Advance tickets available from the Ashkenaz front desk on show nights or online from Ticketweb or call 1-866-666-8932.

Show line: (510) 525-5054

Ashkenaz Music & Dance Community Center
1317 San Pablo @ Gilman in Berkeley

Ample parking across the street in the REI parking lot. Wheelchair accessible. All ages all the time.

Ashkenaz Music & Dance Community Center is a non-profit, tax-exempt community organization supported by patrons, donors, staff, musicians and volunteers.

Tuesday, 09/02/08
GATOR BEAT

Doors at 7:30 pm; Show at 8:30 pm
Cajun/Zydeco dance lesson with Diana Castillo at 8:00 pm
$10

Gator Beat is now in its 20th year of playing full-tilt party dance music. The group’s mostly original songs are powered by its own gumbo of dance rhythms: a blend of Louisiana Cajun and zydeco, a touch of New Orleans funk, and, as the band itself proclaims, “a beat that bites.” Tunes come from the six Gator Beat recordings, including the new live CD “Gimme Some Mo’,” which captures a wild Mardi Gras show in Sonoma. Gator Beat is a culturally and stylistically mixed crew, with Zydeco Flames founder Bruce Gordon on accordion, guitarist Randy Quan, bassist Linda Hutchinson, washboard player Willard Blackwell, drummer Beau Bradbury, and Australia native David Scott on saxophone, pennywhistle, and percussion.
www.gatorbeat.com

Wednesday, 09/03/08
THE RED HOT CHACHKAS

Doors at 7:30 pm; Show at 8:30 pm
Yiddish dance lesson with Bruce Bierman at 8:00 pm
$10

The Jewish klezmer music of Eastern Europe was nearly extinct due to assimilation until the 1970s, when a young generation discovered it and reinvented it (Berkeley’s Klezmorim was a pioneer in the repopularization). The Red Hot Chachkas have long carried on that revivalist spirit with a sound that swings, shakes, and serenades, exemplified in their long-awaited, sizzling second CD, “Spice It Up!” The group plays traditional Eastern European dance tunes, ranging from frenzied freylachs to tranquil tanzen, plus original compositions and improvisations building on the klezmer tradition. The Red Hots seamlessly blend in an array of other dance styles from reggae to swing jazz. “Spice It Up!” features a few traditional tunes and group member originals inspired by everything from European waltzes to Uncle Dave Macon, and the improvised “Rocky Hora.” It is truly klezmer for the new century. The Red Hot Chachkas are bandleader and fiddle player Julie Egger, mandolinist Tony Phillips, accordionist Glenn Hartman (founder of the New Orleans Klezmer Allstars), drummer Michael Arrow, bassist Breck Diebel, and Barbara Speed on clarinet and other hot horns.
www.redhotchachkas.com

Thursday, 09/04/08
AFRISSIPPI

Doors at 7:00 pm; Show at 9:00 pm
Workshop with Guelel Kumba at 7:30 pm
$15 / $12 show only / $10 adv. & student

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Afrissippi makes its long-awaited return to Ashkenaz to present its unique sound that combines West African griot tradition with Mississippi country blues and boogie. Afrissippi emerged in 2002 when Senegalese singer, guitarist, and lyricist Guelel Kumba joined with Eric Deaton (protégé of extremely raw blues guitarists Junior Kimbrough and R.L. Burnside) to explore the hill country blues of northern Mississippi. The pair found an uncanny similarity between the music of Kumba’s people and the blues tunes that Kimbrough and others had kept alive. Kumba and Deaton added a rhythm section of Junior Kimbrough’s son and drummer, Kinney Kimbrough, and bassist Justin Showah (of Cary Hudson Trio and Taylor Grocery Band). Showah also runs Hill Country Records, the indie label that issues Afrissippi’s CDs.

Kumba is a member of the Fulani, the nomadic herdspeople who roamed the Sahara desert before settling on Senegal’s greener Atlantic coast. Kumba’s griot-rooted vocals are delivered in the Fulani language, with occasional French and English lyrics. As a youngster, Kumba began on the molo, the one-string guitar, before moving to the standard six-string model. He first heard the boogie blues of John Lee Hooker when he was 20 and says, “The blues is close to my music. The lyrics are different, but the emotions are the same. I loved the melodies but I was too young to understand the anguish yet.” When he and Deaton launched Afrissippi, the group needed just two nights in a Clarksdale, Mississippi, studio to record “Fulani Journey,” which is a musical story of Kumba’s own odyssey from Africa to the heart of American blues.

