“Hot can be cool, and cool can be hot, and each can be both. But hot or cool, man, jazz is jazz.”
-Louis Armstrong
Late Breaking News!
September 6th, 2008
This afternoon, we performed at Guadalupe Street Coffee. Guadalupe Street Coffee is a community development project operated by BCFS’ community ministries program.
The “mission” of Guadalupe Street Coffee is to foster community development through sustainable provision of employment, education support, and microenterprise development. The coffee shop sells fair trade coffee and snacks: profits from sales provide the financial foundation for operations.
Our hosts were Naomi and Jason and they kept everyone supplied with their terrific coffee, cake and smoothies; keeping the band energized and able to deliver a top performance for our fans and friends.
August 31st, 2008
Our engagement at Rio De Vino turned out great! We like to please our fans and friends with our music and this weekend was no exception! And we love it when people give in to the impulse to get up and dance. If you like to swing dance, this is a great venue to get up and "cut loose."
We were playing outside on the patio, so we shed our jackets and got a little more comfortable. But even a late summer evening in San Antonio didn't stop our fans from showing up!
In attendance, was one of our most ardent supporters; a terrific gentleman by the name of John Buchanan. He's been to almost every one of our engagements and we love having him there. Folks like John are the main reason we do what we do.
Another supporter of our music is Megan Achterhof, a very musical young lady who loves to sing and train dogs.
The food at Rio De Vino is delicious and the wine is the best! They have plans to expand into the adjacent building to give everyone more room to enjoy their evening. We'll keep you posted. If you're not already on our mailing list, sign up now!
August 29, 2008
This weekend (Friday & Saturday), we'll be performing at Rio De Vino Fine Wines & Gifts. In addition to fine wines, these folks serve fine food as well. We'd love to have you drop in and join us. We'll be there from 7:00pm to 11:00pm on both nights.
Here's a map to help you get there:
August 22, 2008
It's been awhile since we've posted any new information here, so we have a bit of catching up to do. Our faithful webmaster, trombonist Mike Pittsley, has been busy working on a new website for his mentor, Abram "Abe" Lincoln.
We had another great evening of musical fun at the Little Aussie Bakery and Cafe last night.
Our small but dedicated group of fans in attendance just added to the excitement and everyone had a terrific time. We love to play and it was particularly evident last night!
Tim, David, Mike and Pierre in the studio
As you can see from the above photos, we've also been busy in the recording studio producing a CD of our music. We're hoping to have it ready in plenty of time for Christmas. It will make the perfect gift for your jazz-loving friends and family! If you're on our mailing list, you'll receive a notice when it's available. We'll also make it available for purchase through the website.
We're pleased to note that we've developed quite a loyal following, so in an effort to keep our friends and fans informed of where we're playing and what we're up to, we've been experimenting with a new system to manage the band's growing emailing list. Please bear with us as we "tweak" this new system.
July 19, 2008
Our Saturday night engagement for The Midsummer Night's Dream Concert Party at the Little Aussie Bakery and Cafe was a smashing success!
Our hosts, John and Rita, are terrific folks. Tonight was particularly special as it was Rita's birthday. We definitely celebrated it in style!
The cuisine is delicious; and special mention must be made of Thomas' culinary artistry.
Next time you're looking for a new place to dine, by all means check out the fine food and hospitality at The Little Aussie Bakery and Cafe. You will most certainly be rewarded for your efforts!
July 15, 2008
After our Memorial Day weekend engagement at the Landing with reed man and vocalist, Pierre Poree and bassist, Tim Paco, we gave a lot of thought to how great the band sounded that night. In fact, it made such an impression on us all that we've invited Tim and Pierre to join the Mission City Hot Rhythm Cats as regular members of the band. We're delighted to report that both Tim and Pierre have wholeheartedly agreed to get on board with us!
July 7, 2008
Tonight was our "Swing Night" engagement at Sam's Burger Joint. As you can see, a good time was had by all.
Every Monday night at 7:00 pm, swing dance lessons are taught by Amelia Dennis. Amelia delights in her role as the dance instructor at Sam's Burger Joint. She loves to dance and it shows.
During intermission, DJ Brandon "DJ Java Jive" keeps things hoppin' with an eclectic collection of jazz and swing CD's. This young man has very hip musical tastes and likes to collect 78 RPM records. Click here to check out his page on MySpace.
