The Oakland-East Bay Symphony is playing a tribute on June 1 to Bay Area resident jazz legend Dave Brubeck, who died last year at the age of 92. The benefit concert will raise money for the OEBS education programs.
Brubeck’s music spanned both jazz and classical orchestral, and this concert includes a fair number of local jazz stars, like vocalist Wesla Whitfield and pianist Mike Greensill, not to mention Chris Brubeck the composer-pianist’s son, and Frederica von Stade, who has done benefits for so many charities, it’s becoming a kind of second career. There should be an award for people like von Stade.
Among the works on the program will be Brubeck’s symphonic suite Ansel Adams’ America, performed with projections of 102 Adams photographs. Hard to argue with that entertainment proposition, not to mention that you’ll be supporting a worthy cause.