Jazz At The Cherry is thrilled to present world-class San Francisco Bay Area musicians Akira Tana, John Wiitala and Steve Rudolph. We’re fortunate to engage this group of journeyman jazz musicians as they gear up for a residency at Ali Reyerson’s Flute Master Class at Hidden Valley. A rich selection of tunes from the Great American Songbook and other jazz standards are sure to provide an afternoon of classic jazz at its finest.
One performance: Sunday, August 25th at 4:00pm. Doors open at 3:30pm for wine and light fare included in the $35 ticket price. Tickets are available on Eventbrite.com. (Eventbrite tickets do not have to be printed or downloaded. Doors close ten minutes after the start of each performance.)
About the Trio:
Akira Tana is a self-taught and technically accomplished drummer whose versatility is revealed by the range of musicians with whom he has worked, including: Helen Humes, Milt Jackson, Sonny Rollins, Jaki Byard, George Russell, Sonny Stitt, Al Cohn, Art Farmer, Benny Golson, Jim Hall, Jimmy Rowles, Zoot Sims, Cedar Walton, Ran Blake, Chris Connor, Carl Fontana, Jimmy Heath, Tete Montoliu, Spike Robinson, Warne Marsh, and many other leading jazz musicians. He has also produced and co-produced several albums, including those by Tana Reid, the Asian American Jazz Trio. His most recent projects are four recordings by his group, “Otonowa,” featuring jazz interpretations of Japanese folk and pop melodies that date back decades and even centuries. Tana earned a degree in East Asian Studies/Sociology from Harvard University, and also studied at the New England Conservatory of Music. He is currently on the faculty at San Francisco Conservatory of Music and can often be heard as an announcer on Bay Area jazz station, KCSM.
John Wiitala, bassist, is a Richmond, CA native and longtime veteran of the SF Bay Area jazz scene. He has accompanied many artists, including: Shorty Rogers, Charlie Rouse, Ernestine Anderson, Joe Henderson, Charles McPherson, Mary Stallings, Bob Dorough and countless others. Wiitala most treasures the associations with pianists Jessica Williams, Randy Porter, Mark Levine, and Adam Shulman, trumpeter Erik Jekabson, and vocalists Madeline Eastman and Wesla Whitfield, and his long tenure at Jazz At Pearls with Bruce Forman and Vince Lateano. John has long been involved in jazz education, including a long-running involvement with the Stanford Jazz Workshop, the California Jazz Conservatory and Ali Ryerson’s Jazz Flute Masterclass.
Steve Rudolph, born in Evansville, Indiana, studied trumpet and composition under scholarship at Butler University in Indianapolis. Switching his main instrumental focus to the piano at age 22, he was hired by Buddy Morrow in 1977 to perform on the road with the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra. Since then, he has had an inspiring career in his 50+ years of professional music making. Steve has served as producer, arranger and performer on many recordings, and his vast concert experience encompasses performances with many jazz masters, including: Louie Bellson, Clark Terry, and the Mills Brothers. At home in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, he leads many ensembles, including the Harrisburg Jazz Collective Big Band. His devotion to the art of jazz inspired him to found the Central Pennsylvania Friends of Jazz, now in its 44th year. Steve was the recipient of the 2002 Harrisburg Arts Award for dedication to the arts, and in 2023 he was inducted into the Central Pennsylvania Music Hall of Fame.
