{"id":235800,"date":"2012-09-10T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2012-09-10T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sdnews.com\/anthology-house-band-jazzes-things-up\/"},"modified":"2012-09-10T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2012-09-10T07:00:00","slug":"anthology-house-band-jazzes-things-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/anthology-house-band-jazzes-things-up\/","title":{"rendered":"Anthology House Band jazzes things up"},"content":{"rendered":"

Local musicians have been finely tuning your Tuesdays for five years<\/strong><\/p>\n

By Alex Owens | Downtown News<\/strong><\/p>\n

As a musician, Tony Muhammad isn\u2019t a household name \u2013 unless your house is Anthology.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s the bass player and leader of the House Band and, as such, he\u2019s the man responsible for setting up the musical decisions when the band plays on Tuesday nights.<\/p>\n

\u201cI start thinking about the set list Sunday evening and by Monday, it\u2019s arranged and I hand it to the guys,\u201d Muhammad said.<\/p>\n

The house band concept is something that is uncommon in San Diego and the Anthology House Band is unique in other ways in that they have played pretty much every week at the club (sometimes multiple performances) since the club first opened in 2007.<\/p>\n

The idea actually came up in, of all places, Jackson Hole, Wyoming, when Muhammad met Anthology owner Howard Berkson through mutual friends.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe told me about the club, which was just a parking lot at the time,\u201d said Muhammad, a world-class musician who has played with jazz greats like sax player Stanley Turrentine. \u201cHe had the design and he showed it to me with a pencil and pad.\u201d<\/p>\n

The two decided that the club would benefit from having a house band and, within days of returning to San Diego, Muhammad gave Berkson a formal concept.<\/p>\n

\u201cA house band has to the fit the club,\u201d Muhmmad said. \u201cIn the case of Anthology, we wanted one that would look good, sound good and be versatile. And I picked who I thought would be be good.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Anthology<\/a>
The Anthology House Band has only had one change in the five years they’ve been with the venue. (l-r) Russell Bizzette, Kevin Flournoy, Steve Haney, Rebecca Jade, Derek Cannon, Tony Muhammad, and John Rekeviics. (Photos courtesy Anthology)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

With just one change in the last five years, and occasional musicians sitting in for the night, the core of the band has been consistent: Muhammad on bass; Kevin Flournoy on piano and keyboards; Russell Bizzette on drums; John Rekeviics on sax and flute; Derek Cannon on trumpet and flugelhorn; Steve Haney on percussion; and Rebecca Jade on vocals.<\/p>\n

These musicians live in San Diego, but many of them can play with anyone, and many of them do. Cannon, a music professor at Grossmont College, has played with the Temptations and Steve Haney has played with the likes of Stevie Wonder and Jason Mraz.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing a native, Derek helped me find the musicians and the chemistry has been solid since then,\u201d Muhammad said.<\/p>\n

The current repertoire is more than 1000 songs, and Muhammad says it\u2019s designed for versatility.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can go anywhere, whether it\u2019s love ballads on Mother\u2019s Day, salsa on Latin night, or Motown,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s good to have the musicians we have because we say, \u2018Let\u2019s do this [song] and just go.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

But even as the band adds new songs, it\u2019s gotten easier with time.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can read each other and there\u2019s an energy and a distinct sound,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Muhammad leads the band, but casual observers may not see him doing that because he prefers to stay in the back, letting singer Rebecca Jade and Cannon be the focus for the audience.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m like a quarterback calling the plays,\u201d he said. \u201cThe way I work with Rebecca and Derek is like a triangle. I always set up between the piano and the drummer. I\u2019m behind Rebecca so she can\u2019t see me, but Derek sees me and I can give him a signal and he tells Rebecca.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jade agrees. She\u2019s not only the sole female member (save the occasional guest singer), but she had the least amount of professional experience before joining the band, at the behest of a mentor who was involved in the early stages.<\/p>\n

\"Anthology<\/a>
Band members (from left), John Rekeviics, Steve Haney, Russell Bizzette, Rebecca Jade, Tony Muhammad and Derek Cannon.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI came to a rehearsal and, when the other female vocalist wasn\u2019t there, I got to sing,\u201d Jade laughed.\u00a0\u201cShe lived in Orange County so she wasn\u2019t able to make it to rehearsal. Finally, the club was getting ready to open and Tony said, \u2018As far as I\u2019m concerned, you\u2019re the singer.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Jade works at other clubs around town, but admits having a special affection for Tuesday nights when she performs with the Anthology House Band.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are the greatest musicians, comparable with anyone,\u201d she said.\u00a0The camaraderie that has developed from so many shows has made her more relaxed on stage, which, Jade says, is conducive to a good show.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor instance, Derek will introduce a song by saying, like \u2018Besame Mucho\u2019 [which means \u201ckiss me a lot\u201d in Spanish] and I\u2019ll say, \u2018In front of everyone?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

The House Band\u2019s Tuesday performances have made the Little Italy club a hot spot on Tuesdays, normally a slow night for San Diego nightlife, but for Jade, the real impact of the House Band has been personal.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing a part of this band encouraged me to go back to school and study music more seriously,\u201d she said. \u201cSingers have a poor reputation for not knowing the keys or theory, but I was super-inspired to learn it because of these guys. I didn\u2019t want to be just another singer.\u201d<\/p>\n

The five-year stint is remarkable, and Jade said other musicians around town give the House Band respect for what it\u2019s built at Anthology.<\/p>\n

However, Muhammad still has dreams.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d really like to get a nice CD recorded so if someone wants to take something home, they can,\u201d he said. \u201cOther than that, I just want to see it continue.\u201d<\/p>\n

See the Anthology House Band most Tuesday nights in September starting at 7:30 p.m. at Anthology in Little Italy. Check their website for specifics at anthologysd.com<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Local musicians have been finely tuning your Tuesdays for five years By Alex Owens | Downtown News As a musician, Tony Muhammad isn\u2019t a household name \u2013 unless your house is Anthology. He\u2019s the bass player and leader of the House Band and, as such, he\u2019s the man responsible for setting up the musical decisions […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":235801,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"Anthology House Band jazzes things up","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11549,11600,11550],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-235800","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-entertainment","category-sdnews","category-top-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235800","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=235800"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235800\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/235801"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=235800"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=235800"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=235800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}