I didn’t get a chance to hear Bob Dylan play at the Greek Theater on Saturday night, but you can have some vicarious pleasure by parsing through the live set list.
Did any InBerkeley readers hear the concert and wish to comment?
Update One attendee posted a recording of Gonna Change My Way of Thinking:
Kermit Lynch is a Berkeley institution and a national treasure, as anyone who has visited his wine store, or read his wine-related newsletters or book knows. He’s been around town for a long time, seen it all and amassed an impressive knowledge of the hallowed grape along the way. (One consequence is that he now spends half the year enjoying la belle vie in Provence.)
The thing is, just when you think you’ve got him pegged, along comes the revelation that he’s not a wine buff at all — or at least that isn’t his first love. Lynch started out as a musician, back in the drug-hazed Berkeley of the late 1960s, when he sang in a band and dreamed of one day getting a record contract.
Well that day has arrived, as some 40 years later Lynch is celebrating the release of his first album – a blend of soft rock, folk and blues — called Man’s Temptation. As he told Jancis Robinson recently in the Financial Times: “It was quite a thrill to get a record contract at 67. When I read it I thought, ‘Wow, I’m really something.”
Ashkenaz Music & Dance Community Center, a nationally recognized nonprofit music and culture venue that specializes in presenting live world and roots music, is once again holding its Dance-A-Thon fundraiser event next week at its Berkeley venue on San Pablo Ave., just south of Gilman St. This is the first Dance-A-Thon since the 1998-2002 annual series, which helped raise funds toward the purchase of the current Ashkenaz building from the late founder David Nadel’s estate.
This year’s Dance-A-Thon will be held on Saturday, September 26, 2009 from 2:00 p.m. to 2:00 a.m., and will feature 12 hours of live music from around the world. It’s an event for the whole family, and will feature activities for the kids, great raffle prizes and good food in the Back Studio.
There are two ways you can attend the event: You can pay a $20 door price the day of the event, or for $10 you can preregister as a sponsored dancer. Anyone who gets sponsorships totaling $100 or more gets their Dance Card number entered into a drawing for one year admission to Ashkenaz. All the proceeds are tax-deductible and will go toward Ashkenaz operating expenses.
Ashkenaz was founded in 1973 by David Nadel, a dedicated human rights activist and folk dancer who pioneered the presentation of world music long before the genre had a name. For 24 years he led Ashkenaz to become a community watering hole presenting music as diverse as Balkan, Cajun, Zydeco, African Highlife, Brazilian Samba, Afrobeat, Calypso, Soca, Blues, Contra Dance, Eastern European Folk Music, Flamenco, Reggae, Salsa, Ska, Soukous, Bluegrass, East & West Coast Swing and more. In 1996 David was murdered by a drunk he refused to let back into the building.
Visit the Ashkenaz web site for more information about the Dance-A-Thon event, or about being a sponsored dancer, volunteering or donating prizes or cash.
We’re in the midst of the Berkeley Old Time Music Convention, which offers plenty of opportunities to hear free music. At lunchtime today, for example, Rodney and Clay Sutton and Charmaine Slaven are doing a free demonstration of southern dance styles at the new Freight & Salvage on Addison. Tonight’s concert at Freight & Salvage is preceded by seven hours (!) of jamming in the lobby, also free. Tomorrow there’s a morning children’s concert at the main branch of the Berkeley Public Library and an afternoon string band contest at the farmer’s market in Civic Center Park.
You can gain some sense of the festival’s spirit by reading its history. The first convention in 1968 was the “35th Annual”. It was followed by the 17th Annual and the 22nd Annual. The first convention had one rule: “No fair electric instruments.” First prize in the convention’s competition was three pounds of rutabagas — which went to a banjo player then in Switzerland because the judges ruled that “the ultimate thing a banjo player could do, in terms of good taste, was to be at least 8,000 miles away”.
Green Day at Berkeley Rep rehearsal
One of the key institutions that helps our little city punch way above its weight is the Berkeley Repertory Theater. The Rep has a history of commissioning and premiering productions that go on to national fame. But it’s hard to recall more buzz about a production than that surrounding tonight’s opening of American Idiot.
