FREE! Brown Bag Jazz Hangs: Cal Music Grads Report From the Field! Grace Basom on Practicing Free Improvisation

Join us for casual daytime talks and listening sessions with leading lights of the Bay Area jazz community. Bring your own lunch or order ahead from the JazzCaffè. Wednesdays at lunchtime! Free, drop-ins welcome.

Our summer series is presented in collaboration with The Freight.

This summer, recent graduates of UC Berkeley’s Music Department share their research about jazz, improvisation, and global music as part of our lunchtime series. Grace Basom (BA Music ’26) discusses moments of unity and cooperative creation in her study of free improvisation, and shares recordings from her senior capstone performance, which consisted of free and conducted improvisations performed by a 14-piece chamber orchestra.

To order lunch from the JazzCaffè, call 510-654-0148 to place your order before 10:30 am the day of the program.

For the menu visit actcatering.com/jazzcaffe

https://concerts.jazzschool.org/free-brown-bag-jazz-hangs-cal-music-grads-report-from-the-field-grace-basom-on-practicing-free-improvisation/
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Dick Conte returns to the Jazzschool for the 21st Annual Jazz Piano Scholarship Benefit Concert

Dick Conte, piano

Steve Heckman, saxophone

Steve Webber, bass

Jimmy Hobson, drums

Each year for 21 years, legendary Bay Area pianist and radio personality Dick Conte has returned to the Jazzschool on his birthday to host a benefit concert for the scholarship fund that bears his name. The evening features Conte’s quartet, with the 2026 scholarship recipient joining the ensemble for a tune as part of the festivities. This year, we celebrate Young Musicians Program pianist Jesse Ashlock, who is a student at Berkeley High.

The Dick Conte Jazz Piano Scholarship Fund, benefitting aspiring jazz pianists, was established in 2004 and has awarded nearly $40,000 in scholarships to young musicians in our community.

About Dick Conte

Dick Conte arrived in San Francisco in 1961 from his native Connecticut and has since become an integral part of the Bay Area jazz scene with his encyclopedic knowledge of jazz, formidable jazz radio presence (from the fabled KJAZ days to KCSM and KKSF), and his performances at clubs, festivals and private venues. He has played at the San Francisco Jazz Festival, the Russian River Jazz Festival, the San Jose Jazz Festival, the Sonoma Valley Jazz Festival, the Calistoga Jazz & Blues Festival, Jazz on the Hill, and the Cotati Jazz Festival.

Conte has opened for Cassandra Wilson, Tony Bennett, Eddie Harris, Mike Longo, and Doc Powell and has performed at Yoshi’s, the Plush Room, Kimball’s East, and the Bach Dancing & Dynamite Society, among many other local venues. He is a three-time nominee for Gavin Magazine’s Jazz Broadcaster of the Year and winner of the AWRT Kudo Award for Best Radio Music Programming.

dickcontejazz.com
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Buy Tickets: https://concerts.jazzschool.org/electric-squeezebox-orchestra/

The Electric Squeezebox Orchestra (Jazzschool Resident Artists) is a 17-piece big band led by Erik Jekabson and features many of the best players and arrangers in the Bay Area!

Personnel:
Resident Poet: Avotcja;
Saxophones: Sheldon Brown, Larry Delacruz, Rob Sudduth, Marcus Stephens, Charlie Gurke;
Trombones: Spencer Sussman, Will Shannon, Patrick Malabuyo, Rich Lee;
Trumpets: Darren Johnston, Erik Jekabson, Christopher Clarke, Edward Evans;
Piano: Parker Grant;
Guitar: Max Brody; Bass: Josh Tower; Drums: Eric Garland

The Electric Squeezebox Orchestra is the Bay Area’s own 17-piece big band, led by trumpeter Erik Jekabson, playing music composed and arranged by its members. The composers and arrangers, some of the very best in the Bay, draw from a wide variety of influences but always come up with powerful music with groove, beauty and subtlety. The band, which started a steady Sunday residency at the Jazzschool, has collaborated with a number of special guest artists, including John Santos, Kenny Washington, Alan Ferber, Dayna Stephens, Mads Tolling, Sandy Cressman, Kellye Gray, Avotcja, Spok and Ben Goldberg. Learn more by visiting electricsqueezeboxorchestra.com

Social Media Links:
facebook.com/Electricsqueezeboxorchestra/
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Jazz PRIDE! Eli Maliwan's Saxreligious Quintet

Eli Maliwan, saxophone and FX

Rob Finucane, synth

Vida Sánchez, synth bass

Gabi Aldaz, piano

JC Grady, drums

In celebration of Pride Month, Bay Area saxophonist and composer Eli Maliwan presents a live quintet version of his astounding solo debut Elysia Marginata, which explores video-game inspired cinematic composition from a “jazz nerd” lens. Maliwan’s Saxreligious Quintet reinterprets the multitracked studio album, where electronic experimental sounds are blended with complex harmony, odd meters, improvisation, and satirical song titles, for a live context that invites improvisation and ensemble interplay. Maliwan is a transgender Asian American whose goal is to be the representation he needed as a younger artist, and he often writes music that examines and celebrates his intersecting identities.

During the pandemic, Maliwan began focusing on composition and music production in Ableton software, and in recent years has been profoundly affected by the avalanche of anti-trans legislation and rising reports of violent anti-Asian sentiment in the US. The music of Elysia Marginata represents rebirth, growth, healing, and joy during a time of uncertainty and pain. It is a self care love letter to other quirky children of the 90’s, the queer and trans community, and the BIPOC community.

A graduate of CalArts, Maliwan has performed with Jimmy Heath, Steve Turre, James Moody, Slide Hampton, and Alphonso Johnson, at prestigious festivals such as Uberjazz in Germany, SFJAZZ, San Jose Jazz Fest, Bric Jazz Festival and Winter Jazzfest in New York, and the Portland Jazz Festival.
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