Jazz Buzz - 2011 Countdown - Terrence Blanchard

Known as one of the best jazz clubs in the country, featuring a wonderful Japanese restaurant in the mix, Yoshi’s Jazz Club Oakland is the bay area’s most respected jazz venue.

Now in its 14^th year at the Jack London Square location, it is one of the east bay’s greatest destinations.

Featuring live jazz every night of the week and wonderful sushi, its affordability makes it easy to experience world-class musicians, with ticket prices starting at $14.

Located at 510 Embarcadero West between Washington and Clay Streets, the club is easily accessible and there is validated parking. 

Yoshi’s sit on the ground floor on the front side its seven-story parking structure across from Jack London Square Cinema Complex. 

The location is ideal and allows for multiple modes of transportation – Bart, AC Transit, Amtrak and the Alameda/Oakland Ferry.

Yoshi's began in 1973 as a small, North Berkeley sushi bar owned by a trio of struggling students.

Its founder and namesake, Yoshie Akiba, orphaned during World War II, came to the U.S. to study fine arts, dance and dance therapy.

She opened Yoshi's Japanese Restaurant in North Oakland with her two best friends Kaz Kajimura, a journalist and carpenter, and Hiroyuki Hori, a painter and Japanese cook, says Akiba.

By 1997, the award-winning 330 seat jazz club setting opened its doors in Oakland’s Jack London Square.

Presenting the finest in jazz and latin jazz, as well as blues, neo-soul, afro-cuban, world, and African music, the Yoshi’s experience is the ultimate delight in a classy, colorful and intimate setting.

Be prepared to let go of your personal space. The club gets packed and the tables are tiny and everyone is friendly. 

You'll probably strike up a little conversation with your table-mates.

Most impressive is that the performance hall is so well insulated, guests can't hear the freight and Amtrak trains as they periodically rumble down Embarcadero, the Jack London Square street facing the club.

Looking at the photos on the walls, this true jazz venue remembers the legends.

Jazz greats such as Betty Carter, Max Roach, Abbey Lincoln, Dizzy Gillespie, and Oscar Peterson among hundreds of others are part of the Yoshi’s Oakland archival history.

Among the acts closing out the summer of the 2011 calendar was New Orleans born Terrence Blanchard, who at age eight played alongside childhood friend Wynton Marsalis in summer music camps.

Boasting over 50 scores to his name, trumpeter, band leader, arranger, composer, film composer and four time Grammy Award winning musician, Terrence Blanchard, seduced audiences with his sleek postbop sound.

With more than 29 albums to his credit, Blanchard has unquestionably established himself as one of the most influential jazz players and movie-score masters of his generation.

In this two night-residency, Blanchard took the Yoshi’s audience on a journey that included compositions by the bright younger members of his equally yoked band of movers and shakers on the music scene.

Sharing the stage with Blanchard were saxophonist Brice Winston of Tucson, pianist Fabian Almazan, of Havana, Cuba, bassist Derrick Hodge of Los Angeles, and drummer Kendrick Scott of Houston.

“My drummer is the most creative drummer I’ve ever met. When our eyes are closed, it means we’re counting our asses off,” said Blanchard.

When recording companies refused to sign them, drummer, Scott, and bassist, Hodge started their own recording label, “World Culture Music,” in New York City.

The quartet performed a new composition by pianist, Almazan, entitled “Pet Step Sitters Theme Song.” “When the economy got bad, my mother started her own pet sitters business,” said Almazan. “I wrote this song for her.”

“Young students of Saxophonist Winston are currently touring the jazz scene in Europe,” said Blanchard.

“The band hit with a lot of flavor,” said Lewis Williamson Nelson, a voice over actor in the audience.

Originally a straight ahead jazz musician, Blanchard is making waves on the jazz scene as he sets new standards, infusing the crucible of catastrophe as it impels creative expression to new heights inspiring new tunes.

From his artistic responses to the 9/11 terrorist attacks to the war in Iraq to the pummeling of New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Blanchard is taking his music to another level and changing the face of jazz with a slightly different bent that represents today’s world.

“As a patron of jazz for many years, I didn’t hear anything that was familiar. I loved the music even though I didn’t understand it at first,” said Bobby Warren, 81, owner of Oakland’s King’s Gym, a gym for boxers. ”

 “As artists we document our social surroundings and give our impressions of events. Life is all about expansion and evolution. We make choices every day, none of which are right or wrong. They are simply choices that allow us to explore the variety of what’s before us,” said Blanchard.

Blanchard's musical work is currently represented in the Broadway production of Stephen Adly Guirgis' The Motherf**ker With the Hat.