UpSurge! JazzPoetry Ensemble's anniversary concert Sunday at Freight & Salvage

UpSurge celebrates 20 years of performing provocative poetry and cutting edge jazz 8 pm Sunday at the new Freight & Salvage in Berkeley. Jazzpoets Raymond Nat Turner and Zigi Lowenberg, backed by saxophones, piano, bass and drums, heat up any venue, and this anniversary concert will really cook.

UpSurge co-leaders Turner and Lowenberg, with Tammy Hall, Glen Pearson, Ron Belcher, Rob Rhodes and Pete Yellin, will be joined by mentors and friends including many Bay Area treasures: Donald “Duck” Bailey, Barbara Dane, Vukani Mawethu, Destiny, India Cooke, Bill Crossman, Yancie Taylor, David Sturdevant and others.

All Hands on Deck, the group’s debut CD, earned an Indie Award nomination from the Association for Independent Music in 2000, and the group won Readers’ Pick for Best Poet or Spoken-Word Performer in the 2003 East Bay Express “Best of the East Bay.” The group’s second disc, Chromatology, includes Abbey’s House, a gorgeous tribute to Abbey Lincoln. Turner and Lowenberg claim the late great Lincoln as a powerful influence. Others range from Sonny Rollins to Allen Ginsberg, Amiri Baraka, Bertolt Brecht and Langston Hughes.

An evening with UpSurge is always an evening well-spent. It’s music to your ears, poetry for your soul and a feast of food for thought. Original and compelling, the group has wowed audiences at the Monterey Jazz Festival, Panafest in Ghana, West Africa, Cornelia Street Café in New York and the Bay Area’s own beloved Yoshi’s.

As their website notes, jazzpoets Raymond Nat Turner and Zigi Lowenberg “bend metaphors and split similes throughout the swinging ride.”

Tickets are $18.50 in advance, $19.50 at the door, at the wonderful new Freight and Salvage, 2020 Addison St., Berkeley, CA 94704; 510-644-2020. Doors open at 7pm, show starts at 8pm.