Jazz Jam at Ocean Blues

Sarasota, FL       High: 79      Low:   58

One of our very favorite places to go in Sarasota is Ocean Blues, a blues supper club with great atmosphere and really great food, and REALLY REALLY great entertainment in the form of talented local talented blues, rock, and jazz musicians. On Monday nights, it's Jazz Jam Session...So guess where we were last night? :-)  One of our favorite guitar players, Steve Arvey, was there.

Sparky's daughter, Kelly, introduced us to Steve Arvey a couple of years ago when she came to visit us, and we try to get to see him when we are in the Sarasota area. He plays all over, he's known internationally, and he often plays  the southwest Florida area when he's in town. He's a renowned electric guitarist.

Last night was a terrific night, with LOTS of guest artists....Sparky is sorry that she doesn't know the names of all the guests that were there, but it was an amazing display of many talents--one, a very talented violinist by the name of Lisa....

Some terrific drummers, a young man by the name of James..Some AWESOME trumpeteers--Shane was a standout trumpet player...

We caught a couple of names here and there, and of course, Steve Arvey put on a great show as always....

Steve kind of sponsors the evening and pulls in some wonderful performers...It's a big draw for the club. Different nights have different types of music, so if jazz is not your thing, you can come out another night and hear folk, acoustic, Latin or other types of music....check out the Ocean Blues calendar:
                                          Calendar of events at Ocean Blues

Another trumpet player started setting up his instruments at the table right next to us. Eldy struck up a conversation with him, as Eldy used to MAKE trumpets, flugelhorns, coronets, trombones and marching brass instruments.

We didn't catch his name, but he played his flugelhorn and trumpet and was terrific. The place really started "crankin' up", as the evening went on...

Eldy buffed the trumpets for Clint Eastwood's movie, "The Bird", a movie about Charlie Parker. Eldy has buffed instruments and spoken many with some of the top 100 jazz players over the years to get custom specifications for their instruments that they purchased from Blessings Music Company in Elkhart, IN where he worked 43 years--Red Rodney, Ira Sullivan, Danny Davis and the Nashville Brass, for starters. AND--Eldy personally buffed MOST of the herald horns for the L.A. Olympics, working 90 some hours a week to get the horns done for the Olympics. He was one hard working dude in those days!

The music was just wonderful---toe tappin', booty shakin', and all around enjoyable! Check out Ocean Blues on Hillview Street when you are in Sarasota...it's great!