Jeff Jolly Band

Jeff JollyJeff grew up on a dead end street in Brooklyn NY. At about the age of 9, after watching his dad get dragged out of the house in a straight jacket by a SWAT team over spousal abuse, he quickly realized his life would be far from ordinary. That unexplained loss left Jeff searching for something to fill the gap . Watching his grandmother and sister one Christmas, playing piano and entertaining the family, he found what he was looking for; Music! The music was it. Got a banjo for Christmas and started to play. First song he wrote was “You Can’t Play the Blues on a Banjo”. When Neil Young played in Manhattan he was so impressed with his performance he went out and got a guitar the next week. Later, the neighborhood gang would bring what they called “The Bible” to their gatherings, singing while Jeff worked out every chord to the works of that book whose author was Bob Dylan. Jeff honed his skills at these “sacred” meetings, held in the public school parks, often brought to an abrupt halt by police raids called out by irritated neighbors who could take the serenading no more! Jeff has traveled the country, writing songs, playing in the street for change and anywhere else he could find to express his life and love for music. When he hit San Francisco in 1994 the Jeff Jolly Band was created and his first CD was released entitled “The Runner”. The CD received airplay at KFOG Radio in San Francisco and at KHUM Radio in Northern California. It got rave reviews from such national trade magazines as Album Network and Relix Magazine. Since then, Jeff Jolly has released two more CD’s: “Raw Material” and “Jeff Jolly Live”, the latter being recorded in Paris, France at a ten-night packed house. 2007 ended with a bang playing for 60,000 people at the 40th Anniversary of “The Summer Of Love” in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park. 2008 brings a new CD where Jeff draws on friends from the road. Guests include Bill Payne (Little Feat), Joe Craven and The Uptown Horns, to name a few. 2008 looks like a great year for the Jeff Jolly Band! From California to New York to Europe, Jeff has opened for George Thorogood, Little Feat, David Crosby, Edgar Winter, Elvin Bishop, Bad Company, and many others. The band ranges from solo acoustic to 4 to 10 players depending on the venue. They have played for crowds ranging from 10 to 5000 people who have enjoyed Jeff’s style and the unmistakable influences of Stevie Ray Vaughn, Tom Petty, Bob Dylan and Hendrix. Just good time Rock and roll! For more info and reviews see www.jeffjollyband.com . You can also find the Jeff Jolly Band on myspace.com.