L i v i n g    in    W~a~v~e~s

From bandleader Mark Patron:
“If there's a philosophy or mission behind 'What’s Cookin’ Music', it is that the music we’ve been graced with for the last 100 years has been so delightfully voluminous that it's a shame so much has slipped by and gone unrecognized. I want to bring attention to just some of the great composers and beautiful melodies that have moved me and made life that much better."

This album includes our take on compositions by Chick Corea, Horace Silver, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Dave Holland, Russ Freeman, Cal Tjader, John Coltrane, and yours truly! If you'd like a private link for listening pre-release, send email to bzbert@msn.com and we'll see what we can do.

released in april on Materia Collective: the first jazz album recorded at Gabarda!

Back in 2019 I recorded and released an album of originals by Bay Area sax man Joe Newman. Joe is also an attorney specializing in the video game biz, in which one of the catchiest aspects of the gaming experience is the music composed for the games. So after the pandemic Joe formed UltraCombo as a sextet of jazz heads bringing interpretations of video game music to live audiences. The ensemble honed its sound to where a new album was warranted, and came into my home studio in late 2024. In April 2025 the album was released by Materia Collective - a record label that focuses exclusively on video game music!

next Shows:

Back from New Zealand/Boston/DC, I've settled into a side man rotation:

Weds eves are at Max's of Burlingame playing flumpet with the Four Corners Jazz Ensemble. I'm also often there on Mondays in the house band for Chris Cortez's Afterglow Jam, and on Thursdays in Michael Bee's Syncopation Quintet.

On occasional Thursdays I sit in on flumpet at Woodside's Pioneer Saloon, with Dave Dolengowicz's BAJIC (Bay Area Jazz-Inspired Composers) for which I recorded and mixed the first two studio albums and am mixing a third.

On the occasional 3rd Friday I play flumpet and guitar with John Harris's Sidewinder at Ocean Ale House SF (and occasionally do a bit of jazz singing).

On Saturdays I can often be found playing flumpet at San Carlos' Cask or at historic locations in SF like Sheba Lounge, Comstock Saloon, and The Royale.

For the latest schedule info get in touch via bzbert@msn.com

recent Shows:

On July 4 I was in Pacifica, sitting in on flumpet with Soundwaves featuring Gary Zimmerman on tele and alto and Curt Moore on drums.

In DC for a few days in July, I jammed at Tacoma Station, then at Mr. Henry's with alto player Herb Scott, then at Green Island Cafe with pianist Peter Edelman.

On June 21 on upright bass I backed our daughter Megan, performing her two great immigration anthems Define American and Dream It Now for the College Success Consortium's annual conference.

On June 6 & 7 I pal'd around on flumpet and guitar with Nick Halmos, John Murray and Ian MacColl at the Bohemian Grove. 

In May I played guitar in a wedding near Boston and sat in on flumpet with Andy Voelker at the Mad Monkfish in Cambridge.

In New Zealand for most of Feb and the first week of March, I played and sang on Weds Feb 26 at the Nikau Cafe in Pohara, in a guitar duo with host extraordinaire Dave Schorr on upright bass. On Thurs Feb 27 at the Roots Bar Open Mic in Takaka I played a Gibson SG in the house band, again with Dave Schorr (on electric bass). On Fri Feb 28 at the Nikau Cafe I sat in on cornet with Craig Denham's amazing Riwaka High Rollers.

Thu Feb 6 I played guitar in a jazz duo with Charlie Channel at Donato Enoteca, Redwood City.

Sun Feb 2 I was at the Ocean Ale House on cornet and guitar with Joe Newman's UltraCombo - a jazz band that draws from the amazing catalog of music created for video games.

Mon Jan 26 John Capobianco and I played horns together in the house band for Chris Cortez' jam at Max's of Burlingame.

Sunday Jan 12 I played cornet with JD's "Down By Law" at SF's Barebottle Brewing Co.

Jan 11 and 12 in the superb Serra HS music room I recorded Tim Price's wind quintet arrangements of classic ragtime tunes for an upcoming album. 

Jan 10 I played SF's Sheba Jazz Lounge as a guitar trio with Jeff Stratton and Michael Bee. The audience and owners loved the opening tune Cream's "White Room" and the closer ELP's "From The Beginning". A very inclusive jazz lounge indeed!

On New Year's Eve I sat in on cornet with the R&B group Friends of Ken, at the Alameda Elks Club.

Dec 28 and Nov 30 I led a guitar trio at the Cask Wine Bar with drummer Michael Bee and bassist Stephanie Lee.

Dec 27 I played cornet twice in SF - first at the Ocean Ale House with John Harris's Sidewinder, then at The Royale, a historic and charming bar in the Tenderloin.

