The Great Saxophone Summit
Geoffrey’s Inner Circle
410 14th St, Oakland
Aug. 11, 2024
For more than five decades, Faye Carol has regaled Bay Area venues and festivals, singing blues, R&B, and the great American songbook. Joe Warner, since the advent of the New Millenniunm, has evolved as an in-demand pianist around the Bay and in recording studios, with phenomenal flexibility in a panoply of genres. After these two teamed up, with Joe serving as Faye’s accompanist, arranger, and manager, they showed how they double as pied pipers of a series of showcases of other musicians, local and world-class.
Most of these gatherings have been staged at Geoffrey’s Inner Circle, at 14th & Franklin in downtown Oakland, a concert hall and bar which was an exclusive all-white-male private club before Afro-American restaurateur Geoffrey Pete acquired it three decades ago and began started hosting ticketed musical events.
The café tables and booths at Geoffrey’s filled quickly at the 6 p.m. start time on a recent Sunday for what was billed as The Great Saxophone Summit, hosted by Faye, with Joe sharing house rhythm section duties with bassist Taris Mateen and drummer Charles Haynes.
For the first part of the show, these players fitted themselves to the crowd-pleasing differences across brief offerings by each of the six saxes: Dave Ellis, Charles McNeal, Craig Handy, Dayna Stephens, John Handy, and Eddie M. The horn men moved through mainstream jazz, modern jazz, R&B, funk, soul, and pop.
Table service cocktails were conveyed to patrons by servers including proprietor Pete himself, though drinkers could choose to make their way through the crowd to the elegant barroom adjoining the concert space. During a break after the first set, many of the drinkers lined up in a room on the opposite side of the venue, where an affordable buffet served up generous portions of fried chicken or fish, boiled chicken, greens, macaroni-and-cheese, biscuits, and salad, all of which could be carried back to the concert hall.
Faye herself took the stage for the second set, accompanied by the rhythm section and by each of the saxophonists in turn. She yet again proved the consummate entertainer, flirting with the hornmen and the fans — scatting, yodeling (a rarity in jazz and any type of pop music), and enjoying herself contagiously. Joe’s arrangements furthered the fun, switching up tempos and retrofitting familiar chord charts with alt chords and unexpected time signatures.
Among the many highlights were saxman McNeal, whose brassy tone and swing sounded like he should be strutting back and forth atop Geoffrey’s antique polished wooden bar.
John Handy, now 91 years old and living in the Oakland hills, chose to sit for his performances. But the veteran, soloing on the ballad “Old Folks”, kept fresh the jocular spirit which we fans have treasured for may decades, and his playing was as secure as it was sweet and sincere.
The set’s finale filled the stage with all the participating musicians and a delicious bounty of joy. It had been a rare case of the eyes and ears of an audience being rapt for a full four hours and having them return their appreciation with sustained smiles, shouts, and applause.
Musical offerings continue at weekly, with bar and buffet, on Sunday evenings.
