KAT PARRA had her plate full when she enrolled at San Jose State in the mid-1980s. She was a young mom with two kids, navigating through a failed marriage. Not wanting to add to her stress level, she decided to study something “easy” — singing.
She followed that pursuit over piano or guitar, two instruments she’d been playing for years, because singing always had come so naturally for her. She assumed that studying vocals would be a piece of cake. Like most young college students, she had no idea what she was getting into.
She immersed herself in jazz at the school, however, and rose to the challenge. Parra found a mentor in instructor Patti Cathcart (the singing half of the famed Tuck & Patti duo). Cathcart had one piece of advice for the young vocalist, Parra recalls: “Sing your truth.”
That’s pretty much what Parra has done. The Oakland-based Latin jazz vocalist has pursued many styles — Afro-Cuban, Afro-Peruvian and South American folkloric traditions — and the results always have been convincingly heartfelt. She’s released two fine CDs, 2007’s “Birds in Flight” and last year’s “Azucar de Amor,” and shared the stage with such notables as Celia Cruz, Los Van Van and Charlie Hunter.
The 47-year-old singer’s current project is the Sephardic Music Experience, which features new arrangements of Sephardic music (the music of the Spanish Jews, sung in the dying language of Ladino). Parra will present the Sephardic Music Experience at 8 p.m. Saturday at Jazzschool, 2087 Addison St., Berkeley. (If you’ve never seen a concert at Jazzschool, it’s a lovely venue for live music.) Tickets are $15-$20. Contact 510-845-5373 or vwww.jazzschool.com.
ANOTHER SHOT FOR FOXX: Jamie Foxx has accomplished so much in his amazing career. The short list includes winning an Oscar (for 2004’s “Ray”), starring in a hit TV program (“In Living Color”) and scoring a platinum-selling R&B album (2005’s “Unpredictable”). Is anything left for him to cross off his to-do list?
Well, he still needs to prove that he can deliver an entertaining large-scale live show. His 2006 tour stop at HP Pavilion in San Jose was a lifeless dud. He mixed comedy with song that night, trying to play two roles — the raunchy stand-up comedian and the sensitive satin-sheet crooner — and he wasn’t convincing as either.
Still, Foxx is such an awesome talent that Bay Area fans should be willing to give him another shot in concert. They’ll have just that opportunity when Foxx comes to town in support of his latest Top 10-charting CD, 2008’s “Intuition.” Foxx’s “Intuition Tour” is scheduled for 8 p.m. Oct. 10 at Sleep Train Pavilion, 2000 Kirker Pass Road, Concord. Tickets are $48.75-$93.75. Contact 877-598-6659 or www.livenation.com.
SCHOOL’S OUT, HALLOWEEN’S IN: In my house, Halloween is a year-round celebration. It begins Nov. 1 and ends 364 days later, right after all the candy has been handed out. Then, the process repeats.
You might not be as twisted as me — I do, after all, own and cherish all three “Basket Case” films — but it’s still high time you started getting in the Halloween frame of mind. That’s why I’m recommending you make plans to see Alice Cooper in concert.
Cooper’s the king of shock rock, a guy who could still teach Marilyn Manson a thing or two, and he can be counted on to deliver a ghoulish good time. Cooper performs at 8 p.m. Oct. 21 at the Warfield, 982 Market St., S.F. Tickets are $32.50-$52.50. Call 800-745-3000 or visit www.ticketmaster.com.
Read Jim Harrington’s Concert Blog at blogs.mercurynews.com/aei/category/concerts/.
