"Toots" Thielemans © Andrea Canter

Named a 2009 NEA Jazz Master, "Toots" Thielemans will appear with the Kenny Werner trio Yoshi's in San Francisco on Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday: November 11, 12 & 13. Then they move accross the bay to perform at Yoshis in Oakland on Friday, Saturday & Sunday: November 14, 15 & 16. They then perform at Kuumbwa Jazz Center Santa Cruz on Monday, November 17th. The trio features renowned pianist Kenny Werner with Scott Colley on bass and Antonio Sanchez on drums. 

Harmonica player, guitarist, and whistler Jean-Baptiste "Toots" Thielemans was born April 29, 1922, in Brussels, and has been credited by jazz aficionados and jazz critics as being among the greatest jazz harmonica players of the 20th century.

Dr. Lonnie Smith © Andrea Canter

The Dr. Lonnie Smith Quartet featuring Donald Harrison and the Godfathers of Groove: with Reuben Wilson, JT Lewis & Grant Green Jr. will appear on Friday, November 7, at 8PM at the Herbst Theatre, 401 Van Ness Avenue (at McAllister), in San Francisco   Dr. Lonnie Smith that is, the reigning old-school Hammond B3 maestro who’s been delivering the funky jazz since breaking in with George Benson in the mid- 1960s. Another ‘60s B3 avatar, Reuben Wilson, leads the aptly named Godfathers of Groove featuring guitarist Grant Green Jr., son of the late soul jazz guitar great.

Hammond B3 artist and master showman Dr. Lonnie Smith has been thrilling audiences since the 1960's. Smith's 1968 debut with Bluenote, Think is solid soulful jazz and his long association with Lou Donaldson resulted in some of the most iconic soul-jazz statements of the era (including Alligator Bogaloo). Dr. Lonnie Smith was born in Buffalo, N.Y. into a musical family. His family had a singing group and a radio show. Smith credits his mother as a major influence in his musical career, introducing him to gospel, classical and jazz music.

Cecil Taylor will perform a "Sacred Space" solo piano concert on Friday, October 24 at 8PM in Grace Cathedral at 1100 California Street in San Francisco. For tickets, visit sfjazz.org.

Cecil Taylor

Taylor began playing piano at age six and went on to study at the New York College of Music and New England Conservatory. He  formed his own band with soprano saxophonist Steve Lacy in 1956. Taylor's first recording, Jazz Advance, featured Lacy and was released in 1956. It is described by Cook & Morton in the Penguin Guide to Jazz: "While there are still many nods to conventional post-bop form in this set, it already points to the freedoms which the pianist would later immerse himself in."

Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, Taylor's music grew increasingly complex, and moved away from existing jazz styles. It was often difficult for Taylor to find work, despite landmark recordings such as Nefertiti the Beautiful One Has Come (1962) Unit Structures (1966), and a pairing with pioneering saxophonist John Coltrane (Coltrane Time/Hard Drivin' Jazz, 1958).

Auturo O'Farril

Arturo O'Farrill was born in Mexico and grew up in New York City. Educated at the Manhattan School of Music and the Brooklyn College Conservatory, Arturo played piano with the Carla Bley Big Band from 1979 through 1983. He then went on to develop as a solo performer with a wide spectrum of artists including Wynton Marsalis, Dizzy Gillespie, Steve Turre, Papo Vazquez, The Fort Apache Band, Lester Bowie, and Harry Belafonte. In 1995, Arturo agreed to direct the band that preserved much of his father's music, Chico O'Farrill's Afro Cuban Jazz Orchestra, which has been in residence at New York City's Birdland for the past few years as well as performing throughout the world. Besides recording three albums as a leader for Milestone Records, 32 Jazz, and M & I (Bloodlines, A Night in Tunisia, and Cumana Bop), Arturo has appeared on numerous records including Habanera with Alberto Shiroma, and the soundtrack to the critically-acclaimed movie Calle 54.