Backstage Bay Area
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SFJAZZ has announced the fall/winter 2025 lineup for Fridays Live, its weekly series of live concert broadcasts streamed directly from the SFJAZZ Center to audiences around the world via its video streaming service, SFJAZZ At Home. Premiering every Friday at 7:30 p.m. PT (with encores on Saturdays at 11 am PT and available on-demand the following week), this series features an eclectic mix of world-renowned jazz legends, rising stars, and genre-defying artists performing live from the SFJAZZ Center as part of the 2025-26 Season.
The quartet—Taj Mahal on vocals and strings, Bill Rich on electric bass, Trinidadian drummer Tony D, and keyboardist Jim Pugh—moved with unforced assurance. Pugh shifted between Hammond B-3 and Roland, answering Taj’s phrases with greasy smears or spare fills as needed. Rich and Tony D kept a buoyant pocket that welcomed the island inflections threaded through the set…
Pianist Eric Lewis—better known as ELEW—grew up in a New Jersey household where music wasn't just a hobby; it was the foundation. "I am the fourth generation of classical musicians in my family," he recalls. His great-grandmother ran a neighborhood music school, with four pianos on the first floor and another in the basement. Practicing felt like "just another chore," right alongside washing dishes and mowing the lawn.