The latest buzz on Erik Jekabson and Wide Hive Records
Berkeleyside
Thursday, June 20, 2024
The death of Oakland jazz guitar legend Calvin Keys in April brought to mind the outsized impact Wide Hive Records continues to exert on a Bay Area music scene bereft of record labels.
Owned and run by composer, producer and multi-instrumentalist Gregory Howe, Berkeley-based Wide Hive featured Keys on several of his final recordings, from 2013’s Electric Keys to 2022’s Blue Keys, which captured the guitarist in excellent form with fellow greats like NEA Jazz Master Gary Bartz, trombonist Steve Turré and bassist Henry “The Skipper” Franklin.
Howe has poured much of his time and resources into documenting veteran masters, like the Skipper, trumpeter Eddie Henderson, and drummer Mike Clark, whose recent Wide Hive release Kosen Rufu led to a two-night, four-show summer stand at SFJAZZ’s Joe Henderson Lab Sept. 14-15.
But he’s also championed younger jazz artists, forging a particularly fruitful alliance with Berkeley trumpeter and composer Erik Jekabson, who’s served as something of a house arranger for Wide Hive sessions (including the Throttle Elevator Music series featuring tenor sax star Kamasi Washington). Jekabson’s and Howe’s latest project is their most ambitious yet, a live chamber jazz recording Friday at the Hillside Club.
“When Greg suggested it I knew I had a lot of arranging and writing to do,” said Jekabson, Berkeley High class of 1991. Like in previous Wide Hive Daggerboard collaborations, they co-wrote some of the material, with Howe relying on Jekabson to get the concepts on paper. “I transcribe what he was singing, then I come in with a draft and we hone it from there,” Jekabson said. “Most of my stuff is based on tunes I’ve already written, which I’ve expanded for chamber orchestra. It’s a ton of time.”
Jekabson has written for strings before, most memorably on his 2011 album Anti-Mass, a project supported by a grant from the San Francisco Friends of Chamber Music with the title composition commissioned by the de Young Museum and Intersection for the Arts. The album featured Grammy Award-winning violinist Mads Tolling and Classical Revolution violinist Charith Premawardhana, who’ll both also be on hand at the Hillside.
Read the full story later this week on berkeleyside.org.
Friday, June 21, 7 p.m. Hillside Club, 2286 Cedar St, Berkeley $25
— Andrew Gilbert