Todd Dickow – sax.
Joel Behrman – trumpet.
Benny Watson – piano.
John Donnelly – bass.
Greg Gotelli – drums.

$20 cover charge; byob.
Reservations, call 415-586-3733.

The SF Jazz Quintet, helmed by drummer Greg Gotelli, brings to you the classic composers of hard bop era as well as the best of the Great American Songbook’s ballads. Performing the compositions of Sonny Clark, Lee Morgan, Tadd Dameron, Kenny Dorham, and Clifford Brown to name but a few, the SF Jazz Quintet delivers an exciting, powerfully rhythmic, horn driven ensemble sound. Their performance returns to the classic sounds that made this music some of the greatest, most loved jazz in the genre’s long history.

Tonight’s iteration of his San Francisco Quintet includes formidable horn players including saxophonist Todd Dickow and trumpeter Berhman fronting the rhythm section of pianist Benny Watson, bassist John Donnelly and Greg on the drum kit.

Todd Dickow’s work on tenor saxophone displays a powerful voice rooted in the work of the creators of modern jazz from Coleman Hawkins to Joe Henderson and beyond. He performs in a variety of settings ranging from big bands to small combos adding a dynamic voice as an accomplished soloist and accompanist, displaying a style steeped in the traditions of be-bop and modern jazz. Todd has been performing worldwide with the group Charged Particles featuring renowned trumpeter Randy Brecker, as well as performing as both a leader and as an in-demand sideman at many major venues and events such as S.F. Jazz, Birdland, Ronnie Scott’s, Blues Alley, Dazzle in Denver, The Baked Potato,Vibrato , The Monterey Jazz Festival, The Kool Jazz Festival,  and Yoshi’s. Recordings include The Faith and Credit Big Band, The James Leary Big Band, Full Spectrum, The Contemporary Jazz Orchestra, The Bay Area Jazz Composers Orchestra, Al Molina Latin Jazz Quintet, Lisa B.,The Turtle Island String Quartet, Chris Trinidad and Charged Particles.

Trumpeter Joel Behrman grew up in Belleville Illinois, a St. Louis suburb. At age 9 he started on his first instrument, trombone, a horn he still plays frequently today. He went on to earn his music degree at the University of Miami, studying with world-class improvisers like Ira Sullivan, Barry Ries, John Bailey, Jason Carder and Al Hood. Joel has performed with such such notables as Jimmy Cobb, Chris Potter, Ledisi, Jazzmeia Horn, Helen Sung, Chester Thompson, Dayna Stephens, and has recently toured and recorded with drumming superstar, Sheila E as well as her father, the latin jazz legend, Pete Escovedo. Since moving to the San Francisco bay area, he’s performed with several local jazz musicians including Marcus Shelby, Tiffany Austin, Howard Wiley, Mike Olmos, Patrick Wolff, Adam Klipple, Anton Schwartz, Larry Vuckovich, Jules Broussard, and Lavay Smith. In 2012 he released his debut album, Steppin Back. Outside of the jazz world, Joel has toured with American Idol winner, Phillip Phillips, K.C. and the Sunshine Band and Boz Scaggs. He’s also performed with Etta James, Gladys Knight, Natalie Cole, Tony! Toni! Tone!, The Funk Brothers, Barry Manilow, and Josh Groban.

Bassist and composer John Donnelly returned to the San Francisco Bay Area in 2014 after a decades-long period in New York. He is now settling into the music scene in with performances with Dick Whittington, Akira Tana, Vince Lateano, and Noel , as well as his new “Boomer’s Quartet” with Bob Kenmotsu (ts), Matt Clark (p) and Ron Marabuto (d), which draws repertoire from groups that played in the NYC club, Boomers. Early on in New York he also enjoyed musical associations with Walter Bishop Jr, “Philly” Joe Jones, Clifford Jordan, Barry Harris, Freddie Redd, Valery Ponomarev, and John Colianni, as well as other performances with a long list of other artists; among them Clark Terry, Lou Donaldson, Tony Bennett, Billy Taylor, Junior Cook, Bill Hardman, Derek Smith, Bobby Rosengarten, Gene Bertoncini, Bobby McFerrin, Lee Konitz, Branford Marsalis, Dakota Staton, Bob Dorough, and Mose Allison. He has recorded and toured Europe and the Far East with several groups, notably with the Charlie Parker Memorial Quintet, led by Walter Bishop (who got his start with Parker and Miles Davis) featuring South African saxophonist Harold Jefta, along with trumpeter Tom Kirkpatrick and drummers Akira Tana and Clifford Barbaro. Many NYC gigs took place in storied venues, including the Blue Note, Birdland, Bradley’s, Sweet Basil, Lush Life, and Madison Square Garden. John returns several times a year for runs at the venerable Knickerbocker Grill in Greenwich Village with pianist John Colianni and his own group with John C and stellar saxophonist Mark Vinci. Before his departure from his native San Francisco to New York in 1982, John worked with many Bay Area notables, including Eddie Henderson, Hadley Caliman, Benny Green, Ed Kelly, Joe Bonner, Eddie Marshall, and Eddie Moore. His bass teachers included Chuck Metcalf and Frank Tusa, and later in New York a long study and friendship with Red Mitchell, from which John adopted the fifths tuning for the bass. John holds a master’s degree in Music Composition from New York University.

Benny Watson has been at the keys in the Northern California bars, restaurants, hotels, jazz clubs and concert halls since the early 1960s, a journeyman in a profession that has had a long and storied place in Bay Area cultural and labor history. To pick a single point in time, 1973 found Benny working in rotation at the St. Francis Hotel with such local lions of the piano as Al Plank, Bob Franks, Bill Keck, Ken Muir, Kent Strand, Larry Dunlap, Michael Udelson, Mike Greensill, Michael Parsons and Gini Wilson. This was on the off nights of Abe Battat’s trio with Seward McCain and John Stafford, which played six nights a week. So many great musicians played at the St. Francis during that run, including Jeff Neighbor, John Mosher, Mario Suraci, Dean Reilly, John Witalla, Ruth Davies, John Nichols, John Moore, George McNeill, David Schoenbrun, Pat Klobas, Ray Loeckle, Stan Shuman, Howie Dudune, Al Walcott, Jon Eriksen, Vince Lateano, Jim Zimmerman, Maye Cavallaro, and Madeline Eastman, many of whom have played at Bird & Beckett over the past twenty five years.

Drummer Greg Gotelli fields numerous great bands in the Bay Area, from the SF Quintet with vocalist Darlene Langston to the Buena Vista Jazz Band with clarinetist Don Neeley to vocalist Lorretta Gooden’s Hammond B3 combo. Many of the great veterans of Bay Area jazz have found a berth with Greg’s groups, including Noel Jewkes, Charlie McCarthy, John Gove, Si Perkoff, Al Obidinski, Frank Jackson, Duncan James, Glen Pearson, Chuck Bennett, Denise Perrier, Mike Greensill, Marty Eggers, John Hunt, Andrew Storar, John Clark, Jeff Saxton and a host of others. A modest but dapper guy keeping good time at the kit, Greg is a regular Medici of the Bay Area jazz scene.