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Hailing from the Monterey Bay Area, along California’s Central Coast, Hot Club Pacific (HCP) draws its primary influences from Post-War Django, Henri Crolla, and modern-era, progressive Gypsy Jazz artists like Boulou & Elios Ferré, Romane & Stochelo Rosenberg, Robin Nolan and Bireli Lagrene. These influences combine to create HCP’s unique style, that they call Gypsy Bop, or “G-Bop.”
One of Monterey Bay’s most popular music bands, Hot Club Pacific has had an opportunity to play with many fabulous players. Greg Ruby and Matt Sircely (Hot Club Sandwich) joined them on stage in Santa Cruz in 2005. Simon Planting (Robin Nolan Trio, Fapy LaFertin, Angelo Debarre…) sat in with them at the legendary Savanna Jazz Club in San Francisco. Most recently, prodigious jazz guitar icon, Bruce Forman, joined them as their featured artist for their set at DjangoFest San Francisco/Mill Valley. HCP is proud to have Simon Planting as their featured artist for DjangoFest Northwest.
The core of the band is a quartet of musicians, each from a different musical background, who all share an interest in the legacy of Django Reinhardt.
Marc Schwartz (lead guitar) has played guitar since 1968. His diverse influences include: Bireli Lagrene, Wes Montgomery, John Lennon, Django Reinhardt, Joe Pass, Eric Clapton, Larry Coryell, Pat Martino, Robin Nolan, and Jimi Hendrix. Marc holds a B.A. in music from New York University and has studied with Studio/Jazz guitar greats Allen Hanlon and Milt Norman. When not playing with Hot Club Pacific, Marc can be found playing jazz guitar in various Santa Cruz venues or riding one of his classic Harley-Davidson motorcycles with his wife Sandra down California's legendary Highway 1. Marc is an avid collector of guitars. His swing guitars include a vintage Maurice Dupont MD-20, a Michael Dunn Stardust, and several very cool Gibson Archtops.
Mark Korzep (bass) comes from a family of musicians. His uncle, Duane Tatro was the lead tenor saxophone & arranger for Stan Kenton during the 1950's, and went on to teach at USC for many years while also writing music for TV and Movies. Mark studied piano, voice, composition, arranging, and film at Saddleback College, UC Irvine, and Garden Grove Center for the Performing Arts. His influences were from the many musicians that taught and performed at these institutions. Django Reinhardt's style and influences dominate his musical focus these days, although he enjoys playing Straight Ahead Jazz and many other styles, as well as pursuing composition and arranging.
Barry Porter (piano / accordion) has been performing professionally as a keyboard player and singer since the mid 1970's. He has played with Rock and R&B road bands in Colorado and Nevada, played Rock & Roll piano at bar in Norway, and while studying at Penn State, sang with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra Choir under the direction of Andre Previn. Since moving to Santa Cruz in the early 90's, Barry has added Straight Ahead Jazz, Fusion, and now Gypsy Swing to his list of performance styles. His earliest training was on the Hammond organ, and he has found that his organ skills translate well to the piano accordion, an instrument that he first picked up in 2004 (and yes, it's a lot easier to move than a B3). While his instrument of choice is a large acoustic piano, he enjoys playing Gypsy Swing on the accordion and is excited to be part of the Django legacy.
Jack Fields (rhythm guitar) – the newest member of the band – has been studying and playing Gypsy Jazz for over 10 years. He honed his rhythm style busking in Santa Cruz and San Francisco, which is how he met Hot Club Pacific. Jack started playing guitar in High School punk, surf and hard rock bands. His early influences include The Sex Pistols, The Ventures, Rush, Johnny Cash and someone named Django Reinhardt. Later musical influences include Charlie Christian and T-Bone Walker. An avid guitar collector, Jack plays two Duponts and a vintage Favino, and also owns several Gibson, Fender and Martin guitars, as well as a few old tube amps. Jack currently endorses guitar pickups made by <a href="http://www.schattendesign.com/" target="_blank">Schatten Design</a></li>.
Ben Blechman (violin), performs regularly with Hot Club Pacific, and will be joining them again at DjangoFest Northwest. Ben began studying violin at the age of 11 in Santa Rosa, CA with Dominic Dissaro. During high school he developed an interest in various improvisational styles while jamming with friends in the Santa Rosa area. He arrived at the University of California Santa Cruz (UCSC) in 1993, where he learned advanced classical technique and repertoire from violin virtuoso Roy Malan. While at UCSC he also studied jazz improvisation with jazz greats Ray Brown (trumpet) and Smith Dobson (piano). He completed a BA in Violin Performance in 1997, and decided to stay at UCSC to get a masters degree. During his masters program he continued his development on the violin and also pursued his interest in electronic and computer music. In 2003 Ben played for about six months with the Hot Club of San Francisco (filling in for Evan Price). This was a great opportunity to be thrust into the spotlight with one of the genres West Coast greats, Paul Mehling. Paul was a great mentor and helped Ben learn the repertoire and polish his Hot Club sound.
You can see a video clip of Hot Club Pacific performing with Special Guest Bruce Forman at DjangoFest San Francisco/Mill Valley at: MInor Swing.
Visit Hot Club Pacific's website at www.hotclubpacific.com to find out when they'll be playing next.
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