Archives of Jam Leaders

Rick Weingarten has been a percussionist aince age 19, when he joined the Blue Knights Drum and Bugle Corps and also began playing the drumset. After a year, Rick jopined a touring variety rock group and played extensively, on the road, for four years before deciding to pursue a music degree. His interest in the vibraphone began eight years ago while attending the University of Colorado College of Music. In 1992, he graduated with a Bachelor of Music education degree and was the College's first recipient of the Jazz Studies Certificate. Since then he has played the drums and vibes and recorded with the Pearl Street Jazz Band, and fills in with the Crisman Quintet and other bands in the Denver area. Rick has beeen featured vibraphonist soloist with the Hot Tomatoes Dance Orchestra. Currently Rick plays vibes with five bands and enjoys the challenge of performing all styles of jazz.

Jim Tracy learned to play at the age of eight and was "brought up" on the banjo.. His father played with the big bands in Hotel Duluth, Minnesota in the late 20's. His own musical career began with the Royal Garden Ramblers of Stuttgart, Germany in 1964. In the States, he played in places with names like The Red Garter, Mickey Finn's, The Levee and with bands such as the Riverboat Rascals of Milwaukee. He played with a banjo-piano duet, The Glad Rags, for five years at the Imperial Melodrama Theater in Cripple Creek, and with the Queen City Jazz Band. In 1971, he put his banjo away, but returned to play with the QCJB at their 1988 30th Anniversary Reunion, and has been with them ever since.

Chaz Bowles grew up with three musical brothers in Liberty, Missouri. He started taking piano lessons at age eight, trumpet at age eleven, and began playing jazz in high school. His first experience with traditional jazz was with Dads of Dixie on a riverboat on the Missouri, in Kansas, in the early 70's. He played with several jazz bands during college, medical school and residency training, including the Monterey Bay Classic Jazz Band during a research fellowship at Stanford University. At present, he is the trumpet player with Alan Frederickcon's Jazz Ensemble, playing on a regular basis at the Bull and Bush.