the Fifth Dimension, singer Mary Stallings, saxophonist Herb Geller, Joe Piscopo and R&B legend Bo Diddley, as well as a who’s who of Bay Area artists including Jules Broussard, Sherri Roberts, Kenny Washington, Clairdee, Denise Perrier, Lavay Smith, Shanna Carlson, Cathi Walkup, Chuck Metcalf, Warren Gale, Graham Bruce, Noel Jewkes, Hal Stein, Pete Yellin, the Donald Bailey trio, the Jules Rowell Quintet, Dmitri Matheny, you name it.

Bassist Curtis Aikens is the young pup on the bandstand. He’s worked in theater pits, orchestras, folk, rock and hip hop bands, but jazz is his passion, having begun his jazz studies in middle school with the late Mel Martin at the age of 12, continuing at The Idyllwild Arts Academy where he studied classical bass and composition as well as bass and going on to composition studies at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. Curtis performs all over the Bay Area and the world as a freelance musician, and is a member of the bands Suenos and Tohkay.