Tuesday, May 24, 2011

197 Participate in the May 21st Event

In the Bayview:



9 volunteers helped pick up trash, recycling and compost in the Bayview. We started our walk and trash pickup at the Quesada Gardens (based at the 1700 block of Quesada near 3rd). Volunteers learned about the proper way to sort trash and picked up more than 25 bags of waste. In addition to making the neighborhood a little cleaner, volunteers chatted with their neighbors and encouraged others to join the effort to keep the Bayview clean. Our next neighborhood trash pickup will start at the barn and orchard at the Bayview Mission and be hosted by the Rev. Nina Pickerell.

Special thanks to the Department of Public Works who supplied us with trash bags, vests, trash pickets, brooms, dust pans and latex gloves. You can report trash for pick up in your neighborhood anytime, by calling 3-1-1 and reporting the location of the trash.

At the Visitation Valley Greenway Garden:
97 individuals enjoyed our jazz festival, held in conjunction with the local merchant association's sidewalk sale. The pictures below feature some of the amazing acts that shared their talents with us that day:


The Otto Huber Trio



Jazzberry Patch



ROCK Korean Martial Arts



Saman


Mad & Eddie Duran


Special thanks to San Francisco Parks and Recreation, the Visitacion Valley Merchants Association and SF Environment for making this event a success.


The Alemany Farm:

Rachel, from the Revel Art Collective taught participants to make seedball, compostible garden gnomes and creatures in the most well attended and creative event of the day.

The gnome makers were so inspired by the process that they ended up making a claymation movie using their gnomes who explored the idea of the rapture that was predicted but did not occur on the day of our event.

Ilyse Magy, SF Refresh Art lead and fellow member of the Revel Art Collective has been collecting stop motion photos and will be showing a film highlighting activities from the first two SF Refresh events at our next event on July 24th. We've heard a rumor that the claymation gnomes video may become available before our next event, so stay tuned!

Jonathon Silverman taught people to make succulent pockets from burlap and grommets.

Judith Dancer led a class on movement, breathing and dance.

Other activities included canning, composting and shape note singing workshops.

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Introducing: Anastasia Crosson

Hi, I'm Anastasia Crosson. When I'm not busy attending J-school or writing freelance, I am enjoying good food in the San Francisco Bay Area. Things I love: a good farmers' market, a restaurant that sources locally, producers that promote a sustainable food system, food trucks (and carts!), and good foodie journalism (read: Saveur, Gastronomica, EaterSF, the list goes on). As a 20-something without professional culinary training, I like to think I'm just one example that anyone, even a journalism student on a budget, can develop a relationship with food. One of my favorite culinary exploits is the art of canning, and so Can It You Nit! was born.

Contact me at canityounit@gmail.

Anastasia will be leading a canning workshop at 3pm at The Alemany Farm on May 21st.

Monday, May 9, 2011

Introducing: Jazzberry Patch

Jazzberry Patch

Don Pender, saxophone; Jose Martinez, congas; Hal Solin, drums; Bernie Bagshaw, guitar; Jay R. Witt, piano



Jay R. Witt: piano & electric keyboard (J.R.) is a multi-instrumentalist who grew up and began his music career in Salt Lake City, where he received a jazz emphasis music degree at the University of Utah. There he developed his craft in the midst of musicians and educators assembled from throughout the United States as part of a unique and experimental jazz program comparable at that time to the talent level of the established east coast music programs. After playing full time for several years, J. R. took time off from music to establish a career as a C.P.A. but is once again musically active and performing throughout the Bay Area. He has over 15,000 hours of professional performing experience in private dinner clubs, theaters and other public/casual venues playing with various jazz/rock/blues/pop ensembles and has facility on a dozen different instruments. With Don Pender, J.R. is featured on piano and electric keyboard.

