Alive!, the all women’s jazz quintet, 1975 to 1985, IS BACK! After our 2015 reunion performing at the Michigan Women’s Music Festival, Kuumbwa in Santa Cruz, CA, and at the Freight & Salvage Coffeehouse in Berkeley, CA, we decided we were having too much fun to stop! So, again this summer, 2016, we headlined at the National Women’s Music Festival in Middleton, WI, and returned to the Bay Area to play at the Occidental Center for the Arts an, once again, the Freight & Salvage.
In the past, Alive! was celebrated by the press and public as inspirational, life changing, and amazing. The band, which originated in the San Francisco Bay Area, held a unique and formative role in women’s music and jazz, historically dominated by male instrumentalists. With the help of the late, great Helen Keane (music manager for jazz notables including Bill Evans, Joanne Brackeen, and Paquito D’Rivera) Alive!, with its infectious rhythms, stunning vocals, innovative arrangements, intelligent and heartfelt original compositions, forged a road into the international jazz community, playing in festivals and clubs all across the United States and Canada, to the enthusiastic reception of fans and critics alike. Alive! has four recordings to its credit: Alive!, Call It Jazz, City Life, and a compilation album, Always Alive!.
Original members of the band include Barbara Borden on drum set and percussion, Carolyn Brandy on congas and percussion, Susanne DiVincenzo on acoustic bass and cello, and Rhiannon on vocals and percussion. Sadly, Janet Small, the original pianist for Alive!, passed away in 2010. She is forever treasured by all of us. We are very fortunate to now have Tammy Hall on piano, a favorite musician amongst San Francisco Bay Area and European audiences alike.
We are excited to be reunited and open to playing together as each of our busy schedules allow. We are grateful that our audiences still find the band to be inspirational, life changing, and amazing. We are reserving the months of March and April, 2017 to perform together. To learn more about Alive! and for bookings, please visit alivejazz.com.
