Sierra Jazz Picnic in Nevada City, California’s Pioneer Park
to celebrate the jazz scene of Nevada County.
Sunday, June 15, 6-9 PM
Pioneer Park, Nevada City
featuring
Michelle Amador
Gary Regina
Tommy Coster
Chris Golden
Tim Bulkley
The Sierra Jazz Society presenst the 5th Annual Bill Douglass Memorial Jazz Picnic. Featuring vocalist Michelle Amador, Saxophonist Gary Regina, Pianist Tommy Coster, Bassist Chris Golden, and Drummer Tim Bulkley. The show will celebrate Bill’s beloved jazz music in past, and present forms with an eye on what the future holds for explorers and creators of America’s Classical Music.
The Sierra Jazz Society was created in 2003 by Bill Douglass & Nora Nausbaum. Dedicated to Jazz education, presentation and promotion in Nevada County and the surrounding areas, the SJS has had a profound effect on the local music scene and we’re excited to keep the tradition alive AND honor our former artistic director & founder with this new tradition.
Admission to the concert will be FREE but we encourage a donation to support the artists and the mission of the Sierra Jazz Society. Pioneer Park is located at 421 Nimrod Street in Nevada City.
As a lifelong singer and songwriter, Michelle Amador has received regular acclaim as “a new breed of musician” (Mercury News) from storied musicians like jazz bassist Buster Williams to legendary electronic producers like Osunlade. Most recently recording and releasing singles created with producer Eli Crews (Kathleen Hanna, Yoko Ono, tUnE-yArDs), Michelle delivers “silken-voiced” (SF Chronicle) original music, drawing inspiration from artists such as Solange Knowles, Nina Simone, Joni Mitchell, Björk and many more.
Michelle is a member of the Western States Center musician cohort for Inclusive Democracy and contributes to the health and well-being of arts and community as a CA Established Artist Fellow, Director of Development for the Mark Morris Dance Group, board member for CA for the Arts and Arts Advocates, Nevada County Arts Council, and the Nevada County Community Foundation and as a co-founder for Hatfly Productions. Michelle was organizing member of the Cultural Solidarity Fund. Check out the recent report and toolkit made possible with funding from the Mellon Foundation.
Gary Regina has been a professional musician for over 30 years. As comfortable with straight-ahead jazz as he is with world beat, hip-hop, blues, swing, rock or funk, Gary’s abilities transcend many styles and genres, illustrating an incredible diversity of musical influences.
Gary led his own original bands for 18 years, whose styles ranged from acid jazz and new age to world beat. A pioneer of the world beat movement from the late 70s, Gary continues to incorporate world rhythms and influences into his compositions today.
Currently, Gary performs all over the United States and Australia, focusing on his multi-instrumental solo performance, which utilizes looping technology. Playing a wide variety of instruments (including woodwinds, ethnic flutes, saxophones, percussion, guitar, wind synthesizer and a drum machine), Gary creates unique soundscapes of trip-hop, world and ambient music. Then, with incredible creativity (and a little help from technology), the trance-like rhythmical sounds gradually build, looping on top of each other, until you are sure there are ten musicians! Your ears will have a hard time reconciling what they hear with what your eyes see!
Tommy Coster By the age of 11 years old, Tommy had co-written his first published song with Carlos Santana, titled “Zulu”, which was included on Santana’s “Moonflower” album in 1977. He was later awarded his first gold album for his exceptional collaboration. After San Francisco, Tommy moved to Boston to study Jazz Composition at Berklee College of Music.
After co-writing and producing several jazz records, Tommy decided to move to Los Angeles to start a new chapter in his musical career. In 1998 Coster scored his first film for Miramax, working with rapper Master P on, “I Got The Hook Up” One year later, Tommy started working with Dr. Dre which resulted in epic proportions. He co-wrote one of the biggest songs in hip hop history with Dr. Dre and Eminem, titled “The Real Slim Shady”. This catapulted Tommy into working with several other artists resulting in the sales of over 75 Million records.
Tommy is a 2X Grammy Award Winning writer with several gold and multi platinum awards, including a RIAA Diamond Award, certifying over 10 Million copies sold of the “The Marshall Mathers LP” in the United States alone. Only 150 projects in the history of the music business have ever reached this level of achievement.
Chris Golden – Bass
Chris Golden was born in Cleveland Ohio and raised in Eugene Oregon. The youngest member of a musical family, he enjoyed listening to his older brothers, sisters and mother play the piano, guitar, sing and play drums from a very early age. He began music lessons on piano at age 7 and also took an interest in playing drums soon after. By age 10 Chris had decided to take lessons on upright bass and received classical training until age 15 when he switched to playing the electric bass. Through his teenage years, Chris played in rock, r&b, reggae and jazz groups around town (including a top 40 cover band with his two brothers) until arriving at the Berklee College of Music in Boston. Here he received a scholarship award and earned his bachelor of music degree in bass performance with additional advanced studies in jazz composition.
After attending college Chris spent several more years in Boston touring the Eastern United States and playing gigs around town as well as giving private instruction, until eventually moving to Los Angeles. It was here among the music scene in Hollywood that Chris’ carreer as a professional musician really began to take off. Chris can be heard performing on both electric and upright bass on several platinum and gold albums with such artists as Carly Simon, Engelbert Humperdinck and Art Garfunkel, as well as on the title track of Rod Stewart’s grammy-award-winning album “Stardust.” He has also done numerous TV show appearances, tours and has co-written a song entitled “Gemini” (with Guitarist Brian Kahanek) which is featured on the video game guitar hero II.
Tim Bulkley – Drums
Tim is known for a musical, intuitive approach to drumming. He grew up taking piano lessons, taking art classes, singing in choirs & studying the drums. His professional career as a musician started early and has stayed a constant for over 25 years. He has played and recorded with artists including Dayna Stephens, Michelle Amador, Goh Nakamura, Evan Francis, Anton Schwartz, The Invisible Cities, John Lester, Postmodern Jukebox, Adam Platt, Stacey Kent, Boz Scaggs, Peter Bernstein, Telepathy, Wil Blades, Dandelion Dance Company and BodyVox Dance. Tim spent the years of 2006 – 2017 living and working in Brooklyn NY & 2000 – 2006 living and working in San Francisco CA. Both have informed and inspired how Tim plays music & makes art. Tim began making visual art in 2008 [ after a long hiatus since high school ] and has enjoyed exploring & growing there as well. He has sold works to several individuals since.