Afrissippi also features songs from its acclaimed second CD, “Alliance,” recorded and released with grants from the Ford Foundation, San Francisco Foundation, and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. Robert Gatchet in Living Blues magazine raves, “‘Alliance’ feels both ancient and progressive at the same time… an incredible accomplishment.” In his griot role, Kumba leads a performance-and-lecture workshop on the relationship between the music and cultures of West Africa and the American South before tonight’s concert.
www.afrissippi.com

Friday, 09/05/08
STOMPY JONES

Doors at 7:30 pm; Show at 9:30 pm
East Coast Swing dance lesson with Nick & Leah at 8:00 pm
$13 / $10 students (w/valid ID)

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Stompy Jones is a San Francisco-based sextet renowned for its jumpin’ rhythm, wailing improvisations, hip charm, retro style, and explosive stage show. Whether appearing at a posh supper club, concert hall, festival, or cozy tavern, these journeymen of jump deliver the romping, joyous, overwhelming style of jazz that came to be known as Rock and Roll!

Little David Rose’s thumpin’ stand-up bass, the double-shuffle drumming of Lee Beary, and the bounce piano of Scott Lawrence provide the rhythmic foundation of the band’s jump style. Riffing on top are Robert Dehlinger with his trumpet sound and Erv Ervin on the saxophone; these two fellas create the fireworks of vintage rhythm and blues. The charming Christopher Binnings’ soulful vocals have become a trademark of Stompy Jones.
www.stompyjones.com

Saturday, 09/06/08
PELLEJO SECO

Doors at 8:00 pm; Show at 9:30 pm
Cuban salsa dance lesson with Luis Valverde at 8:30 pm
$13 / $10 students (w/valid ID)

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Berkeley-based Latin sextet Pellejo Seco aims to bring its audiences closer to the cultures that its music springs from. The group name can be translated as “rawhide,” which for Cuban émigré and band founder Ivan Camblor describes the dry and leathered skin of a campesino or farmer. Founded in 2004, this eclectic group has its roots in traditional Cuban music, but performs only original compositions by Camblor that mix rock, Latin pop, Brazilian, flamenco, Afro-Cuban, and jazz. Camblor plays the tres, the six-string Cuban guitar that is used in traditional Cuban son and other music. He is joined by fellow Cuban natives Livan Montoya on bass, singer Fito Reynoso, and percussionists Osvaldo Carvajal and Gerardo Borras, as well as San Francisco-born trumpeter Mario Silva. Think Buena Vista Social Club playing music not from the past, but from today.
www.pellejoseco.com

The Rockermoms ACD benefits are a unique and fun way to help fight childhood diseases, with bands (each featuring a rocker mom who sings, plays, or both) performing to raise awareness and money. The organization was started by Edwina Phillips (lead singer of In Therapy) and singer Jenna Clingingsmith. They explain, “Our focus is on what we, as mothers, can do to help, heal and hurry the progress of research for cures.” In addition to the entertainment, there is a raffle of items donated by local merchants.
www.rockermomsacd.com

Lionheart Sounds has been collecting and selecting the best of current and classic roots reggae music for the past ten years. Focused on conscious and uplifting messages, Lionheart Sounds selections span the globe and have been featured in a series of highly sought after mix CDs. At the Dub Culture Sessions Lionheart Sounds UK Roots selections will be a special treat, showcasing this powerful underground movement.

The Going Greener Committee is a group of Ashkenaz staff and community members interested in lessening the ecological impact of our organization. If you’d like to learn more, please come to the meeting in the band room (green room) or contact Kristen at 510-525-5099, ext. 2#, or kristen@ashkenaz.com.

