A Path to a New Playing Field
Photograph by Ronald Davis
SasHA Berliner
vibraphonist
SFJAZZ High School All-Stars Alumna
Vibraphonist Sasha Berliner was back home in the San Francisco Bay Area for her featured performance at the internationally renowned Monterey Jazz Festival. It was a windy September day and her band, crunched for time, rushed to set up on the outdoor stage between acts.
Realizing that a pedal for her vibraphone had blown out, she took the microphone and asked if anyone in the audience had one she could use for the set. Springing to action, SFJAZZ Education Director Rebeca Mauleón, who’s known Sasha since she was 16, started making calls on her cell to track down the needed piece of equipment.
Mauleón and Berliner have known one other since Sasha joined the SFJAZZ High School All-Star (HSAS) band six years ago as a high school junior.
Even though it’s been three years since Sasha moved on from the All-Stars, she and Rebeca continue to cross paths, as on this day at Monterey Jazz. Eventually, someone came to the rescue, running down the center aisle with a pedal.
Now 21 years old, Sasha is an undergrad in New York, and is one of the most notable young vibraphonist in jazz today.
Sasha has already headlined significant jazz festivals across the U.S. and Canada with her ensemble. She is the first-ever North American winner of the LetterOne Jazz Award (receiving the lone nod from a pool of 900 worthy applicants), and has been published in The New York Times and received media coverage from PBS Television and NPR for her influence in the jazz community.
Her path to this stature was a fiery trajectory that started in Potrero Hill, where she grew up in a musical family and attended the local School of Rock, as a drummer, at age five. After switching instruments to the vibraphone at age 13, Sasha spent two years of Tuesday afternoons commuting from the Oakland School for the Arts (OSA) to play with the SFJAZZ High School All-Stars.
While in middle school, her older brother was playing guitar in the OSA jazz band, and some of his bandmates were playing in the All-Stars. They invited her to their HSAS performance, and backstage she met Director Paul Contos. The experience made a huge impression. “I felt like it was one of the first things I ever really wanted – to push myself as a jazz musician.”
“Flutist Elena Ayodele Pinderhughes was in the program at the time,” remembers Sasha, “and it was really cool to see another woman who was just a couple years older than me who played so well – and I thought, ‘That can be me, too!’ It was very inspiring.” Pinderhughes is a highly sought-after flutist that has performed with Herbie Hancock, Kenny Barron, Esperanza Spalding, Vijay Iyer, Joshua Redman, and many others.
HSAS accepted Sasha on a part-time basis in her junior year even though she had only been playing vibes for four years. “Rebeca was great, and Paul was also encouraging. He saw potential in me. He just knew I had a lot of work to do.”
Sasha Berliner (right) visiting with current SFJAZZ High School All-Stars members Hannah Mayer (left) and Camille Collins (center)
Looking back, Sasha gives a lot of credit to her time with Contos and the ensemble. “It showed me how high the standards can be,” she says. “It prepared me for college. I went into SFJAZZ as one of the weaker links, and I didn’t feel that way in college.”
Now in her final year at The New School, Sasha is thriving in New York, performing gigs in New York City venues and teaching as a faculty member at the MalletLab percussion intensive. She describes touring at jazz festivals across North America with her ensemble as an incredible, eye-opening experience.
“Just to see all these crowds that were so supportive and interested in the music, asking how they can follow me – it made me feel like, ‘You really can make this into a career – and you can do it by playing your own music.’”
Last season, Mauleón called Sasha back to SFJAZZ to perform in the “Artist on the Rise” series and helped with media coverage and publicity for her burgeoning career.
For her part, Sasha is deeply appreciative of all that SFJAZZ has done for her, and she wants supporters to understand the difference SFJAZZ makes in the lives of the next generation of jazz artists:
SFJAZZ is one of the few places with such an extensive education program. There are presenters with maybe one program for up-and-coming musicians – but with SFJAZZ you could be a middle schooler, a high schooler, in college, or you could be post-college. SFJAZZ has programs for them.
“A lot of young people are discouraged from participating in music education because they don’t have enough money,” says Sasha. “And SFJAZZ is very mindful of that. And that’s where we need more support. With their education programs – there’s something for everyone – not only age-wise but also financially. It’s really incredible.”
After releasing her new album in December, Sasha will graduate with her degree in jazz performance and plans on touring Europe this spring with her band to support Azalea, a full-length album of original material she recorded with her touring band. Her quartet includes drummer Jongkuk Kim, keyboardist Chris McCarthy, and fellow All-Stars alum, bassist Kenoa Mendenhall. In an early review from Can This Even Be Called Music, Dæv Tremblay wrote, “the vibraphone and nonchalant swing might give you a “dark jazz” feel, but the album gleefully explores various genres and headspaces, from the aforementioned soft, moody jazz to the modern, alternative one.”
It is no wonder that when Sasha arrived at the Monterey Jazz Festival for her performance she found a young admirer, Hannah Mayer, a current member of the HSAS who wanted to speak with her about her career. The young pianist’s musical path began when she witnessed Sasha playing as the only female musician in the Oakland School of the Arts’ “Messengers” combo. Graciously, Sasha offered advice to the Mayer, knowing that they were all here for each other – and the music.
NOTE: Azalea, is available on iTunes, Amazon Music, Bandcamp (click to hear sample track “The Spotless Mind”), Spotify, Tidal, and CD Baby. For information on Sasha’s current projects and live performances (including the Azalea CD release show on January 17 in NYC) visit her website at sashaberlinermusic.com.
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.