The Band

Jack's Company

Mike Renzi

Mike Renzi@Conductor/Piano
MIKE RENZI has performed with a number of top artists including Tony Bennett, Mel Torme, Peggy Lee, Blossom Dearie, Hilary Kole and Maureen McGovern to name just a few. He is one of the most in-demand pianist/arranger/accompanists of his day. Renzi has garnered Grammy nominations and he has received seven Emmys for Music and Arrangement for Daytime Television and Sesame Street. He is still the musical director for Sesame Street, but continues to play for jazz luminaries around the world.

Vinnie Falcone

Vinnie Falcone@Conductor/Piano
VINCENT FALCONE is one of the most recognized arrangers, accompanists and conductors of today. He has played piano and conducted for Frank Sinatra, Paul Anka, Al Martino, Pia Zadora, Andy Williams, Robert Goulet, The McGuire Sisters, Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme, Diahann Carroll, Connie Francis and more. He lives in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Chris Colangelo

Chris Colangelo / on base
Bassist CHRIS COLANGELO is one of the genuine masters on his instrument. The first thing you notice about Chris's playing -- his tone, deeply resonant with astonishing articulation across the instrument's sonic register. Once you adjust to such reverberant force, you recognize that this is a musician with serious chops ... that hard to define, never forgotten lyric quality that separates yeoman time-keepers from bassists with seductive narrative power. Born in Camden, New Jersey, Chris attended Rowan University, majoring in jazz performance. Then a resident of the Philadelphia area, Chris was part of the local jazz scene, with session work throughout the Delaware Valley, including gigs in Atlantic City. After moving to Los Angeles in late '91, Chris began performing and traveling with heavyweights such as the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra, Yusef Lateef, Jimmy Cleveland, Alex Acuna, Roy McCurdy, Doc Severinsen, Ernie Watts, Kei Akagi, Les McCann, Richie Cole, Sal Marquez, Joe La Barbera and Peter Erskine among many others. Chris's album, 2 trios + 1 -- gLiveh (BluePort Jazz), earned plaudits at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas soon after its appearance in nationwide distribution. Legendary pianist Jane Getz joined Chris for this gin concerth recording, along with percussionist Dave Hocker and saxophonist Chuck Manning. Jazz reviewer John Gilbert wrote about that session, glive at Monteleone's in Los Angeles, [where] Colangelo assembled an all star cast, h that g... the listener will understand why [Chris] is much in demand upon hearing him in action. His assertive approach and rapid fire solos take bass playing to another level...power tempered with feeling is a most sought after attribute and Colangelo achieves this with a natural ability grounded in musical education.h Recently, Chris co-led two recordings: the first album,gBlue Coast h with the group 4 WEST; another, g LIVE h, featuring Benn Clatworthy on tenor sax and Otmaro Ruiz on piano, with Jim Paxson on drums, recorded at a Los Angeles club in May '03. Chris is currently working on his second solo effort, soon to be completed. To put a precise point on these brief but stunning facts, any jazz afficionado who's not yet discovered this calm jazz dynamo, Chris Colangelo, owes it to the promise of immense musical pleasure to tune into the magic Chris concocts each night he plays. This is a bassist for the long haul ... a player's player, a musician's musician, but most of all a torrential lyric genius.

Kendall Kay

Kendall Kay / on drums
Born in Durban, South Africa, KENDALL KAY moved to the United States in 1983 to study Jazz at North Texas State University. He moved to L.A. in 1987 and has become a U.S. citizen in recent years. One of the most versatile drummers around, Kendall is much in demand and has recorded or performed with artists like Poncho Sanchez, Cecilia Coleman, Steve Huffstetter, Bob Sheppard, Kenny Burrell, Phil Upchurch, Allan Broadbent, Kyle Eastwood, Mundell Lowe and Rickie Lee Jones. Kendall is also a member of the Ron Eschete Trio.

Gary Nesteruk

Gary Nesteruk@Second Keyboard
GARY NESTERUK was born in Brackenridge, Pennsylvania. He began studying piano at age seven, and in 1976 completed an MA in Music Performance at Indiana University in Indiana, Pennsylvania. Since 1979, he has resided in Santa Monica, California, working as a freelance musician. In addition to touring and live performance, he has worked in television such as Twilight Zone and Third Rock from the Sun. His film credits include Norma Jean and Marilyn, Jennifer Eight, Species, The Island of Doctor Moreau, Set It Off, and Rounders.

Jimmy Blakemore

Jimmy Blakemore/April 17, 1939 - Aug. 3, 2008
Drummer JIMMY BLAKEMORE passed away in Naples, FL, from complications related to liver and heart ailments. He was 69. Jim Blakemore, born 17th April 1939 to Helen and Jim Blakemore in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvenia. Jim began playing the drums at the age of 8. Before joining Jack just over 10 years ago, he used to work at the Holiday House in Pittsburgh and played for many stars amongest them Johnny Mathis and Frank Sinatra Jr. He then toured with Buddy Greco for 2 years prior to becoming Jack's full time drummer in 1973. He got married to his High School sweetheart, the lovely Judy Kuhn, in 1960. Jim had two sons, Randy and Jim. One of three children, Jim had two sisters, Cathy and Mary.

Tom Garvin

Tom Garvin/February 4, 1944 - July 31, 2011
Tom Garvin, a jazz pianist and composer-arranger who was best known as an exceptional accompanist, died July 31 at an assisted living facility in Encino. He was 67.
The cause was cancer, which diagnosed three years ago, said Tom Mitchell, a close friend.
A fixture on the Los Angeles jazz scene, Garvin was "one of our town's better jazz pianists," The Times said in 1990.
His specialty was accompaniment, and he did it "with a flair not often engendered by other pianists," John Gilbert wrote in 2003 in the online magazine jazzreview.com.
The many artists Garvin performed with include noted jazz vocalists Carmen McRae, Peggy Lee, Lou Rawls and Diane Schuur.
As recently as 2006, Garvin led a trio for Jack Jones.
"His accompaniments offered both musical support and expressive space - a secure foundation for singers to rove freely in the telling of their musical stories," said jazz critic Don Heckman. "His jazz trio work was equally engaging."
In 1972, Garvin began writing songs for the Tonight Show Band with Doc Severinsen and eventually composed dozens of tunes for the TV program.
"I'd just write them and send them in," Garvin told The Times in 1992. "I went in once and watched Doc rehearse one of my tunes, and he was excellent... So I thought, 'Hey, I don't need to be here.'"
Such public reticence contributed to Garvin's relatively low profile outside of the jazz community, according to Mitchell.
The lack of visibility was surprising given his musicianship and "articulately crafted keyboard style," Heckman wrote in a 2001 Times review of a performance that featured such standards as "I'll Close My Eyes" and "I Fall in Love Too Easily."
Garvin was born Feb. 4, 1944, in Petersburg, Va. His parents divorced when he was young, and his mother did clerical work while they lived with his grandmother.
As a child, he received a key gift from his mother - a toy piano. From then on, Garvin wanted to be a musician, Mitchell said.
After earning a degree in music composition at Baltimore's Peabody Institute in the mid-1960s, Garvin served as a pianist-arranger in the Army Field Band.
The only album he released was "In Three Dimensions," which featured his big band on one side and his trio on the other.
Briefly married, Garvin tended to name many original tunes after the women he dated and his close friends.
His oeuvre included "Mitch," "Talara," "Elaine" and "Jane."
Garvin, who was a longtime resident of North Hollywood, has no immediate survivors.
(August 11, 2011 - By Valerie J. Nelson, Los Angeles Times)