A 5-piece group led by Chicago native Ray Skjelbred, this band includes Skjelbred on piano, Kim Cusack on clarinet, Katie Cavera on guitar, Clint Baker on bass and Jeff Hamilton on drums. $20 cover charge.

All but Hamilton share the vocal duties in this band, and do so with elan!

The Cubs are on a mini-Bay Area tour they typically make each July, and this is their only San Francisco public appearance on the trip, though you can catch Ray solo at Pier 23 on Monday the 11th.

Skjelbred is down from Seattle, while Cusak is in from Chicago and Cavera is up from L.A. Baker and Hamilton both live in the Bay Area. (Don’t fail to mark your calendar now for September 23rd, when drummer Jeff Hamilton will be back, but this time in the piano chair with Clint Baker moving to trumpet, joined by Robert Young on reeds.)

Ray Skejbred, center standing, with Diane Holmes, vocal, Jim Goodwin, cornet, Bob Helm, clarinet, Dick Oxtot, banjo, Jim Cumming, bass

Ray Skjelbred, in the words of Michael Steinman in his wonderful blog called Jazz Lives, “is a poet…of…shadings and tone-colors, of the rhythms of the train heading through the darkness.”

Steinman notes and we imagine we’ll concur, “We are fortunate to live on his planet.”

Read more on Ray at http://jazzhotbigstep.com/695355

Hear Ray play “Stompin’ em Down” at this link!

L-R: Clint Baker, Kim Cusak, Katie Cavera, Ray Skjelbred, Jeff Hamilton