OJazz - JazzLife™ - Jazz at Hangar One




	Oakland Magazine and Hangar One Vodka Present: Ray Obiedo & Pete Escovedo for an amazing performance. Ticket includes cocktail hour with signature spirits, hor d'oeuvres, & chocolates by Alice Medrich.



			Ray Obiedo
			Ray Obiedo is a San Francisco contemporary jazz composer and guitarist. Ray had an eclectic musical background during his youth, spent in the Bay Area of San Francisco. Here the sounds of Miles Davis, Henry Mancini, Antonio Carlos Jobim and the imported soul and pop of Motown Records influenced his early musical persona. Probably the greatest influence on his embryonic career, however, was the James Brown revue, whose funky, percussive guitar sound was the platform on which Obiedo built his technique. In the early 80s his reputation grew as one of California's finest exponents of jazz, pop and fusion. He joined organist Johnny "Hammond" Smith on tour, then ECM Records trombonist Julian Priester. His own fusion band, Kick, included Sheila E. on drums and Sonny Rollins associate Mark Soskin on keyboards. His other outlet during this time was the pop-rock vehicle Rhythmus 21, wherein he worked with other prominent session musicians from the Bay Area. His own session/touring experience is considerable, having partnered artists including Herbie Hancock, George Duke, Lou Rawls, Rodney Franklin and Marc Russo.

			Pete Escovedo
			Pete Escovedo has been at the forefront of Latin jazz for three decades. Born in Pittsburg, California in 1935, he was raised in a musical family in Oakland. His first professional engagement was as the opening act for the Count Basie Orchestra at the Downbeat Club in San Francisco. He began playing saxophone in high school and soon switched to vibes. When his friend Ed Kelly, a legendary pianist of the Bay Area scene, needed a Latin percussionist for his group, Escovedo jumped at the opportunity. He started listening to Cuban and Latin jazz recordings, and when such artists as Tito Puente, Mongo Santamaria, Armando Peraza, and Potato Valdez came to town, he studied their playing. Since then, Pete Escovedo has performed and recorded with artists such as Herbie Hancock, Mongo Santamaria, Carl Tjader, Tito Puente, Woody Herman, Billy Cobham, Anita Baker, Angela Bofli, Barry White, Stephen Stills, Bobby McFerrin, George Duke, Carlos Santana, Chris Isaak, and Bozz Scags.

			Alice Medrich
			Alice Medrich is one of the country’s foremost experts on chocolate and chocolate dessert making. Her 5th book, Bittersweet: Recipes and Tales from A Life in Chocolate (Artisan, 2003) was the 2004 IACP Cookbook of the Year. Alice is also a two-time winner of the coveted James Beard "Cookbook of the Year" Award for Chocolate and The Art of Low-Fat Desserts (1994) and for Cocolat: Extraordinary Chocolate Desserts (1990) which also won the Julia Child Award for the Best Cookbook by a new author. Alice is credited with raising the standard for chocolate desserts after the l976 opening of Cocolat, her former dessert company in Berkeley, California, about which Gourmet Magazine said, “Cocolat is to chocolate what Tiffany’s is to diamonds. Following the sale of Cocolat over a decade ago, Alice has continued to influence chefs, chocolate makers, and home cooks, with her writing, teaching and consulting. She contributes to Bon Appetite, Food and Wine, Fine Cooking and other magazines. Alice appeared in the Television Food Network in the "Chef de Jour" and "Baker's Dozen" series and was a featured chef on Julia Child’s PBS series, “Baking with Julia” and with Joan Nathan in “Jewish Cooking in America”. Alice was a major contributor to the New Joy of Cooking (Scribner; 1997). She consults in the baking and chocolate industry and teaches extensively in the San Francisco Bay Area and in cooking schools across the country. Alice lives in Berkeley, California