Author: Edie Okamoto

  • Join us on April 4th for “A Night at Yoshi’s Oakland featuring Jonah Melvon & Adesha”

    Join us on April 4th for “A Night at Yoshi’s Oakland featuring Jonah Melvon & Adesha”

    Inaugural Peralta Colleges Foundation for Study Abroad Fundraising Event

    March 21, 2019, Oakland, CA, The event will be held at the renowned jazz supper club Yoshi’s Oakland on Thursday, April 4, 2019 from 7:30pm – 10pm featuring entertainment by local sensations Jonah Melvon featuring Adesha. Jonah and Adesha are more than Oakland natives who share a passion for the arts, they also happen to be siblings. This year they decided to bring the household back together again, as they tour on Jonah’s latest record “RainWater Project”, with teasers from his first record “This is the Year”. This soulful, lyrical, warm-hearted dual, is proud to be bringing their home away from home experience, to listeners worldwide.

    The Office of International Education and Peralta Colleges Foundation of the Peralta Community College District will be hosting its Inaugural Study Abroad Fundraising Event, “A Night at Yoshi’s Oakland featuring Jonah Melvon & Adesha”, to raise monies for local students to support and expand their horizons in their quest to become global citizens in the 21st century.

    The sponsors and listeners support provides scholarships to worthy students so that they may have the resources for this once in a lifetime experience.  In 2019, the Peralta Colleges are planning to offer up to 11 programs in Japan, Taiwan, Belize, New Zealand, Germany, Mexico, Egypt, London, China, Ghana and Costa Rica (http://web.peralta.edu/international/study-abroad).

    It takes a village to raise a child and a community to shape and strengthen a city.

    The Oakland, CA is known to have a population of which 38% hold secondary degrees. This is largely due to the effective education successes.

    The Peralta Community College District helps fuel the economic engine of East Bay, supplying the region with a trained workforce in essential fields such as nursing, automotive technology, office administration, mechanics, biomanufacturing, bookkeeping, carpentry, food service and restaurant management, to name a few.  This workforce helps build and maintain a vibrant, economically diverse region that meets the present and future needs.

    According to the California Community Colleges system, if an additional two percent of California’s population earned associate degrees and an extra one percent earned bachelor’s degrees, the state’s economy would grow by $20 billion.  These educated workers would generate state and local taxes of $1.2 billion a year, and create 174,000 new jobs in California.  Students receiving a degree or certificate from a community college see an 86 percent increase in their wages, from $25,600 to $45,571, three years after earning their degree.   For every dollar spent on economic and workforce development programs at community colleges, there is a $12 increase in California’s business income and employee wages.

    According to the Institute for International Education (IIE), fewer than 10% of American college students participate in international study programs, and less than 25% of those students are from underrepresented minority groups. Since many of our students are from low-socioeconomic families, studying abroad has never been a major priority for them. The study abroad experience often is a life-changing event that can provide a student with a new found sense of confidence or independence, a new foreign language skill, an increased ability to work in diverse work environments and most importantly the opportunity to explore new cultures. The Study Abroad program has been shaped by visionary and author, Drew Gephart and his dedicated team.

    Peralta Community College District STudy Abroad Book Cover

    To learn more about how you can join us in this celebration of music, art, and education please contact Drew Gephart, M.S., International Services Manager at dgephart@peralta.edu or 510-587-7834 for any questions you may have. We sincerely thank you for your time and continued support. http://web.peralta.edu/international/study-abroad you save $5 per ticket by buying from the website. You may also purchase tickets at Yoshi’s.

    About the Artists

    Jonah and Adesha are siblings and Oakland, California natives, who have a passion for the arts. Raised in a household that fostered music and the arts, they have fond memories of their parents singing along to Marvin Gaye, and dancing the night away to Stevie Wonder.

    In 2019, Jonah launched the “Bridging the Gap” music tech tour. Designed to bring awareness about the dissolving art scene to the tech community, and to spark ideas and thoughts of community leaders to actively “bridge the gap” between tech and art

    To learn more about Jonah Melvon and the Rainwater Project, please visit his website at https://www.jonahmelvon.com/

    Media Relations Contact

    See you at the show! To set up an appointment or for request for additional materials with the label, college, get photos, video links, or more please text Edie Okamoto, Media Relations, 
    at 510-693-0166 or facebook or linked in

    About the Rainwater Project

    You can hear the music on Spotify or purchase them on Amazon.

    Please join our list of sponsors who like you believe that education is the answer to a higher standard of living for all.

    Sponsored by Vigilint Biosensors: Keeping Families together 24/7 – digitally. www.vigilint.store

    RioVida Networks: Bringing artists, musicians, celebrities 
    and corporations together for mutual benefit. www.riovida.net

    Welcome to the Jonah Melvon and the Rainwater Project – together we are “Bridging the Gap.”
  • Artist Highlight: Tony Lindsay and his new hit song “Something beautiful”

    Tony Lindsey’s version of a beautiful world with advice to get there.


    Our San Francisco Vibe is “something beautiful”

    In 1980, Lindsay arrived in the San Francisco Bay Area from Kingston, New York, and continues to perform with the first band he formed Spangalang, who have opened for Curtis Mayfield, Tower of Power, Gerald Albright, Jr. Walker and the Average White Band.  He was one of four singers who traveled with “Dancing with the Stars,” the road tour version of the popular TV Dance show, which began in 2005. Lindsay joined Dancing with the Stars on three of the first four seasons as well as touring with Santana. Other bands that Tony helped form and still performs with are The Soul Soldiers, Black Magic, and the Ray Charles Project.

