Saturday, April 05, 2014

The All that Jazz Quartet ...

About three months ago, I asked the drummer John "Dak" MacDonad, and guitar/bass player Don Bauer in the Coast Connection Band if they'd be interested in playing a little jazz.  They said "yes" and we met at my house in Punta Gorda to see if we might get something that worked.  After a good session and a few beers, we agreed to meet a week later and that I would see about finding a sax player.  To my surprise, almost immediately I got several responses from a Craig's list posting about a sax player.  We connected with soprano sax man Bob Miner for a Saturday afternoon rehearsal, and agreed to once-a-week rehearsals.

http://charlotteharborjazz.blogspot.com/

Meantime, I've been playing solo piano for Friday evening happy hours at my yacht club in Port Charlotte, and I persuaded the club GM to give us an "audition" gig from 5-7 PM on a Wednesday evening.  With a little advertising among club members, we got a great turn out and the GM and entertainment committee managed to find us two full nights, one in March and one in April (with more to come, we hope).

Unfortunately, the bass and drummer are snowbirds, so Bob and I had to find another bass and drummer for the two full gigs.  So, joining us at our Friday night dinner/dance gig last week were jazz players John DeWitt (bass) and Dominik Keyte (drums), both from Sarasota.

We managed to get some of the gig recorded and set up a separate blog so folks can see us before signing us up for a gig.  Now we have to hit the pavement, particularly since gigs for the next snowbird season are already being booked.  Meanwhile, here's Well You Needn't (Thelonious Monk) ...


An update: we've gotten more gigs, which you can follow on the All That Jazz Quartet site.