Marcus Shelby Sextet: “Shelby Does Blakey”

Marcus Shelby Septet

Ryan Ancheta (trumpet)

Laurel Fink (alto)

Yaya Escobar (tenor/soprano)

Greg Jacobs (piano)

Jemal Ramirez (drums)

Marcus Shelby (bass)

“Shelby does Blakey”The Marcus Shelby Septet is grateful to perform at Keys Jazz Bistro to perform a program titled “Shelby Does Blakey” honoring drummer Art Blakey and the Jazz Messenger and original compositions from composer and bassist Marcus Shelby. Art Blakey led various ensembles for over 50 years that featured some of the most noteworthy musicians and composers in our art form, including Wayne Shorter, Horace Silver, Freddie Hubbard, Clifford Brown, Benny Golson, Lee Morgan, Hank Mobley, Woody Shaw, Cedar Walton, Wynton Marsalis, Terrence Blanchard, and many many others. The Jazz Messengers tenure were one of the most important eras of American music and launched the careers of some of the greatest young artists of its time. In the same spirit, the Marcus Shelby Septet features a frontline of rising stars including Ryan Ancheta (trumpet), Laurel Fink (alto sax), Yaya Escobar (tenor sax), Greg Jacobs (piano), and Jemal Ramirez (drums). Marcus Anthony Shelby is a composer, bassist, bandleader, and educator who currently lives in San Francisco, California. His work focuses on the history, present, and future of African American lives, social movements, and music education. In 1990, Marcus Shelby received the Charles Mingus Scholarship to attend Cal Arts and study composition with James Newton and bass with Charlie Haden. Currently, Shelby is the Artistic Director ofHealdsburg Jazz, an artist in residence with the Yerba Buena Gardens Festival, and a past resident artist with the SanFrancisco Jazz Festival and the Healdsburg Jazz Festival. Shelby has composed several oratorios and suites including “Harriet Tubman”, “Beyond the Blues: A Prison Oratorio”, “Soul of the Movement: Meditations on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.”, “Black Ball: The Negro Leagues and the Blues”, “Green and Blues”, and a children’s opera “Harriet’s Spirit” produced by Opera Parallel 2018. Shelby also composed the score and performed in Anna Deavere Smith’s Off Broadway Play and HBO feature film “Notes from the Field” (2019). Shelby is also the voice of Ray Gardener in the Oscar winning Disney Pixar film “SOUL” 2020. Shelby has also worked with a range of artists including Angela Y. Davis’ “Blues Legacies and Black Feminism” (2019), W. Kamau Bell (“1000% Me”), Joanna Haigood’s “Dying While Black and Brown” (2014), Margo Hall’s “Bebop Baby” (2013) and “Sonny’s Blues” (2008), the Oakland Ballet’s “Ella” The SF Girl Choir (2013), The Oakland Youth Chorus (2014), and many other productions over the past 25 years. Shelby has served on the San Francisco Arts Commission since 2013