4pm, Sunday, Jan. 17, 2027

Paramount Theatre, Oakland

Tickets on sale this November!

Oakland’s largest civic and cultural event honoring Martin Luther King Jr., returns to the Paramount Theatre for its 23rd anniversary.

The 23rd annual event is led by creative / musical director Terrence Brewer, with a theme of The Rhythm of Resistance: Songs of Hope, Transformation, and Triumph — an artistic tribute to the life, legacy, and continuing relevance of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The concert curates a sacred and celebratory space where Dr. King’s enduring legacy of the Beloved Community intersects with the vast, radiant landscape of the Black American musical diaspora.

Featured Artists

  • Proclaimed by long-time music scribe, David Becker (SF Examiner), as the San Francisco Bay areas #1 Jazz Guitarist, Multiple-Award winning guitarist Terrence Brewer is a first-call and in-demand bandleader, record producer, concert performer, studio musician, and one of the San Francisco Bay area’s foremost and sought after music educators. Brewer has produced and released 11 nationally acclaimed albums on the record label Strong Brew Music he started in 2006. Don’t Worry ‘Bout Me, Brewer’s 11th album, a duet album with Jazz/Blues vocalist Pamela Rose pays tribute to the iconic duet albums by Ella Fitzgerald and Joe Pass.

    Combined with being an in-demand record producer for himself and others, Brewer has lead his various groups in performing to sold-out crowds at the 62nd and 52nd Annual Monterey Jazz Festival, the world famous Yoshi’s at Jack London Square, Yoshi’s San Francisco, SFJAZZ Jazz Festival, and countless other venues. When Brewer is not touring regionally and nationally, he is the Camps Director for the Jazz Camp West and Jam Camp West programs presented by Living Jazz, he serves as the Jazz Studies Department Chair for the San Francisco Conservatory of Music (Pre-College program), teaches music history and and music performance at San Francisco University High School, and has been a lead teaching artist, curriculum creator, presenter, and performer for SFJAZZ for over 20 years. 

    Winner – SF Weekly Music Award – Best Jazz Artist

    Winner – Oakland Chamber of Commerce Artist of the Year

    Winner – Bay Area Blues Society “Best Jazz Group” Award

  • Johnaye Kendrick is a three-time Grammy® Award-winning vocalist, composer, arranger, orchestrator, and multi-instrumentalist whose artistry is rooted in jazz tradition, curiosity, and creative exploration.

    A graduate of the Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz, Kendrick has cultivated a distinctive musical voice as both a performer and composer. She has released two albums, HERE and FLYING, on her independent label, johnygirl.

    As a member of the acclaimed vocal ensemble säje, Kendrick has collaborated with celebrated artists including Jacob Collier, Terri Lyne Carrington, Nate Smith, and Ambrose Akinmusire. Her creative work has been supported by Chamber Music America, South Arts, and Jack Straw.

    A passionate educator, Kendrick serves as Director of Jazz Studies and Associate Professor at the University of Maryland, where she is committed to nurturing individuality, inspiring collaboration, and empowering the next generation of jazz artists.

  • James T. Lane hails from Philadelphia, PA. West End: The Scottsboro Boys, A Chorus Line (revival, Palladium Theatre). Broadway: A Wonderful World:The Louis Armstrong Musical (Louis Alternate ), Chicago (Billy Flynn), Kiss Me, Kate (Paul), King Kong, The Scottsboro Boys (Ozie Powell/Ruby Bates), A Chorus Line (Richie Walters). National Tours: Ain’t Too Proud: The life and Times of the Temptations, Jersey Boys, Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella,Fame. Regional: Blues for an Alabama Sky, (Virginia Stage Company), Disney and Cameron Macintosh’s Mary Poppins (Bert, Ain’t Misbehavin (Drury Lane Theatre), The Wiz (Tin Man, Broadway At Music Circus and The Old Globe), Disney’s The Little Mermaid (Sebastian, The Muny, A.C.T and Dallas Theater Center). Encores!/Off Center Theatre: Promenade, Grand Hotel, Don’t Bother Me, I Can’t Cope. Concerts: Carnegie Hall with The New York Pops, Ottawa Symphony and many more. James is the creator of a one-man show entitled”Triple Threat” that played Off-Broadway in New York City. Lane is the creator of  “Louis Tonight!”, a one man show about the life and music of the great jazz legend, Louis Armstrong. Mr. Lane teaches master classes lectures and brings his talents to communities all over the world, teaching and performing music, theatre, and dance. Instagram: @jamestlane www.jamestlane.com

Performances by

  • Founded in 1986, the Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir (OIGC) inspires joy, unity, and belonging through the powerful traditions of Black gospel and spiritual music.

