Advance tickets available from the Ashkenaz front desk on show nights or online from Ticketweb or call 1-866-666-8932.

Show line: (510) 525-5054

Ashkenaz Music & Dance Community Center
1317 San Pablo @ Gilman in Berkeley

Ample parking across the street in the REI parking lot. Wheelchair accessible. All ages all the time.

Ashkenaz Music & Dance Community Center is a non-profit, tax-exempt community organization supported by patrons, donors, staff, musicians and volunteers.

Colored type color denotes events with touring artists.

Monday, December 1
VISTA COLLEGE CLASS
'Jazz, Blues and Popular Music in American Culture' with Instructor / R&B Legend Johnny Otis.
Registration and Info @ 510 981-2800 http://www.peralta.cc.ca.us/
6:30 p.m. - Front Studio

Tuesday, December 2
EDESSA & BRASS MENAGERIE
Doors at 7:00 p.m.; Balkan dance lesson with Joe Kaloyanides Graziosi at 7:30 p.m.; show at 8:30 p.m.
$10
Together more than a decade, Edessa performs folk dance music of Macedonia, Bulgaria, Albania and Greece, some of it from the band's debut CD, "Edessa & Friends." Edessa (named after a town in northern Greece) calls its style "Balkan without borders...music from an area that has been a cultural crossroads for centuries." It is the music that inspired the late David Nadel when he created Ashkenaz. The ensemble features Dan Auvil (tupan, doumbek, defi), George Chittenden (clarinet, saxophone, guitar), Ari Langer (violin) and Lise Liepman (accordion, santouri, kanun, tambourine).

In the realm of Balkan music, Brass Menagerie is the Bay Area's leading Balkan brass band, purveying horns-out-front, high-energy, sometimes stretchy, usually danceable music of Serbia, Greece, and Macedonia. The nine musicians have been together two years, although most have played in other Balkan bands far longer. Their experience brings a mature and authentic sound to Brass Menagerie.

Wednesday, December 3
COMMUNITY DRUMMING CIRCLE
7:00-9:00 p.m.
$5-$7
Join fellow drummers for an experience of community, spirit, friendship, fellowship and rhythmic excitement. Come with congas, bongos, dumbeks, djembes and ashikos. Open to all ages and drumming experience. Shakers, rattles, and tambourines also welcome. Dancers encouraged to join in. Special appearances by guest drummers. For more information, contact sacredcircle7@yahoo.com.

Thursday, December 4
DANIEL MILLE
Doors at 8:00 p.m., show at 8:30 p.m.
$11
French accordionist Daniel Mille fills the stage with captivating music from his four CDs. Mille has made a point of crafting music that may borrow on tradition, but is all his. Mille works sometimes solo, and often in a trio setting, with his original compositions evoking pop and folk, swing jazz, tango, Brazilian, film music, at times very danceable, and at others dreamlike. At Ashkenaz, he will perform in a trio with Jean-Christophe Maillard on acoustic guitar and piano, and Pascal Rey on percussion and drums.

Born in 1958, Mille grew up in Grenoble, son of a drummer father and dancer mother, and picked up the accordion the first time at the age of 11. Two years later he put it away and moved on, until years later he attended a concert featuring French accordionist Richard Galliano (who has worked with everyone from Arab oud master Anwar Brahem to the jazz greats of New York City), and was inspired to again pick up the accordion and find new sounds in it. Galliano and Mille became friends, and Galliano asked Mille to perform on a concert with him in Paris in 1985. Later came calls from other musicians and singers to work with "the little guy with the accordion" they'd heard that night. Mille puts as much emphasis on his composing as he does on playing, and the tightly arranged instrumentals (Mille sites the works of both Astor Piazzolla and Toninho Horta as major influences) have gained attention through radio airplay.