Tuesday, 09/09/08
TOM RIGNEY & FLAMBEAU

Doors at 7:30 pm; Show at 8:30 pm
Cajun/Zydeco dance lesson with Cheryl McBride at 8:00 pm
$10

Violinist-fiddler-composer and singer Tom “Rigo” Rigney’s East Bay quintet Flambeau plays traditional Cajun and zydeco two-steps and waltzes, along with low-down blues and New Orleans R&B. What sets the band apart is Rigney’s fresh musical takes on Cajun and zydeco, and other styles he loves to play from rock to classical, creating a Cajun/Zydeco celebration of life through dance. The tight ensemble of virtuoso musicians – which also includes guitarist Danny Caron, keyboardist Caroline Dahl, bassist Steve Parks, and drummer Brent Rampone – plays mostly original material, highlighting Rigney’s arrangements.

Rigney and Flambeau feature tunes from the new CD/DVD, “Live at the Throckmorton Theater” (in Mill Valley), as well as the recent “Off the Hook,” where original compositions by Rigney and guitarist Joe Paquin (Rigney’s oft-times music partner since their Sundogs years) mingle with Cajun classics by D.L. Menard and Canray Fontenot and a swinging treatment of the Righteous Brothers’ “My Babe.” As always, Rigney and Flambeau emphasizes dance tunes from all of their CDs, as well as selections from Rigney’s solo release, “A Blue Thing,” including “St. Louis Blues” and “Lunch with Satan’s Grandma.”
www.rigomania.com

This monthly event is a revival of ’70s-style Berkeley folkdancing with some international request dancing to recorded music, capturing the spirit that David Nadel was inspired by when he opened Ashkenaz in 1973 with Balkan folkdancing. One does not need a live band to experience the communal pleasure of dancing together, and the dance lessons help newcomers join in the experience.

“Phoenix is a Native voice singing in a medium that is very much post-colonial America, from folk to rock to whatnot,” according to the Independent. “Phoenix’s songs rise from the ashes of his journey south. They explore the forces that are threatening to unwind the fabric of the world, as well as those forces that still manage to bind it together.” www.afterbuffalo.com
www.buffalofieldcampaign.org

Friday, 09/12/08
CREATION + LICKSHOTCREW
Doors at 9:00 pm; Show at 9:30 pm
$13 / $10 students (w/valid ID)

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With a 20-year history of delivering conscious reggae to dance crowds, and a repertoire of 200 songs, Creation is a Bay Area institution. In San Francisco’s “Reggae Review” Diane Thomas wrote of Creation’s style, “It’s impossible to listen to without wanting to groove to the beat. Vocalist Israel Powerhouse delivers the soul to this sweet reggae mix.” Band members come from Jamaica, St. Thomas, and the United States and play their own style based on the African roots of the Caribbean and West Indian Islands: reggae, ska, soca, and dancehall. Israel Powerhouse and Rahsul Culture Man share lead vocals with harmony singer Enroy “Tenor” Grant. Creation also includes guitarist Katsumi Asazawa, drummer Clinton Penn, and trumpeter-guitarist Ethan Bixby. www.creationband.com

Lickshotcrew’s sound is a form of conscious roots and dancehall from all eras of reggae. The versatile band, founded in 1998 by guitarist Ras David, has performed with national and Bay Area artists such as Eek-A-Mouse, Sister I-Live, Wadi Gad, Prezident Brown, Ras Kidus, and many more. www.myspace.com/lickshotcrewreggaeband

Saturday, 09/13/08
FOGHORN STRINGBAND, BENTON FLIPPEN & FRIENDS, SQUIRRELLY STRINGBAND; CALLERS BILL MARTIN, MAGGIE BRUNJES, JORDAN RUYLE
Doors at 6:30 pm; Show at 7:30 pm
Clogging workshop with Evie Ladin at 7:00 pm
$15 / $5 ages 5-18 / under 5 free

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The annual Berkeley Old Time Music Convention’s square dance night features three acoustic fiddle bands pumping out music that makes you want to get up and dance, plus three callers – Bill Martin and Maggie Brunjes Lind from Portland’s thriving old-time scene, plus Oakland’s own Jordan Ruyle – who love to introduce the uninitiated to the fun of a square dance party! No dancing experience is needed; the callers teach all dances from scratch and call the moves throughout. Following a 7 p.m. clogging workshop with Evie Ladin, the first hour is geared towards families and less experienced dancers, including a couple of dances that even babes in arms can do. No need to bring a partner, although you certainly can if you want. And same-sex partners fit in fine.

