Swing, Sway and Syncopate

Syncopation is the creation of rhythmic surprise. This can often be done by accenting certain notes or by unevenly timing the beats. When you hear syncopation, it makes you want to move, because the music has swing.

Music with swing has a forward momentum that drives you to dance and sway to the rhythm. Often this is done by dividing each beat into a pair of 8th notes, but playing the first note slightly longer than the second one (or vice versa), so that the first note “steals” some of the second note’s time. This is often called “swing time.”

At Swing in the Spring on May 14th, a fascinating mixture of performers and artists will create their own unique rhythm through their interactions. There will be improvisation and surprises which will hopefully make you want to dance! If not, just enjoy the music and the artists.

Vannina Malekzadeh creates elements of surprise and movement in her painting Sway with me. You do not see the faces of the dancers but only the movement of the skirt, the shadows of legs that are dancing with the other legs. In their shadow is a collage of buildings, cities, colors, a world that belongs to our imagination. One leads and the other follows but they do syncopate and express their individual time sequences together on a floor whose perspective leads you toward new discoveries.

Sway with me will be on display at Swing in the Spring along with other of Vannina’s paintings and works by renowned San Francisco artist Jeremy Sutton. Joining them will be sculptor and painter Salma Arastu, along with live entertainment from an impressive group of musicians. Three talented vocalists will sing Swing, Latin and blues: Shannon Wolfe has a lyrical and shimmering voice (click to hear her); Ariel Eisen will add bossa nova tunes in Portuguese, and Noam himself will take a turn, in addition to his regular duties at the piano.
Come out and swing and syncopate! For ticket information, click the button below.

Bandleader and pianist Noam Eisen is from Toronto and studied classical music at the Royal Conservatory of Toronto, though his greatest passion is for jazz. Noam moved to San Francisco in 2001 following three years of living a cultural dream in Paris. He has an MS in Engineering from Stanford University, and an MBA from HEC Paris, and complements his musical activities with a career in pharmaceutical research. He is currently performing with San Francisco’s “Cosmo Alley Cats” and will debut his own Swing band quintet at Swing in the Spring.

Pete Cornell is a versatile and talented Bay Area saxophonist. He has performed with the legendary Dan Hicks and for many years with Lavay Smith and Her Red Hot Skillet Lickers, appearing on her recent CD, Miss Smith To You.” He is a charter member and music director of the famed salsa band Mazacote producing their debut CD, Timbolero. Pete has played his music from Japan to Prague and Italy, and performed at the Monterey, San Jose, and San Francisco Jazz Festivals. He is currently appearing with the Cosmo Alleycats and with the sizzling 19-piece Pacific Mambo in SF. He enjoys sharing his love of music and rhythm with people of all ages and backgrounds.

With her lyrical and shimmering voice, the performance talents of vocalist Shannon Wolfe span opera and classical chamber music to swing and jazz ballads. A radiant and versatile performer, she has performed throughout the United States, Canada and Mexico. Miss Wolfe is the singer for the Skylark Trio, a vintage-inspired ensemble that brings to life the popular dance and film music of the 1920’s 30’s 40’s and 50’s. She appears with Noam Eisen as a duo act performing tailor-made concert and sing-along programs featuring the best of American musical theater and film song, retro jazz standards, cabaret, and operetta.
Miss Wolfe is a featured soloist with The Classical Revolution, whose mission is to ‘bring chamber music back to the streets’ and was recently heard singing for the Bach Birthday Bash at the San Francisco Palace of the Legion of Honor. She is a founding member of Vocallective, a consortium of classical singers, pianists and instrumentalists dedicated to preserving and performing chamber music masterpieces both old and new.
Based in San Francisco, Miss Wolfe holds a Master of Music degree from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music as well as a Bachelor of Science degree in Sociology from Northern Arizona University. She is on the voice faculty of the Holy Name Conservatory of Music and maintains a private voice-teaching studio in San Francisco.

Ariel Eisen has been singing since she could make a joyful peep, and began writing music in her early teens, drawing inspiration from Paul Simon and Joni Mitchell to Billy Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald and Antonio Carlos Jobim. Her music recalls an earlier era, with messages that delve into the universal realities of our times. Her lyrics are potent and insightful, while her angelic voice and jazzy guitar carry the words in exquisite partnership.
She has performed throughout the United States, including The Forecastle Festival 2010 in Louisville, KY, the Cornstalk Festival, MN, the Yippie Museum of New York and an appearance at the Green Room of Chicago. She helped run and curate an art center in Honolulu and performed her original music on the islands for weddings, street fairs and the famed HawaiiSlam poetry slam.
She has been living in San Francisco for the past year and has performed at the Misson Cultural Center, MAPP, Savannah Jazz Club and the Makeout Room. She has been a featured guest on Diamond Dave’s Pirate Cat Radio. She is thrilled to have entered into a musical partnership with pianist Noam Eisen.

