Gurkestra Trio at The Annex Sessions, brought to you by SunJams and Javier Navarrette

“The Annex Sessions” will continue our music series held at El Cerrito Natural Grocery Company Prepared Food Annex (The Annex) 

on Wednesday, April 2, 2025, 6-8:30pm 
with 

Gurkestra Trio 

Charlie Gurke- saxophones/compositions
David Flores- drums
Colin Hogan- keys

They’ll be playing all original music from Charlie’s Lotería project, compositions inspired by the
Mexican Lotería images. Volume 1 of these can be found via the link below.

Charlie Gurke is a Bay Area based saxophonist, composer, and educator. In addition to leading
various incarnations of his Gurkestra, Charlie is a member of the John Santos Sextet, The
Electric Squeezebox Orchestra, Edgardo Cambon’s groups Candela and Latido. An active
freelancer, Charlie regularly performs and records with collaborators in a variety of genres.
Recent performances of note include the 2018 and 2019 Monterey Jazz Festivals (with John
Santos and the Electric Squeezebox Orchestra, respectively), and the 2019 Montreux Jazz
Festival (with the Grammy winning Pacific Mambo Orchestra). 
Since 2010 Charlie has been composer and music director for We Players theatre company,
composing scores for nearly all their productions and receiving Theatre Bay Area awards for his
scores for Macbeth (2014) and Caesar Maximus (2018). 
Charlie is currently on the faculty at Laney Community college in Oakland where he leads the
Jazz Orchestra, Jazz Combos, and teaches music theory. Charlie is also part of the faculty of the
Community Music Center in San Francisco, where he teaches Jazz Ensembles and is part of the
faculty for the Mission District Young Musician’s Program.
A native of the Bay Area, Charlie attended the San Francisco School of the Arts (SOTA), where
he studied with Wayne Wallace and Melecio Magdaluyo, among others. After high school
Charlie moved to New York and attended the New School's Jazz and Contemporary Music
program, studying with legendary saxophonists Billy Harper and George Garzone. Charlie holds
a bachelor's degree in music with an emphasis on composition from California State University
East Bay (aka Cal State Hayward), and a master's degree in jazz studies from the University of
Oregon.

https://gurkestra.com/home Streaming

The Annex Sessions is excited to bring Aki and band back to our intimate venue! 



The Natural Grocery Company is proud to present this series in partnership with SunJams and Javier

Navarrette Music Productions.

SunJams  is committed to funding children's music education in underserved public elementary
schools. Your donation will help support this ongoing program.
All of the proceeds will go directly to our network of local musicians, each of whom have been
severely impacted by the lack of events during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Whether you donate $10, $100, or $1000 - any amount helps and will allow us to keep bringing
music to our community! As always, your donation to SunJams 501(c)3 may qualify as tax
exempt.
Javier Navarrette Music Productions continues to bring live music to several venues around the
Bay Area. Javier has been a professional musician and music educator in the Oakland Unified
School District for the past 20 years. Over the past few years Navarrette has produced outdoors
events that have proven instrumental in enabling musicians to deal with some of the fallout of
the pandemic and shutdown that followed.

 Follow Javier Navarrette on Facebook , Instagram and YouTube. 

COVID RELATED SAFETY MEASURES
Please be safe. Feel free to wear a mask if you prefer.

TICKETS

Tickets are encouraged, we are happy to offer you a reserved seat (limited seating available) if you RSVP with a donation that will go towards paying for the music. Tickets are NOT required for this venue, you can simply come in, order food and beverages at the Annex counter. 

The Annex 

The Annex is a lively space for shopping, dining and relaxing. As the newest part of The Natural Grocery Company, the values are the same: a passion for vibrant community, healthy organic food and respect for the planet. 

"The Annex Sessions" is sponsored by the Natural Grocery Company in its commitment to serve the local community and help in the recovery of the local art scene. 

Open for breakfast, lunch and dinner 7 days a week, inside the Annex you’ll find: A Cafe, Juice Bar, Deli, Wine & Beer, and more.

The Annex building itself embodies our values: a few of the sustainable features are: extensive re-use of materials from the pre-existing structure, use of recycled materials from local vendors, and reliance on the solar energy we produce here, supplemented with other clean energy sources.

DONATIONS

SunJams is committed to funding children's music education in underserved public elementary schools. Your donation will help support this ongoing program. 

In addition, we need to raise funds to continue bringing you this exciting new ( launched in April 2022) live music program. All of the proceeds will go directly to our network of local musicians, each of whom have been severely impacted by the lack of events during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Whether you donate $10, $100, or $1000 - any amount helps and will allow us to keep bringing music to our community! As always, your donation to our 501(c)3 may qualify as tax exempt. 

Please DONATE HERE

DURING THE SHOW

We will be taking cash or check donations at check-in, during intermission & at the end of the show. 

TIME

The Annex is open every day, please check their website for hours (https://naturalgrocery.com/annex/).


The show will begin at 6:00 PM and conclude by 8:30 PM.