Mark Hess and Eddie Torres provided the driving rhythm.
Pierre Poree, David Jellema and Mike Pittsley (not pictured; the price one pays for being the photographer) comprised the front line horn section. Collectively, we all kept the swing dancers on their toes tonight!
June 16, 2008
We're always working to make our website more user friendly. As part of this effort, the sound clips on the Mission City Hot Rhythm Cats website are now in a streaming format. It's no longer necessary to wait until the entire sound file downloads to hear it play.
June 7, 2008
We've now added a place on our Calendar Page where visitors can sign up for the Mission City Hot Rhythm Cats email list. Add your name and email address to the list today so we can keep you informed of pending engagements and any other interesting developments regarding the band.
We've also created a Link Request Page. If you have a website and would like us to link to your site, click here.
June 3, 2008
We made a few changes to the website to make it load faster; especially the links to our YouTube video clips. And, to help streamline the site even further, you'll notice that we've done away with some of the fancier fonts.
We are always open to ideas that help us improve our website. If you have a suggestion for us, please feel free to drop us an email at info@missioncityjazz.com.
June 1, 2008
Our evening engagement outside on the patio of Jim Cullum's Landing was truly an evening to remember! We had some incredible musicians come down and sit in with us.
A relative newcomer to South Texas, swinging clarinetist Jonathan Doyle came down from Austin to join the front line. We also had Tom Pletcher, David Jellema's mentor and a very good friend to us all. Tom is a marvelous and very underrated cornetist in the Bix Beiderbecke tradition. The evening was made complete with the addition of Jim Cullum Jazz Band clarinetist, Ron Hockett. We had cornet duos, clarinet trios; in short, a lot of hot and swinging jazz! A good time was had by all - musicians and audience alike. It's nights like this that remind us why we chose to be jazz musicians!
May 26, 2008
Click here to read a recent web interview with our trombonist, Mike Pittsley.
May 25, 2008 (Sunday, Memorial Day Weekend)
The Sunday evening engagement at Jim Cullum's Landing, with special guests Pierre Porre and Tim Paco, was a resounding success. The band absolutely smoked!
(L.-R. Mike Pittsley, trombone; Ed Torres, drums; David Jellema, cornet; Tim Paco, bass; Mark Hess, piano; Pierre Poree, alto sax/clarinet/vocals)
(Pierre and Tim relaxing during a break)
Pierre and Tim are fabulous musicians; both hailing originally from New Orleans and now making their post-Katrina home in San Antonio. We're sure glad they're here! Pierre and Tim are skilled players who are steeped in the early jazz traditions and are a perfect fit to augment the Mission City Hot Rhythm Cats.
(Pierre Poree swinging hard on alto sax)
The combination was absolutely electrifying and it showed. Everyone in the band was 'on' for this night. It was an incredible evening of hot, fiery jazz.
(Tim Paco on string bass turning up the heat in the rhythm section)
We're all looking forward to the next opportunity to have both Tim and Pierre play with the Mission City Hot Rhythm Cats. It just doesn't get any hotter with these guys on board! We'll keep you posted the next time Pierre and Tim work with us. You simply don't want to miss it.
May 24, 2008
David and Mark are booked to play a duo engagement on the outside patio of Jim Cullum's Landing, so Eddie and I are going to take advantage of the opportunity to all get together and make it an afternoon with the full band. If you're planning a trip down to the San Antonio Riverwalk this afternoon, drop by the Landing patio and hear us. We'll be there from 12:00 noon to 4:00 pm.
May 6, 2008
We made some changes to our web hosting account that required that the site be down for a few hours today. This change is for the better, as it gives us more space on the website for video & sound clips, or anything else that might be of interest to our fans. If you tried to access the site during the time it was down, we sincerely apologize! We promise to keep events like this to an absolute minimum.
April 25, 2008
It shouldn't be any secret that the Mission City Hot Rhythm Cats treasure the history of San Antonio; therefore, we simply couldn't resist having our most recent band photos taken at the Johnson Street Footbridge in the historic King William District of San Antonio. Visitors to San Antonio are encouraged to visit the King William District as part of their visit. Click here for more information.