Jose (Manuel) Martinez: congas Don meet Manny on a bridge at lake Merced that Mayer Willie Brown built right before he left office. He was walking one day and heard these wonderful congas sound as if it were floating in the wind. He decided to find out where it was coming from and he went over and saw Manny playing to some music in his headphones. They became friends and Manny has been playing with Don ever since. That was 5 years ago. Manny is from the Dominican Republic and has many years of experience playing Latin music and brings a lot of flavor to the group

Hal Solin: drums Hal got interested in drums at an early age thanks to an uncle who played drums in a band. He took as many music classes in school as possible and started playing gigs right out of high school. Fearing that he would become just another one of those “jazz musicians”, his mother urged him to get a teaching credential and play music during the summers. The credential led to a 39 year career with the San Francisco public school system. The last 12 as associate superintendent. Hal kept his music alive by forming Standard Time, a band that continues to entertain in various venues throughout the bay area. Since retiring he has made music his main focus, studying with noted drum teacher Pete Magadini and playing at every opportunity. He belongs to several bay area groups such as the Starduster Orchestra, The Joe Agro Sextet and West Coast Cool. He also plays regularly with Wanda Stafford and Si Perkoff at the Panama Hotel in Marin.

Bernie Bagshaw: guitar Bernie started playing the guitar at age 10 influenced by rock & roll and folk. He started listening to and playing jazz in high school. He studied music at the College of Marin and San Francisco State University during the 70'. For the past 30 years he worked as an electrician in San Francisco. About 8 years ago he started going to jam sessions in and around San Francisco. He has recently retired as an electrician and is spending most of his time playing the guitar.

Monday, May 2, 2011

Help us Win $5,000



SF Refresh creator and coordinator Megan Rohrer, is a finalist for the Citizen of Tomorrow Award. This means that SF Refresh has a one in five chance of winning $5,000 for our events. The fine folk at the Bay Area Citizen made the video above.

Please take a moment and vote for Megan and SF Refresh, since the award is determined by online voting, only you can help us get this grant!

Thanks for all your help and for all the ways you help to support SF Refresh.

Introducing: Mad and Eddie Duran




In 1982, veteran guitarist Eddie Duran and saxophonist Madaline met and formed a lasting musical and personal partnership that continues strong to this day. Their collaborations have resulted in a great deal of warm and rewarding music with their most recent recording being Simply Mad.

Eddie Duran has been a major guitarist since he had his first gig when he was 15 in the late 1940s. He actually began on the piano. “However one of my older brothers started playing guitar and I gravitated towards it. Once I found the guitar, that was it. Phil Woods once said that he was placed on this earth to make music and that’s the way I feel. I have no regrets.”

Mostly self-taught, Eddie listened to Django Reinhardt records (studying some of his solos), loved George Van Eps’ chordal playing, and was inspired by Charlie Christian and the other great guitarists to follow, including Barney Kessel, Jimmy Raney and Tal Farlow. When he was 15, his career got underway when he accompanied one of his sisters who was a professional singer and dancer. He has been busy ever since and is one of the fixture of the San Francisco jazz scene. Through the years, Eddie worked with Vince Guaraldi, Red Norvo, Earl Hines, Cal Tjader (including an album with Stan Getz), George Shearing, Jon Hendricks, Tania Maria, Barbara Streisand, Pearl Bailey, and Benny Goodman (1976-80). He led albums of his own for Fantasy (1957’s Jazz Guitarist) and three for Concord. The first call guitarist in San Francisco, Eddie never lacked for work. He did not travel much despite getting many offers because he was married and raising a family; his first wife passed away in 1977.

For two memorable weeks in the early 1950s, Eddie worked with Charlie Parker. “We had a quartet with a bassist and Larance Marable. During the second week Chet Baker joined us. Bird might have had trouble with his habits and been nodding out at the bar but, when he got on the stand, it was a complete transformation. He really amazed me because in the dressing room before we went on, he made sandwiches out of Ritz crackers and sardines. Horn players can’t eat crackers before going on stage but he would play perfectly minutes later!”

While Eddie is primarily an ear player, Madaline (who is from a younger generation) has a very different background, being classically trained. She grew up south of San Francisco in Belmont. Mad remembers early on being very intrigued by a dixieland band that she heard at an amusement park, seeing Boots Randolph and Pete Fountain on television, and listening to Broadway musicals on the radio with her father. “There was a neighbor boy across the street who played clarinet. I liked the way it looked and loved the way it sounded. I was able to get a really good sound on it when I was ten, setting me up for the saxophone.” She took private lessons through college, started playing alto when she was twelve, and soon added tenor, flute and soprano. Although she was primarily a classical player, Mad played in her school jazz bands and, while a senior in high school, was selected as a member of the Monterey Jazz Festival’s High School All Star Band. “I remember hearing a Charlie Parker record when I was in college and I could not believe that he was playing off the top of his head, so creative, so fast and with such spontaneity. I was a classical musician so I did not attempt to even try to play like Charlie Parker until I met Eddie.”