    Now bringing together more than 300 singers across multiple choirs, OIGC celebrates the richness of diverse faiths, cultures, races, and generations. Under the leadership of dynamic Artistic Director Terrance Kelly, the award-winning choir has captivated audiences throughout the Bay Area and around the world with its extraordinary harmonies, uplifting spirit, and stirring gospel repertoire.

    A treasured Bay Area institution, OIGC was recently named “Best in the Bay” by Oakland Magazine and has been honored by civic leaders for its four decades of cultural and community impact. Its growing family of ensembles—including the Oakland Interfaith Youth Choir, Oakland Interfaith Kids Choir, Oakland Interfaith Community Choir, and the Oakland Youth Chorus—extends its mission through music, education, youth development, and community.

    Before every performance, OIGC singers join hands and offer wishes of peace, joy, love, and hope to everyone in attendance.

    Then they sing—and the room comes alive.

    For 40 years, OIGC has used the transformative power of gospel music to bring people together, lift spirits, and remind us that we are all part of the same circle.

  • RootED is Living Jazz’s tuition-free music, dance, and performance education program for 26 East Bay under-resourced public elementary schools serving over 1600 youth.

    For more than four decades, Simon Russell has built a distinguished career rooted in soul, jazz, blues, funk, R&B, and gospel. A versatile pianist, vocalist, composer, and bandleader, Russell has shared stages and collaborated with an extraordinary range of artists, including Pete Escovedo, Sheila E., the James Brown Band, El DeBarge, Tuck & Patti, Elvin Bishop, Rose Stone, and Tony Lindsay.

    His career spans international performances, recordings, and collaborations across multiple musical traditions. Equally committed to music education, Russell has spent nearly two decades inspiring and developing the next generation of musicians.

    Today, he continues to create, perform, and develop new musical projects while founding the Descendants of Soul Collective, connecting exceptional professional musicians through a shared commitment to artistry, community, and the preservation of musical culture.

  • Samara Atkins has been dancing and teaching hip-hop since 1999 and finds pure joy in sharing her love and passion of dance with others. She has been technically trained in jazz, ballet, and hip hop, while her main focus has predominantly been street styles.

    Not only has she been a choreographer since the age of 14 and directed a student-run dance company at Howard University while attending, but has performed in various dance companies including New Style Motherlode, Diamond Dance Company, Neopolitan, Dance 10, St. Mary's Dance Ensemble, Vizion Performance Team, Carla Service's Dance-A-Vision.

    She currently is a dance teaching artist through Destiny Arts Center and is Co-Founder and Associate Artistic Director of Mix'd Ingrdnts, where her influences of street dance have been developed.

    Traveling to Mexico, China, Thailand, Nepal, and Vietnam to showcase, teach, and share her love of dance with other cultures, her passion is to perform and teach youth and the community to freely express themselves with confidence.

    She has choreographed for Mix'd Ingrdnts, global artist Dahrio Wonder, local artists The Alphabet Rockers, Sara Lovell, Jonn Hart, Michelle Martinez, Moesoul, and Judit, and also has back-up danced for Nile Rodgers and the band Chic. Samara has also danced for LUAM, whose choreographer credits include Busta Rhymes, Nelly Furtado, and Rihanna. She teaches adult and youth hip-hop classes around the Bay Area and also is currently a hip-hop columnist for Dance Studio Life Magazine.

  • Cael Dueñas-Lara, a Mexican-American teenager born, raised and currently residing in East Oakland is a poet whose writings center on debunking dominant narratives of Black and Brown youths in Oakland who are victims of over-surveillance, bias, and constant oppression.

    Cael was the youngest ever to receive the Oakland Youth Poet Laureate award in 2025 at the age of fourteen sponsored by The Oakland Public Library. Now a junior in high school his writings continue to focus on flipping perceptions into new perspectives and breaking free from the deficit mindset that many people in Oakland have been born into, his poems are for all audiences and with them, he hopes to teach and inspire everyone of all ages, shades, mindsets, and beliefs, while learning from these audiences as well, as he believes we are all educators of love and kindness.

The MLK House Band

  • Tammy L. Hall is an award winning pianist/composer/educator/collaborator/musical director who’s career spans some 40+ years. Some of those collaborations include performances and work with SFJAZZ Organization, the Oakland Public Conservatory, Oaktown Jazz Workshop, Dance Mission Theater and Monterey Jazz. Hall has worked with a wide array of vocalists and instrumentalists, including the late Etta Jones, Denise Perrier, Ernestine Anderson and Ray Drummond; Ms. Loretta Devine, Dr. Kim Nalley, Antoinette Montague, Leberta Lorál, Susanne Mentzer, Marcus Shelby, Tiffany Austin, Terri Lyne Carrington, Kristen Strom, Ashley Jemison, Houston Person, Laurie Anderson, Gerald Clayton, Linda Tillery, Holly Near, Vicki Randle, Barbara Dane, Sylvia Cuenca, Ruth Davies and Kevin Goldberg.

