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San Francisco Chronicle
24-05-2025
- Entertainment
- San Francisco Chronicle
Rob Reich, pianist and accordion player with a regular gig at S.F.'s Zuni Café, dies at 47
Weekend diners at Zuni Café in San Francisco walked in to the jazz stylings of Rob Reich either at the grand piano by the door or strolling with his accordion — a timeless presence with a timeless sound. Reich, a versatile composer, bandleader and solo performer who could cover a full century of jazz styles, was booked through Memorial Day weekend at Zuni. But the piano will be silent, with an arrangement of flowers on top, and there will be no accordion standing by on the floor. Reich died May 15, at Orr Hot Springs Resort in Ukiah (Mendocino County), where he was a regular visitor to its meditative waters in a redwood forest environment. Paramedics were summoned after he was found unresponsive by staff in one of the resort buildings, and he was pronounced dead at the scene. He was 47. A final cause of death is pending a full autopsy by the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office coroner. Reich's parents, Richard and Linda Reich of Sarasota, Fla., declined to speculate, other than to say he had no known medical condition that would have caused their son's sudden death. 'Rob brought tremendous pleasure and joy to the restaurant,' said Gilbert Pilgram, owner of Zuni. 'Aside from being a talented musician, he was one of those people who everybody loved.' Reich had been in the midst of composing the annual summer performance of Circus Bella, a one-ring circus of acrobats and aerialists set to an original score by Reich. It is performed by the Circus Bella All Star Band, a six-piece ensemble with Reich conducting and playing piano, accordion, glockenspiel and about anything else that can produce sound in an orchestra. 'Rob's ability to create music in such a rainbow of styles was unparalleled,' said Abigail Munn, co-founder, executive director and ringmaster of Circus Bella. 'He was prolific in the range of .genres and quality of music that he was able to write.' Reich's music was superlative, his father said, noting that Rob had learned the piano at age 3 by sitting down of his own volition to play 'Mary Had a Little Lamb' — 'just out of the blue, with no sheet music because he could not read yet.' It soon became obvious that Reich was the rare child with the gift of perfect pitch. He was on his way to a life in music, a journey that reached a peak public moment in San Francisco when he was called on to play the accordion at the City Hall inauguration of Mayor Daniel Lurie in January. Accordion is the official city instrument, and Reich played the official city ballad, 'I Left My Heart in San Francisco.' Reich was equally at ease playing accordion on call with the San Francisco Symphony at 2,700-seat Davies Hall, and playing at 30-seat Bird & Beckett Books & Records. He would fill the Glen Park store for his regular gig, with a $20 admission fee. He also fronted his own band, Rob Reich Swings Left, and could put together a chamber music quartet upon request. In a good week, he played eight to 12 gigs. 'Rob was beyond category,' said Eric Whittington, owner of Bird & Beckett. 'He played original compositions that are Rob Reich-like — some are dreamy and atmospheric, and some are rambunctious. He was just a very charming and idiosyncratic guy.' When the COVID-19 pandemic shut down live performance, Reich kept playing, drawing his audience to online shows from the house he owned in East Oakland and shared with his daughter, June Price, 15. 'He didn't prefer doing one thing over another,' his father said. 'He loved having solo gigs. He loved having gigs with one or two people. He loved small venues and large venues. He had a great smile and a unique style.' Robert Erich Reich was born March 8, 1978, in Syosset, on New York's Long Island. His dad, Richard, was a manufacturing rep who commuted to New York City on the Long Island Railroad for 35 years. Once Rob's gift for music was discovered, he took lessons on the piano and guitar. At Syosset High School, he played piano and drums in the orchestra and guitar in the jazz band. In his junior year, he applied to Long Island High School for the Arts, a public school program that allowed him to go to Syosset High in the mornings and spend his afternoons studying music. He also hosted a classical music radio program at Syosset and played guitar in a hard rock band called Moonshine. After graduating in 1996, he was accepted to the Oberlin Conservatory of Music in Ohio. He majored in composition and graduated in 2000. At the time, there was an Oberlin migration west, and Reich joined it, driving out in a 1997 Volkswagen Jetta. He settled in Oakland because it was cheaper than San Francisco and learned his way around the Bay Area by doing delivery for the Balloon Lady. He also delivered singing telegrams. 