His fourth CD, "Entre Chien et Loup," features Mille in a quartet, with occasional added strings, clarinet, saxophone and piano.
http://daniel-mille.artistes.universalmusic.fr/

Friday, Decmeber 5
MOODSWING ORCHESTRA
Doors at 7:30 p.m.; swing dance lesson with Nick & Shanna at 8:00 p.m.; show at 9:30 p.m.
$13
One doesn't need a tux and gown to dance to the MoodSwing Orchestra, but the music presented under the leadership of saxophonist Michael Young is in the elegant ballroom style of big band East Coast Swing and Lindy Hop.

MoodSwing has performed regularly at venues from the Claremont Resort to Bimbo's. The little big band was launched in 1995, and was chosen as one of the best local swing bands in the March 1999 issue of "San Francisco" magazine. Trumpeter Peter Anastos provides many of the arrangements of classic big band dance hits of the 1930s and '40s by Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Xavier Cugat, Benny Goodman, Glenn Miller and Artie Shaw. www.moodswingorchestra.com

Saturday, December 6
Ashkenaz & Baba Ken Okulolo present
THE 4TH ANNUAL MUSICAL NIGHT IN AFRICA
Doors at 7:30 p.m., show at 8:00 p.m.
$16 Advance/$18 Door
With three bands representing different styles of West African music and another from East Africa, plus a village drum circle (please bring your drum) led by Ghanaian master drummer Pope Flyne that allows all to participate in the magic of music, this fast-developing Ashkenaz tradition returns for a fourth year. DJ OMAR of Senegal provides recorded musical interludes between the live music. KOTOJA closes the night with its own brand of Afrobeat dance music, preceded by WEST AFRICAN HIGHLIFE BAND and the folk-roots NIGERIAN BROTHERS. Added this year is Tanzania's NEW LIFE BAND.

"Again this year we salute the memory of David Nadel, the founder of Ashkenaz," Baba Ken Okolulu says, "and offer our thanks to those who have worked so hard to keep his vision alive: a place where all people can come and dance together in peace and harmony."

NEW LIFE BAND is a seven-piece ensemble making their third tour of the U.S., sharing its members' cultural heritage through African traditional and contemporary gospel music, playing both indigenous and modern instruments. The group's songs are filled with memorable African dance rhythms that get the whole body moving, blended with a spiritual message.

The Bay Area's leader in the World Beat and Afro-beat scene, KOTOJA is led by Nigerian singer-bassist Ken Okulolo and features bandmembers from West Africa and America playing a bubbling brew of African highlife, juju, jazz and world dance rhythms. A Kotoja concert a decade back inspired New York clothing mogul Dan Storper to create a record company to capture and spread the positive, uplifting message of their music. The result was the wildly successful Putumayo world music record company, with its myriad upbeat world compilations, as well as Kotoja's latest CD.
www.kotoja.com

An offshoot of Kotoja, the WEST AFRICAN HIGHLIFE BAND was created by Ken Okulolo from a request by late director of Ashkenaz David Nadel for a band to concentrate on the Ghana and West African highlife dance music.

When those musicians unplug and play and sing traditional folk music of their homelands, they become THE NIGERIAN BROTHERS. Okulolo and friends are spiritual, not blood brothers, nor do they all come from Nigeria, but they all share the experience of growing up hearing the songs they sing together. The Brothers perform songs that are quickly vanishing from Africa itself. Their debut CD has garnered rave reviews.

"This night is very special to me," says Okulolo, " because it represents our musical history, from when we were kids in the village, right up through today. The music brings a message of love from the African soil which gave birth to us all."

