This is a DVD of the Gentlemen of Jazz recorded December 3, 2003 at a restaurant in Napa, California (Uva Trattoria). We were the “house band” (well, at least almost) for the first decade of the 21st century. For a lot of that time it was the best local gig ever. Besides unbelievably supportive management/owners, I also got to work with/for my friend Philip, whose vision of what music is and could be generated both the sound of the band, and the financial renumeration for that sound. Yeah!
Philip G. Smith on reeds, Ross Gualco on keyboard, myself on bass,and Dave Black on drums.
The camera remains focused on Dave (it was filmed by another drummer, Soren Bloch, who may have had an interest in Dave’s technique…), but you can see a bit of me as well. The quality is lousy, but I think it’s interesting not only for our “live” sound, but also because Dave was so much fun to watch. He was a master.
Four songs were recoded. I’ll try to post a different one every couple of weeks, and then back again.
“Bernie’s Tune” really gives you the idea of what the “Gentleman “ could do.