JaZzLine Institute presents
BAJABA Showcase
LIVE AUDIENCE + streaming
LifeForce Jazz – featuring Hafez Modirzadeh (saxophone), Grant Levin (piano), Gary Brown (bass), and Jaz Sawyer (drums) – plays an afternoon of music, with special guests Katerina Brown (voice), Calvin Keys (guitar), Christopher Lowell Clarke (trumpet), and Charles Hamilton (trombone). The JaZzLine Institute’s Life Time Achievement Awards will be presented by Afrikahn Jahmal Dayvs, and the evening will be hosted by KPFA’s Gabrielle Wilson.
ATTEND IN-PERSON $20
We are offering a limited number of tickets to attend this performance in person. Advance purchase is required. Ticket holders must be fully vaccinated to attend, and will be asked to show proof of vaccination at the door.
Watch the LIVE STREAM on youtube or facebook
Donations accepted via paypal.me/PiedmontPianoCompany (100% of these donations will go to the artists)
HAFEZ MODIRZADEH saxophone
Saxophonist/theorist Hafez Modirzadeh has performed, recorded, published and lectured internationally on original cross-cultural musical concepts which include “Convergence Liberation” (in Critical Studies in Improvisation, 2011), “Compost Music” (in Leonardo, 2009), “Aural Archetypes” (in Black Music Research, 2001), as well as “Chromodality” (for Wesleyan University, 1992). Twice an NEA Jazz Fellow, Dr. Modirzadeh received a Senior Fulbright Award in 2006 to work with Flamenco and Gnawan traditions in Andalucia and Morocco, and again in 2014, to research Turkish Makam harmonization in Ankara. He is currently a Professor of Creative/World Music at San Francisco State University.
GRANT LEVIN piano
Grant Levin is a jazz pianist and composer based in San Francisco. Born in San Diego, California, he began studying the piano at age 5. He attended the University of Nevada, Reno, where he received a Bachelor of Music degree. After graduation, he joined the faculty of the music department at California State University, Chico, where he taught for 3 years. Levin has worked with a wide range of artists such as: Little Anthony and the Imperials, John Santos, Akira Tana, Dayna Stephens, Greg Abate, and many others. He has performed at notable venues such as: SFJAZZ Center, Mildred Owen Concert Hall, Yoshi’s, and Cafe Stritch. He has also appeared at the Fillmore Jazz Festival, San Francisco, and the San Jose Jazz Festival. grantlevin.com
GARY BROWN bass
Born into a family of musicians Gary Brown's inevitable musical career began at an early age. By his eleventh birthday Gary was already performing in jazz bands with his two brothers and his father, jazz trumpeter Wilbert Brown. Gary went on to form his own bands and develop a talent and reputation as a skilled and versatile bassist. While enrolled in San Jose State University's Art/Design program Gary came to realize that music was his true calling and made the decision to make it his life and his career. After leaving school he continued to study privately with the renowned Skip Parnell, a teacher and lecturer from the esteemed Philadelphia Academy of Music.
In the past 20 years Gary has toured extensively in the United States, Europe, Asia ,South America and the Middle East where he has recorded and shared the stage with Flora Purim & Airto, Pharaoh Sanders Jeff Beal, Steve Winwood, Narada Michael Walden, Dianne Reeves, Lou Rawls , Ernie Watts, John Lucien, Torninho Horta , Eddie Henderson , Joyce, Alex Acuna, Dori Caymmi, George Duke, Roy Ayres ,Oscar Castro Neves , Lyle Mays, Giovanni Hidalgo, Mike Shrieve, Paul McCandles, Alphonse Mouzon, Andy Narrell, Pete and Sheila (Sheile E.) Escovedo, Jose Neto Quartet. As a member of Terra Sul he composed and co-produced on their CD “Kindness of Strangers” (Motown jazz label MOJazz). In addition to the co-writing and arranging Gary also shares a producer credit with drummer Celso Alberti for recording artist Zaza's ambitious CD “Book of Kings”.
JAZ SAWYER drums
Dr. Jaz Sawyer (with one “Z”) began playing drums at age of 2 in the Haight Ashbury district of San Francisco, California. Several of Jaz's early mentors and teachers include Eddie Marshall, John Santos, Donald Bailey, Michael Sipro, Ed Kelly, Mondre Moffatt and Raymond Froehlich (SF Symphony). Jaz's musical studies have taken him through music programs at the Ruth Asawa School of The Arts, SF Conservatory of Music, Stanford Jazz Workshop, Michael Carvin School of Drumming and The New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music.
Dr. Sawyer possesses an eclectic and refined personal style of drumming that stems from his deep roots in his Classical, Jazz, West-African and Afro-Caribbean musical training. Jaz has worked with many notable artists, including Wynton Marsalis, Abbey Lincoln, George Benson, Bobby Hutcherson, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Randy Weston and Phil Lesh & Friends in some of the world’s premier concert venues, including The Blue Note, Village Vanguard, Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Kennedy Center and the Sydney Opera House.
Jaz has earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree (The New School/Mannes College), a Master of Public Administration & Public Policy degree (Metropolitan College of New York), and a Doctorate of Education in Organizational Leadership (Northcentral University). Dr. Sawyer is actively involved with music education in communities within New York, The Bay Area, New Orleans and Los Angeles. jazsawyer.com
AFRIKAHN JAHMAL DAYVS
Afrikahn Jahmal Dayvs has been working in radio since 1971, starting out in Oklahoma on two different stations. A few years later, the greater Bay Area became his next movement on the airwaves with shows on over six stations, including internet radio. His love of Jazz and Blues, its roots, inspirational musicians, and especially the desire to showcase an array of the amazing breadth of talent that the Bay Area has to offer, lead him to produce and host the BAJABA radio show on independent station KKUP/KPFA. Bay Area Jazz And Blues Artists (B.A.J.A.B.A.) Showcase was created by the late, great Jazz Activist Doug Edwards, ('The Doug of Edwards' as he was known), who passed in September 2010. Afrikahn has continued on and grown the fan base of this uncompromisingly integral part of our Bay Area musical landscape while also hosting shows throughout the week.
GABRIELLE WILSON
Gabrielle Wilson is a host and producer at KPFA Radio in Berkeley, CA. Her shows feature Straight Ahead Jazz, Blues, Afro-Cuban music, and Public Affairs. As Music Director at KPFA, Wilson arranged for Ray Charles to receive awards of merit from Bay Area non-profit organizations at Oakland’s historic Paramount Theater and she has interviewed Branford Marsalis, Abbey Lincoln, Nat Hentoff, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Pharoah Sanders and Randy Weston among others.
A Legal Affairs Reporter at KPFA since 1999, Miss. Wilson attained the degree of Juris Doctorate after studying French and International Law at University of Paris. Her radio broadcasts survey The First Amendment, Affirmative Action in Education, Judicial and Police Misconduct, Islamophobia, Marriage Equality and the Arts.
Gabrielle has received awards including International Woman of Color. She participated in a Medical-Legal delegation from Oakland, California to Havana, Cuba in January 2013 and lives in Oakland, CA.