Sunday, December 7
GAYLE SCHMITT & THE TOODALA RAMBLERS
3:00-4:30 p.m.
$4 kids/$6 adults
Children under 1 free
Kentucky girl Gayle Schmidt and the Toodala Ramblers perform bluegrass and old time music for kids. Complete with banjo, fiddle, mandolin, dobro, hot pickin' and some pretty harmonies, this afternoon will be a toe-tapping, wonderful experience for the whole family. www.gaylesongs.com

Evening:
FLAMENCO OPEN STAGE
Doors at 7:00 p.m.; show at 7:30 p.m.
$9
This regular feature at Ashkenaz presents flamenco "in an intimate, cabaret setting, as it should be seen," with a costume exhibit and sale of flamenco items. Yaelisa with Caminos Flamencos are the featured dancers with Jason McGuire, guitarist.

Monday, December 8
VISTA COLLEGE CLASS
'Jazz, Blues and Popular Music in American Culture' with Instructor / R&B Legend Johnny Otis.
Registration and Info @ 510 981-2800 http://www.peralta.cc.ca.us/
6:30 p.m. - Front Studio

Tuesday, December 9
COURTABLEU
Doors at 7:30 p.m.; Cajun dance lesson with Patti Whitehurst at 8 p.m.; show at 8:30 p.m.
$9
Named after a legendary bayou in southwest Louisiana, Courtableu comprises veterans of the Bay Area Cajun/zydeco scene who perform classic Cajun dance-hall music in the style of Aldus Roger and Walter Mouton, with electric steel guitar and drums added to the traditional fiddle and accordion. Fiddler Richard Chon (Cocodrie, Sons of the San Joaquin, Saddle Cats) joins Creole Belles accordionist-singer Maureen Karpan, multi-instrumentalist Billy Wilson on steel guitar, bassist Elaine Herrick and drummer Dave "Killer" Hymowitz.

Wednesday, December 10
NC BLUES CONNECTION
Doors 7:30 p.m., West Coast swing lesson with Nick & Shanna at 8:00 p.m., show at 9:00
$9
It's an East Coast meets West Coast approach to swing and R&B, as this five-piece band hits well-known and rare gems of those styles for the dance crowd. Led by Doctor B (Bernard Anderson) on saxophone (tenor and baritone) and lead vocals, the group includes drummer Brian Berson (of Blues Alley and Red Archibald). Songs come from Louis Jordan, Motown, slower West Coast swing, James Brown, Chicago and Memphis. Dr. B has issued a solo CD, "Yes, There Is a Doctor in the House," and has been featured on recordings by such artists as Taj Mahal and Queen Ida, as well as performing with dozens of musicians including Charles Brown, John Handy, Joe Henderson and Mary Wells.

Thursday, December 11
SHABAZ
Doors at 8:30 p.m., show at 9:00 p.m.
$9
While Shabaz (formerly the Ali Khan Band), changed its name when it issued its third album last year, this Bay Area-based band has not changed its style: a blend of Indian, Pakistani Qawwali, and other strains from the East and West, along with trance and dance beats and grooves. The name change is purely for clarification, because record stores already feature a number of Ali Khans, from Ali Akbar Khan to Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. The self-titled "Shabaz" CD is issued by former Police manager Miles Copeland's Mondo Melodia label. The group features the hypnotically entrance singing of Riffat Salamat, her brother Sukhawat Ali Khan, and Riffat's husband Richard Michos. Riffat and Sukhawat's father, Salamat Ali Khan, was a master of the classical Indian style Sham Chorasi, a tradition handed down in the family and performed by him in the Ali Brothers in the '60s and '70s. The children took that tradition and others, and added world elements, finding an audience as they performed in clubs and at the Fillmore Auditorium, issuing two CDs on the City of Tribes label. The current recording is world dance music, with one track produced by hit-maker Narada Michael Walden (Santana, Whitney Houston, Aretha Franklin among others).

