Bundle twelve $25 shows of your choice and save $60! Only $25 shows may be bundled. Shows can not be shared, only one show per person. Couples must purchase two Bundles. No dinner shows. SJC will notify you of shows attended and number of shows remaining in your package. SJC is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. Check with you tax preparer for tax deductible deductions. Check Eventbrite or thesjc.org for shows SAVE EVEN MORE BECAUSE SJC HAS PICKED UP THE ONLINE FEES.

Shelley Denny is a freelance musician and teacher whose broad experience ranges from ballet to big band, from musical theatre to modern jazz. You’re sure to have heard him; with playing credits ranging from Stan Kenton, to Petula Clark, Les and Larry Elgart, Frank Sinatra, Nancy Wilson, Johnny Mathis, the Temptations and the Supremes. He has played over seventy different Broadway musicals with the Sacramentp Music Circus.
As an educator, he has taught music theory and ear training at California State University, Sacramento and lower brass at the Conservatory of Music, U.O.P., Stockton but on this night you will hear the music of this gentle man. Stepping out from his role as sideman, Shelley takes center stage, playing, as he calls it, his own melodious jazz. Come join us for what is sure to be a tasty evening of jazz.

In the current jazz environment, the art of jazz expression and the world of formal education are fully intertwined. Serious dedication to either path takes powerful commitment, but fully pursuing both demands a level of diligence and focus that is immensely challenging. Jeff Denson is a man who is meeting that challenge.
Fully immersed in both worlds since the late 1990s, the bassist/composer has balanced a full career as sideman and leader while taking a full course of studies leading to his doctorate. In addition to maintaining an intense performing and touring schedule in the U.S. and Europe while in school – including a long relationship with legendary saxophonist Lee Konitz that continues to this day – Jeff has also taught extensively all over both continents.
Today he is the Dean of Instruction and full professor at the California Jazz Conservatory in Berkeley, California. While this intensive level of activity is easily a full-time job, Jeff takes a relentless 24/7 approach, composing for
and leading three distinct ensembles, participating in a few cooperative groups and working on his three-act Chamber Opera, WEBS.
Please join us on December 2, 2019 when the Jeff Denson Quartet makes its debut appearance
with the Sacramento Jazz Coop’s Jazz at Dante series.
“Double bassist Jeff Denson capitalizes on his considerable gifts as an improviser, interpreter and sonic trailblazer…”
— Ken Micaleff , Downbeat Magazine
“Master of the jazz bass.”
— Lee Hilldebrand, SF Chronicle

As children return to school, and the hot days of summer give way to cooler morning temperatures, we will soon welcome autumn days. You know what that means, the Christmas holidays will soon follow. The Sacramento Jazz Coop welcomes for its third year, the Vivian Lee Quartet performing their annual Christmas Show. With Brendan Lowe on piano, Buca Necak on bass, Jeff Minnieweather on drums, and Vivian Lee on vocals. This show will have a dinner option. Please join us on December 23, 2019 at 7 PM at jazz at Dante.
DINNER OPTION:
Salad
-Beets, Arugula, Radishes, and Berries, with a light lemon vinaigrette, topped with toasted walnuts
-Filet Migon, served with herb potatoes, asparagus, roasted shallots, and a red wine reduction, or.
-Pan Seared Sea Scallops, Orange Red Onion, Avocado Salsa, Sweet Potato Puree, with a basil sauce.
Dessert
Both offered at $40 Gratuity not included..

Raised in a very musical family, Larry played baritone horn in the school band, and while still in high school played piano with a local dance band, the Dell Herreid Orchestra. At Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Oregon, he majored in composition. After graduating, he played in and wrote for various jazz groups in Portland including the Tom Albering Trio, which included vocalist Nancy King, and also played with Leroy Vinnegar and Ralph Towner. Since the 70s Dunlap has been based in San Francisco, playing with many artists including the Pointer Sisters and Country Joe McDonald. In the late 70s, Dunlap met and later married singer Bobbe Norris. Around 1980 he began a musical relationship with Cleo Laine and John Dankworth that endured into the early 00s and included recording at Carnegie Hall. Among others with whom he has performed and sometimes recorded are Ernestine Anderson, Larry Coryell, Art Farmer, James Moody, Gerry Mulligan, Rebecca Parris, and Mark Murphy.

