the following article ran in the San Francisco Chronicle newspaper on Sunday, January 8, 2006
THE MUSIC MAN
Andrew Gilbert
Sunday, January 8, 2006
Bumped from a Monday night gig at Keystone Korner in 1980, Larry Kassin's fusion band faced a six-month wait for the next precious slot at San Francisco's premier jazz club. The flutist responded in time-honored Bay Area fashion.
"I decided to start searching for my own venue," says the unassuming Kassin. "It's the Mickey Rooney-Judy Garland thing: Let's put on our own show. I looked around at churches, figuring that they're nice rooms and not used on Saturday night."
He found the ideal space in the Noe Valley Ministry, and a quarter of a century later, he's still putting on his own shows. Kassin started the program on Feb. 8, 1981, with a focus on jazz (Bishop Norman Williams was the apt opening act), but the Noe Valley Music Series quickly became among the most stylistically encompassing presenters in the Bay Area.
With a capacity of 250, Noe Valley Ministry's rectangular, earth-tone sanctuary has played host to a mind-boggling array of artists, including the comedy troupe Culture Clash, accordionist-composer Pauline Oliveros, Warren Zevon, Gamelan Sekar Jaya, guitarist Bill Frisell, oud master Hamza El Din and Scottish fiddler Alasdair Fraser.
While he books numerous out-of-town acts, Kassin takes his responsibility as a community resource seriously, having discovered early on that the space could play a crucial role in an artist's creative life.
Bobby McFerrin made his concert debut at Noe Valley before he went on to venues like the Great American Music Hall and Davies Symphony Hall, developing the solo shows in which he turns the audience into his instrument, and introducing his a cappella ensemble Voicestra.
"He lived in the neighborhood, and he'd just walk down from his house and do the gig," Kassin recalls. "It was his place to try things out, kind of like a big living room."
Noe Valley Ministry has continued to showcase Bay Area musicians developing new ensembles and concepts. For violinist Daniel Hoffman, exposure through the music series was instrumental in the success of the San Francisco Klezmer Experience and his acclaimed band Davka, which blends Ashkenazi themes with Middle Eastern grooves.
"Larry created an opportunity for me to get my music out there," says Hoffman, who recently relocated to Tel Aviv. "He's willing to take risks for what he thinks is good, and that's what's missing in the American artistic world. Somehow he's managed to create a space where noncommercial music can happen on a regular basis."
Hoffman notes that the success of the series stems partly from Kassin's background as a musician. The flutist relishes the opportunity to sit in with a range of artists, and he occasionally presents his own projects.
Kassin kicks off the Noe Valley Music Series 25th anniversary season on Saturday with Doors keyboardist Ray Manzarek and poet Michael McClure for an evening of spoken word and music. Like the 2001 encounter that resulted in the live album "There's a Word!," Saturday's concert will be recorded for CD release.
Other events in Noe Valley's 25th season include Tango No. 9 with the Con Fusion dance company on Jan. 28, the seventh annual San Francisco Bluegrass and Old-Time Festival, Feb. 3-4 and 10-11, and Kassin's improvisation-laced trio with electric bassist Michael Manring and pianist Tom Darter on Feb. 18.
For the first decade, Kassin ran the series as a business, but in 1992 he created the nonprofit organization San Francisco Live Arts, which made soliciting donations and volunteers much easier. In the 1990s, it wasn't unusual for him to present concerts every Saturday, but in recent years he's cut back to about three dozen shows annually.
The Noe Valley Music Series' nonprofit ethos can be seen in Kassin's lack of interest in empire building. He has occasionally sought out larger venues, producing shows at the Cowell and Herbst theaters in San Francisco and the Dance Palace in Point Reyes, but his ambitions run more toward modest schemes to further disseminate Noe Valley concerts than to become a power player on the Bay Area cultural scene.
"I don't have this desire to get bigger," Kassin says. "We have our niche, and I'm fine with that. I'd like to compile a recording that would feature highlights of our series. And I was thinking of trying to do a video series for PBS, 'Live From Noe Valley.' The programs we present are so consistently special, I'd like to share them."
Andrew Gilbert is a freelance writer.
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