Friday, December 12
STEPHEN KENT & TRANCE MISSION
Doors at 9:00 p.m.; show at 9:30 p.m.
$13
$13
The original format was unique, combining the virtuosic didjerido playing of Stephen Kent with Beth Custer's clarinet, over a fast-shifting array of world rhythms provided by the rest of the band, creating a new trance-dance style. Over the years and a series of acclaimed albums, the personnel shifted including Custer going off to a series of other bands, and the band became an occasional experience. Its concerts even here on home turf are still rare - this is Trance Mission's first East Bay concert since it played Ashkenaz in December, 2001, and the lineup changed, but the original style and direction remain intact. Kent, who was originally half of England's Lights in a Fat City that settled here after touring the world, still plays a mesmerizing didjerido, one that he has used on his weekly KPFA-FM radio show (Thursdays at 10:00 a.m.) in duets with musical masters from around the world. A singer who occasionally joined the group in its early years, Eda Maxym, became a full time member (and Kent's wife), and is currently at work on a solo album. Kent has recently issued a two-CD solo album of his own, putting the didjerido (that Australian Aboriginal wind instrument created by allowing termites to hollow out a tree branch, then blowing in one end of it) into an array of musical settings. The band is now a quartet with Kent on didjeridu, cello-sintir and percussion; vocalist Eda Maxym, drums and electronics master Peter Valsamis, and Kit Walker on keyboards and computer programming. http://www.didjeridu.com/skent/skMusic.html

Sunday, December 14
CAFE BELLIE: BELLY DANCE SHOWCASE
6:30 p.m. Belly Dance class (open to all); show at 7:30 p.m.
$9
Resident Ashkenaz instructor Luna presents this quarterly program featuring dozens of bellydancers from an array of Bay Area companies and schools, combined with a bellydance boutique for shopping. Have you ever wanted to try bellydancing? This is your chance! The shopping begins at 6:30 p.m., and the show begins at 7:30 p.m. This event is a benefit for The Women's Refuge of Berkeley. www.cafebellie.com

Monday, December 15
VISTA COLLEGE CLASS
'Jazz, Blues and Popular Music in American Culture' with Instructor / R&B Legend Johnny Otis.
Registration and Info @ 510 981-2800 http://www.peralta.cc.ca.us/
6:30 p.m. - Front Studio

ASHKENAZ BOARD MEETING
The public is welcome
7:30 p.m. - 9:30 p.m. - Back Studio
From 7:30 - 7:45, the public is welcome to make open comment

Tuesday, December 16
CREOLE BELLES
Doors at 7:30 p.m.; Cajun dance lesson with Diana Castillo at 8:00 p.m.; show at 8:30 p.m.
$9
The locally-based Creole Belles sing and play rollicking Louisiana Cajun-Creole dance music usually heard in more remotely located dance halls of the bayous and plains of Louisiana. While the Belles can play for more general audiences, for this concert it's traditional Cajun with triangle instead of drum kit for percussion. Fiddler-singer Delilah Lee Lewis has been playing Cajun music for the past twenty years including time spent with the masters in Louisiana, and shares singing with accordionist Maureen Karpan, also a veteran of time in Louisiana. They are joined by guitarist Karen Leigh and bassist Karen Celia Heil, both long-time veterans of folk, swing, old timey and bluegrass bands.

Wednesday, December 17
HOT CLUB SANDWICH
Doors at 7:30 p.m.; Swing lesson with TBA at 8:00 p.m.; show at 8:30 p.m.
$10
Hot Club Sandwich may hail from western Washington state, but it could easily have been transported by a time machine from Paris in the '30s. The sextet plays string swing jazz in the grand tradition created by guitarist Django Reinhardt, violinist Stephane Grappelli and their Quintette of the Hot Club of France that revolutionized jazz between the World Wars. With two CDs of original and classic string swing tunes, Hot Club Sandwich mixes string swing with
Parisian musette, Brazilian choros, big band standards, gypsy and even Mexican folk songs. The band features guitarist and banjo player Vince Brown, guitarists Kevin Connor and Greg Ruby, bassist James Schneider, mandolinist Matt Sircely and violinist Tim Wetmiller. www.hotclubsandwich.com

Thursday, December 18
GRATEFUL DEAD DJ NIGHT WITH DIGITAL DAVE
10:00 p.m. - 2:00 a.m.
$6
Spin with Digital Dave's Grateful Dead tunes.

