Improvisation in the Raw

The India Cooke and Bill Crossman duo, known for its unique unrehearsed raw improvisational art form weaves elements of various genres while maintaining an African rooted jazz and blues backdrop.

“India and I are about total improv with no rehearsals,” says Crossman.

Dedicated to the notion that in Berkeley everyday is an arts festival, the Berkeley Arts Festival presents a full monthly calendar of scheduled concerts featuring some of the most creative people in Berkeley – the musicians, composers and writers bring a cornucopia of vibrant talents for all audiences.

Filling a need for information about the activities of all the Berkeley arts organizations year-round, BAF serves as a guide for the arts loving people of Berkeley with appreciation of the City's continued support.

The mid-month October calendar featured the Violinist Cooke and Pianist Crossman joined by special guest artist, world-renowned saxophonist Lewis Jordan in concert on Sunday.

Often featured on KCSM-FM radio, and having recorded three CDs, Cooke and Crossman also has performed together in Crossman’s multi-genre musically-improvised opera, John Brown’s Truth.

Whether it’s classical or jazz, Cooke, a violinist, composer and educator, plays a wide range of music.

Having performed in the San Francisco Bay Area symphony and opera orchestras, chamber ensembles and Broadway shows, Cooke is one of California’s most respected contract artists.

Known for sharing the stage as a featured soloist with Joe Williams and the Louie Bellson Orchestra, Cooke has also played with Sarah Vaughn, Ray Charles, and Frank Sinatra.

Her jazz and improvisation experiences include performances with Pharoah Sanders, Sun Ra, Cecil Taylor, Pauline Oliveros and many others.

As an educator, Ms. Cooke was an Artist-in Residence at the San Francisco School of the Arts, and currently teaches at the San Francisco Community Music Center, Mills College, Santa Clara Children's Shelter and at her private studio.

Susan Hevrdejs started out as one of Cooke’s violin students at San Francisco Community Music Center and now takes private lessons from her. “India is my teacher, but it’s the first time I’ve seen her in a live performance,” says Hevrdejs.  “I love the music.”

Cooke lectures and performs in bay area public schools, colleges, and other educational programs.

With whispers of the classical music integrated with the avant-garde, Cooke is known for putting her entire body into a performance. Her wild facial expressions, soft smiles, and bursts of laugh out loud moments while playing high-pitched notes are indicative of her passion.

“I am so enjoying this,” says Mary Watkins, composer.

With eyes closed, Crossman anticipates long enough to relinquish the spirit and go wherever the music takes him.

When his solo parts grow contemplative, it never loses its sense of inherent tension, internal drama and communicative strength. Crossman’s compositions are sometimes a fusion of gospel, blues, classical and jazz.

“Bill always does Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child and Danse Macabre” by C. Saint-Saens, but this performance was the best, says Carrie Weick, a classical musician in the audience.

A natural innovator in freely improvised jazz piano, Crossman, is a composer and educator, and has performed with some of the world's greatest jazz musicians and appears in performance venues and festivals from coast to coast and internationally.

Currently a teacher at Berkeley City College and the Oakland Public Conservatory of Music, Crossman has also hosted OPC's free-jazz and free-improv monthly open-mike sessions.

Crossman is also a member of several other bands, including B-FREE, the Ritual Resurrection Band and the Troublemakers Union.

Clad in Afrocentric attire, San Francisco born Jordan heated up the stage with the sounds of the saxophone in an explosion of jaw dropping virtuosity with a postmodernist embrace of the past, present and future of jazz like no other.

“I am into appreciating the music the way India and Bill approaches it,” says Jordan. “Improvisational music comes from the jazz idiom. We are all steeped in music history and it all comes out with other things.”