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Sam Rudin was inspired by the original Freight & Salvage when he established The Back Room in Berkeley in 2016. (Back Room via Bay City News)<\/p>\nBerkeley\u2019s\u00a0intimate\u00a0\u201clistening room\u201d The Back Room is celebrating 10 years, marking the occasion with a 10-day anniversary\u00a0concert\u00a0series\u00a0this\u00a0month\u00a0featuring a range of musical genres.<\/p>\n
Founder Sam Rudin is slightly surprised by the milestone. He says, \u201cIt was\u00a0not\u00a0something that we knew for sure would happen when we started. It was\u00a0a big risk. It was a big jump\u00a0off of\u00a0a cliff.\u201d<\/p>\n
When he founded The Back Room on Bonita Avenue,\u00a0Rudin was inspired by the original 1960s-era Freight & Salvage\u00a0on\u00a0San Pablo Avenue in Berkeley, known for folk and bluegrass shows.<\/p>\n
Sam Rudin was inspired by the original Freight & Salvage when he established The Back Room in Berkeley in 2016. (Back Room via Bay City News)<\/p>\n
He says,\u00a0\u201cThere are a lot of similarities between us and the original Freight, but\u00a0there\u2019s\u00a0one difference. The original Freight did not have jazz. That was exactly the only thing that I wanted to do differently.\u201d He adds, \u201cTo criticize the Freight for not doing jazz is a little bit like criticizing a Chinese restaurant for not serving Italian food.\u201d<\/p>\n
Holding\u00a0a maximum of 100\u00a0people, The Back Room\u00a0provides\u00a0a space for lesser-known professional\u00a0musicians\u00a0to perform. Preserving\u00a0the magic of small venues,\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0a place where performers receive audiences\u2019 undivided attention, a rarity today.<\/p>\n
Rudin\u2019s vision also stems from his own career as a pianist with his band, Hurricane Sam & The Headshots, which plays jazz and blues. He wanted to create opportunities for respected, talented professional artists who may not draw the size of crowds that are required at larger venues.<\/p>\n
The upcoming anniversary shows from April 16-26 feature a cross-section of programming, from jazz drummer Scott Amendola to youth bluegrass standouts Crying Uncle Bluegrass Band, as well as Bulul\u00fa, Howell Devine, Janam, Golden Bough, Roberta Donnay & the Prohibition Mob, and a closing performance by Bay Area vocalist Faye Carol.<\/p>\n
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Crying Uncle Bluegrass Band appears on April 19 during The Back Room\u2019s 10th anniversary programming. (Crying Uncle Bluegrass Band via Bay City News)<\/p>\n
Crying Uncle Bluegrass Band,\u00a0also marking its own 10-year milestone,\u00a0has been\u00a0appearing\u00a0at The Back Room since 2017, when its members were still preteens.<\/p>\n
Band member Miles Quale says\u00a0of\u00a0the Back Room: \u201cIt\u2019s\u00a0pretty special\u00a0to us.\u00a0We\u2019ve\u00a0been playing there for almost 10 years\u2026 Sam has really been supporting the band from the start.\u00a0We\u2019ve\u00a0done album celebrations there.\u201d He added, \u201cBluegrass, as a music, was designed to be performed live \u2014 and in a venue like that.\u201d<\/p>\n
As Crying Uncle Bluegrass Band prepares for an upcoming tour in Japan, Quale says\u00a0he and his brother are especially looking forward to returning to The Back\u00a0Room.<\/p>\n
Rudin, who\u00a0doesn\u2019t\u00a0equate success with\u00a0monetary profit,\u00a0candidly\u00a0reflects\u00a0on the\u00a0decade\u00a0anniversary:\u00a0\u201cYou\u2019re just trying to put one foot in front of another and keep everything going, which is not easy.\u00a0It\u2019s\u00a0a full-time situation. And only relatively recently did I think, \u2018Oh, my goodness,\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a010 years. I\u00a0have to\u00a0at least acknowledge\u00a0that,\u2019\u201d\u00a0he says.<\/p>\n
He points to changes in culture as the\u00a0reason why\u00a0there are few\u00a0spots\u00a0like The Back Room today. He says,\u00a0\u201cBack in the \u201960s and \u201970s, there were\u00a0relatively a\u00a0lot of places like this \u2014 places designed for small audiences who could really listen to music in a more intimate setting. This was normal years ago.\u00a0It\u2019s\u00a0no longer normal.\u201d<\/p>\n
Decades ago, musicians\u00a0could sustain tours through small venues and college campuses, but that is no longer the case. Rudin says,\u00a0\u201cYou could have an entire tour just based on college campuses\u2026 You\u00a0couldn\u2019t\u00a0do that\u00a0now, if\u00a0your life depended on it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rudin says\u00a0Berkeley reflects this shift:\u00a0\u201cAnybody under the age of 50\u2026 has not lived through the period where this kind of more small, intimate music was part of the cultural mix,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
He\u00a0does not expect\u00a0a\u00a0change without a broader social movement. That, he says,\u00a0is what makes The Back Room significant.<\/p>\n
The Back Room 10th anniversary\u00a0\u00a0
Shows start at 8 p.m. unless noted otherwise<\/p>\n
April 16: Scott Amendola\u2019s Anniversary Quartet (jazz)
\nApril 17: Bulul\u00fa: A Night of Bubbles & Boleros (Latin)
\nApril 18:\u00a0HowellDevine\u00a0(blues)
\nApril 19, 3 p.m.: Crying Uncle Bluegrass Band
\nApril 23: Sam Rudin Duo with Charles McNeal\u00a0(piano-saxophone\/jazz-blues-funk)
\nApril 24: Mamadou Sidibe\u00a0(music from Mali)
\nApril 25, 3 p.m.:\u00a0Golden Bough\u00a0(Celtic)
\nApril 25: Roberta Donnay & The Prohibition Mob: \u201cFrom Bessie to Billie\u201d\u00a0(jazz, blues)
\nApril 26, 5 p.m.: The Dynamic Miss Faye Carol\u00a0(jazz, blues)<\/p>\n
The Back Room is at 1984 Bonita Ave, Berkeley. Tickets are $20-$40 at\u00a0https:\/\/backroommusic.com\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n The post Berkeley\u2019s Back Room marks a decade of intimate concerts<\/a> appeared first on Local News Matters<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Berkeley\u2019s\u00a0intimate\u00a0\u201clistening room\u201d The Back Room is celebrating 10 years, marking the occasion with a 10-day anniversary\u00a0concert\u00a0series\u00a0this\u00a0month\u00a0featuring a range…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":262034,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[143,145,144],"class_list":["post-262033","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262033","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=262033"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262033\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/262034"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=262033"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=262033"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=262033"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}