Dread (Michael Campbell) today has reissued some of his best works on his own Dread at the Controls label, as well as newer albums, and is back on the road, as he puts it, "taking reggae music door to door and giving praises to Jah." From an early age Dread was collecting records in Jamaica, leading to his role as both DJ and engineer with JBC (Jamaica Broadcasting Corporation) radio. In the mid-'70s his "Dread at the Controls" show served as the blueprint for nearly every reggae radio show around the world. In addition to his own recordings, Dread produced major recordings for some of Jamaica's top reggae artists, including Sugar Minott, Junior Murvin, Earl Sixteen and Rod Taylor."

England's young punk band the Clash was so impressed that the group hired him to produce some of their recordings - their hit single "Bank Robber" and other songs on the albums "Black Market Clash" and "Sandinista." The Clash also took him on tour with them, emphasizing the shared causes they saw between reggae and Rastafarianism, and the political struggles of the punk movement in England. In the '80s and '90s Dread participated in English television reggae documentaries, popped up on MTV with Caribbean specials, and even collaborated with Guns n' Roses guitarist Izzy Stradlin on a duet, "Can't Hear 'Em." Along the way he earned a B.A. in international communications (he graduated magna cum laude from Florida's Lynn University). He has continued with his own music, as well as serving on many radio and television projects here and in England, mostly covering Caribbean and reggae music. www.mikeydread.com

Monday, December 22
NO EVENING PERFORMANCE

Tuesday, December 23
NO EVENING PERFORMANCE

Wednesday, December 24
NO EVENING PERFORMANCE

Thursday, December 25
A JERRY CHRISTMAS! GRATEFUL DEAD DJ NIGHT
WITH DIGITAL DAVE
10:00 p.m. - 2:00 a.m.
$6
Spin with Digital Dave's Grateful Dead tunes.

Friday, December 26
CARIBBEAN ALLSTARS & PAN EXTASY
Doors at 9:00 p.m.; show at 9:30 p.m.
$13
Caribbean Allstars are pioneers in the Bay Area reggae scene and long-time favorites at Ashkenaz. They not only play Jamaican reggae with a traditional electric bass-drums-guitars-keyboards lineup, but add steel drums to bring in South Caribbean calypso and soca styles of Trinidad and Tobago.

Formed and led by Trinidad steel drummer Ashton Craig when he moved to the United States, Pan Extasy plays its own blend of music from around the Caribbean. The quintet mixes soca, reggae, calypso and Caribbean jazz for dance audiences. Pan Extasy's infectious music has been heard at San Francisco 49ers games and the 1994 World Cup. The band has shared the stage with Stevie Wonder and Lucky Dube, and toured Southeast Asia. www.panextasy.com

Saturday, December 27
SURCO NUEVO
Doors at 8:30 p.m.; show at 9:00 p.m.
$13
The Bay Area-based salsa dance band Surco Nuevo (which translates as New Furrow or New Planting) was formed in 1993 by childhood friends Scott Brown (on cuatro) and Demian Contreras (on timbal). They share a love for pianoless salsa orquesta music (cuatro and montuno guitar section, with percussion, and singers). The current band also features father and son singers Israel and Cris Matos, and bassist Andy Woodhouse. The band's inspirations range from '70s tipica New York salsa, to Puerto Rican jibaro and Cuban son, mixing classics of those styles with band originals, some featured on the band's debut CD, "Surco Nuevo." Along with original compositions such as "Toca Adentro" and "La Salsa Verdadera," the band plays "Calle Luna Calle Sol" by Willie Colon and "El Cuatro de Tula," and such dance favorites as "Achilipu" by El Gran Combo. A second CD is in production for release in 2004.

