Category: Music

  • The BAAZ is back–for a couple of weeks

    With a hat tip to Thin Lizzy, here is an ode to the Burlingame Avenue Autonomous Zone–the BAAZ:

    Guess who just got back today?The wild-eyed BAAZ that had been awayHaven't changed, had much to sayBut man, I still think them blocks are crazyThey were askin' if you were aroundHow you was, where you could be foundI told 'em you were livin' downtownDrivin' all the merchants crazy
    The BAAZ is back in town (the BAAZ is back in town)
    I said (the BAAZ is back in town)(TheBAAZ is back in town)The BAAZ is back in town…ow..ow.owwn
     
    As reported in the Daily Journal here, the council has voted to bring back the BAAZ for two weeks in August–exactly three years after it was stopped as we noted here.
     
    The closure will take up two blocks of Burlingame Avenue east of Primrose Road, west of Lorton Avenue and a small portion of Park Road. The Park Road segment will be a small portion of the road ending before the city-owned parking lot, so vehicles will be able to park or turn around. The council also agreed to start the two-week street closure after the Burlingame on the Avenue festival, Aug. 19, which is hosted by the Chamber or Commerce, and reopen the streets Labor Day, Sept. 2.
     
    There was council commentary on the thing we need most on the Avenew–live music.  I'm not sure it needs to be taxpayer subsidized beyond waiving the entertainment permit and encroachment permit fees, but 5 grand is a modest amount either way:
     
    (Council member Emily) Beach said the city could work with the downtown businesses and the Chamber of Commerce to provide a musical ambiance the remaining two weekends.  “Quite frankly, the smaller single [or] duo instrumental might create exactly the right ambiance as opposed to a big loud band that some people may like the style and some people not like the style,” Beach said.

    One option, she suggested, would be for the city to set aside $5,000 to match restaurants or businesses who may want to hire a small band for the night and then the city would reimburse the business up to $500.

    Mark your calendars for Art on the Ave Aug 19-20 followed by two weeks of strolling the BAAZ for dining, tippling and hopefully some good music.  Maybe we will even see our guitar-strumming council member out busking on the Ave.

  • Jazzman passes: A terrible loss for B’game

    This is a very difficult post for me to write but acknowledging the passing of one of the coolest guys in B'game is necessary.  I first met Andrew Speight eighteen months ago and wrote about him here.  His vision for local jazz of the highest order continued to blossom as I noted here.  He was the band leader for the regular mid-week gigs at the Broadway Grill and I last saw him there on Wednesday–the day before he died.  You can get more of a sense of the man from this NBC Bay Area report.  Andrew was a mainstay of the opening weekend at the new Keys Jazz Bistro in North Beach, as noted by his friend Simon Rowe in the NBC piece, and I told him so between sets that night.

    My relationship with Andrew evolved from new acquaintance to being good buddies over the last eighteen months.  I was a regular at his House of Bop club on Capuchino Ave. and he was a regular at my place for drinks, music and planning about bringing more jazz to B'game.  Regardless of how obscure of a jazz record that was playing when he walked in, he would pick out the artists by name and expound on their playing and their personalities.  After he did that with a particularly unusual album I was playing, I expressed amazement at the skill and he said, "it's not hard when you have played with the guy yourself".  I often felt like I was sitting in his SF State class instead of my side yard.

    The loss is hard to grasp when you understand what we had planned for B'game.  His first album since the 1980's was recorded at his house last year.  It's mixed, mastered and in the queue to be pressed with the working title "Live in Burlingame".  The LP would help promote a Burlingame Jazz Festival that he hoped to arrange the weekend before or after the Monterey Jazz Festival when a number of his artist friends would be passing through the Bay Area and would be available for gigs.  The plan was to have two or three venues to allow for the local kids to get some stage time.  Andrew was an educator to the end.  We lost a gem of Burlingame and all that could have been.  Here he is at Keys Jazz Bistro on November 12.  RIP.

    Andrew at Keys Jazz Bistro

    Update:  The local jazz community sent Andrew Speight off in style yesterday (Dec. 18) with a three-hour jam session at Broadway Grill.  About 40 musicians sat in with the closing number featuring a 5 horn front line.

    5 Saxes at Speight service

  • Active on the Avenew: 2022 Version

    Burlingame on the Avenue drew great crowds to Old B'game this past weekend.  It felt a little like old times when it was known as Art on the Avenue except the proportion of vendors selling "art" was way down.  The vendor mix didn't have the feeling of unique products or local flavor and it certainly isn't trying to be a high-end show like next weekend's Kings Mountain Air Fair up on Skyline Blvd., which is a juried affair, but our show was still very fun.  In the shadow of the giant construction crane, I caught Full House on Saturday doing R&B and R&R.  Saturday was warmer than Sunday.

