BERKELEY — Taiko master Kenny Endo and renowned jazz drummer Akira Tana will headline the free entertainment at the 63rd annual Satsuki Bazaar and Arts Festival on the weekend of May 19-20 at Berkeley Buddhist Temple.
The event, which is the major fundraiser for the temple, will be held from 3 to 9 p.m. on Saturday, May 19, and from 12 noon to 7 p.m. on Sunday, May 20. The temple is located at 2121 Channing Way near Shattuck Avenue.
The entertainment, which will be presented on Sunday, will also feature the award-winning Portola Middle School Jazz Ensemble from El Cerrito, which will perform under the direction of Tiffany Carrico. Josef Anolin, an Oakland native and stand-up comedian, will emcee the entertainment.
“We welcome everyone to our 63rd annual Satsuki Bazaar and Arts Festival, as we celebrate the next centennial of the Berkeley Buddhist Temple,” said Kiyoshi Katsumoto, co-chairman of the event. The temple celebrated its centennial in 2011.
The bazaar will feature a variety of Japanese, Hawaiian and Asian foods, including sushi, udon, loco moco, kalua pork, curry rice and shave ice, plus American fare such as hot dogs, hamburgers and portobello mushroom burgers. The event will also include a silent auction, arts and crafts, games for children, homemade baked goods, fresh flowers and garden plants for sale, as well as Buddhist literature.
Parking is available at the nearby Brower Center lot on Kittridge Street between Oxford Street and Shattuck Avenue and the UC Berkeley lot at Bancroft Avenue, Fulton Street and Durant Avenue. The temple is located five blocks south of the Downtown Berkeley BART Station.
A portion of the proceeds will go to benefit Alzheimer’s Services of the East Bay in Berkeley, which provides a wide range of services for individuals with dementia, as well as for their families. Since 1989, ASEB has been providing adult day care, family support and education and community outreach services, primarily in Alameda and Contra Costa counties.
For more information, go to the temple website at www.berkeleysangha.org.
About the Artists
Kenny Endo is one of the leading personas in contemporary percussion and rhythm. He is the vanguard of the taiko genre, continuing to pave new paths in this Japanese-style drumming after more than 30 years as a performer, composer and teacher. He has been honored with numerous awards and accolades.
Endo will be performing with Kaoru Watanabe (fue and taiko) from New York; Shoko Hikage (koto) from San Francisco; Abe Lagrimas Jr. (vibraphones, ukulele and drums) from Los Angeles; and Chizuko Endo (taiko and percussion) from Hawaii.
Akira Tana, son of the late Berkeley Buddhist Temple minister Rev. Daisho Tana, has established himself as one of the most sought-after drummers on the international jazz scene. With degrees in East Asian studies from Harvard University and percussion from the New England Conservatory of Music, Tana has performed with Lena Horne, The Manhattan Transfer, Leonard Bernstein, Seiji Ozawa, Gunther Schuller and Charles Aznavour, among many others, with performances on more than 100 recordings. He’s also played at numerous international jazz festivals and has given workshops and clinics at a number of U.S. colleges, including the University of Pittsburgh, University of Georgia, University of Miami, Berklee College of Music and San Francisco State University.
At the Satsuki Bazaar and Arts Festival, Tana will perform with his group Otonowa (“Sound Circle”), which consists of Ken Okada on bass and Masaru Koga on multi-reeds.
The Portola Middle School Jazz Ensemble is made up of talented seventh- and eighth-grade students. This year, they have played at Yoshi’s Jazz Club in Oakland and in concerts at El Cerrito High School’s Performing Arts Theater.
Tiffany Carrico is in her eighth year at Portola Middle School. She is a trumpet player from Indiana, where she studied at Indiana University. After receiving her degree in trumpet and music education, she played with the O’Jays and the Temptations, and in a variety of shows, including “A Chorus Line” and “Chicago.”
Josef Anolin likes to tell jokes that offer audiences fresh perspectives on hot-button issues such as race, class and gender. He has appeared before audiences in the Bay Area, Los Angeles, Oregon, Nevada and Hawaii.
About the Temple
Berkeley Buddhist Temple, which is affiliated with the Buddhist Churches of America, is a Shin Buddhist temple formed in 1911 in Berkeley. It became known as a center of Buddhist education and intellectual thought in the United States during the 1950s and 1960s.
The temple had a key role in the establishment of the BCA’s Buddhist Study Center and the Institute of Buddhist Studies and continues to be active, with its annual Satsuki Bazaar and Arts Festival in May, the Bon Odori in July and the New Year’s service in January.