Dave Newhouse: Her music tastes are food for thought

By Dave Newhouse, Oakland Tribune Columnist

Ellen Hoffman regards music as an all-you-can-eat banquet. She wants to try everything, digest every morsel.

Hoffman composes music. She arranges music. She is a pianist and has played at jazz festivals across the country. She has performed with Tuck & Patti and Linda Ronstadt.

Photo: HILLARY JONES-MIXON

Hoffman teaches piano and voice at her Berkeley home. She directs the Berkeley Broadway Singers and has written for the Oakland East Bay Symphony since 1991.
Music to her is a marvelous feast, something beautiful to ingest.

"It gives you a direct line to your feelings," she said. "Music expresses something that can't be expressed in any other way. It's a unique form of expression -- you don't need words."

And to Hoffman, music must be sampled to enjoy. And so Tuesday, she'll accompany on piano mostly amateur singers at vocal jazz open mic night at Freight & Salvage Coffee House, 2020 Addison St., in Berkeley.

With her background, why put herself through that?

"It's literally an adventure," she said. "A lot of pianists think it's a pain. I like it because there's always a surprise."

A surprise like someone who can actually sing, instead of the usual karaoke crooner.
It only becomes a problem "if they're mean. Then I do the best I can."

A good sport, Hoffman also plays at open mic night at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave., on the first and third Wednesdays of every month.

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Linda Griffin, Suzanne Fox and Harriet Chiang singing "Sweet Talkin' Guy" and "One Fine Day" backed up by Ellen Hoffman as part of the Berkeley Broadway Singers Show "In the Mood" performed at St. Augustines Church in Oakland California on April 26, 2009. For more info, go to www.berkeleybroadwaysingers.org