August 21 & 22, 2021
GEORGE CABLES TRIO: 222 INAUGURAL EVENT
Cables traveled to California from New York for the first time with his trio since 2018 to be part of the grand opening of THE 222, Healdsburg’s newest performing arts venue. Mr. Cables and THE 222 jazz programmer Jessica Felix have known each other since the early 1980’s when they first met while Jessica was working at the Keystone Korner Jazz Club in San Francisco. Since then, they have become good friends and she has presented him numerous times over the years.
“George is always there when I start with a new venture, happy to do what it takes to make the concert a successâ€.
August 26, 2021
VISUAL THINKING STRATEGIES WITH ROBYN MUSCARDINI
The basic tenet of Visual Thinking Strategies is that finding meaning in imagery calls upon many aspects of cognition—personal association, questioning, speculating, analyzing, fact-finding, and categorizing—and that looking at art, going through a process of aesthetic development, brings us forward in our cognitive development as a whole.
After a brief introduction to the origins and ongoing theoretical underpinnings behind the development of Visual Thinking Strategies, participants spent time looking together at one of the works of art in the gallery, with an eye to the range of skills they drew on, from simple identification (naming what one sees) to complex interpretation on contextual, metaphoric and philosophical levels.
September 11 & 12, 2021
Billy Hart Quartet
NEA Jazz Master Billy Hart brought his exciting quartet to THE 222, with Ethan Iverson on piano, Dayna Stephens on saxophones and Peter Barshay on bass. It had been many years since Hart had brought his quartet to California. Hart, Iversen, and Stephens flew in from the East coast for this special occasion.
“Billy Hart is one of the greatest living jazz drummers. Hell, he’s one of the greatest drummers of ALL TIME.†— Joshua Redman
October 24, 2021
ERNIE WATTS QUARTET
November 20 & 21, 2021
PAUL MCCANDLESS & ART LANDE DUO
Paul McCandless and Art Lande have been making music together for almost 50 years. They performed in duo for this special evening, with Paul playing soprano and tenor saxophones as well as bass clarinet and Art playing piano and melodica. They have toured all over the US and most of Europe, recorded for ECM, Windham Hill and Synergy labels and have been part of many bands together.
The music highlighted pieces from many parts of their musical history plus spontaneous compositions they created in the moment. Always there is depth, humor, beauty and connected energy.
As one audience member said after their duo concert in Boulder, Colorado – “we can see every aspect of your friendship hearing you play together†– count on it.
December 4, 2021
KITKA
Wintersongs is Kitka's critically-acclaimed and wildly popular December concert offering. For centuries, communities around the world have utilized the power of collective singing to summon warmth, cheer, and spiritual connection to sustain themselves through the challenges and uncertainties of the coldest and darkest season.
Returning to the stage after nearly two years of pandemic separation, Kitka’s reunited voices joyfully bestowed musical blessings for health, hope, peace, good fortune, and the return of the light as the Winter Solstice and New Year drew near.
December 9, 2021
THE BEACHES OF AGNUS
“I’m playing the role of a little old lady, pleasantly plump and talkative and telling her life story. And yet it’s others I’m interested in, others I like to film. Others who intrigue me, motivate me, make me ask questions, disconcert me, fascinate me. This time, to talk about myself, I thought, ‘If we opened people up, we’d find landscapes.’ If we opened me up, we’d find beaches.â€
— Agnes Varda, The Beaches of Agnes
At the age of 80, director Agnes Varda embarked on a freewheeling journey documenting her life. In clever, free associative set pieces, she joyfully explores her past, her friendships, and her home turf on the Rue Daguerre in Paris.
“Uninhibited about sex, generous in her affections, worldly-wise, blending tender recollections with self-deprecating antics, Varda, free from fear and shame, turns her tale of a life lived in art into a work of art in its own right, and one of her best—a rapturous tribute to life itself.â€
— Richard Brody, The New Yorker
(2008, 110 min., in French with English subtitles)
December 11, 2021
EDWARD SIMON
Venezuelan-born Edward Simon played a solo piano concert at THE 222 in Healdsburg, celebrating the recent release of his newest recording “Solo Live†on Ridgeway Records. Recorded at Oakland’s Piedmont Piano Company on his 50th birthday in 2019, Solo Live is Simon’s first unaccompanied recording.
Unedited, it’s a ravishing portrait of one of jazz’s most eloquent improvisers investigating a setting that has become one of his primary outlets during the pandemic. Long leery of performing alone, a situation that leaves a pianist “really exposed,†he described the Piedmont Piano date as “a leap of faith.†This is his 15th album as a leader and his first unaccompanied recording.
December 18 & 19, 2021
SOL FLAMENCO
The passion and fire of Spain hit the stage in Healdsburg. It was an evening of lightning-fast footwork, haunting guitar rhythms, and soulful singing.
The show featured a cast of artists who have lived and trained in Spain, the birthplace of flamenco: dancers Damien Alvarez and Joelle Gonçalves, flamenco guitarist Mark Taylor with special guest singer, Yuli Norish “La Yuliâ€. The group has been working together for many years and it showed in the dancers' precision footwork, emotionally haunting vocals, and the guitarist’s bold accompaniment.
“Sol Flamenco is an electrifying evening of phenomenal music and dance that will carry you into a world of passion that is unique to flamenco†says Alexa Chipman in her 5-star review of the group, Imagination Lane Review San Francisco North Bay Theatre & Dance.