This past Tuesday night I had the opportunity to attend the “East Bay Grease Benefit for Bruce Conte” who is battling leukemia . The benefit was held at Yoshi’s in Oakland and was produced by “Soul Sisters Productions” (Tracy Turner-Pain and Susan Mills) and David K. Mathews. First of all let me say that Tracy, Susan, and David did a remarkable job in putting this Benefit together. The show moved quickly with little down time in between sets, which in and of itself was quite a task given all the artists that donated their time for the cause. Available for purchase to the fans were signed posters by all the artists in attendance, which went toward the benefit, in my opinion a very nice touch. And many artists donated their CD’s for sale to raise additional monies. Once again, great job Tracy, Susan, and David.
As for the Benefit concert itself, I must say it was nothing short of outstanding. A who’s who of Bay Area Musicians showed up to perform Artists in attendance were as follows: The Ray Charles Project (David K. Mathews, Deszon Claiborne, Glenn Walters, & Tony Lindsay), Bobby Vega, Clifford Coulter, Chester “CT” Thompson, Deszon Claiborne, Elvin Bishop, George Brooks, Greg Errico, Jeff Tamelier, Jonnie Bamont, Karl Perazzo, Louis Pain, Lydia Pense, Linda Tillery, Mic Gillette, Mike Sasaki, Nate Ginsberg, Rick Baily, Ron E. Beck, Rick Stevens, Renato Caranto, Tom Coster, and Tom Poole. The musicianship of these artists made this an incredible music event, and the sold out audience, many of them musicians themselves, were on their feet most of the evening. For me, the highlight of the evening was Linda Tillery. I have not seen here perform in many years, but her voice is still powerful, and she commands the stage.
Bruce himself was on stage performing with many of these artists. Given what he is going through, he looked and sounded great. For those of you that missed the show, and would like to contribute to help in Bruce’s battle please go to www.soulsisterspdx.com or www.towerofpower.com
For those of you on facebook you can see photos of the event at https://www.facebook.com/events/365685780225797/
