San Francisco Jazz Reviews & Interviews
With a new album arriving on May 8 and an all-star Miles Davis centennial concert coming to the Presidio Theatre on May 14, pianist, composer, and arranger John Beasley moves between inward reflection and large-scale tribute while keeping the piano at the center of both projects.
At SFJAZZ’s Listening Party, Immanuel Wilkins gave audiences a first look inside his residency week: the questions behind Recitations, the mentors who shaped him, and the deeper purpose of bringing listeners into the work before the concerts began.
Bay Area pianist Charles Chen’s forthcoming album The Long Way Home combines jazz standards with firsthand oral histories from bassist Bill Crow and drummer Steve Little, preserving stories that connect directly to jazz’s modern lineage.
Rather than presenting Miles Davis as a finished monument, John Beasley and his sextet treated the legendary trumpeter's music as an unfolding conversation during a dynamic 90-minute set at San Francisco's Presidio Theatre. This performance marked the final, brilliant stop of Beasley's Miles Davis tribute tour in the Bay Area.