Chuck’s not here this week… but valve trombonist Frank Phipps sits in, while drummer Jim Zimmerman sits in for Tony Johnson and bassist Al Obidinsky sits in for Dean Reilly, with reedman Howie Dudune and guitarist Glen Deardorff as the core of the band.

Five seasoned pros doing what they love to do — swing hard and sweet, and bop!  

Jim Zimmerman got his career in jazz and pop music fully on track back in the 1960s when he was staff drummer and percussionist for the Circle Star Theater down in San Carlos, laying down the rhythm for countless traveling stars that drew throngs to that venue — from Tony Bennett to the Temptations, Sinatra to the Jackson Five.  He left the Circle Star to join Vince Guaraldi, recording on several of the Charlie Brown specials

John Dankworth and Cleo Laine

Before long, he was picked up by British jazz singer Cleo Laine and her husband/music director/arranger John Dankworth for decades to drum on their frequent U.S. tours.  That association lasted for 27 years, from 1982 right up to Cleo’s final dates in America in 2009.  That’s Jim on drums on Cleo’s Grammy winning 1983 album called “Cleo at Carnegie: The 10th Anniversary Concert.”  Jim toured as well with Diane Schur, from 1992 to 2004, and over the course of his 50-year career in the music has played alongside a legion of fine jazz musicians.

Now, he stays close to home, playing drums and vibes in the sweet little venues that dot the city — a peer of the many fine resident jazz players that have made San Francisco one of the premier jazz cities of the world.

As for Al Obidinski, I don’t have so much hard biographical information, but his playing history — all top drawer — probably goes back another decade beyond Jim’s, and I’ve seen his name associated with singer Anita O’Day’s backing bands, which is more than ok in my book!