Bay Area arts, 9 shows to see this weekend
There are some great shows, exhibits and squawking movies to see this weekend in the Bay Area, from Alex Edelman’s solo show about the nature of compassion to the return to Sheila E. to the lovable “Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill.” Here are a partial roundup.
Edelman brings ‘Us’ back to Bay Area
Comedian Alex Edelman was one of many popular performers in the crowded L.A. stand-up scene when he decided to piece together various bits of his routine into a solo theater show and take it on the road. The result was the touring show “Just for Us,” which has made him a star.
Following rave reviews on a tour that hit New York — in a run that was reportedly extended six times — San Francisco (via BroadwaySF), Washington, D.C., and Australia, among other stops, Edelman has brought the hit show back to the Bay Area for a run at Berkeley Repertory Theatre.
The show has its roots in an antisemitic attack that was leveled at Edelman online, which prompted him to venture to Queens, N.Y., where, as producers put it, he confronts White Nationalists and others as “comes face-to-face with the people behind the keyboards.” At a time when antisemitism is on the rise and Israel is embroiled in war, the show that explores identity and empathy has an edgier tone than most stand-up routines. But make no mistake, it’s still comedy. As the New York Times puts it, “Edelman skewers to perfection and has an exceptional eye for the absurd.”
Details: Through Jan. 21; Berkeley Rep’s Peet’s Theatre, Berkeley; $49-$99; www.berkeleyrep.org.
— Randy McMullen, Staff
Sheila E. back in Bay Area
Sheila E. is set to perform a string of hometown shows at Yoshi’s in Oakland.
The acclaimed vocalist-percussionist and her E-Train band will be playing two gigs per night over a three-day stretch, Friday through Sunday, at the beloved club in Jack London Square.
Sheila E. was surrounded by music growing up as a member of the Bay Area’s legendary Escovedo family. Of course, she had her dad — the great percussionist Pete Escovedo — and her talented siblings. Beyond that, her godfather was none other than the Latin jazz icon Tito Puente and, in general, there were just so many other notable artists coming and going through her life as she enjoyed being a part of the Bay Area’s thriving music scene. She counts such diverse Bay Area acts as Jefferson Airplane, the Pointer Sisters, the Grateful Dead, and Sly & the Family Stone among her many influences.
“I used to sit on the corner outside of the local community center with Twinkies and 7-Up listening to Sly and Larry Graham rehearse,” Sheila E. is quoted as saying on the Yoshi’s website. “The sounds of the Bay Area molded me.”
Sheila E. had her greatest moment of commercial success with “The Glamorous Life,” the Prince-penned tune that reached the top 10 back in 1984. She also received much attention for her work on the Prince radio hit “Erotic City.”
Details: 8 and 10 p.m. Friday, 7:30 and 9:30 p.m. Saturday, 7 and 9 p.m. Sunday; $59-$109; yoshis.com.
— Jim Harrington, Staff
Classical picks: Beethoven’s Fifth, youth orchestras
Symphonic works, 18th-century salon music, and the Bay Area Youth Orchestra Festival: the classical music scene is off to a strong start for 2024.
Two Fives: This week’s San Francisco Symphony program brings conductor Jaap van Zweden to the podium to lead two major symphonic works: Beethoven’s iconic Fifth Symphony, and Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 5 in D minor.
Details: 7:30 p.m. today through Saturday; Davies Symphony Hall, San Francisco; $25-$250; sfsymphony.org.
“Invitation to a Salon”: Musica Pacifica’s weekend concert, presented by the San Francisco Early Music Society and featuring sublime soprano Sherezade Panthaki, features French music by Jean-Philippe Rameau and Jean-Marie Leclair, along with works by Handel, Telemann, and Vivaldi.
Details: 7:30 p.m. Friday at First Presbyterian Church, Palo Alto; 7:30 p.m. Saturday at First Congregational Church, Berkeley; 4 p.m. Sunday at St. Mark’s Lutheran Church, San Francisco; $30-$40, with a “Pay what you can” option; www.sfems.org.
Youth Movement: Sunday afternoon in Davies Symphony Hall, the Bay Area Youth Orchestra Festival welcomes young musicians from the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra, California Youth Symphony, Golden State Youth Orchestra, Oakland Symphony Youth Orchestra, and Young People’s Symphony Orchestra. Hosted by TV journalist Wendy Tokuda, this special event includes music by Leonard Bernstein and Ralph Vaughan Williams.
Details: 3 p.m.; Davies Symphony Hall, San Francisco; $25-$70, $12.50 17 and under; www.sfsymphony.org.
