Ok so here is how the
band got togetherÉ.
Baritone Sax
player; Nathan Ray -
Late 1999 or maybe it was early 2000 some friends from high school and a
couple from the music store I was working in at Mario's music where talking
about doing a band. And the idea of a swing band would be a pretty cool
idea. First we needed some music charts and of course the players so I
talked to one of my friends from the Army band Tom Forte who I knew was good
with writting music and contracted him to start writting arrangedments for
cover tunes. At this point we had Myself; Nathan Ray, Ben Rees on
Trombone, Jim Scimonetti Jr on Sax,
Mario (mooch) Groce jr on Drums,
and Dennis Connowich on Trumpet. We went through a very long
period of trying to find a the rest of our band. Jim replaced himself
with Adam Schnieder. On Tenor Sax. Mooch also decided he didn't have time
to play with another band so we where really in for a hard time looking for a
rhythm section. The horns where set but we just couldn't find that
rhythm. We had auditioned several guitar, bass, and drummers but had
trouble finding musicians who shared our love and understanding of the swing
style. Fortunately I was working at Mario's music as a music teacher and
woodwind guy which is where I met up with a vocalist John Moratta who had an
excellent stage presence and personality and also loved what we where
doing. Also at Mario's I ran into the mother of a friend of mine who
heard I was looking for players and gave me the number for Ron Steinborn, a
bass player she worked with on occasion. Finally the band was
starting to come together which RonŐs experience we had something we could draw
on for us younger musicians as we auditioned drummers and guitar players.
The next addition to our band was Dean Zelligman (DeanZ) who had an Elvis
impersonation act that was great. He said he'd come check it out,
immediately he was a good fit to out band and lastly Ron said he knew a drummer
that might be interested in playing this kind of music. Ron called up
Gary White and as soon as he started drumming I knew we had our band. The
band had a short time like this playing at the AV Fair where we drew a large
crowd and even got a full write up in the paper. Unfortunately
everyone had jobs and other commitements when DeanZ got his job in Laughlin
with his Elvis gig and John left the band we went on break for several years.
Then just about a year
ago Ben and a couple others where talking about how they missed the band and
finally we started to get our act back together only now I needed to replace a
guitar and singer and Sax as Adam did not want to continue. After several
months of trying people and talking to countless musicians we got Don Markley,
Jim Scimonetti Sr, and eventually Ben Thomas.
