Sat. 10/31, 2–3:30 pm
| Age | Adult |
| Event Type | Class, Workshop |
| Department | Jazz Curious |
| Day | Sat |
| Instructor | Erika Oba |
| Status | online event, inperson event |
This individual session is part of the 8-week Welcome to Jazz series, an introduction to “how jazz works” for anyone who wants to understand the history of the music, learn how musicians improvise together, and go deeper as a jazz listener and audience member.
Through guided listening, musical demonstrations, and interactive discussion, each session explores a different aspect of jazz, including the blues, song forms based on the Great American Songbook, the roles of instruments in a jazz ensemble, and the language of jazz improvisation, with examples drawn from piano trios to big bands.
No musical experience necessary!
Come once or keep exploring. Each session stands on its own, so you can drop in for this class or join us for other dates in the series.
Welcome to Jazz Schedule
October 3 — Introduction to the Blues
October 10 — Introduction to Swing with guest artist Carrie Jahde
October 17 — What is Groove? with guest artist Jeremy Steinkoler
October 24 — The Great American Songbook
October 31 — What is the rhythm section? — You’re viewing this session
November 7 — Introduction to Big Band Music
November 14 — Introduction to Avant garde jazz
November 21 — Cross-cultural jazz and global music
Consider this our set list. And like any jazz set, there’s always room to improvise—so topics may change a little along the way.
Saturday, October 31, 2–3:30 pm
Erika Oba, $20
Hybrid: in person and online
About Erika Oba
Erika Oba is a composer, pianist/flutist, and educator based in the San Francisco Bay Area. As a composer, she has written works for jazz ensembles, chamber groups, dance, and theater, and has been commissioned by groups including the Del Sol String Quartet, Fresno Philharmonic, Shotgun Players, and Sharp and Fine.
She is active as a performer on both piano and flute and performs with her own groups, the Erika Oba Trio, Rice Kings, and The Sl(e)ight Ensemble. She has performed in a wide variety of ensembles with musicians including Meredith Monk, Peter Apfelbaum, Hitomi Oba, Lisa Mezzacappa, Jean Fineberg, Jon Jang, and Francis Wong.
In addition to maintaining a private teaching studio, she is a private jazz piano instructor for UC Berkeley’s Music Department and a resident music director with Berkeley Playhouse’s Youth Conservatory Program.
In 2018, Oba was a composer fellow with the Gabriela Lena Frank Creative Academy of Music and worked with the Del Sol String Quartet. She was a 2023–24 fellow in the inaugural cohort of the Asian Improv Arts Fellowship program.
As an artist, she is interested in exploring cultural practice in diaspora, performance as ritual, and music as a vehicle for exploring relationships to communities, histories, and the biosphere. She received her BM in Jazz Piano Performance from Oberlin Conservatory and her MA in Music Composition from Mills College.