The sound of the Foghorn Stringband could have come barreling through the grille-cloth of those big console radios in the living rooms of the 1950s, when the traditional sounds of rural America were still on the minds of young musicians transferring the old-time music to a distinctively modern age. Their tight instrumental work and lineup – fiddle, banjo, mandolin, bass, and guitar – is reminiscent of early bluegrass, but their powerful approach is wholeheartedly old-time, centered largely by the fiddle. www.foghornstringband.com

The BOTMC is honored to host the legendary fiddle innovator Benton Flippen, who comes from a generation of great players at the epicenter of Southern mountain music. Born in 1920 in rural Surrey County, North Carolina, Benton started playing banjo and fiddle as a teenager and developed a distinctive fiddle style marked by slides, blue notes, and strong rhythmic fiddling. Paul Brown began playing the banjo at age ten; his repertoire includes old-time songs he learned from his mother, as well as music picked up over the years from many older musicians in the Blue Ridge area of North Carolina and Virginia. A soulful singer and powerful guitar player, Frank Bode has lived in Surrey County, North Carolina, most of his life, and has been a part of its old time music scene for decades.

The Squirrelly Stringband’s first performance was at the Berkeley Stringband Convention in 2003; they won first place in the string band contest that year and the next. Since then they’ve performed at festivals, square dances, concerts, parties, corn shuckin’s and barn raisin’s and more. The band is led by fiddler David Murray. Debbie Berne plays old-time clawhammer banjo and is known for her inimitable rhythmic style. Allegra Yellin is the guitarist of choice for any fiddler in the area who needs backup for a square dance. Rachel Kraai plays a washtub bass of her own design with a “take no prisoners” attitude and a fistful of duct tape. www.spectacularopticals.com
www.berkeleyoldtimemusic.org

Sunday, 09/14/08
BIG LOU’S POLKA CASSEROLE

Doors at 4:30 pm; Show at 5 - 8 pm
$10

With her big hair, big glasses, and bigger accordion, to say nothing of those polka-dot dresses, San Francisco’s Big Lou may not have done much to make the accordion acceptable in the classical concert halls, but she has used her squeezebox to bring fun into the lives of thousands of polkaholics across the country. Tonight she leads her Polka Casserole band, with David Golia on bass, drummer Gene Reffken, saxophonist Annelise Zamula, Greg Stephens on trombone, and pedal steel guitarist David Phillips. They play a mix of original and traditional songs, polkas, and waltzes from all over the world, including Norteno, Polish, Deutsch, and American polkas (even some Country & Western) and French waltzes. One song, “I Want to Be a Polish Princess,” refers to the delightful Suzanne Strempek Shea novel, “Hoopi Shoopi Donna,” about a Midwestern girl who dreams of growing up to play accordion and lead an all-woman polka band.

Starting in West Texas, Big Lou picked up the accordion and eventually moved to San Francisco. Along the way she played in Polkacide, Thee Hellhounds and Stir-ups. A founding member of Those Darn Accordions, she has led the fun accordion crusade in San Francisco on many fronts, as well as performing solo and touring the big polka festivals of the Midwest and Northeast, her spiritual home (musically speaking, anyway); check out her photo-heavy tour diary for insight into the Polka Heartland. She also leads a French cabaret trio, Salut Matelot. The sextet she assembled to record her 1999 “Polka Casserole” and 2004 “Dogs Playing Polka” CDs had so much fun that they have stayed together ever since playing, according to Big Lou, “polkas of the world in a style unlike anyone else’s.”
www.accordionprincess.com

From 7:30 to 7:45, the public is welcome to make open comment.

Named after a legendary bayou in southwest Louisiana, Courtableu comprises veterans of the Bay Area Cajun/Zydeco scene who perform classic Cajun dancehall music in the style of Aldus Roger and Walter Mouton, with electric steel guitar and drums added to the traditional fiddle and accordion. Fiddler Richard Chon (Swamp Coolers, Sons of the San Joaquin, Saddle Cats) joins Creole Belles accordionist-singer Maureen Karpan, guitarist Gordon Clegg, bassist Bob Huberman, and drummer Dave “Killer” Hymowitz.
www.courtableu.com

