The Annex Sessions show #84

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

with

Raquel Berlind Filipina Jazz Quintet

Raquel Berlind – vocalist and band leader
Alexey Berlind – drummer, musical director
Kevin Gerzevits – pianist
Mark Williams – bass
David Ferrazares – sax

Raquel Berlind is an award-winning singer and songwriter. Her new album, Filipina Jazz, shines with original songs in both English and Tagalog. It features a lineup of Manila heavyweights and longtime Bay Area collaborators. Recorded in Manila, mixed in Berkeley, and mastered in Nashville, TN, the album marks a new milestone for Filipinos and Asian-Americans contributing to the jazz tradition.

Growing up in a musical family in Manila, Raquel was inspired by her pianist father and touring-
musician brother to sing and compose. By her teens, she was singing her originals at Manila's
famous folk house, Hobbit. She fielded invitations to record singles and to perform
internationally and on TV as a professional dancer. After resettling in the SF Bay Area, she
developed her career with compositions and performances across multiple genres. She won
three awards at the International Festival de la Canción for her Latin Pop compositions and the
Pamana award for cultural achievements in the Bay Area Filipino community. She performed
with her band on cruise ships in the Caribbean and the Pacific Coast and recorded an album of
Filipino world music, Filipina Roots, with legendary Bay Area producer Greg Landau. At the
same time, Raquel established herself as a jazz performer, becoming a sought-after vocalist at
private events for clients visiting from around the world, and built a body of original jazz
compositions. Filipina Jazz marks the culmination of this process.

Bandcamp: https://raquelberlind.bandcamp...
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/raqu...
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Raque...
Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@raquel...
Webpage: https://www.jazzbandsinger.com

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

Javier Navarrette Music Productions.

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. Seating for music nights begins at 5:30 PM, reserved seating help until 6:30 PM.

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.

We pledge a $100 donation for every weekly show we bring you, donated in the Fall to the ongoing music education program we have partnered with since 2015. The cost for this program is $1000 per student per year, your donation to continue this program allows us to sponsor ( a minimum) 5 elementary school students. Please help up increase this goal by donating what you can.

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.