Sights & Sounds is your weekly guide to the Bay Area arts scene. Bay Area blues singer and founder of Just Like A Woman Rhonda Benin told KALW’s Jen Chien about three fantastic arts events happening around the Bay this week.
- Mary Stallings & SFJAZZ Collective — SFJAZZ Miner Auditorium on 3/31
- Respect: Hip-Hop Style and Wisdom — OMCA thru August 2018
- Geoffrey's Inner Circle Presents Miss Faye Carol — Geoffrey's Inner Circle on 4/8
Mary Stallings’ final two nights as Resident Artistic Director pairs the singer with SFJAZZ’s resident super-band, the SFJAZZ Collective. It’s a rare opportunity to hear Stallings perform with a larger ensemble, and to hear the Collective work with an outside artist on material outside their repertoire. Since her return to music following a nearly three-decade hiatus she has been enchanting audiences worldwide.
"I think when I first really knew that I should listen to jazz and really start paying attention to it, Mary Stallings is one of the names for locals."
Hip-hop is one of the widest reaching cultural and social movements of the last 50 years. Discover the under-recognized story of how hip-hop changed the world, starting from its roots on the streets before rap, DJing, graffiti, breakdancing, and street fashion launched into mainstream popular culture. Through photography, video, art, music, dance, fashion, and interactive gallery features, explore how hip-hop provides a platform for creative self-expression, activism, positive social change, youth development, entrepreneurialism, and education. Created in collaboration with and participation from numerous members of the hip-hop community, RESPECT: Hip-Hop Style & Wisdom tells a fresh story of the evolution of this global phenomenon, and includes a spotlight on Oakland and the San Francisco Bay Area’s influence on hip-hop culture. Local artists like photographer Brittani "Brittsense" Sensabaugh will have work on display, and while the exhibit is up, the museum will be running a “Hip-Hop Dojo,” where you can watch DJ’s scratch up close, do hip hop yoga, or bust your freestyle skills at Sunday Cyphers.
"I'm excited because the truth is, I don't understand hip-hop. I'm from a total other generation. I want to understand it! So for me, this is some education that I know that I need."
The dynamic Miss Faye Carol will be singing at Geoffrey’s Inner Circle in downtown Oakland with pianist Joe Warner. This is an open jam session celebrating Joe's birthday. Faye Carol is, of course, the legendary Mississippi-born jazz and blues singer, who’s been based in the Bay Area since the 1960s.
"She's the queen mother. When I first arrived in this town, on Sunday nights at The Fifth Amendment, I would go and hear all the singers. And I saw Faye Carol take 'Misty' and go from a nice ballad to something that was swinging off the hinges!"
Rhonda Benin's all-woman tribute to Bay Area women musicians, Just Like A Woman, is at The Freight & Salvage in Berkeley on 3/31.