    This year Tammy made her symphonic debut with the Monterey Symphony Orchestra in their Love Letter (to New York) series - playing Duke Ellington’s the New World A-Comin’ piano concerto. She continues to curated and direct the gospel set at the Monterey Jazz Festival. Tammy also received the California Arts Council’s 2026 Legacy Award for the Central Coast counties.

  • Glen Pearson is a respected pianist, arranger and composer who has worked with and been sought after by some of the great talents of the day. Pearson was Musical/Band Director for the World Renowned “Boys’ Choir of Harlem” for eleven years, and he served as principle keyboardist and arranger for Grammy award-winning singer/songwriter Regina Belle. He also has been pianist and orchestrator for such notables as trombonists Steve Turre and Delfeayo Masalis; vocalists Jimmy Scott, Earnestine Anderson, Melba Moore, Diane Reeves, Marlena Shaw, Kevin Mehagony and Will Downing; vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson; and, saxophonists James Moody, Frank Morgan, Gerald Albright, and Chico Freeman. He has also toured and recorded with the Count Basie Orchestra and can be heard on their latest Grammy Award Winning release "Count Basie Orchestra, Swings the Blues" Additional recording credits include the award-winning album by percussionist Babatundae Lea.

    A highly sought after pianist in the San Francisco Bay Area, Pearson has also performed at such diverse and prestigious venues as New York’s Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center and the Concertgebow in Amsterdam Holland. In addition, he has worked both on and off Broadway with such notables as tap dancers Savion Glover and Gregory Hines; playwright Arthur Miller; actor Patrick Stewart, and director George Wolfe. 

    A native of Oakland, California, Pearson is currently the Chair of the Department of Music at College of Alameda. He holds a Bachelor of Music degree from San Francisco State University as well as a Master of Arts degree from New York University.

  • Gary Brown is a San Francisco Bay Area bassist, composer, producer, and educator whose work encompasses jazz, Brazilian music, fusion, R&B, Latin music, and world music. A longtime collaborator with Flora Purim and Airto Moreira, he has performed and recorded internationally as a member of Fourth World.

    His extensive performance and recording credits include Pharoah Sanders, Joe Lovano, Ravi Coltrane, Javon Jackson, Bennie Maupin, Dianne Reeves, Ernie Watts, George Duke, Roy Ayers, Patrice Rushen, Carlos Santana, Jeff Beck, Steve Winwood, Narada Michael Walden, Pete Escovedo, Toninho Horta, Néstor Torres, and the Monterey Symphony, among many others.

    In addition to his work as a performer, Brown has composed for film and television and taught through SFJAZZ Education, Oakland Public Conservatory of Music, UC Berkeley Jazz, Marin Country Day School, and Healdsburg Jazz. He continues to perform, record, compose, produce, and mentor emerging musicians.

  • Javier Navarrette is an Oakland-based musician, arranger, composer, percussionist, educator and music producer, and has been a contributor to the legendary Afro-Caribbean musical traditions here in the Bay for over 40 years. Javier’s highly-acclaimed productions are the Brooklyn Basin Modúpue series, and currently The Annex Sessions in El Cerrito. Bringing together the Bay Area’s finest musicians from the Afro-Latino folkloric, Salsa and Latin Jazz scenes, he has created projects such as Javier Navarrette’s Socially Distant Friends and The Charangüi Project. 

    Javier has developed the youth program and teaches with Oakland’s Living Jazz Children's Program and The Freight’s Children's Education program. He has taught with Sheila E at the Oakland High Jazz Festival, the Oakland Youth Program (OYC) and Cuba Caribe Moving Juntos program.

    Javier has also performed with greats such as Aretha Franklin at her last show at the Oakland Coliseum, Los Van Van (Cuba), Pedrito Martinez, and has recorded on three Grammy-nominated albums with Oakland-based John Santos and the Machete Ensemble/Folklorico Kindembo, and currently is a member of Bobi Céspedes band and folkloric group.

    Javier Navarrette has been a member of many Oakland and Bay Area musical groups such as: Jesus Diaz QBA; Linda Tillery Cultural Heritage Choir; Anthony Blea y su Charanga; Louie Romeros Mazacote; Los Mocosos; Cuban Cowboys; Machina Soul.

  • James Mahone is an active performer and instructor. He began his musical journey almost 30 years ago in Monterey, California, soaking in the influence of its rich music scene. He went on to California State University Northridge to study classical and jazz saxophone under Bill Caulkins. James was a member of the group Black Note and recorded albums for Columbia, GRP/ Impulse, and Red Records.