Feature in Rolling Stone? Check. Daily Candy plug? Check. And of course lead stories for all the local media. If you follow Twitter for mentions of Berkeley, you’ll see lots of people either exulting that they have tickets or lamenting that they can’t go. The Rep is careful to tell people that Green Day itself is not in the production, but there are bound to be excited fans who don’t bother to read the fine print.
It’s of course only natural that Green Day’s theatrical debut should take place in Berkeley. Formed in 1987, the band was part of the punk rock revival centered around 924 Gilman. They first hit the mainstream in the mid-90s and since then have sold over 22 million records.
So what will theatergoers find? There’s an onstage band and a cast of 19. The music is, needless to say, by Green Day. The play has been co-written by Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong and director Michael Mayer (who won a Tony award for his Spring Awakening).
If you go to American Idiot, let us know what you think, either by emailing or posting a comment here.
The second annual Downtown Berkeley MusicFest gets under way this week with a rich array of live, mostly free, kick-ass music performances at various venues throughout the downtown area. Jazz, bluegrass, folk, country & western, reggae, world, tango, blues, Latin, klezmer and more. While most of the action occurs between 5:00 and 11:00 p.m., performances begin at noon on Wednesday and Thursday, and 10:00 a.m. on Saturday.
The festivities begin at noon on Wednesday, August 26, and run through Sunday night. Did we mention, most performances are FREE.
Get all the details at the Downtown Berkeley MusicFest web site.
BeyondChron reports that the UC Theater, on University Avenue, is being transformed into a live music venue by David Mayeri, formerly COO of Bill Graham Presents, and Dawn Holliday, who runs Slim’s and the Great American Music Hall. The planned 1,000 to 1,500-seat venue will add to the burgeoning concentration of arts venues in downtown Berkeley.
The UC Theater is one of three still-standing pre-1920 movie theaters in Berkeley. The other two, the Elmwood and the California, both opened in 1914, have been extensively remodelled. The UC Theater, opened in 1917, is largely intact since it was the only one not to be converted into a multiplex. The redevelopment plans call for the interior details to be preserved.
Photo from Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association
Bollywood dance is hot in Berkeley — and the success of Ishaara (above), a team of dancers from UC, that drew standing ovations on TV’s America’s Got Talent with its interpretation of Slumdog Millionaire’s “Jai Ho” — can only mean the number of enthusiasts will grow.
According to the Contra Costa Times, dance classes and Bollywood nights are popping up in community centers and nightclubs around the Bay Area — and corporations like Cisco and Oracle are even hosting classes at their in-house exercise centers.
Berkeley’s YWCA is the place to go for weekly Bollywood dance classes.
Read the full story here.
[Berkeley Bollywood dance group, Ishaara, shines on America's Got Talent -- 07.22.09]
The operators of Slim’s and the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco plan to open a 1,500-seat concert venue in downtown Berkeley.
The application for the project in the old UC Theater building on University Avenue near Shattuck Avenue goes before the city’s Zoning and Adjustments board Thursday night. City staff is recommending the board approve the project. The project was approved by the city’s planning commission in May.
The project comes on the heels of the Aug. 27 opening of the new Freight and Salvage Coffeehouse just a block away on Addison Street. That venue, which will showcase folk and traditional American Music, will seat 440 people.
via Inside Bay Area.
8/14/09 UPDATE: Last night the Zoning and Adjustments board in Berkeley approved the zoning change that will allow this project to move forward. According to the San Francisco Business Times, the project still needs several more approvals and permits before it can start construction. The opening is targeted for fall of 2010
Arts, Business, Downtown, Government, Music, Politics, Property
Freight & Salvage Coffee House is about to move up the street — literally — from 1111 Addison (off San Pablo Avenue) to its new location at 2020 Addison in the heart of downtown Berkeley (rendered above).
A grand opening celebration weekend is planned for August 27-30 with performances from, among others, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott and the David Grisman Quartet.
August 27 sees the venue’s 21st Fiddle Summit with Alasdair Fraser, Liz Carroll and Darol Anger.
Visit Freight & Salvage’s website for details of the new building, the campaign for funds and the celebration weekend acts. And read this piece in The Monthly for a perspective on the venue which has been providing music and entertainment in Berkeley for 40 years.ome
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