'He became part of numerous bands, different types of music, etcetera, etcetera,' his dad said. Reich's introduction to the local scene was on piano in jam sessions featuring graduate jazz students at Mills College in Oakland. After he heard Dan Cantrell play accordion, Reich picked up that instrument and taught himself, said Dave Ricketts, a bandmate in Gaucho, a traditional six-piece jazz band that ranges from the hot jazz of Louis Armstrong to the gypsy jazz of Django Reinhardt. For 18 years, Gaucho was the Wednesday band at Amnesia, a bar that had a painted portrait of Reich and his accordion above the entrance facing Valencia Street. But there were other bands on other nights — the klezmer band Kugelplex, the Trifles, the Amnesiacs, the Nice Guy Trio, the Nell and Jim Band, a bluegrass outfit, and Tin Hat, a chamber music quartet that toured internationally. At any given time, he was involved in as many as two dozen musical projects. When performing solo, Reich turned the accordion into an experimental instrument for ambient music played in the lobby or the galleries at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. He released four albums under his own name, with a fifth to be released posthumously. He also recorded an album with Tin Hat, three albums with Circus Bella and eight with Gaucho. 'Rob knew so much about early jazz and could play all American improvised music — jazz, country blues, bebop, surf music, rockabilly, punk rock,' said Ricketts, who played with Reich and Gaucho just last month at Kermit Lynch Wine Merchant in Berkeley. 'He could make the mandolin sound like Thelonious Monk.' Once when they were unloading to play a wedding ceremony in coastal Marin, band members got word that they were supposed to play the second movement of Dvořák's Fifth Symphony, which they had never even rehearsed. Reich got on YouTube and found a version that he could learn instantly by ear. As the bride marched up the aisle, Reich whispered the complicated chord changes to Ricketts. It came off as if they had rehearsed for days. 'Listening to Rob on accordion is like looking at a painting,' Ricketts said. 'It makes each person feel differently, but we all know that we felt something.' In 2009, Reich was in a relationship with jazz singer Kally Price that resulted in the birth of their daughter. That relationship ended after several years, and Reich shared custody of June. In 2016, Reich was playing accordion at Brenda's French Soul Food in San Francisco when Steph Solis came in for dinner. Their eyes locked while she was eating fried chicken, and they stayed locked while he played. They were together after that for the rest of Reich's life. 'Our relationship had a duality of spiritual depth and whimsy,' said Solis, 39, a nutritionist and writer who lives in San Francisco. 'Our dynamic was nearly constantly playful, like romping around with one another's inner child.' Reich began playing at Zuni in the middle of the pandemic when it was open for takeout only, of the trademark chicken for two. There was always a wait, during which Reich was hired to stand outside with his accordion to smooth the passage of time. He has been there ever since. 'If customers came over after weddings at City Hall, he would play a wedding march,' said Pilgram, the Zuni owner. 'He knew how to play everything.' Pilgram's personal request was 'Man of La Mancha.' When Munn, of Circus Bella, would come into Zuni during lunch, he would segue into the music he'd play while she swung on the trapeze in the circus. For 17 years, Munn and Reich have worked together on Circus Bella, with an entirely new 60-minute show each summer. The music is continuous with Reich on an elevated bandstand, dressed in a bandleader's uniform with his conductor's hat cocked at a jaunty angle. The first preview performance of Circus Bella will be on June 4 at DeFremery Park in Oakland. Reich's score, which was mostly completed before his death, will be performed by the All Star Band, without the only music director the circus has ever known. Twenty-one shows are scheduled for open spaces around the Bay Area. 'I can't imagine creating the show without him, and I'm just one piece of all the different communities and musicians that Rob worked with,' Munn said. 'It's a huge loss for the Bay Area.'