Dunlap’s many compositions and arrangements include music for big bands and classical music ensembles. In the 70s he received an NEA grant to compose ‘Immersion: A Water Suite For Jazz Quartet And Chamber Orchestra’. His long and fruitful musical association with the Cape Verde-born composer Amandio Cabral has resulted in several albums, including Why Not Forever, Sonho Azul: Blue Dream, and Fly With My Love. Early influences on Dunlap as pianist include André Previn, Herbie Hancock, Oscar Peterson and Chick Corea. Influences upon him as arranger and composer include Gerry Mulligan, Gil Evans, Antonio Carlos Jobim and Ivan Lins, as well as many classical composers. Through the 90s and into the early 00s, Dunlap has worked as music editor with the Sher Music Company.

The Sacramento Jazz Coop is proud to present the Larry Dunlap Trio on January 12, 2020, featuring local Sacramento artist, Jamie Davis who holds a position amongst the pantheon of great male baritones.

Howard Vincent Alden, grew up in Huntington Beach playing piano, harmonica, and the four-string tenor-guitar. At age ten, after hearing recordings of Barney Kessel, Charlie Christian, and Django Reinhard, among others, he got a six-string and started teaching himself to play. As a teenager he played both instruments at venues in the Los Angeles area, and at 16 began studying with Jimmy Wade. He would later enroll at the Guitar Institute of Technology (GIT) in Hollywood with Herb Ellis, Joe Pass, and Howard Roberts.
In the summer of 1979, he made his way to the east coast, playing in a trio led by vibraphonist Red Norvo for several months in Atlantic City. Moving to New York, he performed an extended engagement at the Café Carlyle with jazz pianist/songwriter Joe Bushkin. Soon afterwards, he was discovered by Joe Williams and Woody Herman. In 1983 he was already collaborating with Dick Hyman when he appeared with him and a host of other musicians at Eubie Blake’s one-hundredth birthday concert.
Alden formed the Alden-Barrett Quintet in 1985 with Dan Barrett, which played in the swing idiom, as he has done for most of his career. He also began partnerships with Ruby Braff, Kenny Davern, and Jack Lesberg. He joined George Van Eps, innovator of the seven-string guitar, on tour and recorded albums with him, switching to the seven-string himself in 1992. Howard recorded the guitar performances for Sean Penn’s character Emmet Ray in Woody Allen’s 1999 film Sweet and Lowdown and taught Penn how to mime the performances for the film.
In recognition of what would have been Django Reinhardt’s 110th birthday (January 23, 1910), on January 27, 2020, SJC proudly welcomes Howard Alden back for his second performance with to coop, featuring “Django.” With Peter Barshay on bass, Curt Moore on drums, and special guest guitarist Steve Homan. Don’t miss it!

Because you asked, we’ve brought them back. Les Chanteurs with Carolyne Swayze, Beth Duncan and Shelley Burns. Featuring Joe Gilman on piano, Ruth Davies on bass, Akira Tana on drums, and Mike McMullen on sax and flute. This is going to be a fun filled evening for sure. A Dinner menu will follow. Wednesday performance.

Carolyne Swayze
Hailing from Chicago, she has always been more or less her own person. Growing up in the middle in the Motown era, her musical preference listening to Dinah, Sarah, Ella, and Nancy Wilson (she claims to have wanted, at an early age, to be Nancy Wilson more than anything else in life), made her somewhat of an oddity among her peers. She tells the story of auditioning at age fourteen for the Ted Mack Original Amateur Hour, the America’s Got Talent of the day. Intending on singing the Errol Garner classic, Misty, a severe case of stage fright caused only a glottal gurgle to emit from her throat. After several attempts she was thanked and sent home. There are some who might say that might have been the last time she had nothing to say. Still, following that exprience, she gave no thought of singing again for a number of years. Relocating to California in 1970, she began working in the local nightclubs on weekends to supplement her day job with the Fresno County DA. In 1975 she reloated to San Francisco. While making a thirty-year career at local, state and Federal levels of government, she has performed almost that same length of time as a pop/jazz singer, songwriter, and composer, working the Bay Area hotel and country club circuits throughout mid 1970s inti the early 1990s. In the late 1990s she relocated to Sacramento, and upon retiring from public service in 2007, she once agained turned her focus to the music. In 2016, she established the Sacramento Jazz Cooperative, a nonprofit dedicated to the preservation of classic jazz.

