Live Jazz in SF Bay

About Keeping folks up past 10 pm in SF is no easy feat, but Key’s owner Simon Rowe has been showcasing the best of the Bay Area’s organ trios in his late night Saturday sets. His ‘Transcendent Trio’, formed for a “Jazz on the Patio” residency during the pandemic will feature the dynamic Dave MacNab on Saxophone, the ebullient Jason Lewis on drums and Rowe on Hammond organ for a set of Blues, Bebop, Ballads and Banter. Late Set is supported by Jazz In the Neighborhood’s Guaranteed Fair Wage Fund.

Keeping folks up past 10 pm in SF is no easy feat, but Key’s owner Simon Rowe has been showcasing the best of the Bay Area’s organ trios in his late night Saturday sets. His ‘Transcendent Trio’, formed for a “Jazz on the Patio” residency during the pandemic will feature the dynamic Dave Macnab-Guitar, the

HIPSTERIA is one of California’s favorite jazz bands! Members of Hipsteria have performed with Dave Brubeck, Art Blakey, Winton Marsalis, Santana, Journey, Sammy Davis Jr, Ella Fitzgerald, Joe Henderson, and many more legends! Second generation Jazz vocalist Briana Scales from Detroit, Michigan, “The Man with 3 Hands” Jon Venker on organ and “Tender” Tim Shea on drums and vocals. The band will be playing classic jazz standards along with original arrangements of modern pop and rock songs by artists such as Oasis, Gnarls Barkley, Michael Jackson, Amy Winehouse, Tom Waits, and more! Belle Cora is an SF classic restaurant with great people watching and a wonderfully unique venue that everyone should experience!

ivy room presents THURSDAY MAY 18TH—ROB LEINESSHELBY COBRA AND THE MUSTANGS—Doors 7:00pm / Show 8:00pmAdvance Tickets Available / $18 Door—IVY ROOM860 San Pablo Ave, Albany • 21+ROB LEINES—"I'm burning down the interstate," Rob Leines sings halfway through Headcase, an album that finds the road warrior occupying the intersection of blue-collar rock & roll and outlaw country. Pulling triple duty as a songwriter, southern storyteller, and modern-day guitar hero, Leines fills his third album with tales from the fast lane, punctuating each song with amplified riffs and a voice sharpened by a heavy touring schedule. The result is a record for dive bars and dance halls, for highways and honky-tonks, for wheels that spin and and horizons that linger just out of reach.Headcase shines its light on more than surface-level road songs, though. Leines digs deep beneath the blacktop, delivering music about love lost, chances taken, and life lived between the mile markers. Songs like "Double Wide" still raise plenty of hell, but there's vulnerability here, too — a sense that you can't outrun your problems, even at 80 miles per hour. "Headcase is about doing whatever it takes to navigate the roads in your life," Leines explains. "It's about the things we do to just keep on trucking."Before recording Headcase with co-producers Mike Harmeier (the longtime frontman of Silverada, formerly known as Mike and the Moonpies) and Adam Odor, Leines quit his longtime job as a welder and hit the road in support of his 2021 album, Blood Sweat and Beers. The record became his breakthrough release, earning Leines a year's worth of gigs with marquee acts like Dwight Yoakam and The Mavericks. Night after night, he hit the stage with his power trio, mixing rock & roll bang with Telecaster twang. "After putting in all those hours and all those miles, we became really confident with our ability to put on a rock show," he remembers. "That's what this music is: it's rock & roll with a cowboy hat."To capture the rough-and-rowdy spirit of those concerts, Leines and his two bandmates — along with guests like organ player David Percefull (owner of Yellow Dog Studios) and harmony singer Kelley Mickwee (a fellow Texas-based solo artist, as well as a member of Shinyribs) — headed to Wimberley, TX, where they recorded Headcase during short breaks between shows. "We toured for three months before we started tracking, and we went straight from a gig into the studio," he remembers. "It meant our chops were sharp, and everything felt familiar." For fans of Blood Sweat and Beers, Leines' guitar playing — a mix of hybrid finger-picking, blues-driven rock riffs, slide guitar, and distorted chords from a customized Gregg Tele — will feel familiar, too. Every song is rooted in that instrument, with Leines firing twin barrels of fierce fretwork and heartland hooks. At the same time, Headcase explores new territory. The breezy, bouncing "High in the Cotton" draws parallels between turbine welding and music-playing, two on-the-go jobs that require workers to spend countless days away from friends and family. Having dedicated years to both careers, Leines delivers the song's spoken-word verses in a deep, weary baritone that channels the exhaustion of a long workweek. Elsewhere, he pays tribute to his grandparents with "Goldmine," whose funky, fiery riff nods to Jerry Reed. And on the hard-hitting "Black Lingerie," he replaces the hard-charging speed of his earlier songs for a slowed-down swagger that sounds dark, driven, and dangerous.Together, those songs turn Headcase into an album that blends roadhouse grit with juke joint grease. It's the soundtrack for the sort of road trip that never really ends, and Leines has never sounded so dedicated to the long haul.SHELBY COBRA AND THE MUSTANGS—Hailing from Oakley CA, a small city on the San Joaquin Delta in the shadow of Mt. Diablo, Shelby Cobra has brought his raw brand of “Ranch ‘N’ Roll” up and down the California coast for the past 20 years. Armed with a whiskey soaked voice, sideways grin, and backed by his band of wild Mustangs, he sings stories and songs that stick to your tongue and will have you humming along, well after the record stops spinning. You can take some advice from Shelby himself, “Don’t overthink it, just turn it up!”

