The First Light Sessions #1

Space is limited. Sliding scale – Free to $60. Assure your spot with a paid ticket and help support the work of Fort Mason Art and local artists.

In conjunction with Fort Mason Art’s current exhibition, Anthony McCall: First Light, three notable Bay Area musicians will perform live in the gallery, improvising in response to the solid light works on view. As visitors move through the space, touching and interacting with the cones of projected light, they immerse themselves in these cinematic sculptures and the live music, journeying through and creating their own perspectives of sight and sound. The program is modeled on Four Simultaneous Soloists, a music series organized by David Grubbs for a previous McCall exhibition.

Musicians:

George Brooks (saxophone)

Destiny Muhammad (harp)

Dillon Vado (vibraphone)

“The First Light Sessions - #2” will be performed on Saturday, March 7, 3:00-4:00 pm with a different roster of musicians TBA.

(Saxophone) is an award-winning saxophonist and composer, acclaimed for successfully bridging the worlds of jazz and Indian classical music. He is the founder of seminal Indian fusion groups; Summit with Zakir Hussain, Kai Eckhardt, Steve Smith and Fareed Haque; Bombay Jazz with Ronu Majumdar, Vijay Ghate and Larry Coryell; Raga Bop Trio with Steve Smith and Prasanna; Kirwani Quartet with Pt. Hariprasad Chaurasia and Elements with Kala Ramnath and Dutch harpist, Gwyneth Wentink. His albums, “Lasting Impression” and “Night Spinner”, released on Zakir Hussain’s Moment Records and subsequent recordings “Summit” and “Spirit and Spice” for Earth Brother Music are regarded as groundbreaking work in the realm where jazz and Indian classical music intersect. Brooks began his study of jazz with Count Basie saxophonist, Frank Foster, and continued at the New England Conservatory of Music with George Russell, Joe Allard and Jaki Byard. After graduating, Brooks traveled to India where he met master vocalist Pandit Pran Nath and began his study of Indian Classical Music. In the 1980s Brooks moved to the Bay Area and began his long association with minimalist pioneer Terry Riley while simultaneously immersing himself in the Bay Area blues scene and touring with R & B icon Etta James. As a composer, Brooks has received commissions and grants from the American Composers Forum, EnActe Arts, Natya Dance Theater, Opera Piccola, Navarasa Dance Theater, Intermusic SF, Arts International, California Jazz Conservatory, USArtists, New Music USA, Mosaic America, Real Vocal String Quartet, SFMOMA, Met Life Creative Connections and Gwyneth Wentink. His compositions have been performed by Yo-Yo Ma, members of the Liverpool Philharmonic, and can be heard in the Merchant/Ivory film, “The Mystic Masseur. In 2008 Brooks was a featured soloist on John McLaughlin’s Grammy nominated “Floating Point” CD.

(Harp) is a Recording/Performing Artist | Band Leader | Composer & Producer. Her genre Celtic to Coltrane™ is cool and eclectic with a feel of Jazz & Storytelling to round out the sonic experience. Her collaborations and projects include headlining the Healdsburg Jazz Festival, collaborating with composer Marcus Shelby on Zaccho Dance Theatre’s The People’s Palace, being featured on KQED Podcast & Sunday Music Drop, serving as SFJAZZ Teaching Artist a San Francisco Art Commission Cohort Cultural Ambassador. Additional projects include The Tribute to Native American Jazz Artist Jim Pepper, the new theater work Coretta’s King, created during her Zaccho Dance Black Futures Artist in Residency, and the new album The Destiny Muhammad Trio, Volume Two. Destiny is an Elected Governor of The Recording Academy, San Francisco Chapter, ASCAP Songwriter Awardee, Chamber Music America/Doris Duke Foundation Performance Plus Award Winner, and a California Arts Council Legacy Fellow.

(Vibraphone) is as comfortable laying down Brazilian grooves on drum set as he is improvising with poets and dancers on vibraphone, He is a multi-instrumentalist/producer, most known for co-leading the vibraphone-forward indie-jazz project Heart Matter with vocalist Amy D, who celebrated their first sold-out show at the SF Jazz Center in Spring 2025. Heart Matter is preparing to release their debut album in Summer of 2026. Pursuing an almost spiritual obsession with the trio sound, Dillon is constantly exploring the “vibes trio” format with many esteemed colleagues including Dave King (The Bad Plus) and Kanoa Mendenhall, and drumming/composing for Never Weather, who released their debut album, Blissonance, on Ridgeway Records in 2020. Dillon draws inspiration from his many musical heroes and mentors whom he has had the good fortune to share the stage with many times including Brazilian composers/bandleaders Marcos Silva and Jovino Santos Neto, fiercely committed improvisers like Art Lande, Hafez Modirzadeh and Ben Goldberg, and recording and engineering/pedal steel guru Bruce Kaphan (David Byrne, American Music Club).

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