Morocco World
02-05-2025
- Politics
- Morocco World
Memory as Strategy: Reclaiming Explorer Estevanico de Dorantes in Morocco's Royal Atlantic Initiative
As the quincentennial of Estevanico de Dorante s ' remarkable transatlantic journey approaches, the world is finally reckoning with a story long relegated to the footnotes of Atlantic history. In 1527, this Moroccan—enslaved, renamed, yet unforgettable—joined the ill-fated Narváez expedition to Florida, becoming one of the first Africans to set foot in and survive North America. Twelve years later, in mid-May 1539—likely on May 19—he vanished under mysterious circumstances in the Zuni pueblos of present-day New Mexico, his fate still shrouded in ambiguity and legend. The recent Estevanico conference, The Journey of Mustapha Azemmouri , held in Houston, Texas, on April 25–26, 2025, provided an opportunity to revive Morocco's deep-rooted ties to the Atlantic world, as part of Arab American Heritage Month. Organized by the Moroccan Society of Houston , Arab American Cultural and Community Center , and the Arab-American Educational Foundation Center for Arab Studies at the University of Houston, the conference reignited discussions about Morocco's long-standing engagement with the Atlantic and its evolving strategic vision. Estevanico , a 16th-century Moroccan whose journey bridged Africa, Europe, and the Americas, emerged as a powerful symbol of Morocco's enduring Atlantic identity. His legacy and the lessons it carries are central to understanding Morocco's ongoing reimagination of its role in the Atlantic through diplomacy, economic cooperation, and cultural memory. In today's rapidly changing geopolitical landscape of Africa and the Atlantic , Morocco's Royal Atlantic Initiative (RAI) emerges as a bold strategic framework—one that envisions the Atlantic not as a boundary, but as a corridor of sustainable economic growth, commerce, solidarity, and cultural exchange linking Africa, the Americas, and Europe. At the heart of this vision lies Estevanico de Dorantes, whose life story could serve both as metaphor and catalyst for the future Morocco seeks to shape. A 16th-century Moroccan from the port city of Azemmour, Estevanico is far more than a historical footnote; he is a living metaphor for the ethos behind Morocco's Atlantic engagement. His journey—marked by enslavement and freedom, survival and adaptation, cultural translation and spiritual reinvention—captures the layered complexity of early Atlantic crossings. In this light, Estevanico stands as the prototype of what I call Homo Atlanticus : a figure shaped by the fluid, entangled histories, geographies, and cultures of the Atlantic world and a lasting emblem of its capacity for transformation and renewal. The Atlantic as Laboratory Born around 1500 in Azemmour—then under Portuguese contro l —Estevanico's early life bore the imprint of Atlantic contestation. Following the Portuguese occupation of Moroccan coastal cities such as Safi (1508) and Azemmour (1513), the region became an experimental site for Iberian maritime expansion. These cities were not mere outposts—they were laboratories of empire, where Spain and Portugal refined techniques of conquest, religious conversion, racialization, and commercial extraction later deployed across the Atlantic. The conquest of Azemmour in 1513 brought its residents—including Estevanico—into direct contact with imperial rivalry, Christianization, and the nascent transatlantic slave trade. Enslaved and sold in Spain to Andrés Dorantes de Carranza, Estevanico was swept into the doomed 1527 expedition of Pánfilo de Narváez to Florida. As the expedition unraveled amid shipwreck, disease, and conflict, Estevanico emerged not simply as a survivor but as a vital figure—one of only four men to traverse the Gulf Coast and northern territories of Mexico over an eight-year ordeal. His linguistic skill, cultural fluency, and physical endurance made him indispensable. More than a guide or translator, he became a cultural interlocutor, a negotiator with Indigenous groups, a broker of survival. Through his actions, Estevanico helped sustain his companions, including the chronicler Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca . He was not merely a subject of empire—he was a human hinge between civilizations. In 1539, Estevanico was chosen to lead the advance party of Fray Marcos de Niza's expedition into the North American interior. Tasked with locating the fabled Seven Cities of Cíbola, he traveled with Indigenous guides through New Spain and into present-day Arizona and New Mexico. His reputation as an emissary and healer preceded him: he carried rattles, gourds, and feathers, sending messages ahead and entering villages with performative flair. While his theatrical diplomacy earned audiences, it also stirred suspicion—particularly among the Zuni. At Hawikuh, one of their pueblos, Estevanico was ultimately killed—or perhaps vanished and became part of the Zuni or Hopi communities. Yet his story did not end there. Among the Zuni and later the Hopi, his legacy was reimagined. He returned as a katsina spirit— Chakwaina —a masked being invoked in ceremonial dances, embodying distant