— Georgia Rowe, Correspondent
Bay Area icon has new music, concert
Bay Area percussionist and band leader John Santos is such a well-traveled and prolific musician it’s almost easy to overlook what a revered and respected artist he is. In a career spanning more than 50 years, he has produced countless recordings and performed hundreds and hundreds of concerts, all while establishing himself as one of the legends of Latin and Afro Latin jazz. Along the way, he’s jammed and/or recorded with such legends as Dizzy Gillespie, Tito Puente, Eddie Palmieri, Bobby Hutcherson, Chucho Valdes, Billy Cobham, Zakir Hussain, McCoy Tyner and others (and, really, we’re just scraping the surface here). And if that doesn’t sound busy enough, he’s also a noted composer, teacher, writer, radio programmer, and producer. On Saturday, he adds another chapter to his storied career, when Santos brings his acclaimed Sextet to the Freight & Salvage in Berkeley to showcase a new album, “Vieja Escuela.” The show also features a star-studded slate of guest performers, including Cuban percussionist Orestes Vilato, violinist Anthony Blea, violinist and singer Fernanda Bustamante and singer and multi-instrumentalist Jose Roberto Hernandez.
Details: 8 p.m.; $30 advance/$35 door; thefreight.org.
— Bay City News Foundation
The ‘Parrots’ are back
It’s hard to go wrong when a bunch of colorful and lovable parrots are the star of your movie.
San Francisco filmmaker Judy Irving found that out with her 2003 documentary “The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill.” The film follows Mark Bittner, an unemployed musician living in a rent-free cottage in Telegraph, and a flock of playful feral parrots living in the area that he befriends, feeds and looks after. As the film depicts, Bittner was seeking meaning in his life, and the parrots were happy to oblige.
The combination of the parrots’ antics and Bittner’s life story and relationship with the birds proved irresistible and the film — which Irving had trouble getting made given her initial lack of financial backing — was a bona fide hit, earning more than $3 million at the box office. The film remains one of the 25 highest-grossing documentaries of all time.
And it’s back. For the film’s 20th anniversary, a digitally restored version is headed to Bay Area theaters. Irving and Bittner, who fell in love during filming of the movie and have since married, will attend several screenings.
Details: Friday through Jan. 19 at the Roxie Theater in San Francisco, roxie.com; 4:30 p.m. Sunday at the Smith Rafael Film Center in San Rafael, rafaelfilm.cafilm.org; Irving and Bittner will attend screenings Friday and Saturday at the Roxie and Sunday at the Smith Rafael.
— Randy McMullen, Staff
New work at groundbreaking gallery
It was 41 years ago that Florence and Elias Katz founded Creativity Explored, a very special art gallery, in San Francisco. It was during a time when thousands of disabled Americans were being deinstitutionalized and the couple saw Creativity Explored as the center of a movement to help disabled artists further their passions and get their works shown, as well as to, as the gallery explains it, “expand defined notions of artistry.” The gallery, in tandem with Katz-founded organizations Creative Growth, and Nurturing Independence through Artistic Development (NIAD) has done just that. Today, Creativity Explored and its affiliated educational and other programs, serves as a headquarters of sorts for some 130 Bay Area disabled artists, who have gotten their works shown at fairs and in galleries and museums in 14 countries and earned some $2 million in sales in the process. The gallery this weeks opens a new exhibit by San Francisco-born painter Elana Cooper, who specializes in monochromatic depictions of floral silhouettes, delivered in bold strokes with simple backgrounds that seem both fanciful and forceful in their simplicity. The tough but tender nature of her paintings almost seem to reflect on the life of an artist who must overcome challenges to create her evocative work.
Details: “Flower Power” runs Jan. 11-March 9; 3245 16th St., San Francisco; opening reception is 5-8 p.m. Jan. 11; regular hours are 3-6 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays and noon-5 p.m. Saturdays; free but donations are appreciated; www.creativityexplored.org
Stream this overlooked East Bay gem
For every big-budget movie that gets hyped to the hilt, there are numerous smaller-scale films that, however worthy they may be, end up underseen and overlooked.
Among the creatively crafted, emotionally satisfying, intellectually stimulating films that many viewers may have missed in 2023 stands “Fremont,” in which filmmaker Babak Jalali (“Radio Dreams”) again embraces Bay Area immigrant populations with a deadpan gem centering on a young Afghan refugee.
Protagonist Donya (Anaita Wali Zada) lives in Fremont in a building filled with fellow Afghans, and works in nearby San Francisco at a fortune-cookie factory. Desperate for connection, she places a personal message inside a fortune cookie and finds herself on an unexpected journey.
With his adroit steerage, relevant themes and ability to make the mundane fascinating, Jalali has created not just one of the year’s best small films, but one of the year’s best films, period. Unique supporting characters include a solitary auto mechanic played by Jeremy Allen White.
Details: Now available to stream or rent on Amazon Prime, Vudu, Google Play, and Apple TV.
