Music

Oakland’s Grand Lake Theater pays tribute to the vaudeville

Before every 7 p.m. and 10 p.m. weekend screenings at Oakland’s Grand Lake Theater, Gordon Pratt pays tribute to the vaudeville–an act made obsolete by technological advancements in sound. While the ushers are still cleaning up spilled popcorn and the audience is beginning to file in, Pratt plays a few tunes on the pipe organ–a complex musical instrument, which has seen its best days fly by.

Oakland organizations rally behind city’s arts community

After weeks of rain, light from a clear blue sky filtered into the windows of the second-story ballroom at the Starline Social Club in Oakland on Sunday. Artists, musicians and community members walked slowly across the wooden dance floor, eyes fixed on the displays: bright watercolor and acrylic paintings, cassettes of albums by local musicians, ceramics with intricate natural patterns and textures, jewelry and leatherwork. At one end of the display, a rack held coats, dresses, hats and handbags. Near…

Bigger than ever, the Oakland Music Festival is back for nine days

They say if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it but what if your goal is to transform it? After three years of steadily increasing attendance and growing popularity, Oakland Music Festival (OMF) CEO and founder Alfonso Dominguez decided to do something different—change the format of the festively entirely. What started as traditional, one-day music festival has morphed into a nine-day span of performances, panels, workshops and networking events. On Friday, OMF 2016 was officially underway. Over 45 different artists are…