Sunday, December 28
FIREPROOF & THE PEOPLE
Doors at 9:00 p.m.; show at 9:30 p.m.
$13
A band born out of Berkeley and Maybeck High School students who loved reggae, Fireproof plays far too infrequently on its home turf since three members moved to New York to attend college. In fact, for the past few years it has played only during the holiday break when members are home visiting families. The band plays an all-instrumental mix of classic Jamaican reggae with more modern dancehall/hiphop/reggae dance rhythms, topped off by sizzling jazz improvisations. The band provides a unique blend whose influences range from Skatalites and Wailers to Art Blakey and John Coltrane, along with "Bitches Brew"-era electric Miles Davis. For these good friends, jamming on their reggae-jazz blend has become an effortless pleasure. Fireproof includes music from its two CDs, the instrumental and mostly original "The Berkeley Sessions," and the more recent "Sister Nancy Meets Fireproof" featuring Jamaican singer Sister Nancy. Along with three horn players (saxophonists Isaac Narell and Cale Brandley, and trumpeter Mush One), Fireproof is bassist Tom Mayor, drummer Anders Nelson, pianist Colin Hogan, and guitarist Mark Allen-Piccolo.

The People has grown into a septet with horns that plays a style drawn from blending reggae, Latin, hip-hop and funk. Since starting two years ago, the band played at least 200 shows in Bay Area and Los Angeles clubs and concert halls, along the way opening for such acts as Coolio, Pato Banton, and George Clinton & P-Funk. The People feature singer-percussionist Diana George, singer-guitarist and keyboard player Rafael Arria Bustemante, bassist Lazaro, drummer Adam Lipsky, guitarist Paul Sutherland, and the horn section of trombonist Miguel Reyes and Mario Silva. They are finishing a DVD of audience favorites performed at Oakland shows.

Monday, December 29
CLOSED

Tuesday, December 30
SAUCE PIQUANTE
Doors at 7:30 p.m.; Cajun dance lesson with Cheryl McBride at 8:00 p.m.; show at 8:30 p.m.
$9
Cajun band Sauce Piquante plays Louisiana French dance music--waltzes, two-steps and an occasional shuffle--all of it drawn from the traditional repertoire and all of it sung in French. Inspired by the late accordionist Danny Poullard, Sauce Piquante is accordionist-singer Blair Kilpatrick (who started the band three years ago, the name suggested by Poullard), fiddler Steve Tabak, guitarist-singer Robert Richard, bassist-singer Kathy "KP" Price, with percussion duties shared by Kathy Dodge and Lisa Leal. The band recently released its debut CD, "Sauce Piquante Live...Vieux Temps Passé." www.saucepiquanteband.com

Together more than a decade, Edessa performs folk dance music of Macedonia, Bulgaria, Albania and Greece, some of it from the band's debut CD, "Edessa & Friends." Edessa (named after a town in northern Greece) calls its style "Balkan without borders...music from an area that has been a cultural crossroads for centuries." It is the music that inspired the late David Nadel when he created Ashkenaz. For this show, the band's Lise Liepman says, "We have new
old songs and old new songs, as well as rockin' Balkan border music." This is a family event (thus the early start time) with children encouraged to attend. The band features Dan Auvil (tupan, doumbek, defi), George Chittenden (clarinet, saxophone, guitar), Ari Langer (electric violin), Lise Liepman (accordion, santouri, kanun, tambourine), and a bassist.

One of the Bay Area's best-known Balkan bands, for eleven years Anoush has played music of the South Balkans including Greece, Macedonia and Armenia, sung in such regional languages as Romany, Bulgarian, Albanian, Armenian, Aruman, Greek, Ladino and Macedonian.

New band Zabava! Izvorno plays Macedonian party music and features many local musicians who have devoted their lives to this music. Zabava! means Party! Izvorno means a traditional band from Macedonia. They play traditional folk music on regional instruments.