Pianist James Washington performs a set of jazz standards and improvisations for a special Concert at the Cadillac, presented in collaboration with the Tenderloin Museum as a Sounds of the Tenderloin live music program.
Sounds of the Tenderloin & the Concerts at the Cadillac series come together again to produce a performance by James Washington, a talented pianist influenced by classical music and jazz who wields a quiet virtuosity with both standards and improvisations.
A lifelong musician, Washington started working at a young age as a ballet accompanist in New Jersey, Boston, New York, and eventually San Francisco. All the while, he was adjacent to the world of jazz, which increasingly informed his musical practice. He developed a playing style with a rich harmonic vocabulary and complex structure that is clear and soulful. His phrasings and touch are limber, as if learned from a dancer. Over the years, Washington has been heard by thousands in San Francisco in clubs, cafes, churches, and hospitals both as a solo performer and in combos. A longtime Tenderloin resident, Washington will share a set of solo music on the grand piano in the heart of the neighborhood–the lobby of the historic Cadillac Hotel on Friday, April 26th in concert with this year’s “I Love Tenderloin Week.”