power, healing, and mediation. Through ritual, Estevanico became part of the spiritual world he once approached. He was not merely remembered—he was embodied. His transformation into a spirit figure marks a rare and powerful moment of cross-cultural integration and Indigenous reinterpretation of the foreign. Estevanico and the Royal Atlantic Initiative Estevanico's metamorphosis—from enslaved Moroccan to explorer, intermediary, and spiritual entity—resonates deeply with the ethos of Morocco's Royal Atlantic Initiative, launched by King Mohammed VI in 2023. The initiative reframes the Atlantic not as a corridor of conquest and extraction, but as a basin of shared prosperity, cooperation, stability, and peace. In this light, Estevanico's journey becomes more than a historical anecdote—it becomes allegory. The RAI is a modern enactment of the principles Estevanico embodied: movement, negotiation, hybridity, and relationality. Organized around the pillars of connectivity, cooperation, and stability, the RAI envisions Morocco as a linchpin in a southern Atlantic configuration. Efforts to extend maritime access to landlocked African nations, modernize ports from Tangier to Dakhla, build the Nigeria-Morocco gas pipeline, promote sustainable trade corridors, and deepen ties with Latin America and the Caribbean all echo Estevanico's path. His was a journey of connection—not domination. In this way, Estevanico does not merely anticipate the RAI—he animates it. Estevanico as Homo Atlanticus Estevanico's legacy also exemplifies my anthropological concept of homo Atlanticus —a figure who inhabits the Atlantic not as a line dividing fixed identities, but as a fluid space where identities are constantly formed and transformed. Estevanico was not merely Moroccan, African, American, or European; he was all of these—and more. He embodied the essence of the 'Atlantic creole': diasporic, multilingual, mobile, resourceful and resilient. His life reminds us that movement can be destiny and hybridity a source of strength. By elevating Estevanico, Morocco asserts not only its place in Atlantic history, but also a pluralistic vision of Atlantic creativity and innovation rooted in shared struggle and creative reinvention. Morocco's Atlantic vocation has deep historical roots—from early diplomatic exchanges with the United States , as the first country to officially recognize its independence in 1777, to centuries of trade and cultural ties with West Africa and Europe. But even earlier, in the 15th and 16th centuries, Moroccan coastal regions bore the weight of Iberian imperial experimentation. These were frontier zones where the technologies of maritime domination—cannon, corsair, catechism—were refined. These early encounters shaped the geopolitical imagination of the Atlantic and set the conditions for the commodification of lives like Estevanico's. In this sense, Morocco was not peripheral to Atlantic history—it was foundational. A Strategic Reinterpretation of Atlantic Memory The Royal Atlantic Initiative builds on this legacy, grounding it in contemporary frameworks of infrastructure development, economic innovation, educational exchange, and the soft power of African-Atlantic identities. As the Atlantic South faces intersecting challenges of climate change, poverty, and security gaps, Morocco offers an alternative cartography—one Estevanico himself might have recognized: multiscalar, fluid, and relational. Looking ahead, the upcoming quincentennial of Estevanico's Atlantic crossing in 2027 presents a generative opportunity to bring this vision into sharper focus. Through exhibitions, academic conferences, and cultural diplomacy, Morocco could elevate Estevanico as its 'First Atlantic Ambassador'—a figure whose life and legacy reflect the ambitions of the RAI. As Morocco prepares to co-host the 2030 FIFA World Cup with Spain and Portugal, it can advance a model of Atlanticism rooted not in nostalgia or conflict, but in resilience, exchange, creativity, and innovation. By invoking Estevanico, Morocco offers a counter-memory to dominant Atlantic narratives that often sideline African contributions. His transformation into a spirit being exemplifies how African presences were absorbed, contested, and preserved in the Americas—not only in labor but in symbols, rituals, and cosmologies. He inhabits what might be called the 'deep Atlantic,' a space of layered identities, historical entanglements, and embodied remembrance. Memory as Strategy For the Royal Atlantic Initiative to fulfill its transformative potential, it must embrace the work of historical recovery, foregrounding figures like Estevanico who challenge conventional narratives and deepen our understanding of the Atlantic world. Doing so will not only legitimize Morocco's Atlantic aspirations but foster a shared historical consciousness among Atlantic nations. The Atlantic's future lies not in novelty, but in the recovery and reactivation of its entangled pasts. Estevanico—the Moroccan who became a Pueblo spirit being—was among the first to cross the Atlantic not merely as a subject of empire, but as a transcultural mediator. In his wake, the Royal Atlantic Initiative must navigate not only trade