On Sunday, August 11, 2024, the Friends of the Golden Gate Library’s Jazz on Sunday summer jazz concerts series featured the Melba’s Kitchen big band performing at Doyle/Hollis Park in Emeryville. The Golden Gate Library is a branch of the Oakland Public Library located at 5606 San Pablo Avenue in Oakland.
Melba’s Kitchen is a 14-piece all women big band celebrating Black women musical geniuses Melba Liston and Mary Lou Williams, under-appreciated jazz ancestors. Liston was a top-tier trombonist who toured with Dizzy Gillespie, Quincy Jones, and Gerald Wilson, and who wrote and arranged for other musical greats including Betty Carter, Abbey Lincoln, Marvin Gaye, and Ruth Brown. Liston collaborated for decades in the Ellington/Strayhorn mode with piano titan Randy Weston.
Liston’s mentor and friend Williams was a stellar pianist who wrote and arranged a formidable library for big band and small groups, from Andy Kirk to Goodman and Duke.
Members of Melba’s Kitchen include a number of Bay Area-based musicians well-known to many San Francisco Bay Times readers: Nzingath Smith (musical director, co-leader, woodwinds); Pat Mullen (co-leader, trombone); Georgianna Krieger (alto & soprano sax); Cynthia Mah (alto sax & flute); Jeunesse Monroe-Speed (tenor sax & clarinet); Marina Garza (trumpet); Candy Sanderson (trumpet); Sue Leonardi (trumpet & flugelhorn); Meghan Ingle (trumpet); Jessica Horn (trombone); Debra Temple (piano); Susanne DiVincenzo (bass); Nancy Geimer (drums); Renaye Brown (percussion); and Deborah Tisdale (vocals).
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Published on August 22, 2024
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