Thursday May 24th
7:00 - 11:00 pm
Geoffrey's Inner Circle
410 14th Street in Dynamic Downtown Oakland
Sponsored by The Bay Area Jazz Society
Bay Area Music Critic Lee Hildebrand recently suffered a stroke. Lee has spent a life time using his writing talent and media resources to make sure the best of our local talent received exposure in the local and national press helping many young dreamers start their careers. The list of Bay Area artists he has written about in local & mainstream media is extensive culminating from the middle sixties to current day where he spent the last two years writing for the Oakland Post and in that same period the San Francisco Chronicle. His former wife, the late Doris Worsham, also was the top music critic for the Oakland tribune for over twenty years up until her death in the middle nineties. Lee has also written for the Oakland Tribune and spent twenty years writing for the Bay Guardian. He was one of the founders of the East Bay Express.
Along with having had a stroke he is also dealing with a separation and divorce from his current wife of many years and is living alone far away from his true hometown of Oakland in Modesto CA. He cannot drive a car at this time because of his stroke. There is a plan in the works to try and transplant Lee back to Oakland from Modesto and hopefully our planned musical benefit will raise enough money to make this task much easier for him. He is currently trying to sell off his drums and other items he cherishes in order to stay afloat. He also cannot write at this time due to his stroke.
For this event we expect a very large musical turn out and crowd. Along with performances from BAJAZZS advisory
Board members, Calvin Keys and Professor David Hardiman, other artists slated to perform include Lenny Williams, John Handy, Suger Pie DeSanto, Johnny Talbot, Mark Hummel, Lady Bianca, Fred Ross, Pamela Rose, Denise Perrier, Fay Carol, Mitch Woods, Terry Odabi, Norman Connors, The Braxton Brothers, Rhonda Benin and Paula Harris have all come on board. Levi Seacer Jr from the New Power Generation, Prince’s former Band, will run the house Band for the R&B crowd and Calvin Keys with David Hardiman will sponsor the Jazz stage. We do expect a large turnout. The event date has been set for May 24th at Geoffry’s Inner Circle, 410 14th st off of Broadway Oakland CA, 7pm to 11pm.
The Bay Area Jazz Society has set up a Go Fund Me Page as well as seeking sponsors to contribute to defray expenses to organize this event. Contact Ed Dillard at 510-706-9005 for more details.