Seventh Heaven: The Sounds of El Cerrito from 1950-2011

Heaven and Earth might go away;
only the music,
only the music,
            only the music
will always remain.

(Translation of a folk tune from the Girl Scout Ditty Bag)

I’m a sucker for a live performance.  

I love listening to the Gaucho band performing on the football field as the sun sets into a warm fall evening. I’ve been known to stop walking down Colusa Avenue when I hear a budding pianist practice. I’m a chump for change when musicians play at the BART station during the holidays.  

I once talked an opera singer into doing a performance at a San Francisco library in exchange for waiving her book fines. “Ms. Queen” gave the performance of a lifetime to my library kids even though her fines totaled less than five dollars. The kids loved it and so did she. We repeated "Mainly Mozart" the following year. It was wonderful.

I’m not particular about the type of musical performance as long as it’s live.

Jazz is fine. Slam poetry rocks. Shakespeare? What’s not to love about Shakespeare? Shakespeare’s tunes cause my toes to tap.

I’ve been known to stop by churches, mosques and synagogues just to listen to a cantor, imam or priest. Seriously. I’m a sucker for a live performance. I’ll put money in the collection plate for the opportunity to listen.

Several weeks ago, my neighbor had a jam session in his garage on a Sunday afternoon. It sounded good, really good.

I mowed the lawn while listening to his band’s music. Rotary lawn mowers added a pleasant “swooshing” sound to a jazz riff. I raked the lawn in syncopated rhythm. My bamboo rake made a fine scratching noise. T’was a fine and peaceful afternoon. Free jazz, a bit of sunshine and the sounds of the city for a backup artist.

I’m a sucker for a live performance and I always was. And there were plenty of live performances on Colusa Avenue in the 1950s and 60s.

Ragnar Obrestad was a gardener and landscaper for El Cerrito High School in 1952. In the evenings and on the weekends he practiced his opera. Ragnar Obrestad was a truly gifted musician, a rich tenor with just the right inflections to his voice. Our neighborhood was the richer for his presence.

Marjorie Illman, our neighbor, painted a portrait of the Obrestad children in their Norwegian hats and dresses. My sister (if I remember correctly) still has this painting. Mrs. Illman was active in the early days of  the Richmond Art Center; I inherited a number of perfectly shaped clay pots when the Illman family moved back to the Puget Sound in Washington. On Marjorie’s 90th birthday, she held a retrospective of her paintings in Port Townsend, WA and a local Norwegian Lodge honored her with a dance.

Nancy Dols began her musical career with me at Harding School, Portola and El Cerrito High School. After majoring in music at UC Berkeley, she moved to Pennsylvania where she and her husband Rusty are still active in live musical performances. They both play the fiddle, though I know that Nancy got her start on the clarinet.

Nancy’s mother, Kay Dols, was our Brownie and Girl Scout leader. She taught us to folk dance on her El Cerrito deck. I’m afraid I never did get the hang of it, although the recording was lively and the other kids sympathetic. Coordination has never been my strength but I love the sound of the music.  

In high school, my musical friends met under a maple tree in our backyard. We initially styled ourselves as the “Lemon Sisters” after a nearby lemon tree in our yard. Our music was baroque, our instruments were wooden recorders and I’d say that we became reasonably good with our fugues and cantatas. We referred to the events as “Water Parties” after Handel’s Water Music. Good clean fun.

But I’m a sucker for a live performance, as I’ve said.

I’m proud that our city is known for the Arhoolie Record label and that the Down Home Music store has live performances on many weekends. And of course, I’m thrilled that Cory Mason brings his talents to the World One Festival every Fourth of July at Cerrito Vista Park. And that Mark Canepa and his family host live events at The Art Village.

When the Berkeley Opera moved to the El Cerrito High School auditorium a couple of years ago, there was nobody prouder than me.  The newly renamed West Edge Opera is frosting on our Gaucho cupcake, in my opinion.

This past Sunday, the West Edge Opera staged a premiere performance of “Caliban Dreams” by Suprynowicz and Moody. Across the street, live jazz drifted on the afternoon air. I may have heard the Gaucho band practicing; certainly its close enough to the opening of football season for them to get started. Down the road, young violists gathered in a recital for their parents. Near the cemetery I thought I heard the echo of Aaron Copland's “Fanfare For the Common Man.”

I’m a sucker for a live musical performance. And one is happening right here in El Cerrito every day. Just give it a listen.

Please see the attached videos of an interview with Marjorie Illman, and the music of Nancy Dols Neithammer and her husband Rusty.

Berkeley/West Edge Opera is now our local company. Catch this YouTube snippet (also attached), but don't forget to subscribe to next season's concert series. We're proud that they are now based at ECHS!