One of the Bay Area’s premier Balkan dance bands for well over a decade, Édessa features musicians who have dedicated their lives to the music, devoting decades to the study and performance of the rich cultural expressions of the southern Balkans. The musicians play with a deep understanding of the connection between dance and music. Using both traditional and modern instruments, they perform in a variety of styles, featuring long sets that interweave melodies, improvisation, and a beat with dancers in mind. The music comes from Albania, Greece, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Armenia, and Turkey, and Balkan Roma (Gypsy). The group and its members have long participated in and taught at Balkan camps across the country, and Édessa was the first band to take Balkan music to Japan. www.edessamusic.com

Singer-guitarist Sean Hodge plays acoustic folk-rock music with a living-room feel in his High Heat trio, which includes lap slide guitarist Adam Bowers and upright bassist Randy Hunt. Hodge’s goal is to make direct connection between performer and audience. He mixes some familiar songs with originals from his CD, “Believe,” recorded in part in his old house on Delaware Street in Berkeley. www.myspace.com/seanhodge

More info soon...

Saturday, 09/20/08
SAMBA NGO

Doors at 9:00 pm; Show at 9:30 pm
$15 / $12 students (w/valid ID)

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“The music of the African tradition is therapeutic. My music is part of that. Music is not only to listen to and like, but to enjoy the spirit of.” Singer and guitarist Samba Ngo was raised in a tiny village in the Congo, the son of a nganga (herb doctor) who taught him the rhythm used for healing rituals. Ngo has incorporated those healing rhythms into his own upbeat and deeply spiritual sound.

With a charismatic stage presence, Ngo leads his band through a steamy, hot, and happy African-rock-funk-jazz fusion of soukous dance music. Over the irresistible guitars and percussion dance rhythms, Ngo’s voice is filled with hope, love, and peace through music. His original songs have filled 20 albums so far, including a few issued stateside and a French-produced “Best of Samba Ngo.” He sings in French, Lingala, and Kikongo, and occasionally in English, and in addition to electric guitar plays drums and likembe, the Congo’s thumb piano.

“In his genial voice he sings serious lyrics about the strife in his homeland, but the music stays buoyant,” wrote a New York Times critic. According to the Los Angeles Times, “Ngo and his five bandmates’ cross-rhythms mesh like the roots and vines of the forest floor...his guitar solos prowl through the sonic thicket with the fierce grace of a panther, unique and yet also unmistakably a part of that whole.”
www.samba-ngo.com

Sunday, 09/21/08
CHIRGILCHIN

Doors at 6:30 pm; Show at 7:00 pm
$20 / $15 advance & students

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One of Tuva’s leading throat singing ensembles, Chirgilchin returns to Ashkenaz with an evening of folk-rooted music and otherworldly singing. Few musical folk styles have caught the Western public imagination in the last decade as much as the amazing throat singing of Tuva, a country that sits between Mongolia and Siberia, as removed from the rest of the world as can be found. Many maps don’t even show its boundary. With its blend of Central Asian roots music and extraordinary vocal techniques, Tuvan throat singing has opened the consciousness of the contemporary world to “Cowboy Music from the Wild East.”

A regular champion of the Tuvan national throat singing competitions (popularized in the film “Genghis Blues”) held annually in Tuva’s capital, Kyzyl, Chirgilchin boasts the country’s leading soloist, Igor Koshkendey, plus the amazing female singer Aidysmaa Koshkendey, along with Mongoun-Ool Ondar and Aldar Tamdyn. In 1996 Alexander Bapa, the founder and producer of Tuvan throat singing group Huun Huur Tu, gathered the cream of the younger generation of Tuvan musicians and formed Chirgilchin. All of Chirgilchin’s songs are in the Tuvan language (in which the group’s name means “mirage” or “miracle”) and are played on instruments such as the doshpuluur, a two-stringed lute); the igil, a two-stringed fiddle; and the dungur, a rattle drum used by Tuvan shamans in their ceremonies. The band has recorded four CDs, “The Wolf and the Kid,” “Aryskan’s Wind,” “Collectible,” and a demonstration disc for those wanting to learn the throat singing art, “Will Teach.” Chirgilchin also has collaborated with an array of non-Tuvan musicians including performance artist Laurie Anderson.
www.purenaturemusic.com/chirgilchin.htm

Tuesday, 09/23/08
VOICE OF ROMA PRESENTS: KAL

Doors at 7:00 pm; Show at 8:30 pm
Conversation with members of Kal at 7:30 pm
$15 / $12 students (w/valid ID)

More info soon...

www.galbeno.co.yu/musicschool/Roma/Bands/kal.htm
www.voiceofroma.com/kal/kal.htm

Wednesday, 09/24/08
LLOYD BROWN WITH 7TH STREET SOUND
Doors at 8:30 pm; Show at 9:00 pm
$15 / $12 advance & students

Buy tickets online!

