When it’s time to get a party started, Howard Wiley gets the call. The Oakland saxophonist has been a mainstay on the Bay Area music scene since he was a teenager, and in his early 40s he’s taken up the mantle of his mentors, playing soul-steeped jazz palpably connected to its social music roots. Impossible to pigeonhole, Wiley can generate blowtorch heat in just about any context, whether he’s playing Ethiojazz with Meklit, laying down shuffle beats on drums as one of Lavay Smith’s Red Hot Skillet Lickers or testifying with veteran Hammond B3 organ masters like Doug Carn and Chester Thompson. As a bandleader, his primary vehicle is The Howard Wiley Show, a rollicking all-star combo featuring electric bassist Marcus Phillips, drummer Dante “Taz” Roberson and organist L.J. Holoman, whose credits include sessions with the likes of Dr. Dre, Game, Mary J. Blige and Raphael Saadiq.
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Earlier Event: May 30
YOGA IN THE GARDENS
Later Event: June 3
MELISSA CRUZ FLAMENCO