Beth Duncan
Beth Duncan’s love for music began at an early age as the sounfs of Stan Getz, Miles Davis, Nancy Wilson and Mel Torme floated down the hall from her older brither’s bedroom. With hewr mom always singing and her brothers association with an acapella choir, sing was just a natural part of her life, causing her to sing wherever she could in schiil music programs, community theatre productions and church.
For the next thirty years, she worked across the whole spectrum of broadcast journalism, including stints as a reporter, anchor, news director, and managing editor. It wasn’t until Spring 2002, that singing became more than a side-project in Beth’s life. She decided to plunge back into the music scene by means of a concert to celebrate her 50th birthday. Beth went all out, hiring the best musicians around and taking six months to prepare herself to perform again – and this time it would be all jazz tunes. The response from her friends, family, and co-workers was so positive that she decided to get back into music, this time producing the album Orange Color Sky (2005), a self-released collection of standards sung with passion and style. Seven years later, she followed it up with a second album Comes The Fall (2012) and it was here that the rebirth of Beth’s career as a jazz singer really began. The album debuted at #26 on CMJ’s jazz top 40 charts, just below Diana Krall, received top honors in the 12th annual Independent Music Awards, and got airplay on more than 110 stations nationally, along with stations in Canada, Kobe, Japan, Australia and The Netherlands.

Shelley Burns
Selley Burns has been perforimng professionally virtually all of her life, and is regarded as one of the premier jazz vocaists on the west coast. Her recordings have been heard on jazz radio stations across the nation, and she has appeared at many jazz festivals in the U.S. , as well as Scotland and Canada.
Shelley has entertained on cruise ships, with Bill Dendle and Eddie Erickson, and has sung with Les Paul, Bucky Pizzarelli, and shared the stage with Bob Fraga, Abe Most, Johnny Varro, and Jimmy Smith. She has conducted vocal workshops in conjunction with jass festivals in the U.S. and Canada, and through the 2000s she appearted annually in Greece, even conducting a jazz vocal camp in Athens. She is the staff vocal coach at two jazz camps in Northern California, and in 2013, received the “Great Lady of Jazz” award from the Sun Valley Jazz Festival. She is a marvelous comedic actress and has been compared to Carol Burnett and Imogene Coca. Like them, she can fracture an audience with laughter or mesmerize them with a beautiful song.

“Birth of the Cool is a compilation album by American jazz musician Miles Davis, released in 1957 on Capitol Records. It compiles eleven songs recorded by Davis’s nonet for the label over the course of three sessions during 1949 and 1950. Featuring unusual instrumentation and several notable musicians, the music consisted of innovative arrangements strongly inspired by classical music and marked a major development in post-bebop jazz. As the title implies, these recordings are considered seminal in the history of cool jazz.”

“Musically, the songs on Birth of the Cool stand as an important reaction to the prominent bebop form in contemporary jazz inspiring a whole school of jazz musicians, particularly in California in what is usually referred to as “West Coast jazz” or the “cool school.”
Byron Colborn has performed this compilation of music, previously using his quintet. Following in the style of Davis, this time Byron has arranged his nonet (9 -piece) featuring some of Sacramento’s finest musicians with: Aaron Smith on trumpet, Levi Saelua on Alto sax, Brandon Au on trombone, Byron Colborn on Bari sax, Stephen Binger Jr. on French Horn, Benwar Shepard on tuba, Sterling Cozza on piano; Benjamin Kopf on bass, and Jim Frink on drums.

There can be no greater symbiotic relationship than that between jazz and Broadway musicals. Created by the founders of the Great American Standards in or around 1920, 2020 marks the 100th year celebration as we will surely hear repeatedly in the coming year. While many of these songs were written by European composers, jazz, stemming from the blues has remained America’s original artform of musical expression, and every jazz musician shows off their arsenal of tunes played from the smallest jazz clubs to the stages of Broadway. Please join us on January 6, 2020, when SJC proudly presents the Elizabeth Unpingco Quartet, when “Jazz meets Broadway”, featuring Brenden Lowe on piano, Rick Lotter on drums, Gerry Pineda on bass, and Elizabeth Unpingo on vocals. A dinner option may be added to this performance.