San Francisco bay area 1989-1992
Carol and I moved from State College, PA to Davis, CA in the fall of 1988 to
take up our faculty and administrative positions at UC-Davis.
After getting settled in our new home and learning the ins and outs of the
University, I started looking for music opportunities. The Sacramento Jazz
Club held monthly meetings in a nice venue. It was a poor day if there were
fewer than 300 people at their monthly meeting.
The venue was a large main room which could seat 400 people. There was
also a small side room for jam sessions for beginners. A third room was the
Gold Card Room, reserved for the more accomplished musicians.
To jam with those “Pros”, you had to audition. I was given a list of about
100 tunes and told that the following Sunday I could sit in and be tested for
my ability to play those tunes without a lead sheet or other sources. I was
given no advance notice of what the tunes would be! I passed the audition
and was the permitted to play in the Gold Card Room for zero pay!
The important thing was that I began to connect with other musicians.
In the 1989 - 1992 time frame I played with several bands. Five bands with
which I played most often are listed below in no special order.
I have one or more audio or YouTube recordings documenting the date,
time, place and personnel of the bands. Also listed are some sample tunes
from the recordings.