Danny Green and Roberta Donnay at Seville Theater: 2013
Danny Green and Roberta Donnay at Seville Theater: 2013
Danny Green Quintet and vocalist Roberta Donnay performed at the Seville Theater in Normal Heights, San Diego. The evening showcased local jazz excellence - Green's piano trio/quintet and Donnay's sophisticated vocal jazz.
Danny Green
Danny Green is a San Diego-based jazz pianist, composer, and bandleader who's become one of the city's jazz anchors. His piano playing blends traditional jazz with Latin influences, creating music that's sophisticated but accessible.
Green leads various configurations - from trio to quintet - featuring San Diego's finest jazz musicians. His compositions are melodic and harmonically interesting, showing deep jazz knowledge without being inaccessible.
Seeing Green perform in San Diego is experiencing hometown jazz excellence. He's dedicated his career to building San Diego's jazz scene, mentoring young musicians, and showing that you don't need to move to New York to make serious jazz.
Roberta Donnay
Roberta Donnay is a jazz vocalist who brings sophistication and emotional depth to the American songbook and contemporary jazz compositions. Her voice is clear and expressive, her phrasing is intelligent, and her song interpretations reveal new dimensions in familiar material.
Jazz vocal performance requires more than just good singing - it's about interpretation, phrasing, understanding harmony, and connecting emotionally. Donnay excels at all of these.
Her work with the Prohibition Mob Big Band shows her ability to work with large ensembles, but smaller settings like the Seville allow her voice to be featured more intimately.
The Seville Theater
The Seville Theater in Normal Heights is a neighborhood venue that hosts diverse events - concerts, comedy, community gatherings. For jazz, it provides good acoustics and intimate atmosphere without pretension.
Local jazz needs venues like the Seville - places that support the music without requiring massive ticket sales, where musicians can perform for appreciative audiences in settings that serve the music.
Local Jazz Scene
San Diego has a strong jazz community that's often overlooked nationally. Musicians like Danny Green, Peter Sprague, Gilbert Castellanos, and Roberta Donnay maintain high standards, mentor younger musicians, and keep jazz alive locally.
This local scene is crucial for jazz's health. Not every jazz musician needs to be in New York. Local scenes across America keep the tradition alive and make jazz accessible to communities everywhere.
Piano Trio/Quintet Format
Green's various ensemble configurations show jazz's flexibility - a trio (piano, bass, drums) provides intimacy and space, while a quintet adds horns for additional colors and ensemble possibilities.
The musicians in Green's groups are skilled improvisers and ensemble players. Jazz requires both individual expression and collective listening - musicians must be technically skilled and musically sensitive.
Jazz Vocal Tradition
Roberta Donnay works in the tradition of great jazz vocalists - Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan - who made the voice an improvisational instrument equal to horns and piano. This requires understanding harmony, rhythm, and having the confidence to interpret rather than just reproduce songs.
The Verdict
Danny Green and Roberta Donnay at the Seville showcased San Diego's jazz excellence. Green's piano playing and compositions demonstrated why he's a local treasure, and Donnay's vocals showed sophisticated jazz singing at its finest.
If you love modern mainstream jazz, if you appreciate skilled musicians working in the tradition while bringing their own voices, if you value local jazz scenes keeping the music alive, both artists delivered.
Thank you to Danny and Roberta for dedicating careers to jazz in San Diego and for showing that jazz excellence exists outside major cities.