BIOGRAPHY
Tom Weimer, Guitar
Tom Weimer is a Bay Area jazz guitarist. While growing up in Albuquerque, Tom played rock, country, and jazz gigs as often as possible while teaching guitar lessons at King Music Center. He spent a year and a half at the University of New Mexico as a classical guitar performance major while taking group and private piano lessons.
In the early 90’s, Tom studied at the USC Studio Jazz Program in Los Angeles, and took lessons with Joe Diorio, Paul Larose, Ted Greene, and Rick Zunigar. In the Bay Area, Tom took private lessons from Anton Schwartz and played in classes and ensembles with Mimi Fox, Glenn Richman and Brian Pardo at the California Jazz Conservatory (Jazzschool) in Berkeley. During Covid-19 lockdown, Tom had the tremendous good fortune to study privately with Mike Moreno over Zoom for nine months, in addition to taking his "Standards for Film" course.
Tom has performed at clubs and venues in LA and around the Bay Area, including Bissap Baobob and Hotel Rex in San Francisco, Caffe Trieste in Berkeley and Piedmont, Local 123, Cafe Leila, The Albany Taproom, The Franklin Wine Bar in Oakland, The Fratellanza Club, Britt-Marie's, and other East Bay venues.
Erik Charp, Acoustic and Electric Piano
Erik Charp is a Bay Area musician, sound technologist and jazz pianist. Growing up in the North Bay, he began playing keyboards in jazz and rock combos in high school. He studied piano with Dean Solden and jazz improvisation with Bennett Friedman in Santa Rosa, CA. Erik earned a music degree from Sonoma State University, where he studied with jazz greats Mel Graves and Mark Levine, and electronic music pioneer Ron Pellegrino.
In the mid 90’s, Erik founded an electronic music production studio - Silicon Entourage - with Siwei Zou, resident composer for the Shanghai Opera and Conservatory of Music. Together they produced many works, and toured and lectured throughout China.
Erik earned a Master’s degree from UC Santa Cruz, studying AI in Music with David Cope and performing in the UC Jazz Ensembles, under the direction of Smith Dobson and Ray Brown. Upon returning to the East Bay, he studied for a time at the California Jazz Conservatory, and privately with piano master Dick Hindman.
While working in sound technology by day, Erik performs regularly at venues and private affairs around the Bay Area.
Jack Castillo, Drums
Jack Castillo is a Bay Area musician and jazz enthusiast. He has played with Tower of Power, Ronnie Shannon, and Chuck Gee. He is a lifelong student of the art of drumming and has studied with Bay Area greats such as Alan Hall, Paul Van Wageningen, Colin Bailey, Frank Martin, T. Moran and Peter Apfelbaum. He is a lifelong student and currently enrolled in the adult ensemble program at the California Jazz Conservatory.
Huy Nguyen, Double Bass
Huy Nguyen is a jazz bassist, composer and bandleader influenced by the works of Ron Carter, Charlie Parker, Milt Hinton and Jovino Santos Neto. He has studied jazz with Glenn Richman, Mimi Fox, Dan Zinn and Brazilian percussion with Mestre Wilson Low (Oba Oba).
Adam Charp, Acoustic and Electric Bass, Drums
Adam grew up in the North Bay and was influenced musically at an early age by his big brother who was already advanced in his studies and performance of pop, blues, jazz, and other styles. Adam studied drums with various teachers, and at the Santa Rosa Junior College where he learned from and was influenced by saxophonist and arranger Bennett Friedman. Adam picked up the bass and played and studied more with arranger Ray Brown in Santa Cruz, CA. Adam has studied with, played with, and picked the brains of many great local musicians including the late Mel Graves, George Marsh, Randy Vincent, Dan Robbins, and others. Adam continues to play both bass and drums and enjoys straight-ahead jazz as well as other styles such as classic rock, pop, Latin-influenced styles, reggae, blues, and fusion. Adam loves filling in on bass or drums with Post Bop Praise.