Los Gatos Weekly-Times

Photograph by George Sakkestad

Los Gatan Jane Fleming has produced several Pete Seeger concerts, including the one scheduled for Jan. 15 at Foothill College.

Los Gatan produces upcoming Pete Seeger show

By Mary Ann Cook

When Los Gatan Jane Fleming was a student at Webster College (now University) in St. Louis, she probably little dreamed she would one day be producing concerts for Pete Seeger. But today that's exactly what she is doing through her company, Folk Music at Large.

The Pete Seeger concert, called "Keeping the Dream Alive," takes place Jan. 15 at 7:30 p.m. at Foothill College and will honor Martin Luther King Jr. on his birthday. Seeger marched with King during the turbulent '60s in the South.

Now nearing 80, Seeger is still active in the civil rights and peace causes he has espoused throughout his life. Known for a large repertoire of folk and protest songs, including the popular "If I Had a Hammer" and "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?," he was a member of the Weavers, the group that helped usher in the folk music boom of the '50s. Later he performed solo, often at colleges and schools.

"He can still take a crowd of 3,000 and be so inspiring, get them singing, create such electricity," Fleming says. Some of the most joyous evenings of their lives were spent at Pete Seeger hootenannies, say those who followed his career in the '60s in New York.

Accompanying Seeger on the concert bill will be the Oakland Youth Chorus, fresh from a performance at the White House; folksinger Bob Reid of Santa Cruz; and Seeger's grandson, Tao Rodriguez, who lives in the Bay Area.

Concert producer Fleming's interest in folk music is anthropological, and the cause of peace has been integral to her life throughout the years. Her college degree was in ethno music and musicology, and later she did field research on Cajun music, dance and folklore and the Cape Brettain fiddlers.

Her skill at the French horn earned her a place as a music major, but since then she has broadened her base: played trumpet in a mariachi band and jug in the Quiet Elegance Jug Band. She also knows her way around an autoharp, flute and guitar, but says she is too shy to be a performer; she is better suited to promoting others. This is the third Pete Seeger concert she has organized.

Though she earned a teaching credential, she taught "just a bit." Instead, she married and moved to the Bay Area, where she joined the San Francisco Folk Music Club. Through that association she got involved in booking and publicity for its concert series at the Plowshares Coffeehouse at Fort Mason. And Pete Seeger and other folk musicians became part of her network.

Fleming was instrumental in getting the club to include well-known musicians at 25 to 50 percent of the weekly concerts to ensure bigger audiences and promote local musicians at the same time.

"I feel so privileged to work with Pete over the years," Fleming says. "He should get the Nobel Peace Prize. He's dedicated his life to peace."

All talent for the concert is donated, a benefit for the San Jose Peace Center.

Another local connection: emcee of the event is Los Gatos Vice Mayor Jan Hutchins.

Fleming lived in Saratoga for eight years and now lives in the Los Gatos mountains with her children: Sean, 16, a junior at Los Gatos High School and Sydni, 11, a sixth-grader at C.T. English Middle School. Fleming's next goal: a degree from San Jose State University in public relations.

Tickets to the concert can be purchased by mail by sending an SASE and check for $17 to San Jose Peace Concert, 540 N. Santa Cruz Ave., Suite 213, Los Gatos, 95030. Tickets are $20 at the door.

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