— Randy Myers, Bay City News Foundation
There are some great shows, exhibits and squawking movies to see this weekend in the Bay Area, from Alex Edelman’s solo show about the nature of compassion to the return to Sheila E. to the lovable “Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill.” Here are a partial roundup.
Edelman brings ‘Us’ back to Bay Area
Comedian Alex Edelman was one of many popular performers in the crowded L.A. stand-up scene when he decided to piece together various bits of his routine into a solo theater show and take it on the road. The result was the touring show “Just for Us,” which has made him a star.
Following rave reviews on a tour that hit New York — in a run that was reportedly extended six times — San Francisco (via BroadwaySF), Washington, D.C., and Australia, among other stops, Edelman has brought the hit show back to the Bay Area for a run at Berkeley Repertory Theatre.
The show has its roots in an antisemitic attack that was leveled at Edelman online, which prompted him to venture to Queens, N.Y., where, as producers put it, he confronts White Nationalists and others as “comes face-to-face with the people behind the keyboards.” At a time when antisemitism is on the rise and Israel is embroiled in war, the show that explores identity and empathy has an edgier tone than most stand-up routines. But make no mistake, it’s still comedy. As the New York Times puts it, “Edelman skewers to perfection and has an exceptional eye for the absurd.”
Details: Through Jan. 21; Berkeley Rep’s Peet’s Theatre, Berkeley; $49-$99; www.berkeleyrep.org.
— Randy McMullen, Staff
Sheila E. back in Bay Area
Sheila E. is set to perform a string of hometown shows at Yoshi’s in Oakland.
The acclaimed vocalist-percussionist and her E-Train band will be playing two gigs per night over a three-day stretch, Friday through Sunday, at the beloved club in Jack London Square.
Sheila E. was surrounded by music growing up as a member of the Bay Area’s legendary Escovedo family. Of course, she had her dad — the great percussionist Pete Escovedo — and her talented siblings. Beyond that, her godfather was none other than the Latin jazz icon Tito Puente and, in general, there were just so many other notable artists coming and going through her life as she enjoyed being a part of the Bay Area’s thriving music scene. She counts such diverse Bay Area acts as Jefferson Airplane, the Pointer Sisters, the Grateful Dead, and Sly & the Family Stone among her many influences.
“I used to sit on the corner outside of the local community center with Twinkies and 7-Up listening to Sly and Larry Graham rehearse,” Sheila E. is quoted as saying on the Yoshi’s website. “The sounds of the Bay Area molded me.”
Sheila E. had her greatest moment of commercial success with “The Glamorous Life,” the Prince-penned tune that reached the top 10 back in 1984. She also received much attention for her work on the Prince radio hit “Erotic City.”
Details: 8 and 10 p.m. Friday, 7:30 and 9:30 p.m. Saturday, 7 and 9 p.m. Sunday; $59-$109; yoshis.com.
— Jim Harrington, Staff
Classical picks: Beethoven’s Fifth, youth orchestras
Symphonic works, 18th-century salon music, and the Bay Area Youth Orchestra Festival: the classical music scene is off to a strong start for 2024.
Two Fives: This week’s San Francisco Symphony program brings conductor Jaap van Zweden to the podium to lead two major symphonic works: Beethoven’s iconic Fifth Symphony, and Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 5 in D minor.
Details: 7:30 p.m. today through Saturday; Davies Symphony Hall, San Francisco; $25-$250; sfsymphony.org.
“Invitation to a Salon”: Musica Pacifica’s weekend concert, presented by the San Francisco Early Music Society and featuring sublime soprano Sherezade Panthaki, features French music by Jean-Philippe Rameau and Jean-Marie Leclair, along with works by Handel, Telemann, and Vivaldi.
Details: 7:30 p.m. Friday at First Presbyterian Church, Palo Alto; 7:30 p.m. Saturday at First Congregational Church, Berkeley; 4 p.m. Sunday at St. Mark’s Lutheran Church, San Francisco; $30-$40, with a “Pay what you can” option; www.sfems.org.
Youth Movement: Sunday afternoon in Davies Symphony Hall, the Bay Area Youth Orchestra Festival welcomes young musicians from the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra, California Youth Symphony, Golden State Youth Orchestra, Oakland Symphony Youth Orchestra, and Young People’s Symphony Orchestra. Hosted by TV journalist Wendy Tokuda, this special event includes music by Leonard Bernstein and Ralph Vaughan Williams.
Details: 3 p.m.; Davies Symphony Hall, San Francisco; $25-$70, $12.50 17 and under; www.sfsymphony.org.
