Jazz Fridays
Original Pattern Brewing
292 4th St.
Oakland
Jan. 19, 2024
Each Friday evening from 7 to 10 the tasting room at Oakland’s Original Pattern Brewing gets livened up by local musicians. Last Friday the Ron Marabuto quartet played a set of peppy jazz for the hungry, thirsty, and damp crowd piled in to the high-ceilinged space.
Predictably, I snagged an Okie Dokie, their passion fruit and tangerine sour ale, and took a seat close to the action at a long communal table. Every table was occupied, both downstairs and up in the large lofted space overlooking the brewery. Shared tables were the move, or else be stuck standing.
The quartet started up slowly, a bit squeaky, breathy, chaotic. But that’s jazz, right? Midway through the first song I caught Marabuto wandering away from his post at the front of the group and over to the side to change out his reed on his saxophone, unhurried. A few minutes later he piped back up from that same seat to the side before rejoining his crew.
Casual in the best of ways, as a donation-based performance is wont to be.
The four made a sweet motley crew, with three giving off strong grandpa vibes and the keyboardist that of a musical uncle. Their event page describes them as “local bay area musician(s) that have been playing jazz their whole lives. Their shows at Original Pattern are intimate and vibrant sessions for experiencing the sultry smooth sounds of classic American Jazz in a beautiful setting with some great beer.” That lifelong assurance was visible in the pluckings of the bassist, his upright instrument stuffed with a rag at the base of the strings, a Ben and Jerry’s baseball cap on his head.
My friend arrived to meet me, and we walked back out the front door to the patio, where Citizen Pizza, the brewery’s “resident pop-up,” served up fresh pies from portable ovens.
Run by chef Jeffery Amber, the pop-up offered standards like margherita and pepperoni as well as some topped with more inventive ingredients, such as the Mothership, a Brussels, ricotta, garlic, red onion, lemon, and pesto pie.
We opted for the margherita, which proved a good choice. The red sauce was sweet and tart, the cheese stretchy and creamy and smooth, and the basil an ever-perfect companion. Red pepper flakes further elevated the flavors. The crust was thin and charred, as I like, but a tad underbaked for my taste, with too much of a flop and and too doughy of an edge crust, distracting from the loveliness of the center.
We had stuffed ourselves into a corner of the upstairs loft to sit and eat, about as physically far from the instruments as could be. But the open design and acoustics made for a good level of sound — plenty of chatter all around but crystal clear notes wafted up to us nonetheless.
As the evening progressed the music got more classic — upbeat, tonal, harmonic, fun. The kind of jazz that non-jazz-lovers can get down with, pleasant and fun, adding to the atmosphere, great to tune into closely while still allowing for comfortable conversation.
