Campus is all that jazz

300+dpi+Rick+Nease+illustration+of+jazz+musician.+%28The+Detroit+Free+Press%2FMCT%29

MCT

300 dpi Rick Nease illustration of jazz musician. (The Detroit Free Press/MCT)

Louis LaVenture,
Sports and Campus Editor

The tunes will be plentiful on Saturday at Cal State East Bay’s Pioneer Amphitheater when several well-known musicians take the stage at the 5th annual Oakland Jazz Festival.

Kem, Eric Benet, Lalah Hathaway, Euge Groove, Peter White and Pete Escovedo & The Family will play their classics, some covers and new music from recent projects at the East Bay festival. All of the featured artists receive regular radio play and in the last two years Hathaway has racked up two Grammy Awards. In 2014 she won the Best R&B Performance for “Something” with Snarky Puppy and this year she won the 2015 Best Traditional R&B Performance for “Jesus Children” with Robert Glasper Experiment and Malcolm-Jamal Warner who is best-known for his role as Theo Huxtable on the award-winning The Cosby Show.

Benet is the former husband of actress Halle Berry and is best known for his 1999 hit “Spend My Life with You” featuring Tamia, that reached the number one spot on United States Billboard R&B chart. Kem is a soulful R&B crooner that has also found success in particular with his two singles “Why Would You Stay” and “Share My Life” off the “Intimacy: Album III” LP in 2010 which both reached the top 20 Billboard U.S. R&B charts.

Pete Escovedo is a Bay Area native, born in Pittsburg, and will also have a celebration of sorts for his 80th birthday that passed on July 13. Escovedo is a true musician and along with his brother Coke played in the Carlos Santana Band for many years.

His family has gotten in on the act as well, his daughter Sheila E., has topped the charts with many of her electronic freestyle R&B style songs. Shelia E. played with artists like George Duke, Lionel Richie, Marvin Gaye, Herbie Hancock, and Diana Ross before she was 30. The Oakland native also famously collaborated with Prince on many of the Purple Rain songs for the movie in 1984.

His son Michael was also featured on The Wayne Brady Show and he has two other children and several siblings in the music industry. Michael Escovedo is the biological father of Nicole Richie who was raised by music icon R&B singer Lionel Richie.

Steven Eugene Grove known as Euge Groove, a jazz saxophonist from Maryland, will also take the stage on Saturday. Groove has played saxophone for many well-known artists and is mostly known for his role in the band Tower of Power where he took over for longtime T.O.P. saxophone player Richard Elliot.

There will also be food, drinks as well as games and activities for attendees to experience. The doors will open at 10 a.m. and tickets are still available online and by phone.