— Georgia Rowe, Correspondent
Bay Area icon has new music, concert
Bay Area percussionist and band leader John Santos is such a well-traveled and prolific musician it’s almost easy to overlook what a revered and respected artist he is. In a career spanning more than 50 years, he has produced countless recordings and performed hundreds and hundreds of concerts, all while establishing himself as one of the legends of Latin and Afro Latin jazz. Along the way, he’s jammed and/or recorded with such legends as Dizzy Gillespie, Tito Puente, Eddie Palmieri, Bobby Hutcherson, Chucho Valdes, Billy Cobham, Zakir Hussain, McCoy Tyner and others (and, really, we’re just scraping the surface here). And if that doesn’t sound busy enough, he’s also a noted composer, teacher, writer, radio programmer, and producer. On Saturday, he adds another chapter to his storied career, when Santos brings his acclaimed Sextet to the Freight & Salvage in Berkeley to showcase a new album, “Vieja Escuela.” The show also features a star-studded slate of guest performers, including Cuban percussionist Orestes Vilato, violinist Anthony Blea, violinist and singer Fernanda Bustamante and singer and multi-instrumentalist Jose Roberto Hernandez.
Details: 8 p.m.; $30 advance/$35 door; thefreight.org.
— Bay City News Foundation
The ‘Parrots’ are back
It’s hard to go wrong when a bunch of colorful and lovable parrots are the star of your movie.
San Francisco filmmaker Judy Irving found that out with her 2003 documentary “The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill.” The film follows Mark Bittner, an unemployed musician living in a rent-free cottage in Telegraph, and a flock of playful feral parrots living in the area that he befriends, feeds and looks after. As the film depicts, Bittner was seeking meaning in his life, and the parrots were happy to oblige.
The combination of the parrots’ antics and Bittner’s life story and relationship with the birds proved irresistible and the film — which Irving had trouble getting made given her initial lack of financial backing — was a bona fide hit, earning more than $3 million at the box office. The film remains one of the 25 highest-grossing documentaries of all time.
And it’s back. For the film’s 20th anniversary, a digitally restored version is headed to Bay Area theaters. Irving and Bittner, who fell in love during filming of the movie and have since married, will attend several screenings.
Details: Friday through Jan. 19 at the Roxie Theater in San Francisco, roxie.com; 4:30 p.m. Sunday at the Smith Rafael Film Center in San Rafael, rafaelfilm.cafilm.org; Irving and Bittner will attend screenings Friday and Saturday at the Roxie and Sunday at the Smith Rafael.
— Randy McMullen, Staff
New work at groundbreaking gallery
It was 41 years ago that Florence and Elias Katz founded Creativity Explored, a very special art gallery, in San Francisco. It was during a time when thousands of disabled Americans were being deinstitutionalized and the couple saw Creativity Explored as the center of a movement to help disabled artists further their passions and get their works shown, as well as to, as the gallery explains it, “expand defined notions of artistry.” The gallery, in tandem with Katz-founded organizations Creative Growth, and Nurturing Independence through Artistic Development (NIAD) has done just that. Today, Creativity Explored and its affiliated educational and other programs, serves as a headquarters of sorts for some 130 Bay Area disabled artists, who have gotten their works shown at fairs and in galleries and museums in 14 countries and earned some $2 million in sales in the process. The gallery this weeks opens a new exhibit by San Francisco-born painter Elana Cooper, who specializes in monochromatic depictions of floral silhouettes, delivered in bold strokes with simple backgrounds that seem both fanciful and forceful in their simplicity. The tough but tender nature of her paintings almost seem to reflect on the life of an artist who must overcome challenges to create her evocative work.
Details: “Flower Power” runs Jan. 11-March 9; 3245 16th St., San Francisco; opening reception is 5-8 p.m. Jan. 11; regular hours are 3-6 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays and noon-5 p.m. Saturdays; free but donations are appreciated; www.creativityexplored.org
Stream this overlooked East Bay gem
For every big-budget movie that gets hyped to the hilt, there are numerous smaller-scale films that, however worthy they may be, end up underseen and overlooked.
Among the creatively crafted, emotionally satisfying, intellectually stimulating films that many viewers may have missed in 2023 stands “Fremont,” in which filmmaker Babak Jalali (“Radio Dreams”) again embraces Bay Area immigrant populations with a deadpan gem centering on a young Afghan refugee.
Protagonist Donya (Anaita Wali Zada) lives in Fremont in a building filled with fellow Afghans, and works in nearby San Francisco at a fortune-cookie factory. Desperate for connection, she places a personal message inside a fortune cookie and finds herself on an unexpected journey.
With his adroit steerage, relevant themes and ability to make the mundane fascinating, Jalali has created not just one of the year’s best small films, but one of the year’s best films, period. Unique supporting characters include a solitary auto mechanic played by Jeremy Allen White.
Details: Now available to stream or rent on Amazon Prime, Vudu, Google Play, and Apple TV.
— Randy Myers, Bay City News Foundation
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