This is a once in a lifetime concert celebrating the music and friendship of four pianist/composers who've worked over 5 decades in Jazz, Classical, Gospel, Folk, New Age and Women’s Music, including appearances on over 400 albums, Grammy nominations, Bammy Awards, and thousands of shows around the world.
Featuring Mary Watkins, Barbara Higbie, Tammy Lynne Hall and Adrienne Torf.
Don't miss this rare opportunity to see these four gifted pianists together!
This show will include solo, duo, trio and quartet performances of both beloved classics and new originals drawn from the newly-released CDs by each artist. Their new 2025 albums are the duet album “Heart Flow” By Mary Watkins and Tammy Lynne Hall (produced by Holly Near), “Dreams” by Barbara Higbie and “ TBD “ by Adrienne Torf.
Renewal and transformation through the wellspring of creativity is hallmark of these four artists.
Tickets are $35 advance, $25 for OCA members. $5 additional at the door (if available). Online fees waived for this event. Get tickets early - we expect this to sell out!
Barbara Higbie has been a professional musician since age 17, Barbara has played everything from Traditional Jazz, Bluegrass and Irish to New Classical Music, Blues and African Pop. She is known for her ability to compose in a style that is both genre bending and accessible. A Grammy-nominated, Bammy award winning composer, pianist, fiddler, singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, Barbara Higbie has performed on more than 100 albums. In 2011, Higbie was the first ever “Artist in Residence” at the prestigious west coast Jazz Club, “Yoshi’s”, where she created two new bands. Roots music’s, “Hills to Hollers” with icons Linda Tillery and Laurie Lewis, and the exotic “Cello Heaven” with cellists Joan Jeanreneau of Kronos Quartet fame and new age star, Jami Sieber. Higbie has 13 solo and group recordings to her name, as well as contributions to 10 compilations that have sold in the millions. She was the first female instrumentalist to compose and record for Windham Hill Records, 1982’s Tideline, a duet project with violinist, Darol Anger. Tideline’s unique sound became an instant classic, thanks in part to Higbie’s innovative and moving compositions. Higbie has performed with Bonnie Raitt, Carlos Santana, Terry Riley, the Kronos Quartet, Pete Seeger, Holly Near, Will Ackerman,Cris Williamson, Bobby McFerrin, Milton Nascimento, Spyro Gyra, Michael Hedges, Greg Brown, Ferron, Vinnie Colaiuta, Teresa Trull, Vicki Randle, Amy Ray, Darol Anger, Mike Marshall, Rosalee Sorrels, Terry Garthwaite, Laurie Lewis, Liz Story, Benny Rietveld and Alex De Grassi among others.
Adrienne Torf began studying piano and music theory at the age of three. She has toured and recorded with singers, provided original music for theater and dance companies and, most significantly, collaborated for nineteen-years with African-American poet, essayist and activist June Jordan. Their work together includes Bang Bang Uber Alles, a full-length stage musical/documentary opera whose sold-out Atlanta production in 1985 garnered the attention of the community, the press and the Ku Klux Klan. Adrienne’s recordings include two solo albums of original compositions for piano and synthesizers, Brooklyn From the Roof and Two Hands Open, both recognized as “best of” in the year of their release, and June Jordan and Adrienne Torf Collaboration: Selected Works, 1983-2000. Adrienne also contributed piano and synthesizer artistry on twelve other commercially released albums, including some by Holly Near, Ferron, Meg Christian and Cris Williamson, and Kay Gardner. Adrienne and Raymond O. Caldwell’s Poetry for the People: The June Jordan Experience, a theater piece for six actresses and piano, produced by Theater Alliance in Washington DC, was awarded the 2023 Helen Hayes Theater Washington Award for Outstanding New Play or Musical Adaptation. Adrienne’s community-collaboration performance piece The Awesome Difficult Work of Love has been produced in Madison WI, San Francisco and Sedona, AZ. A retired nonprofit CFO, Adrienne has served on boards of nonprofit arts, media and social justice organizations.
Pianist, bandleader and SFJAZZ Lead Teaching Artist Tammy Lynne Hall began playing the piano at age four in Dallas, Texas. As a mainstay in the Bay Area, Tammy has worked with a host of renowned artists across multiple genres, including Etta Jones, Kim Nalley, Holly Near, Linda Tillery, Denise Perrier, Tiffany Austin, Nicolas Bearde, Ernestine Anderson, Kenny Washington, the Montclair Women’s Big Band, Houston Person, David "Fathead" Newman, Regina Carter, Laurie Anderson, Marcus Shelby, Allison Miller and many others. Her pianistic touch evokes her deeply rooted gospel and blues foundations, and her education work has continued to shine a light on the power of Black music to heal a weary world.