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Dick Whittington, 90th Birthday Celebration
Dick Whittington celebrates his 90th birthday with his piano trio, featuring Robb Fisher on bass and Akira Tana on drums. Joining them will be Peck Allmond (trumpet, tenor sax, flute) and Jeff Cressman (trombone), both of whom were members of Berkeley School District’s Elementary School Jazz Band Program. The ensemble will play songs from the Great American Song Book, as well as bebop standards by Dizzy, Bird, Benny Golsen, and others.
General Admission
$30 in advance / $35 at the door
We are offering a limited number of seats for this performance. Advance purchase is recommended.
DICK WHITTINGTON
Whittington, began his career in Los Angeles in the 1950s, playing with such jazz notables as Dexter Gordon, Bobby Hutcherson Sonny Criss, Barney Kessel, Scott LaFaro and Charlie Haydn. After relocating to Berkeley in the 1960s, he performed with Anita O’Day, Mel Torme, Dinah Washington, Bobby McFerrin and many others. In 1968 Dick and Phil Hardymon co-founded of the Berkeley School District’s Elementary School Jazz Program, which fostered the careers of Peter Apfelbaum, Joshua Redman, Benny Green, Peck Allmond, Jeff Cressman, Craig Handy, Rodney Franklin and Many others.
Over the last six decades, DIck has performed with many jazz greats, including, Stan Getz, James Moody, Lee Konitz, Art Pepper, Eddie Harris and Chet Baker. In 1987, Dick and his wife Mariyn Ross founded the Maybeck Recital Hall, where, for ten years, they lived in and produced over five hundred jazz and classical concerts, including the internationally-acclaimed “Live at Maybeck” solo piano series on Concord Records, which features over forty-five of the top pianists in jazz. He’s been active on the Peninsula jazz scene since 1996. Over the last year he’s been playing trio at The Inn at Spanish Bay in Pebble Beach.
ROBB FISHER
After attending the University of Redlands where he played music and studied bass privately for four years in Los Angeles, Robb moved to the Bay Area in 1968. He landed gigs with Chet Baker and later vibraphonist and pianist Buddy Montgomery. He joined Cal Tjader's group in 1976.
For six years Robb played, toured, and recorded albums with the legendary Cal Tjader Quintet, anchoring Cal's Grammy award winning "La Onda Va Bien" album and the Grammy nominee "Gozame Pero Ya." The rhythm sections included the great Poncho Sanchez, drummer Vince Lateano, and pianists Mark Levine and Clare Fischer.
After Cal's death in the Philippines in 1982 while on a tour, Robb continued to play in the Bay Area with local musicians and also record albums with Carmen McCrae, Art Pepper, Tania Maria, Anita O'Day, Eddie Marshall, Ed Reed, and Mel Martin.
He taught for many years at the Berkeley Jazz School in Berkeley where he lives. He continues to perform in the Bay Area and currently plays with the Roger Glenn Latin Jazz Ensemble.
AKIRA TANA
Born and raised in California, Akira Tana earned degrees from Harvard University and the New Conservatory of Music. He has worked with Sonny Rollins, Sonny Stitt, Zoot Sims, Hubert Laws, Milt Jackson, Jim Hall, Art Farmer, The Paul Winter Consort, Paquito D'Rivera, James Moody, J.J. Johnson, Lena Horne, The Manhattan Transfer, Ruth Brown, Charles Aznavour, Maurice Hines, and Van Dyke Parks, among many others. He has appeared on over 200 recordings.
He has released many recordings as a leader, including a project entitled "JAZZaNOVA" (VegaMusic-USA) featuring vocalists Claudio Amaral, Claudia Villela, Jackie Ryan, Carla Helmbrecht, and Sandy Cressman. Guest artists include Branford Marsalis and Arturo Sandoval. "Otonowa," "Stars Across the Ocean," and "Ai San San (Love's Radiance)," feature jazz interpretations of Japanese folk and pop melodies dating back as far as the 1800s. This group has completed seven goodwill/charity tours of Tohoku, performing and teaching for communities still rebuilding from the earthquake/tsunami of 2011.
As an active teacher and clinician, Tana has taught at Rutgers University, Queens College, Jersey City State College, New York, San Francisco State University, and the California Jazzatory. He is currently on the faculty at the San Francisco Conservatory of. Additionally, you can catch Tana hosting "Morning Cup of Jazz" on Jazz 91's KCSM. akiratana.com
PECK ALLMOND
Peck Allmond is a jazz multi-instrumentalist and composer in Brooklyn. Originally from California, he’s a proud product of Berkeley’s ground-breaking jazz education program. Playing trumpet, saxophones, flute, and valve trombone, Peck has worked with Oliver Lake, John Hicks, Benny Green, Billy Harper, Buddy Collette, Rebecca Paris, Don Cherry, Pharaoh Sanders, Donny McCaslin, Richie Cole, Me’Shell NdegeOcello, Peter Apfelbaum, Anthony Braxton, Tom Harrell, Joe Lovano, Chico O’Farrill, James Brown, Rickie Lee Jones, Sean Lennon, Ray Lamontagne, Wyclef Jean, Zooey Deschanel, and Randy Newman. Numerous television appearances include Saturday Night Live, Tonight Show, Conan O’Brien, Today show, and Mark Twain Comedy Awards.
He studied classical trumpet at New England Conservatory and has a B.A. in Music from UC Santa Cruz.
Peck was Traveling Trumpet Clinician for Monterey Jazz Festival, 2005-2017, and a woodwind instructor for Jazz at Lincoln Center. He teaches at New York Jazz Academy, and privately in NYC.
He began composing for the Peck Allmond Group in 1984. His compositions were featured by jazz legend Jackie McLean in McLean’s 90’s quintet. His ensemble music has been performed by students from NYC to SF to São Paolo.
peckallmond.bandcamp.com | youtube.com/@peckallmond
JEFF CRESSMAN
Jeff Cressman is equally known for his work as a trombonist and as a recording engineer. From 2000 to 2016, he was a member of the Carlos Santana Band, touring worldwide and showcased on multiple CDs recorded with the band, including the multi-Grammy winning "Supernatural".
Beyond his noteworthy collaboration with Santana, Jeff toured and recorded with Trey Anastasio Band and Groundation, and has recorded and performed live with Tito Puente, Poncho Sanchez, Sheila E., Pete Escovedo, Ray Obiedo, Peter Apfelbaum & the Hieroglyphics Ensemble with Don Cherry, Jai Uttal and the Pagan Love Orchestra, , the Kamikaze Ground Crew, John Santos and the Machete Ensemble, and Jon Jang and the Pan Asian Arkestra. Some of Jeff’s most personal musical work can be heard on recordings with Free Dive, Que Calor, and Sandy Cressman & Homenagem Brasileira.
Beyond his work as a trombonist, Jeff has engineered and produced twenty years of multi-CD sets for the esteemed SFJAZZ Collective. He has also engineered projects for Brian Blade, Josh Redmond, Edward Simon, Boz Scaggs, Tommy Malone, John Santos and the Machete Ensemble, Eddie Marshall, Peck Allmond, Wayne Wallace, Hafez Modirzadeh, Rob Sudduth, and countless others.
Jeff has also been in demand as a live sound engineer for a wide range of artists and audiences worldwide. cressmanmusic.com