A singer making a Bay Area homecoming and a Brazil-by-the-way-of-San Diego pianist are bringing their talents to Bay Area jazz fans. Here’s a look.
Maggie Belle Gehegan started singing when she lived in San Francisco, but it wasn’t until she moved to New Orleans in 2012 to pursue her nursing career that she found her musical mojo. She’s gradually built a smart band and an ebulliently personal sound that combines the foundational Crescent City sounds of jazz, funk and R&B.
Touring with a stripped-down combo sans horns, the Maggie Belle Band makes its Bay Area debut with her rollicking rhythm section featuring keyboardist Brian Scheller, bassist Max Hass and drummer Cedar Howard. The group also performs Monday at Mill Valley’s Sweetwater Music Hall, opening for Brooklyn’s irresistibly grooving bhangra-meets-brass-band Red Baraat.
Details: 7:30 p.m. June 21, Savanna Jazz, San Carlos, $15, 415-624-4549, www.savannajazz.com; 6 p.m. June 22, Poor House Bistro, San Jose, no cover, 408-292-5837, www.poorhousebistro.com; 8 p.m. June 23, Impulse Room, Walnut Creek, $15; 925-476-5040, www.impulseroom.com.
Meanwhile, pianist and composer Danny Green is proving he has the moxie and perseverance to launch a national jazz career from San Diego. It doesn’t hurt that he also has an exquisite lyricism and a rhythmic sensibility informed by a deep love of Brazilian music.
He returns to the Bay Area following the recent release of his fifth album “One Day It Will” (OA2 Records), an ambitious project that pairs his longtime trio featuring bassist Justin Grinnell and drummer Julien Cantelm with a string quartet. Sumptuously melodic but never syrupy, his arrangements continuously find effective spaces for the strings, though violinist Alisa Rose, violist Keith Lawrence and cellist Shain Carrasco only join Green’s trio at Portola Vineyards.
Details: 7:30 p.m. June 22, Red Poppy Art House, San Francisco, $15-$20, 650-731-5383, redpoppyarthouse.org; 8 p.m. June 23, The Sound Room, Oakland, $15-$20, 510-496-4180, soundroom.org; 6 p.m. June 24, Portola Vineyards, Los Altos Hills; $12-$24, 650-332-4959, http://portolavineyards.com/summer-jazz.html.
