Echo Beach profile picture

Echo Beach

About Me


Echo Beach has played throughout the Western United States since 1991.
Our sound has been compared to the stylings of Cal Tjader and the Montgomery Brothers in the jazz world, but other ingredients are happening too. A cross-pollenation of ingredients representing our backgrounds in jazz, funk, rock, percussion ensemble, jamband, Latin and other styles. We do especially enjoy the inspirations of the jazz practitioners past and present who have used guitar, and/or vibraphone, and/or Afro-Cuban rhythms to express their musical personalities. You may be thinking "wow, that takes in a broad spectrum", and we agree...and it works for us!
A few of the venues we've played include: Sonoma Harvest Festival, Santa Clara Art and Wine Festival, Borders Books from Monterey to San Francisco, Polk Street Festival, Cato's Ale House in Oakland (as of August 2008 we're in our fourth year of residency there, every First and Third Wednesday), The Park Chalet, San Rafael Farmers Market, The Mill Valley Film Festival, Four Seasons Hotel San Francisco, Anna's Jazz Island in Berkeley, Hayward Bistro, Civic Plaza in Phoenix Arizona, Menlo Park Concert Series, Redwood City Concert Series, Cupertino Concert Series, Pacifica Fog Fest, and Sonoma State University, among many others.
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My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 8/19/2005
Band Website: http://www.echobeachband.com
Band Members: Brian Andres: drumset and percussion. Justin Hellman: upright and electric bass. Blair Helsing: vibraphone, marimbas, percussion and electronics. John LoGiudici, acoustic and electric guitars.
Influences: Max Roach, Charles Mingus, Badly Drawn Boy, Camel, 10cc, XTC, Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers, Trilok Gurtu, George Harrison, Pat Metheny, Lyle Mays & all editions of PMG, Tito Puente, Ry Cooder, Gregg Plummer, David Lindley, Gary Burton, Evelyn Glennie, Nancy Zeltsman, Steven Schick, Elvis Costello, Zakir Hussain, Steve Swallow, Terje Rypdal, Jack DeJohnette, Frank Zappa, Airto Moreira, Jose Neto, Tim Buckley, Richard and Mimi Fariña, Nick Drake, Richard Thompson, Iain Matthews, June Tabor, Ashley Hutchings, John Martyn, early Traffic, Cal Tjader, the collaborations of Paul Beaver and Bernie Krause, Bela Fleck and The Flecktones, Dizzy Gillespie, Chico O'Farrill, West Coast jazz, Arthur Lee and Love, Television and the solo work of Tom Verlaine and Richard Lloyd, John Bergamo, Michael Shrieve, Spirit, great radio and DJs, all editions of Steps Ahead, Stewart Copeland, and countless more musicians past and present.
Sounds Like: A joyful noise. Buy our CD: http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/echobeach
Record Label: Ratchets of Rialb (tm)
Type of Label: Indie

My Blog

Sunday's Golden Gate Park forecast: Musical and Sunny

The Echo Beach Band plays from 2 - 5 tomorrow at The Park Chalet in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco. Lots of lawn to stretch out on, plenty of tasty microbrews to choose from. Should be a gorgeous sun...
Posted by on Sat, 18 Apr 2009 10:36:00 GMT

We play San Francisco Saturday and Sunday

Gig details here on MySpace. No cover charge at either gig.Saturday: Park Chalet, Golden Gate ParkSunday: Cafe Royale, Nob HillHope to see you hearing us!
Posted by on Fri, 06 Mar 2009 17:57:00 GMT

Re-launch of the Echo Beach Website

Today (at long last) the Echo Beach band website is re-launched with a new look and fresh contents. Have a peek. And more importantly, we hope to see you at a gig in March!
Posted by on Fri, 27 Feb 2009 17:33:00 GMT

Live video of the band 2/18/09 in Oakland

Thanks to drummer Brian (who owns the Canon video camera) and Michael Hatfield (who subbed for me on vibes on the night), here is video of Echo Beach playing in Oakland last week. Enjoy!
Posted by on Tue, 24 Feb 2009 19:55:00 GMT

Its Zappadan

More Hereand More Here
Posted by on Thu, 04 Dec 2008 11:02:00 GMT

Live listening

I'm grateful for the alignments and outcomes of (Golden Gate Park) weather and (Great American Music Hall) standing space in the past week, for having seen live performances by Richard Thompson, the J...
Posted by on Thu, 09 Oct 2008 20:08:00 GMT

Upcoming week: Cooder, Lowe, Keltner, Plant, Krauss, Poor Man’s Whisky -- Live in SF

Exciting week coming up musically. Wednesday night: Echo Beach playing in Oakland at Cato's. I always look forward to these gigs. It's been 3-1/2 years now that we've been playing them. Thursday night...
Posted by on Sat, 27 Sep 2008 19:49:00 GMT

Checking the weather chart for today’s gig at the beach

It says " Highs in the upper 50s and 60s near the ocean" so I'm dressing in layers to play. There's a good chance the fog will burn off by show time (2:00). It'll be a good time either way. If you're ...
Posted by on Sun, 03 Aug 2008 09:47:00 GMT

Ashley Hutchings interview about his career from Fairport forward

Most interesting talk from 2006 with one of my musical heroes.
Posted by on Tue, 22 Jul 2008 15:57:00 GMT

Zappa Plays Zappa on PBS

Much to my surprise last night up pops on one of the Bay Area PBS stations -- "Zappa Plays Zappa". Hoo-ha! Having seen this band about 10 months ago in Berkeley I was eager to see and hear what they w...
Posted by on Fri, 06 Jun 2008 21:30:00 GMT