Dec 21 I played cornet for a roomful of ballroom dancers at Rossmoor's Event Center.

Dec 15 I was in studio recording an album for Joe Newman's Ultra Combo.

Dec 1 I appeared briefly on trumpet at Jeff Saxton's Andrew Speight Memorial Jam in Burlingame, then at the Ocean Ale House on trumpet and guitar for Joe Newman's UltraCombo.

Nov 23 I played cornet at SF's historic Comstock Saloon with Mark Patron's What's Cookin'.

Nov 17 I played cornet at the Beach Chalet with Mark Patron's What's Cookin'. 

Nov 16 I was at Vino Locale, in a jazz guitar duo with bassist Charlie Channel.

Nov 13 I played at State St. Market Los Altos, in a jazz guitar duo with bassist Charlie Channel. 

Nov 9 I played at San Carlos' Cask Wine Bar in guitar trio with Michael Bee and Stephanie Lee.

Oct 27 I led the multi-genre show "It's About Time" for an enthusiastic crowd of 200 at Stanford's Campbell Recital Hall.

Oct 12 and Oct 23 I guested a bit on cornet with Michael Zisman's Americano Social Club, at Sutter Creek's Shake Ridge and SF's Blush! Wine Bar.

Oct 10 I played in a jazz guitar duo with bassist Charlie Channel at Donato Enoteca, Redwood City. 

Sep 28 BertsBrew played a 50th birthday party serving up requests that ranged from Bob Marley to Louis Armstrong to Louie Louie, plus Pat Metheny and the Grateful Dead.

Sep 21 we finished our second annual summer residency at our favorite peninsula restaurant, Flea Street. This year the weekly Sat 5:30-7:30pm "porch concerts" featured Susan Esterly's wonderful vocals, Tony Bove's harmonica and musicology, and a first ever collaboration with the young bassist Alia Tu and drummer Zack Wilhite, both of whom developed their chops at the Reikes Center. Highlights were a night of Steven Stills, one of Crosby and Young, one of Dylan, and one of piano crooning (Billy Joel, Sting, Elton John)

Sep 14 Larry Marcus and I revived our Dark Side of the Moon rendition for a private party in Hillsborough, this time teaming up with the Floyd mavens Greg and Tiffany Studley and Steve Ginsberg.

Sep 1 I played guitar and cornet at with Joe Newman's UltraCombo, exploring the vast catalog of video game music. We also found time to record for submission to a video game music contest: Dahlia Noire. It won the contest. We also performed VGM on Sat Sep 7 at GAME OVER OAKLAND, at 7th West.

Aug 11 and July 14 I played cornet in a jazz quartet from 2 to 5pm at Barebottle Brewing, Cortland ave in SF. The afternoon of Aug 9 I channeled David Gilmour playing Dark Side of the Moon for a VC pool party. 

August 7 and 8 I was in Princeton NJ to appear in an advertising shoot playing mellophone in a college marching band uniform. Sun Aug 4 I was at the Ocean Ale House, in the house band for Joe Newman's monthly VGM Jam. 

July 8 I sat in with Olivier Franc at Village Monge in Paris. On Sat June 29 I sat in with PaperPlanesband.com at a wedding in Provence. Weds June 26 I played in Paris with Larry Browne, backing vocalists at Puzzle and closing the world famous Cave de Huchette at 2am with a rousing rendition of Out of Nowhere. 

June 13 bassist Charlie Channel and I provided atmosphere with our jazz guitar duo with at Donato's in Redwood City, and again on Saturday June 15 at Vino Locale, Palo Alto. On Sunday June 2 I was on trumpet and guitar for Joe Newman's Ocean Ale House VGM Jam. 

In May I sang and played guitar for a wedding in Carmel, then played trumpet at SF's Comstock Saloon and Ocean Ale House with Mark Patron's What's Cookin'. In March the young slide master Taylor Goss and I appeared in guitar duo at the Wine Gallery San Carlos, here's a sample of how much fun that was Mercury Blues). I played trumpet and guitar with John Harris' Sidewinder at the Ocean Ale House SF (video here The Preacher -> Sandu).

Feb 13 Leo and I were back at the Wine Gallery for their annual Valentines show, this time exploring Pat Metheny's Phase Dance among others, here's an audio recording of the entire show: Valentines.mp3. 

In 2023, each Saturday eve August and September I brought special guests to perform on the front porch of one of the peninsula's finest restaurants, Flea Street. This was the first time in its 40 year history that Flea Street has offered live music to complement Eloy's cocktails and Jesse and Bryan's gourmet cuisine. 

