Album Notes

Dante Rosano: Trumpet
Marco Rosano: Bari-Sax
Evan Dain: Banjo and High-hat


It's a hot summer morning. We truck to the plaza with excitement and dread close in competition. We had performed as an early-jazz duet for some years, usually putting on a two-hour show, or maybe even three hours, but never four. I had tried to get this gig down to three, but she wouldn't budge - four hours or nothing, that's final. I weighed our options, thought for some days. That's a long time for a bari-sax/trumpet duet to entertain an audience, and the cost of getting my trumpet surgically removed from my face after the engagement. Well, we took it, and this is where my story leads.
In preparation for our early-jazz/ dixieland marathon, I contact Evan Dain, an old friend, and one of the best musicians in Arizona. I make certain that he's to bring his complete arsenal of instruments: banjo, trombone, guitar, accordian, and high-hat. He left the tuba at home -- Marco belts out bass-lines on the bari beautifully.
We pull into the plaza, spot our performance location, and haul everything over, my trumpet seeming mere pocket-change compared to Evan's arsenal. After several minutes of setting up, Evan asks, "well, what instrument should I try out first?". Marco replys, "I don't know, why not try the Banjo?". It seemed logical to me: banjo for chords, bari for bass lines, and trumpet on melody. We arc ourselves into position, think up a quick set list of songs we all know, and count the first one off. It sarts a little rough, but Jesus Christ! What a Sound!. So full, and juicy! I've never heard, much less, played in such a small group that sounded so.......big.
The sound was so complete and alive and vibrant. We saw it on the people's faces as they lit up behind their stacks of tomatoes, and onions, and bags of coffee beans, and home-grown artichokes.
After the first song, Evan exclaimed, "Jesus! If I knew you guys could play like that I wouldn't have brought all these damn instruments!!
-Dante Rosano

Here are a few actual responses to the CD and to our performances we recieved along the way:

"Wow, who's your drummer?" -Kathy
Answer: We don't have one.

"You guys are so young, how did you learn to play that kind of music?" -someone older than us

"This is the most fun I've ever had here!" -someone else

"I Love your new CD!" -our Mom

"Freebird!!!!!!!!!" -a drunk guy