Sheldon Brown Group

Composer and woodwind multi-instrumentalist Sheldon Brown has been involved in the San Francisco Bay Area creative music scene for over 20 years. In June of 2014 he premiered his extended composition "Blood of the Air" at the 32nd Annual San Francisco Jazz Festival.

Since 1994 he has led Sheldon Brown Group, which performs his own compositions, and he recently formed Sheldon Brown Quintet, which performs the music of Herbie Nichols, and Distant Intervals, based on poetic speech melodies.

The Sheldon Brown Group has performed several times at Yoshiʼs, and as part of the San Francisco Jazz Festivalʼs Summer in the City series.

Brown has performed with Cuban pianist Omar Sosa, recorded on 5 of Sosaʼs albums, and played with him at many famous venues, such as The North Sea Jazz Festival in Den Haag, New Morning in Paris, and Tribute to the Love Generation in Tokyo.

Brown performs with many groups in the Bay Area, including: Electric Squeezebox Orchestra, Clarinet Thing, Darren Johnston Quintet, Goldberg/Brown/Anderson, Ian Carey Quintet + 1, Club Foot Orchestra, Laurie Antonioli, Azesu (featuring Orestes Vilato), Mike Pattonʼs Mondo Cane, Admiral Ted Brinkley's Large Group, and the Aaron Germain Quartet.

As a composer, Brown has written music for his own groups and many of the other groups he performs with. For Club Foot Orchestra he composed music for the silent films "Metropolis", "Sherlock Jr.", "Pandoraʼs Box", and "The Hands of Orlac", as well as the cartoon series "The Twisted Tales of Felix the Cat", which aired on CBS.

Sheldon appeared here previously with Hemispheres, Mandala, Clarinet Thing, Ratzo Harris, Michael Wilcox, Ian Carey, the Sheldon Brown Quintet, and the Sheldon Brown Group.

http://www.sheldonbrownmusic.com/

Since settling in San Francisco in 1997, Canada-born trumpeter/composer Darren Johnston has collaborated and recorded with an extremely diverse cross-section of artists, performing all styles of jazz, experimental, and purely improvised music, as well as traditional music of the Balkans, Greece, Macedonia, Turkey, and the Arab world. These interests have coalesced in his primary ensemble of late, Darren Johnston’s Broken Shadows.

He has performed and/or recorded with luminaries such as Fred Frith, ROVA Saxophone Quartet, Myra Melford, Ben Goldberg, Matt Wilson, Mark Dresser, Marshall Allen, and Marcus Shelby.

He appeared here previously with the Evan Francis / Darren Johnston Quartet, the Nice Guy Trio, the Sheldon Brown Quintet, and the Evan Francis Group.

http://darrenjohnstonmusic.com/

Guitarist Dave Mac Nab has been performing and composing music for over twenty five years. Dave has worked in an unusually wide range of settings and styles. He has toured and recorded internationally, appeared on numerous TV and radio programs, and performed with some of Broadway's biggest national tours. He has released four albums as a leader, played on countless other recordings, created original scores for theater and film, and written instructional material for magazines and books.

Artists he has performed with include Bob Weir (Grateful Dead/Ratdog), Shelby Lynne, Barry Manilow, Neil Sedaka, Charlie Musselwhite, Randy Newman, Bonnie Raitt, The Drifters, Paul McCandless, Benny Reitveld, Larry Goldings, Art Lande, Dewey Redman, Bob Sheppard, Steve Smith, Scott Amendola, Jenny Scheinmann, Tiger Okoshi, San Francisco Mime Troupe, San Francisco Symphony, and Marin Symphony.

Dave was heard previously at Chez Hanny with the Dave Mac Nab Trio, and Andrea Wolper.

http://www.davemacnab.com/

Pianist Dan Zemelman studied with Richard Davis at the UW Madison and received the award as 'Best Jazz Artist' at UW Madison in 1996. In 1998 as part of the Kennedy Center’s prestigious Jazz Ambassadors program, Zemelman toured India and Sri Lanka.

He contributed to John Lee Hooker’s last studio album "Face to Face", and toured South America with daughter Zakiya Hooker's band.

Recently Dan has been performing with Jeff Denson and his quartet featuring Lee Konitz. The group released a CD and did a tour in Europe in 2015. A second CD, featuring bassoonist Paul Hansen was released in 2016. Dan also plays with grammy-award winning violinist Mads Tolling, vibraphonist Christian Tamburr, Electric Squeezebox Orchestra, and Bay Area icons Marcus Shelby and Adam Theis.

Dan has appeared at Chez Hanny with the Aaron Germain/Dan Zemelman Quartet, Alex Murzyn, Dave Haskell, Dan Pratt, Jeff Denson, and the Dan Zemelman Quartet.

http://www.danzemelman.com

Bassist/composer Jeff Denson is a recording artistfor Enja Records with Minsarah, and the Lee Konitz New Quartet, and for Ridgeway Records with the Jeff Denson Trio + Lee Konitz, and the Jeff Denson Quartet.

He has performed at such prestigious international festivals as the JVC Jazz Festival Paris, the Berlin Jazz Festival, the Enjoy Jazz Festival, and the Montreal Jazz Festival, and with such distinguished musicians as Bob Moses, Charlie Byrd, Joe Lovano, Carl Allen, Kenny Werner, Geoffrey Keezer, Art Lande, Charles McPherson, Cuong Vu, and Brian Blade.

He is a full professor at the California Jazz Conservatory in Berkeley, and founder/director of Ridgeway Arts.

He has appeared at Chez Hanny with Minsarah, Adam Kolker, Alon Nechushtan, Kari Ikonen, the Jeff Denson/Joshua White Project, and the Jeff Denson Quartet.

http://www.jeffdenson.com

Drummer Alan Hall has performed and/or recorded with: Lee Konitz, Taylor Eigsti, Russell Ferrante, Billy Childs, Kenny Werner, Art Lande, Christian Jacob, Kit Walker, Tom Coster, Eddie Harris, Bob Sheppard, Paul McCandless, John Handy, Jimmy Haslip, Ratzo Harris, Stuart Hamm, Kai Eckhardt, John Clayton, Rebecca Parris, Kenny Washington, Betty Buckley, Mark Murphy, Joyce Cooling, Victor Mendoza, Cirque du Soleil, Teatro Zinzanni San Francisco, and many others.

He has performed at Madison Square Garden, The Monterey Jazz Festival, Vancouver International Jazz Festival, Barbados International Jazz Festival, JVC Jazz Festival, BumberShoot Festival, and Yoshi’s San Francisco.

He taught at Berklee College of Music from 1986 to 1993. He currently teaches at Cal State University East Bay in Hayward, The California Jazz Conservatory in Berkeley, and UC Berkeley.

His sextet Ratatet released it's second CD in 2018.

Alan was heard previously at Chez Hanny with Michael O'Neill, Charlie McCarthy, Fiveplay, the Sheldon Brown Group, Jeff Denson, Dave Haskell, Edward Simon, and Ratzo Harris.

http://www.jazzdrumming.com/

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