    James currently lives in the California Bay Area where he performs with many talented musicians (Marcus Shelby, Faye Carol, Mitch Butler, Mike Olmos, Erik Jekabson, Tiffany Austin, Akira Tana, Dana Salzman, Glen Pearson, Destiny Muhammed, Azure McCall, Jaz Sawyer, Terrence Brewer, Amina Scott, Sam Bevan, Josh Milgrom, Malachi Whitson, Grant Levin, Giulio Xavier Cetto, David Ewell, Hamir Atwal, Tim Angulo, Leon Joyce, etc.).

  • A native of the Bay Area, Deszon Claiborne began his musical career at the early age of ten. Virtually self taught in the beginning, he went on to study with world-renowned drummers such as Richard Peterson, Rick Quintinal (Chuck Brown school of Drumming),  James Levi , Ralph Humphrey and Kenneth  Nash , an experience which  provided him with a strong foundation in jazz, rhythm & blues and world music. He has had the pleasure to perform or record with the following artists: Peter Apfelbaum, Don Cherry, Charles Brown, Angela Bofill, Les McCann, Dr. Lonnie Smith, Robben  Ford, Boz Scaggs, Greg Howe, Oz Noy, Henry Butler, Giovanni Hidalgo, Kai Eckhardt, John Handy, Taj Mahal, Donald Harrison, Jovan Jackson,Ernie Watts, Bill Bell, Jeff Chambers, Frank Martin, Carl Wheeler, Rodney Franklin Clairdee,Fred Ross, Tony Lindsay,Tony Monaco,Doug Carn,Charlie Musselwhite, Nathan East, Bob Weir, Nguyen Le, Rock Hendrix, Carl Lockett,Guthrie Govan, Azar Lawrence  and many others. 

    In addition to his performing and recording credits, Deszon is also an educator. He has taught both private and group lessons to students of all ages and levels, youth to adult, and beginning to advanced.  Deszon has also participated in music education programs in the Bay Area over the last 20 years, including Berkeley Jazz School, Jazz Camp West, Stanford Jazz Camp, Lafayette Summer Music camp, Moody’s Jazz Camp, Just Say Jazz, and Adventures in Music.

  • Dubbed by the Oakland Public Conservatory’s Executive Board President Steve Grevious as “An Unsung National Treasure” Trumpeter, Composer, and Arranger Christopher Lowell Clarke attended The School for the Creative and Performing Arts in Cincinnati, Ohio. During his tenure there, he actively participated in the Symphonic Orchestra, Concert Band, and Jazz Ensemble.

    Clarke’s extensive performance credits include notable musicals such as The Music Man, Peter Pan, Ain’t Misbehavin’, Sophisticated Ladies, and The Wiz. He also had the privilege of collaborating with esteemed guest artists Bobby Shew and Joe Lovanno.

    Following his high school education, Clarke pursued his musical studies at the College Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati. During his time there, he had the opportunity to perform alongside renowned jazz musicians such as Joe Henderson, Slide Hampton, Byron Stripling, John Fedchock, and Gordon Brisker. In 1992, Clarke was awarded the prestigious Fish Middleton Young Emerging Jazz Artist Scholarship, which culminated in his performance at the East Coast Jazz Festival in Rockridge, Maryland.

    Eager to establish himself in the professional music industry, Clarke opted to leave school in 1993 and embarked on a four-year journey with Carnival Cruise Lines, residing in Atlanta, New York, Los Angeles, and Puerto Rico. In 1997, Clarke relocated to San Francisco, where he promptly made a significant impact on the local jazz scene. He has since established himself as a regular performer, collaborating with esteemed musicians such as Bishop Norman Williams, Herbie Lewis, and Eddie Marshall.

Experience The MLK Tribute

History of Living Jazz’s MLK Tribute

In 2002, Living Jazz created In the Name of Love, The Annual Musical Tribute Honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The MLK Tribute is an extensive civic and cultural event bringing our diverse community together to honor, through music, the teachings and memory of the great Dr. King. “In the Name of Love’ showcases the culmination of the Living Jazz Children's Project, providing free music education for Oakland public elementary schools, alongside outstanding local and international talent. The Oakland Citizen Humanitarian Award, created by Living Jazz, is presented by such prominent politicians such as Congresswoman Barbara Lee and highlights the work of an outstanding Oakland resident working tirelessly to make a difference. Previous artists have included legendary performers such as Mavis Staples, Jennifer Holiday, Ledisi, Goapele, the Gospel Hummingbirds and Toshi Reagon, along with Bay Area local treasures including the Dynamic Ms. Faye Carol, Marcus Shelby, Jeanie Tracy, and more.