The lineup for SFJAZZ, October 20, 2022

THE BAND


Kurt Ribak – bass, vocals, songwriter, bandleader

When Kurt Ribak (pronounced REE-bok, like the shoes) was about four years old his mother found him dancing to the sound of the dishwasher.  More conventional early musical experiences included playing ‘cello and singing in the San Francisco Boys Chorus (as was the Mighty Combo’s Lincoln Adler), which performed with the San Francisco Symphony and Opera.  Kurt later studied at UC Berkeley, and won scholarships to Berklee College of Music, where he graduated summa cum laude.

Kurt's band features his own compositions.  He says what he’s trying for in his music is “Charles Mingus meets The Meters.  They go to Duke Ellington’s house to jam, and Cachao and Thelonious Monk sit in.”  People often point to influences and similarities in Kurt’s vocal numbers to Jon Hendricks, Mose Allison, and Dave Frishberg.

Kurt’s led his band at the Freight & Salvage Coffeehouse, San Francisco Jazz Festival, Yoshi’s, San Jose Jazz Festival, Nor-Cal Jazz Festival, Fillmore Street Jazz Festival, and Blue Note Napa, and others, including a club where Kurt discovered someone had stashed a loaded .45 handgun in his bass bag.  He’s shared the stage with circus performers, preachers and fire-breathing strippers - but never all three at once.  On the other hand, Kurt was one of the few thirteen-year-old boys with an autographed picture of former SF Symphony conductor Seiji Ozawa in his bedroom.

 

Greg Sankovich,  piano, organ and keyboards

Greg grew up in El Cerrito, CA.  He studied jazz and Latin piano with Al Zulaica, Mark Levine, and Art Lande. From age thirteen Greg was busy in the SF Bay Area with local jazz, club and dance bands.

Greg, Lincoln and Kurt first played together in the UC Berkeley Jazz Ensembles.  After graduation Greg moved to Tokyo, where he lived for over a dozen years, performing with many top Japanese artists.  He has performed and recorded music on over 25 record labels, and has produced music for TV, radio, and film. Greg performs in the SF Bay Area with his jazz-funk project Times 4, bassist Kurt Ribak's groups, and the jazz band Charged Particles.

 

Lincoln Adler, saxophones

Lincoln started playing music at the age of 5, eventually being drawn to the saxophone in high school. He developed his sound playing in Bay Area bands and refined his abilities at the University of California,  Berkeley as a member of the UC Jazz Ensembles. 
Lincoln studied with legendary saxophonist Joe Henderson and local hero Hal Stein. In Los Angeles he became an in-demand session player and composer/producer for TV and film.

Lincoln has performed and recorded with Jeff Goldblum and kd lang.  Lincoln plays regularly with Kurt Ribak and is a member with Greg Sankovich of jazz-funk group Times 4, including multiple appearances at both Yoshi's Nightspots.  He has released five albums under his own name and several with original jazz-funk band Times 4.  Greg and Lincoln co-produced Kurt Ribak’s last two records.


Tom Griesser, sax and clarinet
Tom is one of the busiest reed players on the Bay Area scene.  Tom and Kurt have played together since the 1990s, first meeting when Kurt was part of a house band for jam sessions at Club Deluxe hosted by the late Khevan Lennon-Onaje.   They went on to play together in the 1990s in "Section 8 Project," a band featuring Charles Mingus compositions as well as tunes by Tom and Kurt respectively.  Tom then joined The New Morty Show, a neo-swing band, and currently is active with jazz organ group B3B4, the Marcus Shelby Orchestra, The Cottontails, and other groups.

David Rokeach, drums
A long time Bay Area resident, drummer David Rokeach has been working primarily in the San Francisco and Los Angeles areas for more than 20 years. David toured nationally and internationally with Ray Charles from 1990-91. He has performed/recorded with Aretha Franklin, Patti LaBelle, Aaron Neville, Mavis Staples, Lou Rawls, Dr. John, Grammy winner Joe Henderson, Down Beat Poll winner Mark Murphy, Bluesman Charlie Musselwhite, The George Brooks-Zakir Hussain Group, Wilson Pickett, Linda Tillery, Steve Miller, Joe Satriani, Big Brother and the Holding Company, Joyce Cooling, Maria Muldaur, Calvin Keys, Barry Finnerty, Merle Saunders, David Grisman, Melvin Seals, The Family Stone Experience, Louis Bellson, Wayne Wallace, The Nelson Riddle Orchestra, The San Francisco Symphony, The Atlanta Symphony, The Baltimore Symphony, The Dallas Symphony, Paula West, Brazilian Master Marcos Silva, Bluegrass Grammy winner Alison Brown, Ernestine Anderson, Oscar Brown Jr., award-winning trumpeter Ingrid Jensen, acclaimed composer and Grammy winner, Maria Schneider, Tony, Grammy, Oscar and Emmy Award winner, Rita Moreno, and many more.

David’s recordings have appeared in motion pictures and television shows including Universal's For the Love of the Game, Paramount's What Women Want, Showtime's Seventeen Again, Fox's Say It Isn't So, The Young and the Restless, All My Children, Nash Bridges, The District, The X-Files, Sex and the City, Frasier, The Osbournes, Desperate Housewives, The West Wing, The O.C., LA Doctors, The Chris Isaak Show, and many others.

David teaches at Stanford University and has been a regular faculty member at the Stanford Jazz Workshop, Rhythmic Concepts Jazz Camp West, and Jazzschool / California Jazz Conservatory in Berkeley.