More info soon...

www.dgans.com

Friday, 09/26/08
CHIWONISO

Doors at 9:00 pm; Show at 9:30 pm
$15 / $12 advance & students

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Following the release earlier this month of her surprising new CD, “Rebel Woman,” Zimbabwean singer Chiwoniso makes her Ashkenaz debut leading eight-member band Vibe Culture. Her music combines ancient and modern sounds as she sings in English and African languages and uses both traditional and electric instruments in her songs of struggle, peace, and love. Chiwoniso plays mbira, the thumb piano at the heart of Zimbabwean Shona traditional music, and hosho, the gourd maraca, with her sister Tawona on backing vocals, a second mbira player, rhythm section, and percussion.

Although “Rebel Woman” is her first American CD, Chiwoniso comes from a well-known musical family and has been performing most of her 32 years. Born in Olympia, Washington, Chiwoniso Maraire grew up hearing music from her father, Zimbabwean master musician Dumisani Maraire, and singing mother Linda Nemarundwe Maraire. “Musical instruments were a core element of my childhood,” Chiwoniso recalls. “By the age of four I was playing mbira. ‘Tichazomuona,’ my first recording with my parents, was released when I was nine.” The family relocated to Zimbabwe in 1990, and by the time she was in her teens Chiwoniso was a member of various bands and African hip-hop groups, traveling through Africa and Europe, winning international music contests.

She put out her own first CD, “Ancient Voices,” in 1995, backed by members of Zimbabwean band Andy Brown and the Storm. From 2001 to 2004, she was in multinational all-women’s band Women’s Voice, whose members hailed from Norway, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, America, Israel, and Algeria. Chiwoniso has also been busy in film, having worked on the soundtracks for movies and documentaries by an array of Zimbabwean writers and film producers in the last ten years. For the last four years she has concentrated on her solo career and leading Vibe Culture. “Rebel Woman” (with its title song about the role of women in Zimbabwe’s struggle for independence) is released on Cumbancha, the label recently launched by brilliant Putumayo Music A&R man Jacob Edgar. Like that of other Cumbancha artists, Chiwoniso’s music combines her roots with international elements from around the world and is filled with observations about life today and a mission of using music to create a better world.
www.chiwoniso.com

The Bay Area’s leader in the World Beat and Afrobeat scene, Kotoja was created by Nigerian singer-bassist Babá Ken Okulolo and features bandmembers from West Africa and America playing a bubbling brew of African highlife, juju, jazz, and world dance rhythms with driving guitars, riffing horns, and persuasive percussion. New York clothier Dan Storper was so moved by a Kotoja concert in Golden Gate Park a decade back that he started the popular Putumayo record company, whose many releases (including the latest Kotoja CD, “Super Sawale”) feature positive, uplifting music from around the world in the spirit of Kotoja. “We see the world as one family,” Okulolo says of Kotoja’s style. “Our music expresses this message.”
www.kotoja.com

This regular feature at Ashkenaz presents flamenco “in an intimate, cabaret setting, as it should be seen,” with a costume exhibit and sale of flamenco items.

Gerard Landry & the Lariats is the incarnation of players from a number of bands put together to back Cajun accordionist Gerard Landry. A native of Lake Charles, Louisiana, Landry mixes traditional Cajun dance music with a good dose of honky-tonk energy, as in “Driving Nails in My Coffin.” In 2006 he issued an accordion-based CD with a hot cast of backing musicians, “Gerard Landry & Friends: One Day on the Porch.” Collectively, the Lariats represent more than a hundred years of musical creativity. The band includes multi-instrumentalist Billy Wilson, fiddler Marty Jara, bassist Steve Strauss, and drummer David Hymowitz. Together they interpret classic waltzes and two-step dances, striving to preserve and adhere to traditional forms of music while exploring new ideas.