    Sunday was downright comfortable and Wolf Jett brought two local Burlingame kids back to town playing "Cosmic Mountain Soul Music".  Frontman Chris Jones highlighted that he and drummer Jon Payne grew up in B'game, went to BIS and graduated from BHS.  He recalled eating at La Pinata, playing videogames at Roundtable and buying music at the Record Exchange.  Lots of fun was had!  Here's Wolf Jett getting cosmic.

    Wolf Jett

  • BSD: 50 Years of Music Instruction

    Doing anything successfully for 50 years merits notice, and the SF Chronicle has provided a nice write-up on Carol Prater's long career teaching music to B'game students.  You can read the whole piece here but a couple of my favorite bits are:

    On a mid-November day in 2021, Prater smiled at her band and cued the first notes of “Jingle Bells,” complete with the squawks and squeaks that have peppered her entire professional life.  These fourth- and fifth-graders are likely among the last of an estimated 25,000 students Prater will have taught music to during her 50-year career in the Peninsula city’s public schools. She’s leaning toward retiring — but isn’t firm about it.  (I added the bold 🙂

    “I just don’t know about 51 …,” Prater said with a laugh after a group of Roosevelt Elementary kindergartners had filed out of her music room after singing and dancing with her. Her husband, Doy Prater, who was also a music teacher in the district, retired years ago.

    And a good testimonial is worth its weight in gold…

    Phil Grenadier was one of her first students to hear them when he was in the fourth grade in 1972. He is now a professional jazz trumpet player in New York, touring and recording, and remembers how “Mrs. Prater” saw something in him.  “She struck me as a young lady back then,” he said, realizing 50 years has passed for both of them.  She taught him to read music, helping him understand the difference between 16th, eighth and quarter notes with her mantra: “Mississippi, candy, Coke.”

    Gotta love that little timing trick.  If you click through be sure to note that BCE apparently has a new name, and we also have a new school (Jefferson) that I am not familiar with.  Congrats on 50, Carol, don't rush into any decision on next school year!

  • 220 Park Rd: From Post Office to Class A Space

    Wednesday was the official groundbreaking ceremony for the Old Post Office property; now dubbed "220 Park Rd."  About 50-75 people turned out to hear some speeches, tour the historic lobby that is undergoing asbestos removal and watch The Claw take the first bite out of the old garage.  The long saga documented here, here and here is moving into the final chapter.  There seems to be consensus among the cognoscenti that this is the best design B'game could hope for– it is certainly better than the last proposal.

    The lobby will be partially preserved in the sense that it will be modified with three doorways where the large windows are now.  The plan is to pick up the poured concrete structure, turn it slightly and move it 100' towards the Avenew, put it on piers and move it back near the end of the project (projected to be March 2024).  We'll keep an eye out for the date since that will be a bring-your-popcorn event.  There will be underground parking and the Town Square will feature amphitheater-style seating for concerts and the like.  The Daily Journal has some of the details

    The ground floor, including a portion of the existing post office, will comprise 15,000 square feet of retail and dining space. Office space above will feature terraces at each level and larger patios on the third and sixth floors. The two-level underground parking garage will have room for 275 cars and be open to the public on weekends and evenings.

    Construction of the project will be handled by Sares Regis Group and Dostart Development Company, which will provide $2 million to the city for the town square development, as well as an additional $3.5 million in assorted fees to go toward affordable housing in Burlingame.

    Click through if you are a subscriber so you can see the photo of Yours Truly in my chapeau and shorts along with my lovely bride in the left background.  Here is Dave Hopkins of Sares Regis, the Claw doing its thing and the official groundbreaking line-up.

    Dave Hopkins_S-R

    220 Park Claw

    CC at 220 Park Groundbreaking

  • Broadway Nightlife Returns

    Back in the pre-pandemic era, Broadway was slowly starting to have some musical entertainment in the evenings.  We saw Il Piccolo do some events and hoped that more would follow, but Covid shut that down with everything else.  The Par 3 restaurant at the Coyote Point golf course was first to dip their toes in the aural pond as we noted here.  Now the Broadway Grill has established a regular schedule of jazz on Thursdays from 7-9pm, live piano on Fridays and live guitar most Saturdays (5-8pm).

    The good news is that the sad little balcony stage that used to house the bands has been abandoned for a nice ground floor space with open windows along Capuchino Ave.  With wide spacing of the indoor tables you can enjoy a much better menu and plenty of elbow room while you eat and listen.  I'm sure the parklet diners were able to enjoy it as well.  The owner, Ziggy Dzikaras, is on the right track and I hope he is very successful.

    Here is the San Francisco Quintet with vocalist Darlene Langston doing their thing last night and I hope they become regulars on Thursdays.

