Page 5 - Foolish Things News Today

Yoshi Kato February 11, 2021Updated: February 15, 2021, 8:20 am Piedmont Piano Co. in Oakland hosts a twice-weekly concert program that launched in the midst of the pandemic. Photo: Piedmont Piano Co. On the first Thursday of January, viewers from as far away as Brazil, Norway and the Netherlands streamed a live jazz concert from Uptown Oakland. Swedish vocalist/multi-instrumentalist Gunhild Carling, a current South Bay resident, was leading her sextet on the Piedmont Piano Co. ban...

Anna Yatskevich / Courtesy of Newvelle Records Public acknowledgment took its time finding Billy Lester. A pianist devoted to searching for a new form of modern jazz, he spent more than half a century on the outskirts of New York City, quietly honing his craft. "I just figured Id go to my grave without any kind of recognition," he says plainly, "and I was at the point in my life where I totally accepted that." The situation changed only a few years ago when Lester was in his early 70s. A ...