With the addition of emerging artist Lucas Davis on trumpet, tbd is a quintet this time out.

tbd is the love child of trumpeter Mario Guarneri, a professional musician from the age of 14 or thereabouts, when he joined the musicians’ local in Los Angeles and started learning the ropes necessary for survival as a professional musician in jazz. That was seven decades ago. All along the way, he’s stayed focused on the nuts and bolts of a professional career that spanned classical and jazz worlds. A theme he wrote and recorded for Francis Coppola’s Godfather III  has stood him in good stead since the 1990s, but that’s just one facet of his long and storied career.

For years, we’ve known Mario as the force behind Jazz in the Neighborhood, now a 501(c)3 nonprofit, a crucial force in raising the consciousness and promoting the solidarity of professional gigging musicians, particularly jazz musicians, in the Bay Area. His influence is much wider than the local and regional scene as well. We’re honored to be associated with him, particularly in the organization known as the Independent Musicians Alliance.

But tonight, it’s about the music. Mario will share the bandstand with three exquisitely talented musicians in the tbd quartet — Erik Jekabson, John Wiitala and Akira Tana — musicians that are at the pinnacle of the profession, though like so many jazz musicians, only really fully recognized by the cognoscenti, in a world where fame and financial security is reserved for pop artists and opera divas, god bless ’em!

Come out tonight to hear two wonderful sets of jazz played by true professionals, and an aspiring talent who we hope will find a congenial path towards a sustainable career, something that Mario’s efforts have been invaluable in making a conceivable reality. Legislators, step up! We need you to establish a pathway that capitalism and garden variety philanthropy have proven unable to realize.