    SF Quintet

  • B’game Jazz Mecca

    The full moon bracketed by Saturn and Jupiter was not the only awesome sight in B'game last night.  One of the coolest dudes in B'game did it again last night.  Andrew Speight had his House of Bop swinging in a tribute concert to Cannonball Adderley and Nancy Wilson who recorded a seminal LP together back in 1961.  Andrew is "chief cook and bottle washer" at his events–he's promoting them, setting up the sound and video for streaming on his Facebook page, delivering in-depth backgrounds on the songs and artists and…..and playing the alto sax like a pro.  He let everyone know that the LP being featured was the first female vocalist fronting a small combo that made it to vinyl.  Just awesome to see and there were a couple of B'game restaurant owners in the small audience last night which might lead to some public gigs.  One can only hope.

    As Andrew noted last night, a great way to build a great jazz combo is to start with the drummer.  It's the loudest instrument and if the drummer doesn't like you he can drown you out!  We were graced with a true legend on drums last night.  As Roy McCurdy's web page notes

    McCurdy worked with the Mangione Brothers group (Chuck and Gap Mangione) in the early 60’s and later joined the Art Farmer Jazztet and then went with Sonny Rollins. Following Sonny Rollins he became a full time member of the Cannonball Adderley Quintet from the mid-60’s, traveling internationally with the group, including a particularly successful tour of South America in 1972.

    Who better to set the beat for two hours of Cannonball's music?  With David Wong as the other half of the rhythm section and  Terrell Stafford blowing hard on trumpet, and Matthew Clark on the piano all that was needed was the vocalist who could deliver the Nancy Wilson feel.  Tiffany Austin was on it and added the fine feel and tone that was needed.  Here's McCurdy and Stafford.

    Roy McCurdy

    Terrell Stafford

      

  • Living the Jazz Dream in B’game

    I recently met one of the coolest cats in town.  He's an accomplished alto sax player, the artistic director of the Manly Jazz Festival in Australia and a live/streaming promoter.  And he's doing it all from B'game!  Andrew Speight is a whirlwind of energy and what people like to call resilience these days.  Persistence fits his passion for jazz. He's turned his living room into a little jazz club complete with a grand piano, lighting, amps, and everything one needs to stream shows on his Facebook page which he has done every Sunday afternoon for more than a year.

    A few people get to see the shows live and I was lucky enough to fall into an invitation.  Andrew has the connections to bring in name artists (Vince Lateano, Smith Dobson, Sylvia Cuenca were all there playing) and they are chomping at the bit to play just like many of us are chomping at the bit to listen–since April as shown here.  We lost the Savannah Jazz club in San Carlos to the lockdown, but Andrew has created a private version that feels about the same.  Check out his Facebook page for the streams every Sunday at 5pm and a special Saturday night gig on July 24th at 8pm.

    Now that the Covid restrictions are off we have the opportunity to start seeing more live music in town.  That has been a challenge for B'game well before the pandemic, but it feels like the appetite is there now and the city entertainment permits can start being issued again, so I'm thrilled to know we have a professional in town with similar hopes and dreams.  I wish my living room looked like this sometime.

    Jazz in Bgame

  • Music in the Park: Get Your Reservations

    The city e-newsletter has music to my ears with the announcement of this year's new Music in the Park series.  The big change is a move to Friday nights from 6-8pm (5pm check-ins) and  

    Registration is $5 per person.  Registration must be made in advance. Only one registration is required per group. Registration provides a dedicated space for you and your group.

    I envision chalk line circles for each pod and people making more of a night out effort with more food and drink.  I'm not sure what the rules will be about alcohol in the park.  It has traditionally been OK in San Mateo's Central Park series, but B'game can be more strict sometimes.  Here is the line-up

    June 18 – The Sun Kings (Beatles Tribute)

    July 9 – The Houserockers (Rock & Soul)

    July 23 – New American Villains (Modern & Classic Rock)

    August 13 – Pride & Joy (R & B & Soul)

    I've seen all of these bands at least once, but I'm still excited.  Keep an eye on www.burlingame.org/rec for more info.  Here is a past Sun Kings show.

    Sun Kings audience Music in the Park2

  • Music to my Ears… in San Mateo

    I got out to hear some live music this past week.  Local guitarist Sam Marshall was playing at the Coyote Point golf course Par 3 restaurant outside under a tent.   It was only the second show I have seen in more than a year, but it portends good things to come.  We had one new Covid case in B'game this week.  Yep, one.  We've had 56 in the last 30 days, so the rate is tailing off.  Lots of people are saying "just got my second shot".  I would say it's time for some carefully organized, outside entertainment to start here in B'game.  Let's not let San Mateans have all the fun!

    Here's Sam playing the blues and some classic rock accompanied by backing tracks on his phone.  His tip jar was filling up nicely too.

    Sam Marshall

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