The Annex Sessions show #56

“The Annex Sessions" Wednesday, April 24, 2024, 6-8:30pm will continue our music series held
at El Cerrito Natural Grocery Company Prepared Food Annex (The Annex)

Javier Navarrette’s Latin Jazz Trio

Featuring:
Marco Diaz- piano, trumpet
Anthony Blea- violin, percussion
Javier Navarrette- percussion, vocal

Danceable Latin Jazz music with infectious "Charanga Grooves"!

Marco Diaz
Marco Diaz was born and raised in San Francisco and was introduced to the trumpet in the
fourth grade at E.R. Taylor Elementary School. His formal training in both piano and trumpet
began at the age of 14. He earned a scholarship from the Community Music Center in San
Francisco and began playing professionally at the age of 17 throughout the Bay Area with
various Latin Jazz, Salsa, Reggae, and R&B bands. Upon graduating from high school, he
continued his studies at San Francisco State University pursing a Bachelor of Arts in Popular
Music and a minor in Economics.
In addition to his studies Marco has been influenced by Afro-Cuban music through world
renowned musicians, such as, Jesus Diaz, who he played and recorded with for eight years, John
Santos, Orestes Vilato, Edgardo Cambon, and Carlos Caro.
Today, Marco is part of the faculty at the Community Music Center in San Francisco and has
been a part of the SFJAZZ teaching artist program since 2017. He is an accomplished recording
musician who has shared the stage with Grammy Award winning artist, Israel “Cachao” Lopez,
Nelson Gonzales, Jimmy Bosch, Pete “El Conde” Rodriguez, Ska Cubano (Europe), Tito Rojas,
Nino Segarra, Anthony Cruz, Anthony Blea, Jovino Santos Neto, Joe Santiago, and is an integral
member of the John Santos sextet, and the musical director for Bobi Cespedes. Marco has
participated in the San Francisco Symphony AIM program since 2000 and currently produces
records and performs music throughout the country while also co-leading Vission Latina, an
Afro-Caribbean dance band, and director of his own quartet, The Marco Diaz Quartet.
In 2011, Marco Diaz was part of the faculty at Jazz Camp West. He toured the San Juan Islands
off the coast of Washington State with Bobi Cespedes, teaching children and adults the roots of
Afro-Cuban music. Marco also performed at the San Francisco, Tanglewood, and Monterey Jazz
Festivals, and the Smithsonian Museum with world renowned ethno-musicologist, John Santos
and his Sextet. In the Fall, Marco began his ninth season with the San Francisco Symphony’s AIM (adventures in music)
program.

Anthony Blea
Anthony Blea, master violinist, is a veteran performer, composer, and instructor, whose
performances have graced the stages, and enriched the musical community of the San
Francisco Bay Area for over four decades. Awarded a full scholarship to attend the San
Francisco Conservatory of Music at age 11, He would later travel to New York and study at
the Manhattan School of Music where he received his Bachelor’s degree, and return to the Bay
Area, to receive his Master’s degree from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.
His work in classical and modern music with hallmark musical institutions like The San Francisco
Opera Orchestra, and the Bay Chamber Symphony, is made all the more exceptional when
viewed alongside his Incredible body of work in the field of Afro Cuban Music, where he has
established himself as one of a handful of players in the world, who have actually mastered the
subtle and beautiful genre of Charanga music, an amalgam of both European classical music
and African rhythms.

Performances with iconic artists like Israel “Cachao” Lopez, Ray Charles, Boz Scaggs and
Leonard Bernstein, have garnered him the attention of the press and music lovers alike and
earned him a well-deserved reputation as the bay area’s best multi-talented violinist
Having spent more than 30 years perfecting his teaching technique in instruction, solo
mentoring, and group/solo clinics, Anthony is an involved and caring teacher, instilling in his
students not only a love of established musical forms, but also encouraging experimentation,
and their own unique voices, on an instrument that requires the highest level of discipline, and
instruction. Most of all, Anthony is known for his good humor, warmth, and lifelong love of the
instrument that has shaped and defined his life.
The Violin, Instrument of joy.

Javier Navarrette
Javier Navarrette is a professional percussionist, musician, composer, arranger and educator
living in Oakland, California, specializing in Afro-Caribbean music. Javier’s performance and
recording career spans over three decades. He has played and studied with many of the greats
in the Afro-Latin music tradition and has recorded on three Grammy-nominated albums with
John Santos and the Machete Ensemble/ Folklorico Kindembo.
Javier teaches music in public/private schools and in adult workshops. For the past 10 years,
Javier has been teaching with Living Jazz Children’s Music Project in the Oakland public schools
and at the summer Jam Camp for Children.

Amongst Javier’s groups are Javier Navarrette’s Latin Jazz Trio and Javier Navarrette’s Socially
Distant Friends.
In 2021-22, coming out of the pandemic, Javier produced Modúpue Sundays with Arts at the
Basin, Brooklyn Basin, Oakland. He currently produces the Neighborhood Sessions at The Annex
in El Cerrito, and a pilot program at the Alameda Radium Runway Project, presenting the Bay
Area’s legendary musicians in the Afro-Latin music tradition.

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.

Javier Navarrette 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 2 years Navarrette has produced outdoors events that have proven instumental in enabling musicians to deal with some of the fallout of the pandemic and shutdown that followed. Most recently he has been curating "Modúpue Sundays at the Brooklyn Basin.” These musical productions ran from June–November 2021 at the new Oakland hot spot, the Brooklyn Basin, with internationally known, Bay Area musical legends. 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.

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 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.