Performing Arts

10th Anniversary Season — Winter Program and Gala

Company C Contemporary Ballet’s 10th Anniversary Season Winter Program bursts with versatility, wit and romance led by Peter Anastos, Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo founder and frequent collaborator with Mikhail Baryshnikov, whose Footage will receive its Company premiere. Alexandre Proia’s World to Come is meditatively lush and visionary and David Grenke’s Vespers is a physically demanding, deeply emotional and beautiful duet by this former Paul Taylor dancer set to music by Tom Waits. Charles Anderson’s powerfully athletic Akimbo has its roots in neo-classicism and its apotheosis in contemporary style showing the full range and prowess of his decade-old company.

In celebration of its first decade, Company C Contemporary Ballet will hold a special Gala Celebration Saturday, February 18, 2012 beginning at 6:30 pm.

For more information about the Company, visit www.companycballet.org

Photo: Rosalie O'Connor

Guitarist James “Blood” Ulmer stands out as a revolutionary figure, possessing a gutsy, soulful, and ferociously gritty sound redolent of the pungent red clay of his childhood in South Carolina. After his 1971 arrival in New York, Ulmer quickly earned a reputation working with heavyweights like Art Blakey, Joe Henderson and Larry Young. But it was his breakthrough gig with Ornette Coleman that moved Ulmer to the forefront of the scene, with a gutbucket blues-drenched attack perfectly suited for Coleman’s ensemble. More recently, Ulmer has fully embraced the blues tradition with a string of sessions produced by fellow guitar iconoclast Vernon Reid, of Living Colour fame. Ulmer’s latest CD is the uncompromising Rock In Blues. Playing solo, as he will on this SFJAZZ date, James “Blood” Ulmer reveals the indomitable heart of a master, unadorned.

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ODC/Dance’s 41st home season features three world premieres from Brenda Way and KT Nelson- Breathing Underwater, Transit and Cut-Out Guy- alongside repertory favorites Raking Light, I look vacantly at the Pacific...though regret, and Part of a Longer Story. Blockbuster avant cellist Zoe and the Magik*Magik Orchestra will perform live in Way’s Breathing Underwater. Crucible bike artist Max Chen unveils his three rideable artworks in Nelson’s highly anticipated Transit. In keeping with ODC’s community spirit, there will be many ways to interact with the art and fellow dance enthusiasts including the Opening Night Gala, Meet the Dancers Party, and Get Smart talks with the choreographers. and as an attendee you have the chance to ride away with a classic Euro cycle from Public Bikes.

www.odcdance.org

“A visually delicious beast that never comes short of dazzling the senses” (The Huffington Post), Robert Moses’ Kin presents its 17th Annual Home Season, March 30 – April 1. The program will feature: the world premiere of Helen, a trio inspired by the words and music of Carl Hancock Rux, the poetry by E. Ethelbert Miller and Homer’s Iliad; excerpts from the forthcoming Scrubbing the Dog, investigating the residual effects of "scrubbed" or desensitized iconography and beliefs; Biography, inspired by the life and work of author James Baldwin; and the award-winning The Soft Sweet Smell of Firm Warm Things — not seen in its entirety since 2003 — and Speaking Ill of the Dead, Moses' 2007 meditation on war. Don’t miss Robert Moses' Kin whose last season the San Francisco Chronicle hailed as "masterful" and "an enchanted spell."

www.RobertMosesKin.org

Photo: RJ Muna

SFJAZZ BEACON AWARD

Timbalero and composer Benny Velarde is synonymous with Latin jazz in the Bay Area. Coming of age as San Francisco was developing an influential synthesis of modern jazz and Cuban percussion, he played an instrumental role in the new sound’s birth. Born in Panama City, his family relocated to San Francisco in 1945 and he established himself during a long stint with legendary vibraphonist Cal Tjader and work with the likes of Mongo Santamaria, Joe Henderson, Errol Garner, Stan Getz, Vince Guaraldi, Lalo Schifrin and other giants. A leader of his own bands since 1960, Velarde, now 81, has nurtured generations of local musicians and is a beloved Latin jazz ambassador. With John Santos in the group as percussionist and musical coordinator, Velarde will be honored with the 2012 SFJAZZ Beacon Award for lifetime achievement.

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Decades before Juan de Marcos Gonzalez served as music director and guiding spirit behind the Buena Vista Social Club, he founded Sierra Maestra, a Cuban roots band dedicated to the Afro-Cuban son style that influenced musicians around the world. Along with trumpeter Jesús Alemañy, a Cuban child prodigy, De Marcos went on to form the popular band Cubanismo!, modernizing the classic instrumentation. With brisker tempos, Sierra Maestra added a jolt of new energy to the sensuous guaracha rhythms, a sound that seized the imaginations of a new Cuban generation. Hugely popular at home, the band gradually built up an international following with a series of celebrated albums, culminating in 2010’s World Village release, Sonando Ya. U.S. and Cuban relations have presented few opportunities for stateside performances, and this is the band’s first American tour in several years.

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TWO PROGRAMS
April 12-15
Triangle of the Squinches, is set to a commissioned score by legendary musician Mickey Hart and features an innovative kinetic set by cutting-edge architect Christopher Haas. Alonzo King explores the inner and outer space of the body: how do we strive to touch something infinite with our material forms? What is the resonance between the bodies we inhabit and the forms we create?

April 18-22
Alonzo King’s Scheherazade is a re-envisioning of the ancient collection of Persian, Sanskrit, and Arabic stories of 1,001 Nights. The exquisite dancers of LINES Ballet present a vision of the transformative potential these stories possess: the way that we are offered a chance to listen to a voice that can change our lives, the power of art to illuminate all the chambers of our hearts. The new score by tabla master Zakir Hussain re-interprets the original music by Rimsky-Korsakov, incorporating traditional Persian as well as Western instruments. Commissioned by the Monaco Dance Forum to inaugurate the Centenary of the Ballets Russes de Monte Carlo, Alonzo King LINES Ballet’s Scheherazade honors Diaghilev’s spirit of cutting-edge artistic collaboration, immersing audiences in a luminescent and richly textured world.

For more information, please visit our website.

Touring and recording with superstar Beyoncé has put saxophonist Tia Fuller at the center of the pop music universe, reaching millions of listeners with her concise, beautifully crafted solos. On her own time, the 36-year-old is a rising force on saxophone and flute — a savvy bandleader, composer, and arranger who follows in the footsteps of masters like Cannonball Adderley, Jackie McLean and Kenny Garrett. She’s racked up an imposing range of credits, including T.S. Monk, Jon Faddis, Jimmy Heath, Gerald Wilson and Nancy Wilson. As if her performing career wasn’t enough, Fuller is also a devoted educator, lecturing and presenting master classes at music institutions around the world. Featuring an all-female rhythm section, her latest album is Decisive Steps, a masterly statement by an artist with a reputation as one of the most important new instrumentalists in jazz.

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Over the past two decades, no artist has done more to extend and refine the piano trio’s possibilities than Brad Mehldau. With two brilliant Northern California-raised compatriots, bassist Larry Grenadier and drummer Jeff Ballard, he’s forged a strikingly beautiful group sound distinguished by a flexible approach in which the players continuously trade roles, often eschewing traditional bass and drum solos while elaborating on the form of a song. Whether playing his own stunning compositions, Thelonious Monk classics, American Songbook standards, or more contemporary tunes by Nick Drake, Radiohead or the Beatles, Mehldau has a gift for long, emotionally arching improvisations. Known for selecting different repertoire on each night of an engagement, the trio’s SFJAZZ run provides a rare chance to hear a wide cross-section of their recent material.

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