Mad played in local big bands for society dances in San Jose, earned a degree in classical music at the University of Miami, and performed with Broadway musicals that came to town. “I read music very well and played five instruments. During that era, I would never refuse any musical job.” After moving to the Napa Valley, she had a catering business, pairing wine with food. But she ultimately chose music over food.

“In 1984 I went to the Cotati Jazz Festival to try to get inspiration to get back into playing music,” remembers Mad. “I got totally what I wanted! It was a festival where the musicians perform at various clubs. I walked into the club that Eddie was playing at and there just happened to be a high school friend of mine in the audience who I hadn’t seen in ten years. She was with the drummer on the gig and asked if I’d like to meet Eddie. I had heard his name but had never seen him before.”

“When I met Mad,” recalls Eddie, “she mentioned that she played. I said that I’d love to hear her sometime. We soon did some rehearsing, and at one point she asked if I thought she could be a jazz player. I said yes but she would have to really work at it. Well, she did.” “When I first played with Eddie,” adds Mad, “I could not get on the bandstand without music being in front of me. I was actually heading off into an avant-garde direction. But he knew every standard and I’ve learned so much from him, so many songs. I don’t think I would have gone in this direction if it were not for him; I wouldn’t have had the knowledge. What I’ve done for him is maybe give him more of a desire to explore more dissonance. I hear that in his playing much more since we’ve been together. He takes more chances while he has simmered me down from taking too many chances at one time.”

Mad and Eddie Duran, who soon married, have worked together on a regular basis ever since, in settings ranging from a duo up to a quintet. They have performed at the key Bay area clubs, the Monterey, San Jose, Russian River and Telluride Jazz Festivals, Sonoma Jazz Plus, and on several very enjoyable recordings.

From Here To The Moon features the Durans in a straightahead quartet with pianist Al Plank, bassist Scott Steed and drummer Vince Lateano and with a Latin jazz group that also includes pianist Mark Levine, bassist Mark Van Wageningen and percussionist Raul Ramirez. Mad is featured on five instruments (soprano, alto, tenor, alto flute and C-flute), Eddie provided the arrangements and two originals (including the “Symphony Sid Samba”), and the co-leaders collaborated on “Quesadillas.” The music is comprised of superior bop and Latin jazz tunes with one of the highlights being a combination of George Shearing’s “Conception” and Miles Davis’ “Deception.”

Eddie Rides Again was the next project. “Madaline suggested that I record a solo album,” says the guitarist. “Since I know a lot of music, I just went into the studio, thought of tunes that I loved to play, and went for it. The engineer did a great job of miking the guitar so it has a nice acoustic sound even though I was playing electric.” The unaccompanied set gave Eddie an opportunity to play pianistically on 11 of his favorite standards plus his own “Sueno” and “Blues.” The result is beautiful music infused with Eddie Duran’s own brand of soul.

Three CDs, Brazilian Passion, Samba Cocktail and That Bossa Nova Thing, are each tributes to Stan Getz and Joao Gilberto. In fact, these tenor-guitar duets were all recorded at the same sessions. “In a duo, you get to hear each instrument much more clearly,” says Eddie. “By then I was tuning my guitar a whole step lower so it becomes a B flat instrument and I can play more basslines.” With Mad often sounding a bit like Getz and Eddie paying homageto Gilberto, these 33 performances are prime bossa-nova. One never misses the other instruments.

The most recent CD, Simply Mad, features Eddie, bassist Ray Drummond, drummer Akira Tana and Mad who exclusively plays alto except for a bit of alto flute on “Begin The Beguine.” She displays a distinctive style on alto that is a logical extension of the bop tradition without copying the past. A special treat of this set is getting to hear some particularly rare verses. Among the many highpoints are Eddie’s “Everybody Digs Barney Kessel,” Fools Rush In,” “The Song Is You” and “Violets For Your Furs,” but there are no slow moments or throwaway tracks to be heard on this delightful and swinging set.

For the future, the Durans hope to perform and record with a string quartet, in addition to taking their music on the road much more extensively. Mad and Eddie Duran are doing exactly what they love to do, creating music together while letting the audience into their musical and personal love affair.


Mad and Eddie Duran will be playing at:
12pm Han Schiller Plaza, Visitacion Valley Greenway Garden on May 21st