2nd Annual East Oakland Vocal Festival
Phillip Reeder Auditorium at Castlemont High School
8601 MacArthur Blvd Bldg. 300
Oakland
April 24, 2024
The energy was frenetic in the spacious Phillip Reeder Auditorium as students from six schools wearing black “Town Business Vocal Program” T‑shirts shrieked, did vocal warmups, and sprinted between purple seats the shade of grape jelly.
Host and MC Keenan Foster stood center stage both literally and figuratively as he introduced the event at the 2nd East Annual Vocal Festival within Castlemont High School. He aimed to bring his interests as music teacher and producer/songwriter at Town Business Inc. together in partnership with the nonprofit Elevate Oakland founded by Sheila E., Yoshie Akiba (of Oakland’s own Yoshi’s jazz club), among others, to “reignite the legacy of choral music and vocal performance for our youth in East Oakland.”
And reignite it did. Comedian, actor, and entertainer Jammin Jay Lamont kicked the night off with a hilarious radio routine where Foster would turn the imaginary dial and Lamont would do a different song or bit each time. It was great to see Foster give recognition to the highly accomplished Teaching Artists who worked with the different school groups throughout East Oakland.
I was impressed to see solo acts, duets, and different school ensembles performing numbers together. The first student, Asia, sang John Legend’s “All of Me” with a mature voice, hitting every note with great breath control. The 2nd graders did an adorable rendition of Bob Marley’s “Three Little Birds,” half-singing into microphones the size of their heads.
When the track switched to “Dubidubidu” by Christell, a Chilean child singer whose song went viral in Japan because of a cat meme, the exuberant teacher took a couple of mics from the students and a few burst into cartwheels, drop splits, and high kicks. The crowd went wild.
There were a couple false starts, but teaching artist Marlayna Washington was on headset as stage manager and swiftly got things back on track. I assumed she was the teacher of the Elmhurst United 6th Grade Ensemble because she was conducting the beat drop of Keyshia Cole’s “Love” with her whole arm. I felt what these teaching artists were trying to do during that song because you could hear the audience at least as well as the 6th graders and packs of students in the back were waving their phone lights around as if we were up in the club at an actual R&B concert. Everyone was engaged.
There was no competition; it was all love. But the number that really set the auditorium ablaze was the Castlemont High School Ensemble performing a “I Smile” / “Revolution” Kirk Franklin medley. Foster’s passion for getting young people excited about music came through as he hyped up his crew, and it felt like for a moment the early 2000s Bay Area hyphy movement was back. It was revolutionary to see Black and Brown teenagers stepping out to the edge of the stage towards the audience, harnessing their energy into rap verses as they stormed back and forth like the Wu-Tang Clan, their mamas taking shaky video while screaming and singing along.
Supporter Natalie Cassidy educated us about the Castlemont Castleers choral group, who reached national and global success in the ’70s and ’80s, and her aspirations to “bring East Oakland schools back up to that level.”
We were then gifted by the Town Business Teaching Artists, coming together to sing the Black gospel classic “I Will Lift Up Your Name (Higher),” led by Ashling Cole. Cole has worked with Prince, Carlos Santana, and Bootsy Collins. “None of us knew we would be put on the program today,” she said with a knowing smile, before taking us straight to church. They sounded rich and powerful. The best part was the clusters of students waving their hands up and down going crazy in the wings.
An added match to the flame were the instrumentalists on bass, guitar, drums, piano and harmonica with strings, accompaniment by none other than players from the SF Symphony.
The festival concluded with heart-warming renditions of Dionne Warwick’s “That’s What Friends Are For” and Miley Cyrus’ “Flowers” performed by all of the students. Besides some pretty intense microphone feedback during a few of the numbers, it was an event of pure joy as they posed for a group photo and the band played them out as families rushed over to young singers with hugs and bouquets.
Thanks to Keenan Foster, Elevate Oakland, and the incredible teaching artists of the Town Business Vocal Program, consider East Oakland reignited.
