Ray Skjelbred & the Hot Corner

Ray Skjelbred & the Hot Corner

Hot Chicago style jazz with plenty of blues spread over a swing rhythm section. Ray Skjelbred is on the road out of Seattle, coming to San Francisco to record a new album with the Hot Corner. The band is looking forward to playing some of the new songs and arrangements they'll be recording.Ray Skjelbred, pianoClint Baker, bassRiley Baker, drumsKatie Cavera, guitarAndy Schumm, reeds $25 cover charge (cash at the door, please) / byob Students, $10.For a reservation, call the bookshop at 415-586-3733. Ray writes: Actually I'm just a neighborhood kid growing up in Chicago and growing older in Seattle, all at the same time! I have generally thought of myself as an English teacher first, then pianist and poet. My life has had the human influence of family, farmers, cowboys, baseball players, actors, writers and musicians, but perhaps I feel most affected  by rivers, forests and mountains. I listen to red-winged blackbirds, wooden bats hitting baseballs, wind moving through poplar trees and dog yawns. Also music---Norwegian Hardanger fiddle music, Tibetan horns, Charles Ives, old cowboys and jazz. I always lean toward sounds that reassure me of the truth and beauty of the world we inhabit. I love music that shows passion, daring and surprise. For me, the pianists I admire who most represent these ideas and to whom I listen most often are Earl Hines, Jess Stacy, Joe Sullivan, Mary Lou Williams, Art Hodes, Thelonious Monk, Zinky Cohn, George Zack, Cassino Simpson, Horace Henderson, Frank Melrose, Jimmy Yancey, Big Maceo, Bill Evans, Burt Bales, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Paul Lingle, Alex Hill, Sir Charles Thompson and Eddie Whitley. I am proud that my father came from Norway, that my mother's family consisted of farmers in Wisconsin and that my wife and children are good guides and partners in my life.