Rhonda Benin & Soulful Strut at The Annex Sessions, brought to you by SunJams and Javier Navarrette Productions
Description
“The Annex Sessions" Wednesday September 30, 2026, 6-8:30 PM will continue our music series held at El Cerrito Natural Grocery Company Prepared Food Annex (The Annex) with
Rhonda Benin & Soulful Strut
featuring:
Rhonda Benin: vocals
Lorenzo Hawkins: keyboards
Gregory Simmons: bass
Eddie Hall: drums
Rhonda Benin and her band return to The Annex for an evening of mellow soul music. With Lorenzo Hawkins, Gregory Simmons, and Eddie Hall.
RHONDA BENIN - Vocalist, Producer, Artist Teacher
“Benin’s got a coolly hip vocal, with a bit of hush and sugar and an undercurrent of big booming power. She can bend notes with a bass, talk serenade with a piano and steam the kettle from the drums”.
Ran Pacifica Tribune
San Francisco Bay Area vocalist, Rhonda Benin has earned a reputation for not just a good voice but showmanship, magnetic stage personality, humor, and of course her great dancing. Rhonda’s impressive resume includes performances at SF Jazz, Yoshi’s, MOAD, The Healdsburg, Sonoma, Burlingame, Sausalito, Filmore, and Calistoga Jazz Festivals. In the summer of 2012 Rhonda traveled to Hangzhou, China for a 3 month engagement at the JZ Jazz Club and was 2014 USA headliner for The Kigali Up Music Festival in Kigali, Rwanda. In addition to singing, Rhonda is producer and founder of the annual Women’s History Month show “Just Like A Woman” a tribute to Bay Area Women In Music. Benin is a 26 year member of The GRAMMY nominated vocal ensemble Linda Tillery and The Cultural Heritage. She appears on the CHC’s 7 Cd’s and has toured 30 countries performing and recording with legendary artists such as Taj Mahal, Wilson Pickett, Richie Havens, Odetta. Al Green, Keb Mo, Santana, Patti Austin, Janis Ian, Jackson Brown, Hugh Masekela & Sweet Honey In The Rock.
In 2006 Rhonda produced her first solo CD, A Matter of the Heart a classic mix of jazz, blues, and soul and is currently working on her 2nd CD.
Rhonda is on the teaching staff of Healdsburg Jazz ‘s Operation Jazz Band, San Francisco Arts Project, LEAP, California Conservatory of Music, Cal Performances and conducts her own school assemblies and workshops, “The Voice, The Hands The Feet” “Twist and Shout” and “Love Letters Make Me Misty Blue”.
The Natural Grocery Company is proud to present this series in partnership with SunJams and Javier Navarrette Music Productions.
https://naturalgrocery.com/annex/
SunJams Productions is committed to funding children's music education in underserved public elementary schools. Your donation will help support this ongoing program.
TAX ID 47-4435137
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 reserved 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.
Tickets for good, not greed Humanitix dedicates 100% of profits from booking fees to charity