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Bay Area African American Women in Music: Denise Perrier Circles the Globe Singing Jazz and Blues

Published

10 years ago

August 18, 2015

Although singer Denise Perrier was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, her music education didn’t really begin until she relocated to Oakland with her mother and older sister in 1945.

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They lived above a juke joint at the corner of 15^th and Cypress in West Oakland and had a jukebox in the living room, on which Perrier first heard singers Billie Holiday and Lil Green.

Today, Perrier performs an arrangement of Lil Green’s 1941 blues hit, “Why Don’t You Do Right?” when she appears with the Junius Courtney Big Band. She has been performing with the band for the past 15 years, and also does gigs with bassist Marcus Shelby’s big band and combos, as well as with her own group.

Her family, which would come to include Perrier’s younger brother and future Herbie Hancock bassist Paul Jackson, moved to Albany when she was 9.

While at Albany High School, her history teacher Phil Elwood, and later a music critic at the San Francisco Examiner, used records as part of his instruction. Those of Bessie Smith especially impressed Perrier.

In 1986, Perrier starred in a play about Smith at the Lorraine Hansberry Theater in San Francisco. Last month, she again portrayed Smith in a cabaret show titled “Bessie, Dinah and Me” at Feinstein’s, also in San Francisco.

Perrier’s career in show business began as a teenage dancer in troupes led by choreographers Zack Thompson and Ruth Beckford before joining the Intervals – a vocal group modeled on the Platters that performed at military bases in the Bay Area and at Esther’s Orbit Room and Slim Jenkins in Oakland.

Louis Armstrong heard them at a NAACP event in San Francisco and was so impressed he brought the Intervals to Las Vegas for a six-week run.

Perrier launched her solo singing career in Australia in 1965 and spent the next seven years performing there, in Hong Kong and Vietnam. She lived in New York City for five years before settling in San Francisco, where she became a favorite on the then-thriving cabaret circuit.

Perrier continues to travel, however. Last year, she did a Dinah Washington show at Dizzy’s Club Coca Cola in New York City and has been to Russia 28 times since 1997.

“Once I started that, it just mushroomed,” she said of her Russian tours. “Before I’d get home, sometimes I’d have another two or three invitations.”

Perrier will perform next on Sunday, Aug. 30 at 3 p.m., backed by pianist Tammy Hall’s quartet, at the Golden Gate Branch Library, 5606 San Pablo Ave. in Oakland. The free show will celebrate the 90^th birthday of Josephine King, who has booked Sunday afternoon jazz concerts at the library for the past 25 years.

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Oakland Housing and Community Development Department Awards $80.5 Million to Affordable Housing Developments

Published

6 months ago

June 17, 2025

Oakland Post

Special to The Post

The City of Oakland’s Housing and Community Development Department (Oakland HCD) announced its awardees for the 2024-2025 New Construction of Multifamily Affordable Housing Notice of Funding Availability (New Construction NOFA) today Five permanently affordable housing developments received awards out of 24 applications received by the Department, with award amounts ranging from $7 million to $28 million.

In a statement released on Jan. 16, Oakland’s HCD stated, “Five New Construction Multifamily Affordable Housing Development projects awarded a total of $80.5 million to develop 583 affordable rental homes throughout Oakland. Awardees will leverage the City’s investments to apply for funding from the state and private entities.”

In December, the office of Rebecca Kaplan, interim District 2 City Councilmember, worked with HCD to allocate an additional $10 Million from Measure U to the funding pool. The legislation also readopted various capital improvement projects including street paving and upgrades to public facilities.

The following Oakland affordable housing developments have been awarded in the current round:

Mandela Station Affordable

238 Affordable Units including 60 dedicated for Homeless/Special Needs
Award: $15 million + previously awarded $18 million
Developer: Mandela Station LP (Pacific West Communities, Inc. and Strategic Urban Development Alliance, LLC)
City Council District: 3
Address: 1451 7th St.

Liberation Park Residences

118 Affordable Units including 30 dedicated for Homeless/Special Needs
Award: $28 million
Developer: Eden Housing and Black Cultural Zone
City Council District: 6
Address: 7101 Foothill Blvd.

