Lettuce Turned SFJAZZ into Funk Church
A funny thing happens when Lettuce comes to SFJAZZ. The Miner Auditorium—normally a model of concert-hall decorum—starts to feel less like a jazz temple and more like the world's hippest funk party in a neighborhood.
Lettuce at Miner Auditorium. Photo: Steve Roby
Well before the first note, Sunday night's crowd suggested this wouldn't be an ordinary closer to the band's four-night residency. Fans embraced in the lobby like family at a reunion. Veterans swapped stories with newcomers. One gray-bearded concert lifer proudly announced he'd attended 5,200 concerts, producing a commemorative guitar pick as proof while a younger fan looked on with equal parts admiration and disbelief. The music hadn't even started, yet the communal spirit bandleader Nigel Hall would later celebrate was already in full swing.
Hall sensed it immediately. “We're just gonna communicate vibes,” he told the audience. “If the spirit moves you, boogie!”
Permission granted.
Lettuce has spent more than three decades refining a recipe that blends James Brown's precision, Parliament-Funkadelic's elasticity, New Orleans grease, and jazz improvisation into something unmistakably its own. By the end of the evening, many in the audience had abandoned any pretense of remaining politely seated.
Nigel Hall. Photo: Steve Roby
The band wasted little time asserting its authority. “The Matador” and “The Lock” opened with drummer Adam Deitch and bassist Erick “Jesus” Coomes locking into grooves so deep they seemed more excavated than played. Coomes' bass never merely marked time; it danced around it, while Deitch supplied crisp backbeats that gave trumpeter Eric Bloom and saxophonist Ryan Zoidis room to fire off tightly synchronized horn figures before peeling into muscular improvisations.
The evening balanced new material with reliable crowd favorites. Songs from Cook fit comfortably alongside established staples, making the band's latest album more like another chapter in an evolving songbook.
“Everything's Gonna Be Alright” took on unexpected emotional weight after Hall dedicated it to the late Dumpstaphunk bassist Nick Daniels III, transforming what could have been another feel-good anthem into an affectionate memorial set within a slow-burning groove.
Adam Smirnoff. Photo: Steve Roby
Hall proved nearly as compelling between songs as behind the keyboard. His stories ranged from Daniels to the band's famously sleep-deprived recording of Witches Stew, recalling how exhaustion somehow produced one of their most adventurous recordings. The anecdote perfectly captured Lettuce itself: a band that embraces imperfections because they often lead somewhere more interesting.
That adventurous streak surfaced during “7 Tribes,” which briefly detoured into Miles Davis's “Tutu” before the band pivoted to an expansive reading of “Human Nature.” Michael Jackson's pop classic emerged transformed—not smoothed over, but stretched into a spacious jazz-funk meditation, with Bloom's trumpet floating above Deitch's endlessly inventive rhythms.
Adam Deitch. Photo: Steve Roby
Late in the evening, Hall reminded the audience that even musicians who take their craft seriously must remember how to enjoy themselves. His introduction to Frankie Beverly & Maze's “Happy Feelings” was less an announcement than a sermon on friendship, gratitude and joy. By the time the band reached the chorus, the title had become a statement of fact.
The closing stretch of the nearly two-hour show never lost momentum. “Ready To Live,” “Breakout,” and “Madison Square” kept the dance floor rocking, and the encore, “Trapezoid,” delivered a final burst of funk that sent the audience away happily exhausted rather than merely entertained.
What made the performance memorable wasn't simply Lettuce's formidable musicianship—though every member demonstrated why the band has become one of modern funk's most respected touring acts. It was the way they dissolved the invisible line between stage and audience. Miner Auditorium remained acoustically pristine, allowing every horn voicing and rhythmic wrinkle to register with startling clarity, yet the atmosphere felt gloriously informal.
For one Sunday night, SFJAZZ wasn't simply presenting a concert. It was hosting a family reunion where everyone knew how to dance.
Program Notes
Artist: Lettuce
Date: Sunday, July 19, 2026
Showtime: 7:00 PM
Venue: Miner Auditorium
Location: San Francisco, California
Personnel
Eric Bloom, trumpet, vocals; Ryan Zoidis, saxophones; Adam Smirnoff, guitar; Nigel Hall, keyboards, vocals; Erick Coomes, bass; Adam Deitch, drums.
Set list: “The Matador,” “The Lock,” “Everything's Gonna Be Alright,” “7 Tribes /“Tutu,” “Human Nature,” “Chief It Up,” “Happy Feeling,” “ Ready To Live,” “Breakout,” “Madison Square”
Encore: “Trapezoid/On Broadway”
