Two Franks — drummer Jon and trumpeter Noah — bookend a group that includes guitarist Jordan Samuels, pianist Dave Gibbons and bassist Rob Woodcock this Sunday for our “which way west?” concert.

illustration by Eri Griffin, www.erigriffin.com

This Sunday, nestled into two sets of standards, modern jazz masterpieces and new compositions, the quintet will treat us to a sequence summoning the spirit of the Miles Davis’ classic post-bop “Miles Smiles” sessions of 1966.

Those sessions, with Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter and Tony Williams alongside Miles, produced key quintet recordings of Shorter’s “Footprints” and “Dolores” and Eddie Harris’s “Freedom Jazz Dance.”

Drummer and band leader Jon Frank graduated from SFSU with a BA in music education and has been orchestra director at Hoover Middle School for more than 20 years.  All along the way, he’s gigged on jazz dates and has led his own small combos, including this one.  He’s been heard at Bird & Beckett several times in recent years in a very fine group that features veteran bassist Ron Crotty (an early Dave Brubeck associate) and pianist Terry Rodriguez.

Trumpeter and composer Noah Frank was born right here in San Francisco, son of Jon Frank & Lynn Rappoport.  Noah studied music at the San Francisco School of the Arts and the Berklee College of Music in Boston, and has performed at Yoshi’s, Jazz at Pearl’s, The Jazzschool, and La Peña, among other key Bay Area venues, and leads the group called Sueños.

Pianist Dave Gibbons has accompanied soloists and played in big bands, pit orchestras, jazz combos and fusion bands.  He has played at venues large and small around the city, including a summer stint at the The Lounge at Yoshi’s.  Lately, he’s been staying deep in the jazz idiom, playing with the SFJAZZ Monday Night Band as well as this combo.

Guitarist Jordan Samuels was educated in classical composition at SFSU and studied jazz guitar with the likes of Bruce Forman, Randy Vincent and Jim Witzel,  He’s been heard a lot around town at venues including the Club Deluxe, the Orbit Room, the Caffe Trieste and the Cliff House, gaining a strong reputation for his beautiful tone, lovely phrasing and fleet fingerstyle technique.

Bassist Rob Woodcock hails from NYC out of Long Island.  He earned a BA (in History) from Fordham, a second BA (in Double Bass performance) from the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College in 2001 and — after arriving in the Bay Area in 2004 — an MA (also in Double Bass performance) from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.  Now, he’s on faculty at Hoover Middle School as band director alongside his colleague Jon.  From 2006-2010 Rob was principal bassist of the Silicon Valley Symphony Orchestra and from 2011-2013 he was principal bassist of the San Francisco Civic Symphony.  He also plays in local ensembles such as ImpromptuSF, Woodcock/Gurke Duo and the San Francisco Wind Ensemble, works with the WE Players Theater Group and maintains an East Coast presence by consistently working with NYC guitarist Josh Maxey and singer/songwriter Linda Draper.