About Jeff
Born and raised in New York, Jeff took the plunge to live on the West Coast in the 1990s. With his turquoise Fender bass in hand, Jeff made his way to local Open Mics in Alameda and Hayward, CA. Soon he had a group of friends as every guitarist knows their sound is kicked up a few notches when you add the punch of a confident bassist.
Jeff met Janet at one of these Open Mics and since she isn’t much of a drinker, he has fun saying that they “met at a bar.” This legacy is one of the reasons why the pair have hosted dozens of Open Mics over the past twenty years. In the early 2000s, they developed a pop/rock band with Topher Gayle and a variety of drummers.
Jeff’s “day job” has some relation to his musical avocation. He has devoted his career to audio/video consumer electronics including stints at Harmon Kardon, TIVO, and Roku. Jeff’s gotten good and nerdy with large scale televisions, projectors and subwoofers, to name a few. At one of his first jobs, Jeff worked retail in Manhattan where he waited on James Taylor, sold an audio system to Robben Ford and processed John Williams’ credit card for a CD player.
Jeff’s musical influences include the bass playing of Paul McCartney, Victor Wooten, Leland Sklar, Tony Levin, James Jamerson, Stanley Clarke, and Bernard Edwards. He grew up listening to the Fifth Dimension with his sister, jazz with his Dad, and soaking up rock music on the FM dial. Some of his cherished memories are of seeing some great live performances by Paul McCartney, Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, Steely Dan, Thomas Dolby, Tears for Fears, the B-52s and a Hardly Strictly Bluegrass moment with the Dukes Of September (Boz Skaggs, Michael McDonald and Donald Fagen).
Jeff’s played with a lot of cool bands over the year: retro rock with “Hearthrob,” pop music at the farmer’s markets with “Lunarville” and getting to play at Slim’s with Jeff Gordon and Jordan Breslow. For a couple of years, he lived in a house with the “B-Cools” with whom he played a lot of Grateful Dead jam band music. Jeff is comfortable with genre-hopping and has performed blues to Beatles to Brazilian jazz. Jeff and Janet together played with “Sunkist” and “Lunarville” as well as “All About Me” and “The Janet Lenore Band.”
Jeff’s newest addition to his bass fleet is a quilted-maple purple 5502 Deluxe 5-string Lakland bass. His solid body Kala U-bass is rather special. After 30+ years, he still loves his turquoise Fender Power Jazz special, which, before they got together as life partners, he named Janet.
Jeff met Janet at one of these Open Mics and since she isn’t much of a drinker, he has fun saying that they “met at a bar.” This legacy is one of the reasons why the pair have hosted dozens of Open Mics over the past twenty years. In the early 2000s, they developed a pop/rock band with Topher Gayle and a variety of drummers.
Jeff’s “day job” has some relation to his musical avocation. He has devoted his career to audio/video consumer electronics including stints at Harmon Kardon, TIVO, and Roku. Jeff’s gotten good and nerdy with large scale televisions, projectors and subwoofers, to name a few. At one of his first jobs, Jeff worked retail in Manhattan where he waited on James Taylor, sold an audio system to Robben Ford and processed John Williams’ credit card for a CD player.
Jeff’s musical influences include the bass playing of Paul McCartney, Victor Wooten, Leland Sklar, Tony Levin, James Jamerson, Stanley Clarke, and Bernard Edwards. He grew up listening to the Fifth Dimension with his sister, jazz with his Dad, and soaking up rock music on the FM dial. Some of his cherished memories are of seeing some great live performances by Paul McCartney, Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, Steely Dan, Thomas Dolby, Tears for Fears, the B-52s and a Hardly Strictly Bluegrass moment with the Dukes Of September (Boz Skaggs, Michael McDonald and Donald Fagen).
Jeff’s played with a lot of cool bands over the year: retro rock with “Hearthrob,” pop music at the farmer’s markets with “Lunarville” and getting to play at Slim’s with Jeff Gordon and Jordan Breslow. For a couple of years, he lived in a house with the “B-Cools” with whom he played a lot of Grateful Dead jam band music. Jeff is comfortable with genre-hopping and has performed blues to Beatles to Brazilian jazz. Jeff and Janet together played with “Sunkist” and “Lunarville” as well as “All About Me” and “The Janet Lenore Band.”
Jeff’s newest addition to his bass fleet is a quilted-maple purple 5502 Deluxe 5-string Lakland bass. His solid body Kala U-bass is rather special. After 30+ years, he still loves his turquoise Fender Power Jazz special, which, before they got together as life partners, he named Janet.
