Bennett Friedman Quartet

Joining Bennett Friedman, on Tenor sax, will be other world-class musicians Jim Nichols, guitar, Chris Amberger, Bass, and Lorca Hart, drums.

Bennett’s SRJC Website Bio:

A native of Berkeley, California, Bennett Friedman has been performing, writing and teaching music in the San Francisco Bay Area since the early 1960′s. He attended Berkeley High School, Berklee College of Music in Boston, and San Francisco State University, where he received a master’s degree in music (performance) in 1971. Bennett served three years in Washington, D.C. with the United States Army Band.

In the 1970′s and 80′s Bennett worked in horn sections backing such artists as Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, Sammy Davis Jr., Lou Rawls, The Temptations, and Michael Jackson among others. Bennett has performed with the San Francisco Symphony, the California Symphony, and the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra.

Compositions and arrangements for jazz ensemble by Bennett Friedman are published by University of Northern Colorado Press. He is the recipient of a National Endowment For the Arts grant for jazz composition and has had works commissioned by the International Association of Jazz Educators and many colleges.

Some of Bennett’s recent performances have been at the Monterey jazz Festival, Kuumbwa Jazz Center in Santa Cruz, and at the Stanford Jazz Workshop.

Friedman’s teaching career began when he directed the jazz ensembles at San Francisco State University for eight years. Since 1977 he has been a full-time instructor at Santa Rosa Junior College where he teaches jazz courses and conducts the Santa Rosa Wind Symphony.

Jim Nichols‘ impressive credentials include appearances on television, radio, concert halls, and clubs including Carnegie Hall and the Tonight Show. He has played and/or recorded with Kenny Rankin, Chet Atkins, Hubert Laws, Buddy Montgomery, Van Morrison, Toots Thielemans, Tom Waits, and others. Jim has taught clinics in the U.S. and in Europe including Stanford and Jamie Aebersold Jazz Workshops. He was featured at the ’97 Django Reinhardt Festival in France with the great European guitarists, Romane and Martin Taylor. Jim is featured on “World of Fingerstyle Jazz Guitar” for Stefan Grossman’s Guitar Workshop and has a Jazz Guitar instruction video on Bransong Music. His solo CD was chosen by Guitar Player Magazine as a “Pick of the Year” for ’96 and in January of 2001, Jim was interviewed in Fingerstyle Guitar Magazine. Chet Atkins said in his autobiography Me and My Guitars: “And I know, as the torch is passed, our beloved instrument is in good hands with players like Jerry Reed, Tommy Emmanuel, Richard Smith, Jim Nichols, and Doyle Dykes”.

Chris Amberger has been one of the first-call bassists in the San Francisco Bay Area and all over the west coast for over 30 years. He has toured/recorded with many of the greats in jazz including Tommy Dorsey, George Shearing, Rosemary Clooney, Red Garland, Art Pepper and Art Blakey. Amberger’s hard driving bass lines, melodic soloing, and enormous creativity have brought him to perform with artists such as Freddie Hubbard, Sonny Stitt, Art Pepper, and Steely Dan, to name a few.

Drummer Lorca Hart grew up in a musical family (famed drummer Billy Hart is his dad) and started playing at a young age. In high school he started to perform and focus on Jazz. He attended California Institute of the Arts from 1992-96, studying with Albert “Tootie” Heath, Joe La Barbera, Charlie Haden, Wadada Leo Smith, and many others. Lorca has worked consistently in a variety of musical situations, playing with many of the West Coast’s (and beyond) finest artists including : Calvin Keys, Kyle Eastwood, Herman Riley, Azar Lawrence, Red Holloway, Plas Johnson, John Heard, Danny Grissett, Justo Almario, Bennie Maupin, Phil Ranelin, Dave Pike, Ralph Moore, Don Menza, Hugh Masekela.