 washboard, kazoo,slide whistle, vocal |
Steve
Drivon, born in
Stockton,
is co-founder and trombonist in the Port City
Jazz Band of Berkeley, California. He also
performs with several ragtime groups including the very popular Porcupine
Ragtime
Ensemble .
For several years in the 1980's he toured the world as lead trombone and vocalist with The Glenn Miller Orchestra. Blessed with a wide-ranging voice, Steve is a true singer.
At home in Woodland, California he has his hands in numerous musical
projects and teaches music privately.
His hobby is model airplanes. He has built catalogue prototypes
for
Clancy Aviation and other model aircraft manufacturers.
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| Don Neely, aka Mr. Spud, is the founder and leader of the world famous of the Royal Society Jazz Orchestra. Born in Fresno, California Don, age twelve, began collecting scores of 78 rpm records featuring jazz bands, vaudevillians and dance orchestras. He found the music exciting and intoxicating, so full of humor, exuberance and variety. He was drawn in by the infectious rhythm, clever and whimsical lyrics and tuneful melodies. Among his favorite recordings were those of the Hoosier Hotshots. He listened to them becoming a zealous convert and fantasized about that far-off day when he might be able to play this music himself. Don Neely has made fourteen recordings as a bandleader, including nine compact discs, all featuring authentically performed vintage Jazz and Swing. Don Neely, with his musical ensembles, strives to bring to the public the pure joy that is to be found in the discovery of that exciting music. |
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Tony
Quinn Has
been a working musician for thirty five years, performed in Europe from
1970 to 1978 and has lived and performed through out California and
Nevada to the present. Tony has been the owner and operator of
the EDGE recording Studio in Lancaster, California from 1987 to
1995. he was a board member of Central California Songwriters
Association from 2002 to 2006. A published songwriter and arranger of music styles from C&W, Rock, Hip Hop, R'N'B , Blues and now, Rural Rhythm, Tony also produces commercial jingles for major companies through the world.
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| Bill
Reinhart,
born in San Francisco and now living in Berkeley, has spent much of the
last thirty years fiddling in the California jazz scene. He
co-founded
The Port City Jazz Band and was instrumental in the start-up of several
other bands in the Central Valley.
Bill always liked the New Orleans sound, and more than a decade ago switched from tuba to string bass in The Port City Jazz Band. He knows how to drive a rhythm section. Playing string bass, Bill has recently toured Hungary, Mexico and Japan. Every Friday when at home, he plays bass or guitar with The Café Borrone All-Stars in Menlo Park.
Bill is a craftsman, for many years building fine Mission
furniture.
This somehow led him, in recent years, to become a master guitar
restorer,
and he has done custom restoration of Epiphone guitars of the
1930ís for
many of the major players in the West. |
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The Port City Jazz Band, formed at Stagg High School in Stockton in 1970, toured fairs each summer until 1996. Aiming to emphasize the entertainment aspect of performance, in 1997 the small touring band was transformed into The Washboard Wizardz playing the rural rhythms of the Hoosier Hotshots. Four of the Port Citians, Bill Reinhart, Tom Schmidt, Steve Drivon and Stuart Zank toured on. Kurt Abell some years later replaced Stuart on guitar and banjo. Tony Quinn and Don Neely replaced Tom and Kurt in the Wizardz in 2008 and helped drive the Washboard Wizard to a new level. The Port City Jazz Band, a New Orleans style band, continues to play jazz clubs and festivals throughout the world..
The National Washboard Company(now defunct); whichever company it was that made the "Tuba-zoo'kazoo(now defunct); black plastic, no-name clarinets; Harmony tenor guitars (now defunct); Vega Banjos (now defunct);$2 slide whistles. (Is there a pattern here?)
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ENTERPRISES
© 2002