WAKEFIELD JAZZ SEXTET
HISTORY
The band takes its name from historic Wakefield Avenue, known to at least two of its residents as the "Beale Street" of Oakland. Though only one block long, Wakefield Avenue is home to at least five bands and two recording studios. Wakefield Avenue has been a musical center for many years. In fact, archeologists, called in to excavate below the foundations of Wakefield homes, have found Paleolithic picks, reeds and drum heads used by the original residents of the area to play at harvest and fishing celebrations, which, sociologists say, evolved into what are today called "gigs."
Richard has played guitar and piano off and on for most of his life, moving from classical music (piano) to popular music and jazz (guitar) and back again several times. He is now firmly planted in the jazz guitar camp, enjoying the improvisational and rhythmic aspects of jazz, as well as the ability to carry his instrument.
I was raised in a musical family that saw music as something that brings joy to both the performer and the audience. I recall as a kid watching Lionel Hampton on TV one night with my family. That joy I saw and rhythm I heard stayed with me through years of intermittent music lessons and performing, and still influences what I play now.
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Dan started picking out tunes on the piano when he was 6. As a teen he abandoned classical piano for a "rock band with horns" playing his Farfisa organ. And while he once ignored his dad's vast collection of 78s., he learned later in life that there really was something to all that jazz. "I never could play what was on the page," say Dan "so Jazz suits me!"
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Photography by Christine Lyons