From May 4-6, 2022, hundreds of well-wishers came to celebrate with the senior pastor of Acts-Full Gospel Church of God in Christ, Bishop Robert (Bob) L. Jackson, as he marked 38 years of service. On May 5, Rev. W.R., “Smokie” Norful Jr. preached the sermon. Norful is an American gospel singer and pianist, best known for his 2002 album, “I Need You Now” and “Nothing Without You,” which won a Grammy at the 47^th Annual Grammy Awards for Best Contemporary Soul Gospel Album in 2004. Norful received his second Grammy in 2015 at the 57^th Annual Grammy awards for his song “No Greater Love,” 10 years after winning his first.

On Saturday, May 7 at 3 p.m., Four Seasons Arts will honor Founder Dr. W. Hazaiah Williams with a piano recital by Dr. Rochelle Sennet. The concert takes place at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. in Berkeley.

Sennet’s May 7 program, entitled “Bach to Black,” features two Partitas by Johann Sebastian Bach, “Four Dances for Boris” by African-American composer Jeffrey Mumford (b. 1955) and “In the Bottoms” Suite by African-American composer R. Nathaniel Dett.

Dr. W. Hazaiah Williams led the concert organization from its beginning in 1958 until his death in 1999, and it is because of his vision that the concert series continues.

Dr. Williams was one of the first African American presenters of a major classical music concert series in the United States. Dr. Williams presented artists of all races and organized racially diverse audiences, and for over 40-plus years in the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond, he introduced to the world some of the finest musicians of our time.

Pianist Dr. Rochelle Sennet is a well-known performer, teacher and scholar. She has performed throughout the world as a soloist and orchestra collaborator and is a sought-after guest lecturer and adjudicator.

Free tickets to this event are available by emailing fsa.info@fsarts.org, calling 510-845-4444 or clicking the “Get Free Tickets” button at www.fsarts.org/2022-founders-concert/.

By Godfrey Lee

Peter Robinson, KALW Radio Arts critic, will be speaking at 7:00 p.m. on Friday, April 22, at the Sausalito Library, 420 Litho St. in Sausalito, on Tin Pan Alley, the New York City epicenter of the music publishing business in the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries.

Robinson will focus his multimedia presentation on the 1920s and 1930s, when the lyrics and rhythms of Tin Pan Alley captured the changing moods of the American public from the heights of the Roaring Twenties to the lows of the Great Depression.

Billie Holiday, Cole Porter, Irving Berlin, Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong, and other songwriters and performers, will be presented during the program.

Robinson is a graduate of Cambridge University (UK) and is a familiar voice to listeners of KALW 91.7, a local National Public Radio station in San Francisco. He is an author and the editor of San Francisco Books & Travel magazine, and teaches memoir writing in Sausalito.

Robinson is president of the San Francisco Literary Society and the events director of the Marin Philosophical Society.

The program is free. For more information, please call (415) 289-4121.