34th & San Pablo

59 Affordable Units including 30 dedicated for Homeless/Special Needs
Award: $7 million
Developer: 34SP Development LP (EBALDC)
City Council District: 3
Address: 3419-3431 San Pablo Ave.

The Eliza

96 Affordable Units including 20 dedicated for Homeless/Special Needs
Award: $20 million
Developer: Mercy Housing California
City Council District: 3
Address: 2125 Telegraph Ave.

3135 San Pablo

72 Affordable Units including 36 dedicated for Homeless/Special Needs
Award: $10.5 million
Developer: SAHA and St. Mary’s Center
City Council District: 3
Address: 3515 San Pablo Ave.

The source of this story is the media reltations office of District 2 City Councilmember Rebecca Kaplan.

Oakland Post

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Activism

Oakland Housing and Community Development Department Awards $80.5 Million to Affordable Housing Developments

Published

11 months ago

January 30, 2025

Oakland Post

Rebecca Kaplan, interim District 2 city councilmember. File photo.

Special to The Post

The following Oakland affordable housing developments have been awarded in the current round:

Mandela Station Affordable

238 Affordable Units including 60 dedicated for Homeless/Special Needs
Award: $15 million + previously awarded $18 million
Developer: Mandela Station LP (Pacific West Communities, Inc. and Strategic Urban Development Alliance, LLC)
City Council District: 3
Address: 1451 7th St.

Liberation Park Residences

118 Affordable Units including 30 dedicated for Homeless/Special Needs
Award: $28 million
Developer: Eden Housing and Black Cultural Zone
City Council District: 6
Address: 7101 Foothill Blvd.

34th & San Pablo

59 Affordable Units including 30 dedicated for Homeless/Special Needs
Award: $7 million
Developer: 34SP Development LP (EBALDC)
City Council District: 3
Address: 3419-3431 San Pablo Ave.

The Eliza

96 Affordable Units, including 20 dedicated for Homeless/Special Needs
Award: $20 million
Developer: Mercy Housing California
City Council District: 3
Address: 2125 Telegraph Ave.

3135 San Pablo

72 Affordable Units including 36 dedicated for Homeless/Special Needs
Award: $10.5 million
Developer: SAHA and St. Mary’s Center
City Council District: 3
Address: 3515 San Pablo Ave.

The source of this story is media reltations office of District 2 City Councilmember Rebecca Kaplan.

Oakland Post

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Alameda County

Oakland Acquisition Company’s Acquisition of County’s Interest in Coliseum Property on the Verge of Completion

The Board of Supervisors is committed to closing the deal expeditiously, and County staff have worked tirelessly to move the deal forward on mutually agreeable terms. The parties are down to the final details and, with the cooperation of OAC and Coliseum Way Partners, LLC, the Board will take a public vote at an upcoming meeting to seal this transaction.

Published

11 months ago

January 11, 2025

Oakland Post

Alameda County Board of Supervisors Chairman David Haubert. Official photo.

Special to The Post

The County of Alameda announced this week that a deal allowing the Oakland Acquisition Company, LLC, (“OAC”) to acquire the County’s 50% undivided interest in the Oakland- Alameda County Coliseum complex is in the final stages of completion.

Oakland has already finalized a purchase and sale agreement with OAC for its interest in the property. OAC’s acquisition of the County’s property interest will achieve two longstanding goals of the County:

The Oakland-Alameda Coliseum complex will finally be under the control of a sole owner with capacity to make unilateral decisions regarding the property; and
The County will be out of the sports and entertainment business, free to focus and rededicate resources to its core safety net

In an October 2024 press release from the City of Oakland, the former Oakland mayor described the sale of its 50% interest in the property as an “historic achievement” stating that the transaction will “continue to pay dividends for generations to come.”

The Board of Supervisors is pleased to facilitate single-entity ownership of this property uniquely centered in a corridor of East Oakland that has amazing potential.

“The County is committed to bringing its negotiations with OAC to a close,” said Board President David Haubert.