Sounds like either too much shade, or you may be under or over-watering the plant. Black Bamboo can grow well in bright shade, but is not a great bamboo for deep shade. New shoots can often take a year to appear if the plant had been divided before you potted it up, but now or within the next two months is when you should be seeing new shoots appear. Does the old growth look healthy, or has it been losing leaves and look spindly? If over/under watering is not the problem, try moving it into more sun and see if you get new growth.

You may have better luck with plants that can handle deep shade, such as Aucuba japonica, Fatsia japonica, Nandina domestica, Dicksonia antarctica, etc., or look up other good shade plants for your Sunset zone 14 in the Sunset Garden Book Encyclopedia.

The shade this season is more dense because I couldn't get up on the roof to prune Madame Alfred (DH broke his wrist and I really need help hauling the big ladder around and I'm more comfortable with a spotter).

The leaves haven't dropped, they just don't look great. Dry tips - just not robust ...