Photos by Mark McDonald
What a fun-filled afternoon of jazz we enjoyed, provided by some of our very our best local jazz musicians, plus some surprise guests from LA! Jazz Society President, Peter Clark, pulled together a stellar performance by some amazing jazz players. In case we might have forgotten, Peter, along with guitarist Chris Judge, bassist Brandon Statom, and drummer Craig Thatcher, showed us that he still has that relaxed, but in control style of piano playing with There Will Never Be Another You. The trio accompanied Annette Di Nardo who belted out three tunes, among them a Latin flavored, Sapor Ami. Annette has a big voice and knows how to use it well.
Pianist Debbie Denke took over for Peter and blew everyone away with a magnificent rendition of Georgia followed by an energetic One Note Samba. Debbie has great technique and the rest of the band followed her with some exciting solos. Kostik Safianov, one of the Moscats, a group of 11 and 12 year old musicians from Moscow that Peter brought to Santa Barbara around 20 years ago, showed up to wow us with his flute and played Ellington’s C Jam Blues. The rest of the band had a chance to do some great solos on that one. Bassist Randy Tico, drummer Darrell Voss, and saxist Doug Webb joined Chris Judge to accompany Teka on a few tunes including a delightful bossa, The Duck.
Next up was Jazz Society Membership Director, Sandy Cummings singing a beautiful tune written by Frank Frost called Gershwin’s Last Waltz. Sandy is a real trooper and you can tell she really loves to sing. Kimberly Ford accompanied by sax player Kim Richmond and Debbie at the piano, graced us with three very difficult songs including Mancini’s Two for the Road.
The grand finale of the afternoon was pretty wild with a blues number, Full Circle, written by Peter featuring most of the band and 3 magnificent sax players: Kim Richmond, Kostik Safianov, and Doug Webb trying to outdo each other. It was a wild and wonderful way to end the show and to celebrate Jazz Appreciation Month AND Peter Clark’s birthday!
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