Hello everyone,

Hope all is well. I have some gigs in December, yeah! Stop in at all of my concerts, there will be some wildly different and great music at every single one. Thank you for your continued interest and support.

Friday, Dec. 8th, 7:30

KachaPuri Trio: David James~guitar/voice, Jess Ivry~cello/voice, Beth Custer~piano/voice/clarinets

We’ll be celebrating our reunion (Nov. 4th, 2022, SF Jazz) and the holidays with some beautiful selections Ms. Ivry has contributed, movements from My Grandmother (we premiered all over the world together!), songs from my Bernal Heights Suite, and BCE and the genius of David James. Advance tix highly advised.

December 16th 4pm

David James, Tom Dimuzio, and I will perform live improvisations to the Mattress Day film of Jakub Kalousek at The New Farm, next to Bay Natives Nursery at 10 Cargo Way, San Francisco, by donation.

Another Czech connection(!) My life is filled with many performances in the Czech Republic: the San Francisco Performance Festival wherein I performed solo in Prague’s Stalin Bunker, in Bratislava’s bunker/bar, in Plzen at the State Mental Institute (with a homicidal murderer!), and in a Plzen gallery, wherein a patron began to make animal noises at my feet while I played the clarinet. I went on to collaborate with Czech painter Vladimir Kokolia, with the aburdist humor group BKS, and I had an Agosto residency wherein I played live film scores with Czech artist/musician Franta Skala at Ponrepo.

Bird and Beckett Jazz Series, San Francisco

Beth Custer, clarinets/voice, Will Bernard, guitar, with special guest Oakland Symphony’s Ellen Gronningen perform music from their recent release SKY plus some interesting winter holiday selections.  Gorgeous melodies, a little raunchy blues, some delicate otherworldly timbres, this lush trio will delight audiences of all ages with their genre bending music.

See you out there

Beth

I scored I WANTED TO BE A MAN WITH A GUN (dir. William Farley) during lockdown. It’s finally getting it’s world premiere October 27th, 9pm, at Mitchell Park, Palo Alto, Farley, editor Levien, and I (and others) will hold a Q&A after the screening. Make an evening of it! Mitchell Park is beautiful with great restaurants nearby, or bring a picnic/grill, saunter the grounds, visit the Barron Park donkeys, have a hike, take the train down, shop the boutiques in downtown, there’s a great bookstore and many unique clothing shops, 34 miles from SF. Films take a village to make and a decade to complete and this one is no exception. Genius sound designer/musician Phil Perkins mixed. What’s not to love?

Film scoring is my favorite work, my father predicted it would be so before he passed. Recent scores include the lyrical VOICES BEYOND THE WALL (dir. Brad Coley) (score not yet released) with a trip-hop song at it’s visual climax of a Coca~Cola sign overlooking San Pedro Sula, Honduras. I got to records on a song or two w/his daughter Lila Blue.

Ensemble Russian Telegraph performed the closing credit roll song THE BOYS WHO SAID NO! of my score for dir. Judith Ehrlich’s brilliant doc. that’s filled w/legendary icons and premiered during lockdown. Well worth checking out.

The director I’ve worked most often with is the brilliant Cathy Lee Crane, having scored her Crossing Columbus, The Manhattan Front, Pasolini’s Last Words, and On the Line. Cathy directed Eighty Mile Beach’s Red Helicopters video that we filmed during my residency at HCA. Our many collaborations started in friendship, Cathy was my neighbor on Lundys Lane and a Trance Mission fan.

SKY w/Will Bernard release is still getting alot of attention and YOU can hear it live, November 15th, in Berkeley, at Babette, stop in, sit under the redwood, have a sip and a plate, while you experience SKY. We’ll have a merch table wherein you can get all your holiday shopping done early!

Awarded BEST PICTURE @ SFVFF! Next 10/27: UNAFF

Saturday, October 7th, 1:30pm
San Francisco Veterans Film Festival

William Farley, director

Quite possibly the hippest band I’ve ever been in with L-R: David James, Keith McArthur, me, Chris Grady, Jordan Glasgow, and John Hanes pictured. Sometimes we’re lucky and Diana Mangano joins us….We’ll be gracing the outdoor stage of the mighty Jupiter in downtown Berkeley. A super fun band with funky compositions and a few covers….not to be missed, come say hi!

Clarinet Thing was founded in 1990 and has steadily entertained Bay Area audiences ever since. This Saturday , 7pm, we’ll be performing at Oaktown Jazz Workshops on the In the Moment Series, our arrangements of jazz greats and originals.

A while back when guitarist Will Bernard moved to from Berkeley to Brooklyn, he suggested I hire guitarist David James for Doña Luz 30 Besos/Beth Custer Ensemble. I introduced myself to David at his place of work, asked him to jam w/BCE at the studio I shared with Jan Jackson in Hunter’s Point. We’ve been playing together ever since. Countless gigs and tours later BCE morphed into the ensemble Russian Telegraph, founded by David, named for two hills in San Francisco. Prior to RTs emergence, David asked me to be in his group GPS. We made a critically acclaimed recording, Billionaire Blues. Now after a few years of recording and performing, GPS & guests will present David’s seminal Mission Rebel No. 1: Looking for Reverend Jesse James, 9/22 in San Francisco, 9/24 in Palo Alto. Not to be missed, a rich tapestry of sonic excellence.