HIPSTERIA is the Bay Area‘s favorite jazz and variety band! More than just a jazz band, Hipsteria features cool arrangements of modern pop, rock, blues, R&B, dance, swing songs and more! The band will feature “The Man With Three Hands” Jon Venker on the organ, legendary guitarist Bob Brumbeloe and “Tender” Tim Shea on drums! The Belle Cora is a very unique and fun venue perfect for people watching that everyone should experience!

IVY ROOM PRESENTS SUNDAY JUNE 21ST—DESOTO REDSTHE LETTERWRITERSNOT YETIS—6:00 pm doors / 7:00 pm showADV TIX AVAILABLE - $15 DOOR—IVY ROOM860 San Pablo Avenue, Albany • 21+—DESOTO REDS—East Bay indie rock band Desoto Reds features literate and catchy songwriting, unpredictable arrangements, and psychedelic lap steel and organ. Desoto Reds have released multiple albums, made it into the CMJ top 200 once, and have played countless shows in the Bay Area, including, many moons ago, an opening slot with Of Montreal. We're too rocking to be jangle pop, too melodic to be prog rock, too angular for classic rock, and not young enough to be emo.Reformed in 2021, the Reds are now Alex Sterling (guitar/vocals), Jeremiah Johnson (drums), Jeff Hashfield (keyboards), and Dan Lieberman (bass/backing vocals).THE LETTERWRITERS—The Letterwriters are equal parts tough and tender, blending the sweetness of Phil Spector productions with power-pop muscle and rock n' roll snarl. Smart, nervy, and occasionally esoteric lyrics cut through a backdrop of crunch and chime, delivered with raw, electric urgency. Drawing from the likes of Cheap Trick, The Nerves, Elastica, Big Star, The Lemon Twigs, and Pretenders - and sharing a reverence for British Invasion and girl group sounds - The Letterwriters know a good song can hit you and feel like a kiss.Ella Keilt - vocals / guitarMichael Papenburg - guitarCasey Benz - bassJacob Connor - drums / bg vocalsNOT YETIS—Not Yetis sprang to life in the summer of 2015, forming around the idea of performing a budget rock opera telling the story of mythical creatures taking on human identities in order to escape persecution and eventually seek fame.Not Yetis are Rick Kvoriak (Shitty Shitty Band Band), Steve Faine (Hi-Fives) Lucy Watusi (Hondettes) and Dr. Patrick Phelan (Brentwoods).