    In 2015 Tony started to fully commit on his solo career. His 5th and current solo CD “Something Beautiful” is starting to fully express his sound and vibe. 
    Previous solo efforts are” Different Moods” in 1995, “The Message is Love” in 1997, “Tony Lindsay” in 2005, and “Memoirs” in 2014.

    Tony Lindsay's new Solo Hit "Something Beautiful" makes you happy and feel that everything is alright with the world.
    Tony Lindsay with some of his many awards

    He worked with Tevin Campbell, Nikita Germain, Johnny Gill, Howard Hewitt, Mica Paris, Shanice, Diatra Hicks, Jay Spencer and Diana Ross; Aretha Franklin, O’Jays, Teddy Pendegrass, Al Jarreau, Regina Bell, Lou Rawls, Spike Lee, Elliot Lewis, Steve Winwood, Curtis Mayfield, Stevie Wonder, Steve Winwood,  Chaka Khan, James Taylor, The Williams Brothers, George Michael, Patti Austin & James Ingram under the direction of Quincy Jones and 18-piece orchestra, Jerry Hey for the Dick Clark Productions and the Lexus Corporation; and a large quantity of jingles for many of popular brands. No wonder that you have the feeling you heard him before even if you just meet Tony Lindsay as a solo artist with: Different Moods (1995), The Message is Love (1997) and his current self-titled project Tony Lindsay (2005). 

    “Something Beautiful” is a break out hit and Tony Lindsay who is currently touring in Europe will be back with his popular Ray Charles Project, performing at the Sonoma Film Festival at 9pm on March 30th. Catch him if you can. You will feel something beautiful. He is the new king of smooth.

    Tony Lindsay live is the best.. here a little excerpt.
  • Omar Sousa, Seckou Keita and Gustavo Ovalles will perform at Freight & Salvage on March 21, 2019

    Omar Sousa, Seckou Keita and Gustavo Ovalles will perform at Freight & Salvage on March 21, 2019

    Omar Sosa is the master of finding new musical arrangements and instrumental combinations. He is completely free in his compositions of music, rhythms, and sounds.

    In January 2019, Sosa and Morelenbaum, released a new CD, Es:sensual, which features the latters vivid arrangements from Omar’s previous Musicall successes including selections from Free Roots (1997), Mulatos (2004), Live FIP (2006), Promise (2007), Across the Divide (2009), and Il (2014).

    Morelenbaum and the NDR Bigband chose world class Omar Sosa because he is beloved all around the world due because his compositions and performances are as generous, abundant, and ecstatically as his creative spirit.

    Omar Sosa, Seckou Keita & Gustavo Orvalles perform at Freight & Salvage March 20 & 21 2019

    At the upcoming performances the band will also perform classics from their Transparent Water album that as the title suggests, Transparent Water is meant to be evocative of translucence and flowing light. It is a deeply spiritual recording that incorporates folk, jazz and sounds from across the planet. It was produced in 2017 here in Oakland by OTA Records.

    Es:sensual is also rooted in Afro-Cuban spiritual and percussive traditions, and intimately versed in a range of contemporary world musics, Omars finely textured compositions present Morelenbaum with the foundation to summon forth an expansive palette of sounds, inspiring the NDR Bigbands brilliant soloists, maximizing the ensembles sonic potential, and providing ample latitude for Sosas own luminous keyboard improvisations.

    NDR reports: “Es:sensual pays tribute to the majestic figures of Afro-Cuban big-band jazz Frank Machito Grillo, Chico OFarrill, Cachao, Mario Bauz, Dizzy Gillespie, and Chano Pozo, while also drawing inspiration from Cuban luminaries such as Armando de Sequeira Romeu, Peruchn, Pancho Quinto, Lzaro Ros, Lili Martnez, Benny Mor, Arsenio Rodrguez, Rubn Gonzlez, Frank Emilio Flynn, Bebo Valds, and a succeeding generation of artists including Chucho Valds, Paquito DRivera, and the revolutionary conjunto Irakere.”

    Interview with the artist about Es:sentual

    Hamburg producer Stefan Gerdes of NDR, facilitated the connection between Omar Sosa and Morelenbaum, a celebrated arranger known for his trailblazing work with Antonio Carlos Jobim, Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil, Gal Costa, Cesria Evora, and Mariza, among many others.

    About NDR Bigband

    The NDR Bigband, under principal conductor and arranger Jörg Achim Keller, is an ensemble of consummate soloists whose talents have been highlighted through the work of such noted arrangers as Michael Gibbs, Steve Gray, and Colin Towns. NDR Bigband collaborations comprise a virtual Whos Who of world jazz, including Chet Baker, Oscar Brown, Jr., Paquito DRivera, Pee Wee Ellis, Joe Gallardo, Lionel Hampton, Dave Holland, Abdullah Ibrahim, Al Jarreau, Bobby McFerrin, Pat Metheny, Joe Pass, Joe Sample, Maria Schneider, and Wayne Shorter.

  • Rolando Morales will perform at Pairings Wine Bay and Restaurant in Pleasanton, Friday November 16, 2018

    Rolando Morales will perform at Pairings Wine Bay and Restaurant in Pleasanton, Friday November 16, 2018

    Friday Nov 16, Pairings Wine Bar and Restaurant, 310 Main Street, Pleasanton CA 94566, 7:45-10:45pm.  After 2 months away, Rolando finally returns to this exciting social hotspot in downtown Pleasanton.  This young, expanding wine bar features fine wines, tapas and now dinners.  Rolando will perform his broad repertoire on solo guitar and voice.  Free!  www.pairingscellars.com, (925) 398-8846.