MIKE CLARK, PAUL JACKSON & SKERIK (new York/Tokyo/Oakland):For the past 7 years, North Beach Jazz fest has started on Wednesday, and it took an extraordinary set of circumstances to make the festival add three extra days. Those circumstances are drummer Mike Clark, bassist/keyboardist Paul Jackson, and SKERIK The trio will play three (probably sold out) shows at NBJF's tiny flagship venue, Mojito on Sunday, June 20, Monday, June 21 and Tuesday, June 22.

Mike Clark gained worldwide recognition as one of America's foremost jazz and funk drummers while playing with Herbie Hancock's group in the early 1970's. Mike became known as a major innovator through his incisive playing on Hancock's Thrust album, which garnered him an international cult following. Mike has performed with jazz greats such as Herbie Hancock, Chet Baker, Tony Bennett, Wayne Shorter, Joe Henderson, Bobby Hutcherson, Woody Shaw, Larry Coryell, Jack Wilkins, Wallace Roney, Geri Allen, Billy Childs, James Genus, Bob Hurst, Chris Potter, Onaje Allan Gumbs, Bobby McFerrin, Al Jarreau, Dave Liebman, Nat Adderly, Oscar Brown Jr., Bill Doggett, Mose Allison, Maxine Brown, Gil Evans and his orchestra, and did a stint with Brand X, the acclaimed British fusion band, founded by Phil Collins. He has performed throughout the world at all the major jazz venues and festivals. Called "the most sampled drummer in hip hop" Mike's beats have been used on tracks by musicians as diverse as NWA, Grandmaster Flash, Britney Spears, Prince and many others.

Paul Jackson has played with many of the great jazz artists, most notably playing bass on Herbie Hancock's seminal album, Head Hunters. Born in Oakland, California in 1947, Paul Jackson began playing bass at the age of nine. Considered by many of his teachers to be a musical prodigy, he performed with the Oakland Symphony by the age of fourteen where he expanded his musical interests to include performance levels on bassoon and piano. He went on to study with the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. He also taught seminars in institutions such as A.N. Contemporary of Music (Tokyo), Pan School of Music (Tokyo), Musashino School of Music (Tokyo), Berklee College of Music (Boston), University of California Santa Cruz and [[San Jose State was a founding member of the Headhunters under Herbie Hancock. The union between Hancock and Jackson has been especially evident in the many international tours they have made together. In 1979, Paul released his own album, Black Octopus on Toshiba EMI Records. Jackson's composing has granted him Grammy Award Nominations in 1974, 1975 and 1976 for songwriting "Chameleon", "Hang Up Your Hang-ups" and "Spider", respectively. He has also played on the soundtracks for Paramount Pictures movies "Death Wish" and "Dirty Harry".

Time out to compose the score for film and other projects was sandwiched in between appearing with the band's numerous jazz festivals such as the Pori, Montreux, Newport and Paris. Since 1985, Paul moved his residence to Japan and continued to be active in many aspects of the Japanese music scene. In 1998, the long-awaited reunion of the Headhunters was materialized with a release of The Return of the Headhunters. The Headhunters with Herbie Hancock made a successful tour through the USA and Europe in summer and autumn of that year. Since autumn of 2001, Paul moved from Tokyo to the western part of Japan and continues to be active in the music scene in Japan, the USA and Europe. The Blue Note tour across Japan with Mike Clark and Jack Walrath from the USA and Char in March, 2002 had a great success, re-confirming to Paul's fans and music critics of his enormous talent as producer, as well as bassist and vocalist.

Skerik (born Eric Walton) is an American saxophonist from Seattle, Washington. Performing on the tenor and baritone saxophone, often with electronics and loops, Skerik is a pioneer in a playing style that has been dubbed saxophonics. He is a founding member of Critters Buggin and Garage a Trois (including Stanton Moore, Charlie Hunter and Mike Dillon, recently featuring Marco Benevento). Skerik has been a member of, performed frequently, or toured with the following: Les Claypool's Fancy Band and Frog Brigade, Galactic, Dumpstaphunk, Johnny Vidacovich, Fred Wesley, Mike Clark, The Headhunters, Bobby Previte, Ponga, Joe Doria, Sadhappy, Tuatara (with Peter Buck), Mad Season, Roger Waters and many others. Skerik leads Seattle-based "punk-jazz" ensemble Skerik's Syncopated Taint Septet. He also co-leads New Orleans-based Maelstrom Trio (including long-time duomates keyboardist Brian Coogan and drummer Simon Lott). The Maelstrom Trio combines disparate elements such as free jazz, funk, metal and textural music. Skerik and percussionist Mike Dillon often perform as a trio with alternate third members. National tours have included keyboardist Brian Haas and bassists James Singleton and Brad Houser.

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