Growing With an SFJAZZ Family
Photograph by Joseph Fanvu.
Aneesa Strings
Bassist & Vocalist
SFJAZZ High School All-Star Alumna
When Leaders Circle Members wonder about the difference their contributions make, there are hundreds of stories – including this one about Aneesa Strings, who some may recall seeing in performance with bassist and bandleader Christian McBride during his SFJAZZ residency back in the fall of 2017.
The 26-year-old bassist and singer just returned from playing on Los Angeles rapper Duckwrth’s world tour and backing up Blue Note artist José James on a tour that will continue later this summer – and include a night at the SFJAZZ Center.
In between touring and headlining her own shows locally, Aneesa teaches music at the Stanford Jazz Workshop and SFJAZZ School Day Concerts. “I did a show the other day, I’m teaching the kids, and I just came back from the New Orleans Jazz Festival – it’s definitely a crazy lifestyle – but it’s working.”
Aneesa took a break recently to talk about her unique musical journey – and also to say “thank you” to SFJAZZ staff and Leaders Circle donors, for whom she credits with making her career possible.
Raw Talent Discovered Early
“I’m from East Oakland, born and raised,” says Aneesa. While at Westlake Middle School, band teacher Randy Porter, a legend in the local music education circles, realized that Aneesa had a natural gift. Later, at Skyline High School, Aneesa played the Oakland High School Jazz Festival where she was scouted and recruited by Oaktown Jazz band director Khalil Shaheed (another local legend, who passed in 2012), who encouraged her to audition for the SFJAZZ All-Stars.
Enter SFJAZZ
Picture a 17-year-old Aneesa hauling her double bass from the Coliseum BART station to Daly City then walking to the shuttle and through the San Francisco State campus to the rehearsal space – a 1.5-hour commute, one-way, all for a two-hour practice.
It was an exercise in dedication, especially in light of the fact that she felt challenged musically like never before – the SFJAZZ High-School All Stars is an elite jazz program featuring the most promising young musicians from the greater Bay Area.
“[The All-Stars] connected me to young people who took jazz seriously. Before, I was always the best person in my group – at SFJAZZ, I was the worst. People were more advanced in their harmonic and melodic vocabulary, their ability to solo, their knowledge of tunes – it really helped me prepare for the college level of playing.”
Aneesa is unwavering in her assertion that her time in the All-Stars got her into college. “I got into every music program that I applied to, including Berklee College of Music, USC, UCLA, Cal State, Long Beach – and I got scholarships for each. SFJAZZ had such a notable name, and the people who I got to play with were so good, it made my work experience that much more impressive.” She says that without those scholarships, she never would have been able to go to college.
University of Southern California and First Recording
As an undergrad at University of Southern California, Aneesa started picking up gigs in Los Angeles, including playing bass on a popular Spanish-language TV show called “Noches con Platanito.” While meeting her prerequisites and hustling for gigs were enough to keep her busy, Aneesa knew that in order to get to the next level – to get noticed – she needed her own recording.
Aneesa reached out to SFJAZZ Director of Education Rebecca Mauleón and proposed the project. Mauleón (who Aneesa calls “the godmother” of her music career) pulled together her connections and Aneesa secured funding for her first album, “A Shift in Paradigm” through an SFJAZZ trustee.
“It did a lot for me,” she says of the album. “I started being recognized. For the first time, I put myself out there as a singer, and I started getting more singing opportunities.” With the release of the album, Aneesa Al-Musawwir became known as Aneesa Strings.
SFJAZZ gives young people, like me, opportunities we would never have .
Aneesa Strings
Michigan State
After graduating with Bachelor of Music in Jazz Studies, Aneesa earned her Master’s of Music in Jazz Studies at Michigan State – also a full-ride scholarship – studying bass under Rodney Whitaker, whom she had met in Porter’s band class.
While in East Lansing, she became the lead singer of the touring Bebop Spartans Big Band led by Whitaker, and also worked with faculty member Etienne Charles, trumpeter of the SFAZZ Collective and pianist Xavier Davis “who I had met previously through SFJAZZ.” During this time, she wrote more songs, got her first classical voice training, became comfortable fronting a band, and, in her mind, finally became a truly technically skilled bass player and a complete musician.
Professional Musician
Aneesa just wrapped up another recording project Ways, which came out May 31, 2019. It’s a genre-mixing blend of R&B and soul, driven by funky ‘70s-style bass lines, jazzy arrangements and social commentary.
One of the advance singles, “Lovealution,” is a jazz-informed soul tune about ending cultural divisiveness. On another, Sean Jones, former SFJAZZ Collective member, handles the complex, blaring trumpet solos on the boisterous yet hypnotic, “The Awakening.”
When asked what she would say to Leaders Circle Members about why it’s important to support SFJAZZ, Aneesa Strings says, “Man, it’s not just important. It’s necessary. If you have the means to support SFJAZZ – and if you care about the arts – SFJAZZ is so down. People at SFJAZZ are constantly reaching out and giving young musicians – not only young artists and musicians but young people – opportunities they would never have.”
This article is part the SFJAZZ Leaders Circle stories. The Leaders Circle is SFJAZZ’s premier philanthropic group of individuals who believe in the transformative power of the arts.