I'm exhausted, it was pure heaven. What made Berks so wonderful was that the audience knew the music & the artists, they danced and showed their appreciation.

This was a saxophone player's dream festival....

Check out who played....


Thursday, 3/27/03

Jeff Kashiwa
On bass - Scott Ambush (from Spyro Gyra), keys – Dave Kochanski, drums – Dave Hooper, guitar – Allan Hinds and a horn section of local all-stars.

With a horn section, it was as "sweet" as Simple Truth sounds. They did a groove that Jeff called "Bump It Baby" that had everyone dancing in the aisles. They rocked the house.

All Star Jam
The band was led by Chuck Loeb on guitar. On sax – Mindi Abair, Jeff Kashiwa, Kim Waters. Vibes – Dave Samuels, Keys – Freddie Ravel, trumpet- Randy Brecker, Bass – Ron Jenkins, drums – Brian Dunn

Truly a thing of beauty, how they played together and let each other shine during their solos.

The band jammed on standards and kicked out an intense version of some Beatles tunes - Let It Be, Hey Jude & Come Together.

Let me put it to rest now. Mindi can play - and play hard. There's no glamour when you're turning pink & red from your playing.

Friday, 3/28/03

David Mann
With Chuck Loeb’s band and Gil Pallis on guitar

Well, I have been trying to "see" David Mann for about a year now - he's one of my favorites from TOP. It was beginning to be like the Holy Grail, but there he was on the stage! Most of the tunes were from "Touch" but there was a new one, with a working title of "opener" . Gil Pallis is an incredible guitarist, so much so that Chuck Loeb remarked that he was afraid to follow Gil....

Chuck Loeb
Bass- Ron Jenkins, keys - Mike Ricchiuti, drums – Brian Dunn, Sax – Andy Snitzer

The band as always is amazing. Chuck was pure energy and intense as ever, reaching back several CDs. He did play "Live At The Bistro" from his upcoming "e-Bop" and featured tunes written by Ron Jenkins and Mike Ricchiuti. I was so caught up in Chuck's enthusiasm for their tunes.

The Rippingtons
Guitar- Russ Freeman, Bass – Kim Stone, Sax – Eric Marienthal, drums – Dave Karasony, keys – Bill Heller, percussion – Scott Breadman

A 95 minute set which closed with "High Life" from "Let It Ripp". I heard how "Drive" has evolved since I first heard it live a year ago, a funky horn line from Eric and a mindboggling solo from Kim. Aspen was all dressed up with a solo from Bill.

Saturday, 3/29/03

Euge Groove
Sax - Euge Groove (Steve Grove), Keys - Michael Egizi, guitar – Nigel Williams, drums- Michael White, bass- Ian Martin

I can't say enough about Steve Grove and this band. He just hugged the entire room with his enthusiasm and energy. Their version of "From The Top" blew the roof off the place. The crowd LOVED them.

Down To The Bone
Tenor sax- Shilts, Alto sax – Adrian Revell
Keys – Mitch Forman, drums –Neil Williamson, bass- John Lozano (sp), guitar – Allan Hinds

Yeah, it was urban jazz and Shilts said so! 90 minutes that just kept getting better. I had seen them 2 years ago in Detroit, but was still blown away by the horns. Mitch Forman was knighted by Shilts as "Sir Forman of the keyboards". What made this impressive is that the entire band was from the US - Shilts & Adrian Revell just kept everything cooking.

Smokin' review, Kat! Wish I could of been there with ya! Glad you posted the review of the weekend. It's nice to live vicariously through your friends when you're too broke to do such things yourself, know what I mean? Very good!

Wow, Kat! Wish I would have known you were there. I was there for the Euge Groove/DTTB show. Euge was great! That was my first time seeing him. We were sitting behind and off to the right of his parents. Euge made a comment during the show about getting his training and education as a member of TOP - what a great place to learn your craft.

Also, first time seeing DTTB. The drummer, don't remember his name, was from the UK, although he isn't part of the core DTTB group. As Kat said, Mitch Forman was on keys (my friend says he usually plays for Rick Braun), and John Menzano - a local favorite from South Philly played bass. Johnny plays for everybody - including Rick Braun, Brian Culbertson (which he did on Sunday night), and filled in with the Dave Koz band while Bill Sharpe is on tour with Cher.

Brenda Russell opened for Brian Culbertson on Sunday. She's a very talented songwriter, and she has a great voice. Bill Sharpe was her bass player and musical director for this gig. I'm just a little confused about why she's decided to tour this year. I don't really recall ever seeing her tour with her own band.

Brian Culbertson was on fire! He quickly brought the crowd to their feet. He's got a new CD being released in late June - he said it's all upbeat, uptempo, funky stuff. He had a horn section for this tour - sax, trombone and trumpet. Michael Linton did a great job on sax, don't remember the trombone players' name, but Brian's Dad was on trumpet. When Brian added his trombone to the mix, they really rocked.

This makes my 4th or 5th time up at Berks. They put on such a good show every year. They did say that next year, for the 14th annual Berks Jazz Fest, it would be about 2 weeks earlier, starting around March 12th.

Great shows!

Ooh, sorry I missed you, it would have been fun! For Euge Groove & DTTB, I was on the left side, towards the back, near the door. (more dancing room)

And thanks for the spelling of John Menzano's name, I was very impressed with his bass playing for DTTB. Mitch did play with BWB last fall, but you can usually find him with "Metro".

Actually, the whole band was hot and I thought that Shilts and Adrian Revell were playing their horns so tight that they were super-glued.

Sounds like fun.

My friend Burden21 on another board listed some Progressive jazz bands as well and he seemed to have had a great time.

Looks like Berks Jazz is the event to be.

Kat,

That's some interesting line up with DTTB, Mitch Forman? and I think Allan Hinds played with Special EFX as well.

here's a link to Allan Hinds....

http://www.artistdirect.com/music/artist/appears/0,,444256,00.html

And his songs are on
Patti Austin On the Way to Love
Birds of a Feather Stand Together
Larry Carlton Fingerprints
Richard Elliot Take to the Skies

Waaaaaaahhhhh!!! I am soooo envious! I never knew what I was missing til I came to this BBS. As far as I know, these artists never come to NZ *sigh* (feel free to correct me if that's not the case) - it's like they've never heard of jazz over here, except trad jazz.

Santana did play 2 concerts here last month, but I didn't make it to either of em.

By the way, what and where is Berks?

Thanks,

Oops, I forgot to say, it sounds like it was an absolutely awesome weekend!

Berks is actually Berks County, Pennslyvania. The cities of Reading, West Reading, and Wyommising, which host the Berks Jazz Fest events are all part of Berks County. I'm not sure, but I think Berks is named for the Berkshire mountains, or something like that.

It's probably an hour or to northwest of Philly (Philadelphia), I'm not exactly sure. Maybe someone who lives closer to that area can clarify that for me.

We saw Jeff Kashiwa on Saturday nite (the 29th)here in Richmond and I was wondering why Allen Hinds was conspicuously missing. So I find out here that he's playin' with DTTB! Must have been cool seeing Mitch Forman and Hinds with those guys. Did Forman rip it up on "The Zodiac"?

AG & V,
Cabbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbage
noob

P.S. Real neat seeing Scott Ambush with Jeff....Y'all are going to like "Bump".