After redoubling efforts to provide services for the needy throughout the pandemic, the social justice organization Glide Foundation, which operates Glide Memorial Church, suffered its own season of loss this summer with the death of San Francisco poet laureate and Glide co-founder贾尼斯Mirikitani. But her Aug. 15 memorial outside the Tenderloin church, though limited due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, also marked a rebirth, with the first performance by the Glide Ensemble choir in 16 months.
On Thursday, Nov. 18, Mirikitani’s creative spirit will reverberate again at theGlide Annual Holiday Jam: Still We Rise, an in-person and live-streamed benefit concert at the Masonic in San Francisco. Featuring the Glide Ensemble and the Change Band, the lineup also includes two local Grammy Award-winning artists, blues renegadeFantastic Negrito和传奇歌手鲍比·麦克弗林（Bobby McFerrin）。这是合唱团自2020年初以来与变革乐队的首场演出，该乐队失去了长期的音乐总监，老将爵士乐和布鲁斯多乐观主义者克利福德·库尔特（Clifford Coulter），就在Mirikitani之后几周。
For vocalist and actor Vernon Bush, who has directed the Glide Ensemble gospel choir since 2016 and has stepped in to run the Change Band, the event represents “coming full circle.”
“The improvisational spirit really reflects what we do at Glide,” Bush said. “Whatever’s going on in the moment, you deal with it. One of the most influential things I learned from Bobby is that the present is perfect. He forces you to be with it, and he forces himself to be with it. Let’s be present.”
McFerrin, a 10-time Grammy winner and a 2020 National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master, was a regular presence at Glide when he lived in San Francisco in the 1980s; even after moving to New York, he often stopped by when he was in town. Then he moved back to the Bay Area with his wife, Debra, in 2016 and began making his presence felt once again.
In late September, McFerrin played a weekend run at Freight & Salvage, where he is scheduled to teach Circlesong workshops Mondays starting Nov. 29 through the end of January. There at the Berkeley venue, several of Bush’s bandmates in the jazz vocal ensemble SoVoSo performed with McFerrin, who also made the audience part of the show, prompting them to sing interwoven melodies. A master of improvisation, he kept adjusting the music to the moment, like when “he spotted Linda Ronstadt in the audience and started singing ‘Blue Bayou,’” Bush said.
“就像您在他的客厅里。他真的依靠在舞台上支持他的人。这就是其中的特殊部分，什么都没有创造音乐，无论发生什么，”布什继续说道。“（在）观众总是参与的每场Bobby音乐会。”
Fantastic Negrito, a.k.a. East Bay singer-songwriter Xavier Dphrepaulezz, has long admired the social justice work carried out by Glide. The chance to support the cause, coupled with the opportunity to collaborate with McFerrin, proved irresistible.
他说：“上帝与人交谈。”“他是一种乐器 - 步行，生活，破碎，有机乐器 - 与地球和宇宙的声音相处。在有音乐或演讲之前，有像鲍比这样的人来发出声音，是人类的配乐。”
In joining forces with the Glide Ensemble, Fantastic Negrito adds a jolt of blues power to a community that’s managed to stay connected despite the many months they weren’t able to sing together.
在大流行之前，合奏每周进行一次排练，并在星期日进行表演，几乎没有时间进行社交。布什说，现在，在大流行期间，尽管滞后时间使通过Zoom进行排练，但他们的每周在线会议有助于加强该小组的联系。
“We got a chance to really know each other and got to know everybody’s name. Some people were totally by themselves, so it was a lifeline,” he said. “It was a long road getting here. Everyone is so elated to be singing together, in the same place.”
Glide年度假期果酱：我们仍然崛起：下午5:3011月18日，星期四。$ 50- $ 100。共济会，加利福尼亚街1111号，S.F。415-674-6145。glide.org/holidayjam
Editor’s note: The name of Janice Mirikitani, the late co-founder of Glide Memorial Church and Glide Foundation, was misspelled.