Uncategorized

Guitarist Calvin Keys’ Kinder, Jam Sessions

Published

13 years ago

January 18, 2013

Oakland Post

Guitarist Calvin Keys. Photo by John Goyer.

By Lee
Hildebrand

There are two types of jazz jam sessions: the ones where the host calls out tunes in uncommon keys with difficult chord changes and tempos faster than a speeding bullet, the purpose being to discourage less-experienced players unable to rise to the challenge, and others where the host actually encourages newcomers.
Guitarist Calvin Keys, who co-hosts a jam session of the second, kinder and gentler kind with alto saxophonist Melvin Butts every Monday evening from 7 to 11 p.m. at the 57thStreet Gallery, located at the corner of Telegraph and 57nd in North Oakland, was fortunate as a teenager in his native Omaha to have cut his jazz teeth at jam sessions led by legendary saxophonist and singer Eddie “Cleanhead” Vinson.
“He played ‘Tune Up’ and called the changes out to me,” Keys, now 70, says of his first encounter with the late musician. “I would be scuffling a couple times around, but eventually I would grab it. Then I’d go home and practice my butt off. I’d go back down the next Sunday, and he’d say, ‘You been practicing?’ I said, ‘Yeah,’ and he’d get up on the bandstand and call a different tune.”
Noted for his work with Ray Charles and Ahmad Jamal and for numerous recordings of his own, Keys first came to Oakland in 1961 with organist Frank Edwards and drummer James Gadson to play Don Barksdale’s Sportsman’s Club. He’s been an Oakland resident since 1974.
Surrounded by white walls filled with realistic color portraits of Miles Davis, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Etta James, Whitney Houston and other jazz and soul greats, the Monday night house band played the first set at a recent jam.
Keys, Butts , pianist Keith Saunders, bassist Michael Jones, and drummer Leon Joyce took turns soloing at length on such numbers as the standard “Sweet and Lovely” played over a “Killer Joe” groove and “Milestones,” the tune Davis recorded in 1947 with Charlie Parker on tenor, not the better-known 1958 Davis song of the same title.
“This is a watering hole,” Keys said to the 60 or so musicians and fans in attendance before Butts began calling names from a sign-up sheet to the bandstand. Among the many who sat in over the next two-and-a-half hours were saxophonist Jim Grantham, flugelhornist Justin Smith, flutists Jane Lenor, Art Maxwell, and Nika Ritto, and vocalists Kozi Arrington, Jackie Gage and Daria Nile.
Younger participants included 26-year-old guitarist Eni Pela and drummers Ayinde, 18, and Timothy Angulo, 15.
The Bay Area jazz community may have lost such important contributors as drummer Eddie Marshall, trumpeter Khalil Shaheed and saxophonist Vince Wallace in recent times, but the arrival of pianist Saunders from New York and former Ramsey Lewis drummer Joyce from Chicago has helped replenish the scene, as have up-and-comers Pela, Ayinde and Angulo.
“My intention is to expose the youngsters to this art form that we’ve created over the years,” Keys says. “We’re passing the torch on in a sense.”

Oakland Post

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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.