It’s shaping up to be a very cool summer as the effort to create a new concert venue in downtown San Jose’s St. James Park forges ahead.
The Friends of Levitt Pavilion San Jose has released the lineup for an eight-concert summer music series, which kicks off Sunday with Bay Area Afrobeats musicians Riddim Exchange and continues through Sept. 6 with acts including the blues sounds of Maxx Cabello Jr. (June 1), country music band Cash’d Out (June 22), roots/reggae band Groundation (Aug. 24) and a cumbia finale with Bululú.
Fil Maresca, board chair for Friends of Levitt Pavilion San Jose, and Suzanne St. John-Crane, the group’s new director of strategy, pose together at the American Leadership Forum’s Exemplary Leadership dinner, held May 8, 2025, at Sharon Heights Golf and Country Club in Menlo Park. (Sal Pizarro/Bay Area News Group)
The all-ages shows, which run from 3:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m., are free and include opening acts, food trucks and a beer/wine garden. You can check out the full lineup at www.levittsanjose.org.
The Friends of Levitt Pavilion also has brought on nonprofit executive Suzanne St. John-Crane as the group’s new director of strategy, an announcement that may have a much bigger impact long-term. St. John-Crane, who used to run CreaTV San Jose, recently stepped down as CEO of the American Leadership Forum after nine years at the helm of the civic engagement nonprofit.
St. John-Crane should be a perfect fit for the job of turning up the volume on Levitt’s impact and fundraising as it works toward building a permanent stage in the park over the next two years that would host at least 50 free concerts annually.
“We’re creating something bigger than concerts,” said St. John Crane, who sings in the blues band Pearl Alley and is board president of the Fountain Blues Foundation in San Jose. “This is about reclaiming public space, creating joy, and making sure music belongs to everyone. Levitt San Jose is leading that charge — and this lineup proves it.”
Levitt Pavilion, a component of the St. James Park revitalization proposal, located near the corner of North First Street and West St. James Street in downtown San Jose, concept.(CMG) (CMG)
Fil Maresca, board chair of Friends of Levitt Pavilion, said he and founder Rick Holden had been working to persuade St. John-Crane to join the team before Holden’s unexpected death in April 2024.
“Rick definitely gave me the ‘hard sell’ on joining Levitt,” St. John-Crane said. “His passion for bringing quality, free live music to San Jose as a way to build community was beyond inspiring. It’s an honor to carry his vision forward and get this community jewel built.”
BE PREPARED … FOR AI: Two Nvidia employees received framed Digital Technology merit badges Tuesday morning from Eric Tarbox, the grand poobah of Scouting America in these parts. I’m sure that Jason Mawdsley, Nvidia’s Director of System Software, and Bryan Catanzaro, its vice president of Applied Deep Learning Research, could meet the requirement with ease. But these were special. The badges were presented following the pair’s fascinating discussion about the state and future of artificial intelligence at the annual Community Leadership Breakfast — a fundraiser for the Silicon Valley Monterey Bay Council of Scouting America that drew a few hundred early-risers to Villa Ragusa in Campbell.
Catanzaro, who grew up in Washington state, earned Eagle rank when he was growing up. While he enjoyed the camping trips and outdoor skills he learned as a Scout, he said the program provided him with other lessons that helped him in his job as a computer scientist navigating AI.
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“It’s not all about the knots,” he said. “It’s about teaching leadership, learning to be empathetic and caring about others. I think those skills have been instrumental in my career.”
MASCOT MADNESS: If you want to show some Bay Area pride, you can help put S.J. Sharkie and the Stanford Tree into the Mascot Hall of Fame, which serves as a tribute to all those costumed cheerleaders who keep us going at our favorite sports events. Now, this is a real thing that was started by Dave Raymond — who had, let’s say, a strong identification with the Phillie Phanatic — and for several years was actually part of an interactive educational museum in Indiana, which closed in 2024.
The Hall of Fame started as an online venture, though, and continues that way. San Francisco Giants mascot Lou Seal was elected to the hall last year, and Sharkie and the Tree are among this year’s nominees. You can vote for them through May 24 at www.mascothalloffame.com.
