Key Elements

Name: Key Elements
Start: 2025-09-21T15:00:00-0700
End: 2025-09-21T17:00:00-0700
Location: The Back Room

Sun, Sep 21, 3pm - 5pm PDT

The Back Room

Berkeley CA, United States

The Back Room

3994 followers · Contact host

Event description

Key Elements is an all-female Latin jazz ensemble based in the San Francisco Bay Area, led by pianist and composer Patricia Thumas. Their music blends original compositions with classic Latin jazz pieces by legends such as Cal Tjader, Tito Puente, and Mongo Santamaria. Representing the rich cultural heritage of the African diaspora, their repertoire spans a variety of styles, including Mambo, Cha-Cha, Bolero, Bossa Nova, Samba, and Calypso. With a lineup featuring saxophone, flute, congas, percussion, bass, and piano, Key Elements delivers hypnotic rhythms and exotic melodies that captivate audiences and get them moving.

Since 2017, the ensemble has been a fixture in the Bay Area jazz scene, performing at venues like The Back Room in Berkeley, Riggers Loft Winery, and the People in Plazas concert series in San Francisco’s Financial District. The band’s musicians are seasoned performers and music educators, bringing both technical mastery and vibrant energy to the stage. Their discography includes the 2020 album Arrival and the upcoming 2024 single Maestra, further showcasing their dynamic sound and artistic evolution. With a reputation for delivering soulful, danceable performances, Key Elements continues to enchant audiences of all ages with their passionate and skillful approach to Latin jazz.

Tickets are $25 general admission; $15 for students with ID. Children under 12 are free. Advance tickets are available here, or if the show is not sold out, you may purchase your tickets at the door before the show.

Doors open 30 minutes before show time. We accept cash or Venmo only at the door.

The Back Room is an all-ages, BYOB (for those 21+) space, dedicated to (mostly) acoustic music of all kinds. You are welcome to bring your own food and beverages. The venue is ADA accessible. If you need more information or have any questions, please call us: #510-381-1997.

To join our mailing list, please click here.

Thank you for your support!

Please refrain from using your phone during performances, and if you use your camera or video, please disable the flash.

Although masks are no longer required, we strongly encourage their use to keep everyone safe in our intimate space.

Tickets for good, not greed Humanitix dedicates 100% of profits from booking fees to charity

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The Back Room

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When, as a young man in 1981, Sam Rudin moved from his native Philadelphia to the East Bay, he quickly fell in love with the Freight & Salvage, Berkeley’s quirky little 87-seat concert hall.

Filled with comfortable thrift store furniture and an informal ambience of appreciative attentiveness, the Freight was a perfect fit for performers of modest renown and acoustically-based music.

As a solo (albeit high-energy) pianist, Sam’s music fit the bill, and the Freight became Sam’s home base. In the absence of other Freight-like rooms, Sam turned his solo performer attention to the outdoor fair and festival circuit, and later started the jazz/blues band Hurricane Sam & the Hotshots.

Now, maybe it’s all the energy he put into becoming a master piano teacher, or maybe the fair and festival circuit just doesn’t have the right ingredients to nurture a high-profile career. Whatever the reason, despite critical acclaim, four CD’s, and a whole bunch of happy audiences, years later Sam was still a performer of modest renown, and he missed that great little room.

As the Freight grew and expanded, ultimately arriving at the gorgeous 420 seat theater that it occupies today, Sam started to feel that maybe it was up to him to recreate that wonderful small space. No longer a young man, it would be his late-life adventure.

Eventually, he found the perfect spot: a beautiful space with brick walls and vaulted wood ceilings right by the Arts District in downtown Berkeley. As of April 2016, it is open for business, complete with the requisite thrift store furniture.

The space is actually the back room of a larger building, so of course it is called The Back Room, and the tag line on its logo says it all – “an intimate place for music.”

The site, at 1984 Bonita Ave., also functions as Sam’s teaching studio, so if you’re looking for “The Piano Lessons You’ve Always Wanted,” now you know where to find them.

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Sun, Sep 21, 3pm - 5pm PDT

The Back Room

Berkeley CA, United States

Hosted by The Back Room