Marta, Alex, Chris, Roman and Kim

My “world music day” by Earthwise event at Lytton Plaza on Saturday 6/25/22 went like this:

5:45 to 6:30

Sylvie Simmons (London/SF) solo ukelele (which is from Hawaii) and voice; originals plus a David Bowie cover, but not “1984” even though it was George Orwell’s birthday;

6:55 to 7:00

Zach Estrada (Fremont, CA) original rap — Zach is a pan-handler at Lytton Plaza and formerly at Bryant Street but is also a writer and rapper. 

7:00 to 8:00 Marta Sanchez Quintet original jazz music from her recent cd; Marta Sanchez (Madrid/NYC), piano; Chris Tordini (US) bass — the bass was from Chech republic but I rented it from a guy in Burlingame; JK Kim (Korea, near Seoul but not Seoul and NYC) drums; Roman Filiu (Cuba/Madrid/NYC) tenor; Alex LoRe (US) alto. 

I wanted the band to play until sunset which was solstice 8:30 or so but did not push the issue since they were sight-reading from charts as only 3 of the 5 were on the album. 

Around 8:10 to 8:40 or so there was a man calling himself “DC” who played very loud rap music, rock and soul from a boombox-type device who was not officially part of the show; I asked him nicely to turn down but he refused; I said that below the level of assault I was not going to bring in the police despite the awkwardness of the moment; earlier in the show, at Sylvie’s final song in fact, the police came to investigate an assault and battery between two people at the plaza but not necessarily attendees of the World music Day/ Earthwise event but neither would swear out a complaint against the other so the police left. 

(I invited two or three other acts per the narrative below but got no results — I was actually in SF directly before the load-in doing advance work for my SF Mime Troupe July 30 event — they had a VP preview of their show “Back to The Way Things Were”)

I have not heard any reports about the Rinconada Park version of World Music Day. (Other than that Sharon Benitez of Los Panadores was in Spain so missed the event; I know a couple others of the acts and mean to check in with them).

Although Stanford Jazz workshop has cancelled a couple events for various reasons — power outage and Covid — my understanding is that the Indian jazz event went on. The Guild theatre in Menlo Park had simultaenously a Jimmie Dale Gilmore show (who appeared at Spangenberg for an Earthwise show in 1997) — it might have been great for all five groups — Earthwise, Stanford Jazz, COPA, and The Guild — to joint market the plethora of sounds that day. 

I have 10 other confirmed shows at either Mitchell Park Bowl, Lytton Plaza or Johnson Park between July 10 and October 7.

Mark Weiss

dba Earthwise of Palo Alto / “Peace Has Come to ZI”

PS The Guild has Femi Kuti (Nigeria, France) tomorrow — Femi played at The Cubberley in summer, 2000.

to:

On Sunday, May 29, 2022, 11:26:35 AM PDT, mark weiss <earwopa@yahoo.com> wrote:

I am leaning towards expanding my Marta Sanchez 7 pm. show 6/25 at Lytton Plaza into a full day of music from 12 to 10 in accord with the World Music Day happening simultaneously 10 minutes away by bike at Rinconda. 

I suggest we jointly market all three events: Earthwise June Swoon at The Lytton Plaza, Palo Alto World Music Day and the Mahesh Kale/George Brooks show part of Stanford Jazz Workshop. They compete but people can pick and choose ala carte and maybe, even on bike, make two or three or more sets, or parts of sets. (WMD and Lytton are free, Stanford Jazz is hard ticket…)

Mark Weiss

dba Earthwise

(650) 305-xxxx

I also have a free Waybacks show July 10 at Mitchell Park Bowl and noticed recently that they were in the City of Palo Alto Brown Bag series at Cogswell Plaza circa 2003; I am  announcing a free show with Johnny A at Lytton Plaza 9/9 timed as a pre-game event for the big Gunn-Paly gridiron classic, and my Gunn 40th.