On Sat July 29 2023 Bert & Izzy were reunited for the first Deep Dive Concert in 3 years - a private celebration of Stevie Wonder. The all star band featuring Edgardo Cambon, David Pinto and Emilio Davalos was spectacular! Here's a sample: Another Star.mp3 

On Fri July 14 at 11:30pm, and 10am the next morn, I helped Joe Newman bring his "West Coast VGM Jazz Jam" to the MAGWEST festival in San Jose, in full costume playing music from video games.

On June 30, the Bert & Leo jazz duo returned to the Wine Gallery San Carlos, exploring the music of Gordon Sumner aka Sting. 

On Sat June 24 I played guitar with Dream Spirit for a classic rock block party in Menlo Park.

On Memorial Day May 29 I played guitar in a Christine McVie tribute, again with Dream Spirit, as part of Hillsborough's Memorial Day celebration.

On Sat May 13, I played rock guitar at Woodside's Pioneer Saloon, substituting for the great Jack Foster on harmony vocals and rhythm guitar in Dream Spirit.

On Fri May 12 the Bert and Leo duo used just two pairs of hands to cover 10 piece bands, in a show titled "Earth, Wind, Fire, Blood, Sweat, Tears, and Chicago!" Having just lost both Gordon Lightfoot and my first guitar teacher Frank Fullerton, we added a tribute you can hear here:
If You Could Read My Mind 

On April 21, listeners of KCSM Jazz91 learned Israel Tanenbaum released his first album since the pandemic: "Impressions" on Zoho Records. We thought it also a good time to remind folks of the pre-pandemic "Deep Dives" by Bert and Izzy, so played a Bert & Izzy duo show at the Wine Gallery.

On Fri Feb 17, Bert's Brew feat. Taylor Goss rocked the Quarter Note Bar & Grill in Sunnyvale. Here's a sample of Taylor & my guitars taking flight: 

That year St. Paddy's Day fell on a Fri (Mar 17). Pianist Leo York and I dove into the catalogs of Irishmen Van Morrison, U2 and Thin Lizzy.

Also on Sat Feb 11 at the very cozy Wine Gallery, 890 Laurel St. in San Carlos, the Bert & Leo duo riffed and crooned to a full room preparing for a Happy Valentines Day.

On Nov 3 Bert's Brew was invited back to the Almost Famous Wine Company in Livermore - this time we dove deep into the catalog of songs Bert's college bandmate John Triska has written over the years but never arranged or performed with a band!

John is so fun, here's a video sample:

The September Wildwoodstock backyard festival in Woodside was more fun than any of us could possibly have imagined! And it was nicely recorded! Mixing is in process.

For a huge retirement community in Monterey,  Megan joined Bert's Brew on Aug 21 to perform 'songs from every decade you can remember'. The community includes centenarians, so we started with a tune from 1905!"

Bert's Brew is a rotating roster of great musicians performing in multiple genres.

On Thursday June 9 we brought two very special sets to the Pioneer Saloon stage in Woodside: first at 8pm North Texas State saxophonist and composer Dave Dolengewicz led a quartet through his blistering jazz originals and some tasty standards, then from 9 to 11 I crooned my way through a preview our Park Lane concert.

Memorial Day weekend we were in Sonoma for a birthday party and Livermore for a wine festival. The setlist celebrated our fallen musical heroes, with some magic moments as Taylor Goss and I spent over ten minutes exploring where Duane and Gregg Allman took Dickey Betts' masterpiece "In Memory Of Elizabeth Reed". Here's a link to our recording. Then while we were vamping on Gregg's Sweet Melissa, somewhere around 3pm the trumpet found my hand for a stirring rendition of Taps. 

On Thu Apr 21, also in Livermore, we did a whole night of originals - many that have not been performed since Take Me Home was released in 1979, and others that have never been heard! It was something of a career retrospective, with Charlie Channel, Spencer Gump, Tim Price, and John Triska! Plus young Stanford guitarist Taylor Goss sittin' in. Check out the video here

Then on Sat Apr 23, pianist Tim Price, bassist Jeff Saxton, drummer Spencer Gump and I entertained Earth Day celebrants for 4 hours on San Francisco's Ocean Beach! Hope to do that again next year.

26yo drummer Drue Wilson has been kicking (b)ass on tunes twice his age. He certainly did this at the historic Pioneer Saloon in Woodside CA on Feb 26!

Mikel Bee's Four Corners Jazz Ensemble - anything but square - performed two nights at Max's of Burlingame. The recording and video are pretty nice too, tap the poster to listen:

Also at the Pioneer, last December we paid tribute to the man who reinvented electric blues."

recent Press: 

American Songwriter podcaster Adam Lisicky interviewed Bert for Bringin' it Backwards. Bert's weave of tech and music is full of surprises, give it a listen:

"Bringin' it Backwards" Interview