Tenor sax player Bob Kenmotsu leads the band, with Parker Grant on piano, Doug Miller on bass and Ron Marabuto on drums.  Come on out and hear what they’ve got to offer.  This is jazz as it’s played in San Francisco in 2016!  Best jazz on the planet at any given moment, and you can hear it at Bird & Beckett!

Read up on bassist Doug Miller by clicking here.  His track record is long and solid. The young pianist Parker Grant can be heard on Saturdays at the Burritt Room in a trio with guitarist Kai Lyon and drummer Brandon Etzler, where’s he’s been building a solid reputation as an inventive and swinging player.  Drummer Ron Marabuto grew up in the business, son of a key San Francisco pianist of the 50s and 60s, John Marabuto.  He put in serious time in New York, where he gigged extensively with the best players in the business, and is a first call drummer on the Bay Area scene these days, with a solid and propulsive style and keen sensitivity to his colleagues on the bandstand.

As for the leader of the date, Bob Kenmotsu, he left his home in Stockton for college in San Jose, then launched a professional career that led to New York, where he was hired by Jack McDuff for his organ combo and then by Ruth Brown for her R&B band.  He recorded there with Billy Hart, Ira Colman, Pat Martino and McDuff, then headed for Japan from 1994 to 1997, playing clubs, concerts and festivals throughout the country.  In 1997, Bob returned to the US, this time to the San Francisco Bay Area.  He recorded ‘Looking at Air’, with Bill Stewart, Essiet Okun Essiet and Joel Weiskopf.  Now, Bob lives in Berkeley, CA and is working jazz clubs and concerts on the West Coast. His latest recording, ‘I’m in Love with You’ features David Hazeltine, piano, David Wong, bass, and Billy Drummond, drums.

He’s just one of the most beautiful tenor players around, and one we’re always keen to hear when he mounts the bookshop’s bandstand!  This is the first time we’ve had Bob in as the leader of his own combo, and we’re looking forward to this date hugely.