Doors at 6:00 pm; Show at 7:00 pm
SOLD OUT!
To everyone who hasn't gotten tickets and really want to be there, we have created more standing room, and 20 or so more tickets will be sold at the door once the pre-sale ticket holders are seated - probably 6:45pm or so.
Show up before 6:30pm to get to the front of the standing room line.
ATTENTION TICKET HOLDERS:
We are going to open doors at 6:00 pm instead of 6:30 pm so we can try to get all ticket-holders seated and assess how much comfortable standing room we have.
Seating is first-come/first-serve - arrive early to get your preferred seats!
Tickets are $35 advance / $40 day of show
Ashkenaz and Women Drummers International celebrate Women’s History Month with our March series of special concerts and workshops, the Maestra Series, featuring women musicians, dancers, and poets from around the world. The nights are filled with inspired culture, singing, dancing, drumming, performers in new groupings, once-only collaborations, and reunions of pioneering women musicians.
The opening concert features two bands: singer Linda Tillery’s recently formed Freedom Band, and the reunion of the all-women jazz band Alive! It’s a night mixing songs of social protest and justice with inspired jazz collaboration and improvisation.
Linda Tillery & the Freedom Band perform music of protest, resistance, and liberation. The turmoil of the 1960s and ’70s inspired many African-American songwriters to create music that reflected the frustrations, hope, and determination of black people in the U.S. Tillery has recast some of the songs that inspired her, composed by Bill Withers, Nina Simone, Marvin Gaye, Bob Dylan, and others. Along with Tillery on vocals, the Freedom band is pianist Tammy Hall, guitarist Ray Obiedo, bassist Ruth Davies, drummer Leon Joyce Jr., and percussionist Javier Navarrette.
Tillery is a Bay Area native and Grammy nominee. She made her public debut in as the singer and drummer for ’60s rock band Loading Zone, performing at the Fillmore Auditorium and other psychedelic rock halls. She was a leader in the women’s music movement flowering in the Bay Area, before becoming a founding member of Bobby McFerrin’s Voicestra. She has led an all-women soul band, performed with body music artist Keith Terry, and for the last 25 years Tillery has led the Cultural Heritage Choir, touring the world to preserve and share African-American roots music.
The all-woman jazz quintet Alive! has played a unique and formative role in both women’s music and jazz. Alive! wows audiences with its infectious rhythms, stunning vocals, innovative arrangements, and intelligent original compositions. With the help of the late, great Helen Keane, music manager for jazz notables including Bill Evans, Joanne Brackeen, and Paquito D’Rivera, Alive! forged a road out of the ’70s San Francisco music scene into the international jazz community. Band members have gone on to solo careers, occasionally reuniting. Alive! is drummer-percussionist Barbara Borden, conga player and percussionist Carolyn Brandy (a major organizer of this month’s Ashkenaz programming), bassist-cellist Susanne DiVincenzo, and vocalist-percussionist Rhiannon. Tammy Hall replaces Janet Small, the original Alive! pianist, who passed away in 2010.