routes but memory routes, charting a future that honors the plural origins of the Atlantic world. As the 500th anniversary of Estevanico's 1527 expedition approaches, Morocco would do well to seize this moment with a global commemoration or fiesta—one that not only honors Estevanico's legacy but also reaffirms the kingdom's place in Atlantic and world history. Estevanico's journey was more than a passage through time and space—it was a transformation of meaning. His story is one of becoming: becoming free, becoming essential, becoming spirit. By invoking his legacy as Homo Atlanticus , Morocco's Royal Atlantic Initiative roots itself in the creative force of encounter, the strategic power of inclusion, and the generative energy of shared memory, heritage, and storytelling. The Atlantic's future will not be shaped by states alone, but by those who, like Estevanico, cross borders, bridge continents and cultures, and make the foreign familiar. Through his legacy, Morocco affirms that the Atlantic is not merely a relic of the past—it is a living space where we become, and where we imagine and forge inclusive and desirable futures for all. Tags: atlantic cooperationAtlantic initiative
Yahoo
04-02-2025
- Yahoo
Zuni woman sentenced to prison for deadly kidnapping in New Mexico
NEW MEXICO (KRQE) – A Zuni woman was sentenced to federal prison for her involvement in a 2019 kidnapping that resulted in the victim's death, according to the Department of Justice. Between July 1 and July 16, 2019, Kendra Panteah, 37, locked a man in the trunk of his own vehicle. She then brought the vehicle and victim to her co-defendant, Gilbert John Jr., and drove around the Navajo Nation for over 24 hours with the victim locked in the trunk before stopping at Bass Lake. When the victim attempted to escape, John Jr. repeatedly stabbed him with a machete, killing him, according to court documents. Story continues below Crime: 4 teen suspects in deadly attempted robbery in Albuquerque to stay in jail Weird: Española mayor drops shopping carts in a city hall parking spot causing controversy Health: Two measles cases identified near New Mexico's southeast border Podcast: What's Behind The Dip In Fentanyl Overdose Deaths? After the killing, Panteah and John Jr. abandoned the vehicle with the body inside for several days. John Jr. later towed the vehicle to a remote location, doused it with gasoline, and set it on fire. The victim was only identified through hip replacement devices found in the burned vehicle, the DOJ said. Panteah was sentenced to 18 years in prison. Gilbert John Jr. pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced to 21 years in prison in June of 2024. Panteah will be subject to five years of supervised release when her sentence is finished. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
29-01-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Trump Administration's pause on federal grants sparks concern in New Mexico
NEW MEXICO (KRQE) – Despite a pause on its effect, a wide range of New Mexico leaders are still reacting to the Trump administration's directive that would have paused federal grants and loans saying it rattled the funding normalcy that so many agencies rely on. Story continues below News Insiders: New Mexico's U.S. Attorney Sheds Light On 'Secretive' Job Crime: FBI investigation into former Navajo Nation presidential candidate Events: Tent Rocks National Monument to reopen after seasonal closure New Mexico's federal lawmakers say the directive has the potential of sending dozens of local non-profits, medical providers, and others into a tailspin. 'We started the day with so many of these portals closed and unable to process reimbursement of Medicaid which is the big driver of health care things like nursing homes in New Mexico that will be have been an utter train wreck within days,' said Sen. Martin Heinrich (D). 'I met with the Zuni youth enrichment project. 67 percent of their federal funding serving over ten thousand kids in public schools in Zuni pueblo essentially vanished overnight because they could not access the system to access invoices to pay at least ten of their employees that rely on federal funding,' said Rep. Gabe Vasquez (D). Federal lawmakers detailed a wide range of funding issues on Tuesday from groups accessing housing grants to Headstart operating funds. The New Mexico Coalition to End Homelessness said they received roughly $16 million in federal funds last year and saw immediate issues Tuesday morning. 'We are looking at people from being housed to unhoused almost instantly. The majority of the non-profits run almost paycheck to paycheck,' said Monet Silva, Executive Director, New Mexico Coalition to End Homelessness. The New Mexico Department of Justice believes as much as $11 billion in federal funds come into the state each year. They are still working to figure out how much money the Trump Administration's budget memo could freeze if it takes effect. While a judge put a stop to the funding pause. New Mexico's federal delegations said they believe some groups might still experiencing residual funding issues until early next week. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
