Hi, Jay - thanks for the reply.
In no particular order:
- The group is rooted in "Caribbean Jazz," for lack of a better term, focusing on calypsos, bossa/samba, and a some of the keyboardists's own "latin jazz" compositions. It started out as a keyboard/drums/steelpan trio (for parties, cocktail hours, etc.), but when I started bringing my mallet synth along, it took on more of a jazz leaning, along with some (hopefully hipper) pop/R&B repertoire (Aretha, Stevie, Roberta Flack, Grover Washington Jr., et al) and some jazz standards (usually given a Latin/Brazilian arrangement, but not always).
- The only vocals (save for the occasional vocalist "sitting in" with the group) are on "Stir It Up," with the keyboardist (Lance) singing the refrain. Other than that, it's all instrumental.
- The drummer, Nick, uses just a basic four-piece kit (actually, while he usually brings his Yamahas, for some gigs he just brings this beat-up-looking old nondescript Japanese brand I've never heard of, but he gets them to sound great!) - basically an open jazz tuning as well. He usually brings a nice snare drum, FWIW, along with good cymbals, which makes all the difference (and which allows such a "beater" kit to work well).
The gig I listed originally in this thread was received quite well by the patrons and management at the Circa Bistro (my mistake calling it the "Cafe Bistro" - that's what I get for not checking my notes when I posted originally), so hopefully we'll be back in there again before too long. If not there, then I'm sure we'll be gigging elsewhere open to the public, and I'll be sure to post that info' here.