A native son of Fresno in California’s central valley, Sam Rocha has been playing string bass since he was introduced to it at age 16. By his senior year of high school, he had received awards for outstanding musicianship from the Reno Jazz Festival and the Fresno City College Jazz Fest and was also offered scholarships by the CalArts and Berklee schools of music. At this time he was leading a youth jazz band known as “The Raisin Babies Jazz Band”, a group of West Coast youngsters pursuing the tradition of New Orleans jazz. Sam has since performed at major jazz festivals all across the United States and Canada. In addition to studying jazz on the acoustic bass, Sam has also extensively studied jazz tuba and sousaphone. He currently resides in the San Francisco Bay Area where he is a freelance musician. He also travels with the highly esteemed Blue Street Jazz Band, playing jazz festivals and offering clinics for aspiring young jazz musicians.

Drummer since birth, music has been the caravan that has brought Adam Goodhue to stages and studios all over the world. Always musical, focusing on tone, feel, groove, and the ability to draw from so many styles is what Adam brings to every musical endeavor.

Below is a list of some of the stars Adam has performed with, either live or in the studio:
Maria Muldaur, Bonnie Raitt, Kenny Washington, Larry Vuckovich, Freda Payne, Sharon McNight, Rita Moreno, Petula Clark, Bonnie Hayes, Austin De Lone, Blackalisious, Linda Clifford, Mimi Fox, Aram Danesh, Super Human Crew, Calvin Keys, Kai Eckhart, Sony Holland, Melodye Perry (the Honey Cone), Valarie Pettiford , Sherry Payne, Alo, Ray Obiedo, Johnny Talbot, Freddy Hughes, Markus James, Paula West, Steve Freund, Rusty Zinn, Joan Rivers, Sally Kellerman, Joe Craven, K.I. Nicholas, Alvon Johnson, Jubu Smith, Chris Cotton.

Jeremy Sutton studied life drawing, sculpture and etching at the Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art, while at the same time earning a degree in Physics from Pembroke College, Oxford. He then studied lithography and life drawing at the Vrije Academie in The Hague before moving to San Francisco. His first one-man show was a series of colorful pastel portraits at the Gordon Biersch Restaurant in Palo Alto, California, in 1989. He was first introduced to using the computer as a fine art tool in 1991, and has been exploring the digital medium ever since. In 1994, he transitioned from selling superconducting magnets as a career to becoming a full time artist. Sutton works across multiple media, blending traditional and modern art tools in creating expressive contemporary portraiture.

Besides being an artist, Sutton is also an author, educator and speaker. He teaches workshops and seminars throughout the world.

Vannina Malekzadeh comes from Corsican roots and has recently moved to the Bay Area from France. She paints with acrylics on canvas and combines it with collages. In her view, the two forms complement each other. Acrylics give great freedom to play with colors and create something entirely new, while collage depends on the accumulation of small details. Together, they present a striking contrast. She also combines acrylics with digital imagery. She seeks to turn everyday life into a more textured reality. Effective use of color is one of her hallmarks.

Salma Arastu was born in Rajasthan, India. She has been painting for more than thirty years, since earning her degree in Fine Arts from Maharaja Sayajirao University in Baroda, India in 1974.
In her present works the theme is people. Crowds of people, moving together, merging together, in groups, conversing, dancing or arguing. People of all lands with their colorful fabrics and intimate gestures, lyrical movements and intricate patterns.

Her work ranges in style from Indian folk and miniature art to abstract. She merges Eastern spirituality and western techniques of painting. Through the contrasting elements in her work, she searches for unity and when that unity or balance is achieved, it brings about a tranquility and joy. Her use of continuous and lyrical line is influenced by her native culture and her experiences living in Iran and Kuwait before coming to the US in 1987.

The 8′ tall metal sculpture Dancing with the Stars was installed at the Port of San Diego on 18th October 2010. It is cut with water jet technology in steel and then copper stars were glued on. The work will remain at the Port for one year and it was juried to become part of San Diego’s Urban Trees 7 program.

Please join us on May 14th.