Albert Marques looks around and doesn’t like what he sees.
”
If you look at all the major colleges around us, everybody has a
nice concert piano and Gavilan doesn’t,
”
said Marques, a professor at Gavilan,
”
so we’re looking to change that.
”
Albert Marques looks around and doesn’t like what he sees. “If you look at all the major colleges around us, everybody has a nice concert piano and Gavilan doesn’t,” said Marques, a professor at Gavilan, “so we’re looking to change that.”
To do so, Gavilan will be pulling in professors and former students for the 2005 showcase, Bach to Blues, to be held Friday, Feb. 25 at the Gavilan College Theater.
Among the nine acts billed to perform in the benefit for the college’s music department, there are guitarists, pianists, classic rock groups, jazz vocalists and purveyors of the nitty-gritty style known as the blues. However, a few names stand out from the pack. Here are the ones to watch:
Nate Pruitt
Gavilan Instructor Nate Pruitt grew up living and breathing jazz. His family owned a club in New Haven, Conn., and he remembers straining to hear the sounds of legends like Lena Horne at age nine when the bouncer wouldn’t let him in, and sitting on the sidelines at 12 and 13, soaking in Aretha Franklin’s vocals.
Influenced most by his half brother, bassist Willie Ruff, Pruitt set off to become a great himself when he enrolled at the Berklee School of Music (now known as the Berklee College of Music) to become a trained vocalist.
Drafted for military service in Vietnam, Pruitt caught a lucky break during a round of training in Germany.
“They had orders to look for any singers coming through to audition for their chorus,” said Pruitt. “Luckily for me, I got to sing the whole time I was in Germany.”
Soon after his discharge from the military, Pruitt’s half brother, Ruff, convinced him to move to Los Angeles, where Pruitt picked up some studio work, including feature vocal roles for the Sidney Poitier movie “The Lost Man” and John Travolta and Dustin Hoffman’s “Mad City.”
But by the end of the 1980s, Pruitt was ready for a change of scenery. He moved to Morgan Hill and refocused his attentions on the San Francisco Bay area jazz scene.
Known for his distinctive scat, Pruitt was presented with a lifetime achievement award from the San Jose Jazz Society in March 2004.
On Feb. 25, Pruitt will be mixing in a little funk at the Bach to Blues show. Known for featuring other local musicians with his group, Primary Colors, Pruitt will be pulling in his son, a member of the funk group 650 Connection, to work the drums.
John Garcia
Another highlight of the concert will be the performance of guitarist John Garcia. A professional musician known for his improvisation riffs, his roster of backup credits reads like a who’s who of blues, rock and modern folk, having played with B.B. King, John Lee Hooker, Huey Lewis, Paul Simon and Bo Diddley.
Diddley has called Garcia “one hell of an entertainer.”
Growing up, Garcia said he was influenced by popular music, and first took up the guitar after hearing the surf group Dick Dill and the Doll Tones.
“Basically, I learned from records,” said Garcia. “I got into people like the Stones and Freddie King.”
Garcia is close to releasing a solo album, but his work is currently riding the charts with the album “Blues With a Vengeance,” in which he played alongside John Lee Hooker, Jr.
The Grammy-nominated album is the second most downloaded selection from the blues section of Apple’s iTunes store, but Garcia couldn’t specify
whether he’d be playing anything from his current selections.
“Usually, I like to keep is spontaneous,” said Garcia. “I can work a set, but for something like this, I just like to feel the audience.”
The concert’s location holds a special place in Garcia’s heart: he’s a former Gavilan student.
“It was a proving ground for me learning music,” said Garcia. “It makes me go back to those days.”
Albert Marques
Albert Marques rounds out the list of standouts on the show’s roster, having studied flamenco guitar in Spain.
“I grew up in a Spanish family, and my father played, and my grandfather played,” said Marques, “so it was just passed on to me traditionally. I always played electric guitar, in rock bands and things, but my father and I would always play together at family functions. I realized at about 18 that it was what I wanted to focus on.”
By age 21, Marques was half way around the world, studying flamenco at its very root from some of the best instructors on the globe, he said.
Marques will be performing well-known pieces like The Gypsy Kings’ “Bamboleo,” but will also feature more traditional flamenco guitar with the accompaniment of dancers later in his set.
Tickets for Bach to Blues are $10 for seniors and students, $15 for regular admission and $25 for VIPs. They are available at the Gavilan College box office or online at www.TicketGuys.com. For a complete list of ticket retailers in the South County and Hollister areas, visit www.gavilan.edu/bachtoblues, or call the college box office at (408) 846-4973. The performance starts at 7:30pm on Friday, Feb. 25 in the Gavilan College Theater, but pre-show entertainment will begin at 7pm.