Whether you're a guitarist, instrumentalist, vocalist, enthusiast, or simply seeking to deepen your knowledge and appreciation of great music, this masterclass series is a priceless opportunity to learn directly from some of the greats of our time. Sign up for one or all and garner the diverse wealth of knowledge and experience these legends will be sharing. Open to all ages and levels of experience. This month the featured artist is Carl Lockett. Carl grew up as a musical child prodigy. His interest in music began with him behind the drums. He later learned to play the guitar and began his career as a professional guitarist at age 14, playing around the Bay Area. He has continued to work professionally for the past forty years with highly distinguished acts including The Edwin Hawkins Singers, Chuck Mangione, Randy Crawford, Jimmy Smith, Joey DeFrancesco, Tammy Terrell, Esther Phillips, The Platters, The Ink Spots, Big Mama Thornton, Jackie Wilson, Papa John Creach, Brook Benton, Dakota Staten, Bill Summers, David Ruffin, and many others. He has performed in diverse settings ranging from an organ trio that included Jimmy McGriff and Jimmy Smith to sitting in for Jerry Garcia. He has played the 1980 Winter Olympics, the North Sea, Montreux, Monterey jazz festivals and all three Blue Note clubs in Japan. So impressive is his playing that he was offered a sponsorship by guitar techs at Heritage Guitar Factory in Kalamazoo, Michigan, who’d witnessed one of his performances. Tickets at Boss Guitar Master Class: Carl Lockett

George Colligan is not only one of the great jazz pianists of his generation, but he has earned an international reputation as a multi-instrumentalist (drums, trumpet, organ, keyboards), composer, accompanist, teacher, and bandleader, as well as popular blogger(jazztruth.blogspot.com). Winner of the 2015 DownBeat magazine Critics Poll (Keyboard), he has had a long association with living jazz legend Jack DeJohnette; recent touring took Colligan around the U.S. with “An Evening with Jack DeJohnette and Savion Glover.” He has also recently toured the U.S. and Canada as a leader with his trio featuring legends Buster Williams and Lenny White. With over 130 albums to date as an accompanist, Colligan has worked with a long list of jazz greats, including John Scofield, Buster Williams, Cassandra Wilson, Don Byron, Ravi Coltrane, Chris Botti, and many others. His latest album, “Live at The Jazz Standard” (Whirlwind Recordings 2025) is his 40th as a bandleader; the album features Linda may Han Oh and Jack DeJohnette and was a critic’s pick in Downbeat magazine. Colligan, a New York resident for 15 years, now resides in Portland, Oregon where he is a Full Professor at Portland State University. He has recently won two Regional Arts and Culture Council grants, a South Arts Jazz Road grant, and a PSU Faculty Development grant. Colligan recently won the PSU College of The Arts Dean’s Council Award for Research, Scholarship and Creativity (2020), and also won the Researcher of the Year Award from the PSU College Of The Arts(2021). George Colligan has toured, recorded ,and/or performed as a sideman with Jack DeJohnette, John Scofield, Chris Botti, Lonnie Plaxico, Gary Bartz, Benny Golson, Gary Thomas, Miguel Zenon, Tom Harrell, Steve Coleman, Eddie Henderson, Ralph Peterson, Vanessa Rubin, Steve Wilson, Dave Weckl, Richard Bona, Jane Monheit, Ravi Coltrane, Lenny White, Michael Brecker, Mike Clark, Nicholas Payton, Sheila Jordan, Janis Siegel, Christian McBride, Billy Hart, Charles Fambrough, Mingus Big Band, Al Foster, Mark Turner, Don Braden, Lew Soloff, Gunther Schuller, Larry Coryell, Victor Bailey, Carl Allen, Rodney Whitaker, Lee Konitz, Jamie Baum, Michal Urbaniak, DJ Logic, Randy Brecker, Carlos Santana, and Stefon Harris, among others. Band Lineup: George Colligan, piano David Ewell, bass Mike Mitchell, drums