Sunday, January 24, 2016

January 31st Jazz: Jammer Extravaganza

This month's session on the last day of the month will surely entertain. Bye Bye Blues from Monterey is our headliner act. Cal Poly Jazz Band is the intermission act. The 1st Jam set begins at 11am. Bye Bye Blues from 1-2:15PM & 3:15-4:30PM. Cal Poly Jazz from 2:15-3PM. Raffle at 3PM: Hugh Robinson back in the saddle after his recent mishap?

Don Irving is the Leader of the Bye Bye Blues and has some very special ties to Pismo. The Stage Director of Bye Bye Blues is Dick Williams, who leads the jam sets for the Pismo Jubilee. Dick personifies our mission of encouraging young jazz people to play with a group of jammers. A great emcee, harkening back to the days of Vaudeville, Dick will also recognize veterans in the audience (appropriate at any Vets Hall). When Dick directs a group, I take careful notes. He also can play a mean cornet & sing lead. Here is an audio example of "Shake That Thing" from this year's Pismo Jubilee: 
This 9min jam features a stellar washboard solo (2:55) from scholarship recipient Steven Saavedra (wannabe architect and student of the wonderful "Washboard" Annie Abler) & Tom Dutart's infamous tuba solo (6:10, a personal favorite of mine). 

The Cal Poly Jazz Band is our intermission act, so Dick has a broad range of potential student jammers. Hence, the jam sets should be rather entertaining. If u r a Basin Street Regular jammer or a jam newbie, contact Rhonda at jwcardinal@msn.com Our goal is to preach the message of collective improvisation. We can jam if we want to...

The Bye Bye Blues Boys Band was founded by Don Pellerin, a Monterey Peninsula area music teacher, in the 1970's. Don was very active in the local music scene and had his "BBBBB" playing lots of local gigs. The band would vary in size and players as the engagement dictated. In the late 1990's Don was on the Board of Directors of the Dixieland Monterey Festival and the Festival found themselves in the position of having scheduled an out of town band for a Friday evening performance and the band's travel arrangements did not allow for the group to make it to Monterey in time for that Friday evening set; the Board asked Don if he could provide a group for that Friday evening performance and that group is the BBBBB. They played that one set and gave it everything they had as it was the only set for them during the Festival. After the set was complete, people were asking where they were going to play next - well, the next year the BBBBB had 8 sets at the Festival. They played for the Festival a total of 9 years and also some jazz club dates, private parties and even a couple of "Hot n' Cool" Festivals. Around 2008, Don Pellerin moved to Paso Robles to be closer to family and locally Don Irving kept the BBBBB alive by continuing the tradition of providing music for the Jazz Mass at the San Carlos Catholic Church on the Saturday of the Festival which had now changed it's name to "Jazz Bash By-the-Bay". The Festival asked Don to put the band back together for the March 2015 Festival and the result of that effort is the band we present for your dancing and listening enjoyment. This band is playing at a few of Northern California's jazz clubs and will once again be featured at the Jazz Bash By-the-Bay Festival in Monterey next March. The players are: Dick Williams, Cornet, Vocals, and on stage leader; Rich Owens, Piano and Vocals; Dr. Carl Reiley, Trombone; Don Irving, Soprano and Bass Sax, Leader; Carl Lunsford, Banjo, Guitar, Vocals (veteran from the Turk Murphy Jazz Band); Debera McIrving, Drums; Bert Robinson, String Bass, 
From George Smith: MATRIMONY ON STAGE AT THE VETS BUILDING! The January 31st Sunday Session Guest Band will be the Bye Bye Blues Boys Band from Monterey. The leader of the band, Don Irving, reeds, married the drummer, Debera McIrving, on stage at the Pismo Beach Vet's Building at a Sunday Session, so many, many years back that I don't remember which year it was. I first met Don and Debera at the Sacramento Adult Jazz Camp, again, long ago. So now they return for yet another joyous, if not matrimonius musical encore. Wow. And isn't it timely that Don, a Cal Poly graduate, will be able to hear the Cal Poly University Jazz Band at this same session? Don is an alumni from this band. Dick Williams will be the on stage leader of the band. Dick is here every year at the Jubilee conducting the jam sets and has been here with the Mission Gold band from the Bay Area. Don runs the jam sets at Monterey's Bash By the Bay in March.

The Cal Poly Jazz Band program combines the professionalism of a working big band with the academic rigor of cutting-edge big band repertoire. The University Jazz Band #1 has been professionally contracted to perform at the world’s largest jazz festival (the Sacramento Jazz Jubilee), the San Jose Jazz Society’s Sunday jazz series, a swing dance series in Santa Barbara, the Morro Bay Jazz Festival, the Jazz Jubilee in Pismo Beach, and as an opening act for Don Byron and comedian Bob Newhart. The band also regularly performs at swing dances on the Cal Poly campus. The Cal Poly jazz bands perform specialized repertoires, including modern big band concert compositions, swing dance, world music (including Ethiopian pop), heavy-metal (music from Pat Boone's In a Metal Mood big band album), TV themes, and jazz for cartoons. Guest artists that have performed with the University Jazz Bands include DJ Logic, Taylor Eigsti, Mary Fettig, Arturo Sandoval, Bill Watrous, Mel Martin, Bobby Shew, Clark Terry, Red Holloway, Louie Bellson, Billy Childs, Kevin Mahogany, Thelonious Monk, Jr., Bruce Forman, and James Carter. The University Jazz Bands have received unanimous superior evaluations at collegiate jazz festivals, and was rated as the best four-year collegiate big band at U.C. Berkeley's Pacific Coast Collegiate Jazz FestivalDisplaying bye bye blues bigger.jpg.


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