Compiled by the El Reportero’s staff
Destani Wolf is an amazing artist with a unique voice, soulful style, remarkable range and versatility, and uncanny knack for getting to the heart of whatever she sings.
Berkeley born and raised, she has recently moved back from L.A. and is in rare form after expanding her field of work considerably in tinsel town to include jingles, vast studio sessions, live performances, production of music videos and a new CD!
She is a long time collaborator with John Santos, highlighted by her chilling interpretation of You Don’t Know What Love Is along with NY trumpet great Ray Vega as guests with John’s Machete Ensemble on their last recording, the double CD, 20th Anniversary in 2005.
The Bay Area based John Santos Sextet sets a high standard for Latin Jazz in all its colors through their local and national performances and several highly acclaimed CDs on John’s Machete Records label (founded in 1984). They are fresh from Fall performances at SFJAZZ, the Monterey Jazz Festival, and the San Jose Jazz Festival and will be premiering new works at this concert.
John is a multi-Grammy nominee and an Advisory Board member of the Oaktown Jazz Workshop (Oakland, CA) and the Afro-Latin Jazz Alliance (NY) as well as a recent addition to the Board of Trustees for SFJAZZ. He has been a pillar of the SF music scene for well over four decades! His colleagues in the JS Sextet are also longtime players, teachers, bandleaders and movers and shakers in the Bay Area.
In a two-set event at the magical Douglass Beach House, 307 Mirada Rd., Half Moon Bay, Calif., on Sunday, January 24th, 2016, at 4:30 p.m. For info call (650) 726-4143.
Placas: The Most Dangerous Tattoo
Starring Ric Salinas of Culture Clash
A Richmond Premiere
PLACAS: The Most Dangerous Tattoo, the celebrated play by Paul S. Flores, will make its Richmond debut on Thursday, Jan. 21, 2016. Performances take place at East Bay Center for the Performing Arts Iron Triangle Theater.
Directed by the Latino Theater Company’s Fidel Gómez, PLACAS (barrio slang for body tattoos) is a bilingual tale of fathers and sons, transformation and redemption that illuminates one man’s determination to reunite his family after surviving civil war in El Salvador, immigration, deportation, prison and street violence. PLACAS stars Ric Salinas, a founding member of the critically acclaimed performance group Culture Clash, as Fausto “Placas” Carbajal, a Salvadoran immigrant who tries to reclaim his family while letting go of his gangbanger past.
Flores interviewed more than 100 gang members, parents and intervention workers in the Bay Area, Los Angeles and El Salvador to develop material for the script.
Salinas’ role of Fausto is loosely based on the experiences of ex-gang member Alex Sánchez, founder of the Los Angeles-based violence prevention non-profit Homies Unidos.
Starring Ricardo Salinas, with Zilah Mendoza, Xavi Moreno, Sarita Ocón, Eric Aviles, Emiliano Torres, Edgar Barboza
Thursday-Sunday January 21-24, 2016, at 7:30 p.m. East Bay Center for the Performing Arts, 339 11th St, Richmond, Calif. $15 in advance; $15 at the door ($5 off discount for students and groups). For info call 510-234-5624, 415-399-9554 or visit www.placas.org.
