Upcoming Shows

Love-Centric. Soul-Crafted. Groove-Infused.

AgapeSoul fuses soul, funk, jazz, and R&B into a sound that’s undeniably soulful and deeply uplifting. Led by bassist and visionary Darryl Anders, the band delivers tight rhythms, rich harmonies, and infectious feel-good energy.

Fronted by powerhouse vocalists Fred Ross and Sonya Distel, and anchored by an electrifying rhythm section—Anders on bass, George Jackson on drums, Mike Wynar on guitar, and Immanuel Junaedy on keys—AgapeSoul crafts music with a message and a groove that can’t be denied. This is more than a band—it’s a soulful experience.

Robert Kennedy is a Hammond organist, pianist, and accordionist born and raised in the American South and resident in the Bay Area since 1988. He has released two albums as a bandleader on Hammond Organ; his 2018 album “Closer to Home” was widely heard, peaking at #1 on RMR’s jazz chart.

Robert’s Quartet is built around the soul jazz and hard bop of the middle 20th century, drawing from players like Lee Morgan, Herbie Hancock, Hank Mobley, Horace Silver, and of course the greats of the Hammond organ: Jimmy Smith, Jack McDuff, Charles Earland, and others. Along the way the group makes frequent forays into blues, funk, bebop, TV themes, pop tunes, and originals.

Robert Kennedy – organ

Ben Torres – tenor sax

Kai Lyons – guitar

Michael Reed – drums

Howard Wiley presents a celebration of soul-jazz, funk, gospel, and R&B steeped in West Coast flavor, combining Wiley’s hard-driving originals with a funkified selection of classics.

Wiley has been a standout on the Bay Area music scene since he was a teenager in the mid-1990s, and he’s taken on the mantle of mentor, sage, and prophet of jazz. More specifically, jazz as a populist art form that thrives best when its shared roots with blues, funk, R&B, soul, hip-hop, and gospel live close to the surface.

After 25 years as the lead vocalist for Santana, Tony Lindsay has garnered 11 Grammy awards, traveled on numerous world tours and recorded on seven Santana CDs: Milagro (1992), Supernatural (1999), Shaman (2002), Ceremony (2003), Food for Thought (2004), Ultimate Santana (2007), Multi-Dimensional Warrior (2008). In addition to many Grammy Show performances, Tony’s time with Santana included a 2003 pre-game performance at Super Bowl XXXVII where they were joined onstage by Beyonce. In 2015, Carlos Santana decided to change personnel in his band and set the wheels in motion for Tony to start on his 5th solo CD “Something Beautiful”. His previous solo albums are “Different Moods” (1995), “The Message is Love” (1997), “Tony Lindsay” and “Memoirs” (2014).

Immerse yourself in the electrifying world of “Ritmo y Voz”, where the deep-rooted traditions of Afro-Cuban jazz meet the power of dynamic vocals. This high-energy performance features an all-star lineup, including guitarist Kai Lyons, percussion master Ernesto, bassist Mazar, and the incomparable Einar Leliebre Nuñez, whose fiery rhythms and soaring voice bring the soul of Santiago de Cuba to life. Drawing from the rich traditions of Rumba, Timba, Changüí, and Batá, the group weaves a tapestry of sound that pulses with history, spirit, and innovation. Their collective experience includes collaborations with legendary artists like Omar Sosa, John Santos, and other torchbearers of the Afro-Cuban and Latin jazz traditions.

Einar “Tito” Leliebre – Vocals, Percussion

Ernesto Kindelan Mazar- Bass

Kai Lyons-Guitar

Kate Lamont crafts original music with emotional depth that grooves. A frequent vocalist with the Jazz Mafia family, Kate’s reputation as a genre-fluid vocalist keeps audiences guessing as to what she’ll do next. Her collaborative nature has produced a wide variety of arrangements (and a TED talk you can find on her website, katelamont.com ) giving each song a unique jumping off point. A creative interpreter, Kate uses spacious arrangements to cover some of her favorite artists like Joni Mitchell and Nancy Wilson, and Michael Jackson.

Kate will be joined by Mike Blankenship (keys) Miguel Castuera (bass), and Darian Gray (drums)

Returning to Keys, Suzanna Smith fronts another stellar ensemble to work her magic around the Peggy Lee songbook. “There are relatively few contemporary female vocalists who evoke Peggy Lee, at least not genuinely. Suzanna Smith numbers among that rare ilk. That Smith sounds like Lee — slightly breathy and warmly sensual with a hint of huskiness — is undeniable, but the parallels extend much further. Lee’s ability to not just caress a ballad but smother it in mink has seldom been matched. She was also a sage swinger — never too much, never too little — as well as a first-rate songwriter. Smith checks all those boxes.”

— Christopher Louden, Jazz Times

Patrick Wolff is a jazz saxophone and clarinet player with a long history in the jazz scenes of New York City and San Francisco. His playing has been characterized by a focus on lyricism and an embrace of the whole lineage of jazz styles. For this special show, he is joined by Helen Sung, an elegant and swinging piano stylist who effortlessly travels across different styles of modern jazz and classical music. She has performed with Clark Terry, Wayne Shorter, Ron Carter, Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz At Lincoln Center Orchestra, Regina Carter, Terri Lyne Carrington, Cecile McLorin Salvant, and the Mingus Big Band, and has fronted a long and diverse list of bands playing her original music. Joined by one of the Bay Area’s finest drum and bass teams, Smith Dobson and John Wiitala, this will be a special night of the finest bop and post bop repertoire.

Noel Jewkes is one of the premier saxophone players in Northern California.He has worked in the San Francisco Bay Area for over 35 years, and has earned a distinguished reputation with lovers of Jazz music.Noel has recorded with John Hendricks, Wesla Whitfield, Mary Stallings, Paula West, Mike Greensill, Lavay Smith, Bill Bell, Mimi Fox, Graham Bruce, Bobbe Norris, Larry Dunlap, Larry Vuckovich, Pat Yankee and Jerry Hahn, as well as his own ensembles.

Immerse yourself in the electrifying world of “Ritmo y Voz”, where the deep-rooted traditions of Afro-Cuban jazz meet the power of dynamic vocals. This high-energy performance features an all-star lineup, including guitarist Kai Lyons, percussion master Ernesto, bassist Mazar, and the incomparable Einar Leliebre Nuñez, whose fiery rhythms and soaring voice bring the soul of Santiago de Cuba to life. Drawing from the rich traditions of Rumba, Timba, Changüí, and Batá, the group weaves a tapestry of sound that pulses with history, spirit, and innovation. Their collective experience includes collaborations with legendary artists like Omar Sosa, John Santos, and other torchbearers of the Afro-Cuban and Latin jazz traditions.

Einar “Tito” Leliebre – Vocals, Percussion

Ernesto Kindelan Mazar- Bass

Kai Lyons-Guitar

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 of Healdsburg Jazz, an artist in residence with the Yerba Buena Gardens Festival, and a past resident artist with the San Francisco 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 2020 Oscar-Winning Disney Pixar film “SOUL”.  Shelby has also worked with a range of artists including Angela Y. Davis’ “Blues Legacies and Black Feminism” (2019), 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 23 years. Shelby has served on the San Francisco Arts Commission since 2013 and has worked with the Equal Justice Society for over 20 years. The Marcus Shelby Orchestra has released 5 CDs–“The Lights Suite”, “Port Chicago”, “Harriet Tubman”, “Soul of the Movement: Meditations on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.”, and “Transitions”.