653 Chenery Street
in San Francisco's Glen Park neighborhood
1-415-586-3733
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Special sneak preview of
SFMusic Day 15’s
Field Report: Â Asian American Jazz
Anthony Brown’s Ensemble featuring Genny Lim
performing “1945: A Year of Infamy”
plus a set by the
Brown, Izu & Jordan Trio
Today’s sneak preview performance at Bird & Beckett
will include an opening set by the
Anthony Brown-Mark Izu-Lewis Jordan Trio
(original members of the 1980s progressive jazz quartet, UNITED FRONT)
followed by
Anthony Brown’s Ensemble featuring Genny Lim
performing a distillation for quintet of “1945: A Year of Infamy”
The full Asian American Orchestra performance of
“1945: A Year of Infamy”
will headline SFMusic Day 15 at Herbst Theater
on Sunday 10/25 at 8 pm
The Brown-Izu-Jordan Trio will be featured at 5:15 pm.
http://www.sffcm.org/sfmusic-day/
1945: A Year of Infamy commemorates the 70th anniversary of the atomic devastation of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the beginning of humankind’s ability to annihilate itself from the face of the earth. Dr. Anthony Brown’s musical suite, informed by gagaku, the ancient court music of Japan dating back to the 8th century, is orchestrated for instrumental, vocal and poetry recitation sections with scored and improvised passages for Japanese flutes (shakuhachi, fue), koto, mouth organ (sho) and taiko drums, in addition to jazz big band instruments.
Today’s performance at Bird & Beckett will employ
a distillation of the work for quintet:
Genny Lim, poet
Masaru Koga, sax, shakuhachi
Shoko Hikage, koto
Mark Izu, bass, sho (mouth organ)
Anthony Brown, percussion.
Dr. Brown was commissioned in 1995 by the Asian Heritage Council to compose “Never Again!” (Mô, Shimasen!) to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the bombings.  Never Again! premiered at the Japantown Peace Plaza on August 9, 1995 with SF Poet Laureate Janice Mirikitani reciting her poem, “August 6th.†The piece was reprised in 2005 at Japantown’s Peace Plaza for the 60th anniversary commemoration.
Initial sketches for 1945: A Year of Infamy began in Fall 2014, with the National Japanese American Historical Society (NJAHS) staff assisting Dr. Brown in researching the interviews and literature in their archives of Hibakusha, the survivors of the atomic bombings.
The premiere performance of “1945: A Year of Infamy” took place at San Francisco Japantown’s annual summer Nihonmachi Street Fair on August 2, 2015, and it has been presented subsequently at the SF Asian Art Museum and the Yerba Buena Gardens Festival. The San Francisco International Arts Festival will present 1945: A Year of Infamy in San Francisco and Japan in 2016.
Dr. Brown’s suite asks, “How can you look in the eyes of a child and say you’re making the world better for her, when your pursuit of profits and power hastens our world towards its final hour.â€
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The Bird & Beckett Cultural Legacy Project
Our events are put on under the umbrella of the nonprofit Bird & Beckett Cultural Legacy Project (the "BBCLP"). That's how we fund our ambitious schedule of 300 or so concerts and literary events every year.
The BBCLP is a 501(c)(3) non-profit...
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The Independent Musicians Alliance
Gigging musicians! You have nothing to lose but your lack of a collective voice to achieve fair wages for your work!
The IMA can be a conduit for you, if you join in to make it work.
https://www.independentmusiciansalliance.org/
Read more here - Andy Gilbert's Feb 25 article about the IMA from KQED's site