My apprenticeship with Freddy Powers took me down a lane of old jazz standards. Freddy taught me Stardust, Kiss to Build a Dream On, Out of Nowhere and many other incredible songs. The best songs ever written.
I have grown to love playing songs by Sinatra, Ella, Louie, Tony Bennett and ESPECIALLY Nat King Cole, his fun stuff, the swing stuff, from when he was younger, before the later ballads phase that made him so famous.
In the 80’s we had a reggae band called PRESSURE. The lead singer in that band was Sebastian Williams, an exceptional singer and a sweet human being.
A couple of years ago Pressure did a few reunion shows. During that time I told Sebastian..”Man, you ought to be singing Nat King Cole songs. You just have THAT voice” He was game but we didn’t do anything right away.
Not long after that. my songwriting partner from the 90’s, Ron Hicks got in touch with me about playing together again. Ron and I had stopped writing and playing together, later, in the 90’s and he went off to paint while I started a country band-STOP THE TRUCK. Initially, Ron and I just got back together to play our old folksy songs but as we would sit there, after doing our repertoire, we started to play old standards…”Do you know this one? Yeah! How about this one?” Then we slowly started incorporating those into our folk sets. Soon those songs started to dominate what we were doing together…..so I thought….Let’s do a show of THIS stuff!
Now, there was no reason for Ron and I to both play guitar so I volunteered to play bass. I LOVE playing bass and I had not done a bass gig in years….really…YEARS. I told Ron about Sebastian and his voice and suggested we do a show just backing him up. He was open to it so I made the call. Sebastian was tentative, not about wanting to, just as to whether or not he could do it. Like me and Ron, he had never played jazz. We are on our way…..
As I mentioned above, we had a reggae band, well, we still do…and the sax player in our current band was also in the 80’s band, Donny Silverman. We had guitar and bass covered and I thought we would need a soloist.
Donny Silverman is my all-time favorite soloist that I have ever been in a band with. He just plays great solos, so, I called Donny and ran it buy him. His first response was “Steve, you know I don’t really play jazz.” I said “Join the club” (We even considered calling the band “4 Guys Who Have Never Played Jazz”)
Sebastian Williams-Bottom center-L and Donny Silverman-top R
What it has become is magical. We have FUN! The pieces fit, beautifully. Now, Sebastian has only been in one band…ever…Pressure in the 80’s. He hasn’t sung with anybody since. He is like a kid in a candy store. His sense of discovery is on fire. Discovering the songs, how to tell the story and what he can do with his voice, learning how to interpret and deliver these masterpieces. Likewise with Donny, the joy is palpable. We are always updating our arrangements, making the songs more sophisticated than when we first approached them…..FUN!
Ron Hicks is our musical professor. He went to Berklee College of Music in Boston years ago. I pick the songs, Ron tells us how to play ’em. His direction is perfect. The newness for Ron is that he is new to just comping rhythm in this fashion. He and I both play rhythm in our folk duo but this is higher learning. He and I churn along like a train and grin at each other. Like is said…FUN!
For a short time we were joined by Cindy Jon Morse on piano. She is part of The Bee Gees Songbook, that I am also a member of . It was nice having her while we did. She is a wonderful friend and an exceptional musician. 
When it ended up just being the 4 of us, we found our groove. I am in 4 bands but this one is my favorite. I think it’s because I already know how to play rock, reggae, country and this is a full-on learning experience every time we approach a song. Songs like “One For My Baby” and”Under My Skin”-Sinatra, “Do Nothing Till You Hear From Me”- Joe Williams, “My One and Only Love”-John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman, “I Wanna Be Around”-Tony Bennett’ Stars Fell on Alabama”-Louie and Ella and Nat Cole faves “Just You, Just Me” and “I Was a Little Too Lonely”. I am very proud of having dreamed this up. The band is so much more than I had hoped for.
We are THE QUARTET.
My Entertaining Life-Steve Carter 