When Seeds of Sun plays the Osher Marin Jewish Community Center next week, some audience members may wonder why a kid wandered on stage with them.
As soon as 16-year-old Zakai Arnowitz starts to blow his alto sax, they will wonder no more: Arnowitz was invited to sit in with the well-known Israeli jazz ensemble, a rare honor for a high school student on any coast or plain.
In many ways, Arnowitz is just an ordinary Marin County teenager. He attends Sir Francis Drake High School, likes his chemistry class and is fond of music. But instead of an iPod full of Kanye West and Fergie, Arnowitz prefers Charlie Parker, Coleman Hawkins and other jazz legends.
Arnowitz met Seeds of Sun flutist and founder Mattan Klein this past summer at the annual JCC Maccabi Artsfest, held at New Jersey’s Monmouth University. Klein was impressed with Arnowitz’s chops, and asked him to join the band at the Dec. 8 Osher Marin JCC gig. The band will also play Foster City’s Peninsula JCC the next day.
“We tried different things. He put charts in front of us. It was a lot of fun,” Arnowitz recalled.
The six-member Seeds of Sun has performed all over the world. Several of the players trained in American conservatories, including the Berklee College of Music, and have impeccable jazz pedigrees.
It won’t be long before the same might be said of Arnowitz, who began clarinet studies in the sixth grade but soon switched to alto sax. “When I first started, my grandpa gave me a lot of Benny Goodman CDs. So the first jazz I was exposed to was Benny Goodman and Big Band. Then I watched the Ken Burns ‘Jazz’ series and that exposed me to others.”
As a member if his high school jazz band, he’s under orders to discover even more. “We have a music library, and every semester we are required to check out a number of CDs. It focuses us to check out new stuff: Latin, Afro-Cuban, Brazilian.”
The Osher Marin JCC is familiar ground for Arnowitz. His family belongs to the center, and he is part of its teen leadership board.
Arnowitz hopes the upcoming show is just the first of many in his future. He intends to study music in college, and eventually take his music to a higher, perhaps purer level.
After all, his name, Zakai, in Hebrew means “one who is pure.”
Zakai Arnowitz plays with Seeds of Sun 8 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 8, at the Osher Marin JCC, 200 N. San Pedro Rd., San Rafael. Tickets: $22-$27. Information: (415) 444-8000 or online at marinjcc.org. The band also plays 1 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 9, at Latkepalooza at the Peninsula Jewish Community Center, 800 Foster City Blvd., Foster City. Admission is free. Information: (650) 212-7522 or online at pjcc.org.