The Almost Handsome Band
The
Almost Handsome Band is a jazz quintet with, Nick Carter on drums, Dan
Minter on sax, Bryant Boyer on piano, Andy Ostericher on upright bass, and
me on guitar. We play a wide variety of jazz styles. I guess you could call
a lot of what we play be-bop. We play tunes by cats like Thelonius Monk,
Dizzy Gillespie, and Paul Desmond, plus a few original songs.
> I wasn't really involved in putting the band together. I joined later.
Bryant and Dan had been talking about putting together a jazz combo. Dan was
the jazz guy. Bryant was a classical pianist. He had played vibes in the
school jazz band but was new to jazz piano. Dan and Bryant met Carter
through the school jazz band and Dan had known Andy from way back. When I
heard that Andy was in a jazz combo I told him to tell the band that he had
a friend that played a pretty mean jazz guitar. We all jammed together for
the first time at Andy's house. We played Horace Silver's "Song For My
Father", which we all knew and it sounded great. Dan's solos were awesome
and Carter's improvised be-bop style worked perfectly with the small group.
I think we were all stoked to be in a band with serious musicians.
> Our sound has evolved a lot since then. Besides being better musicians,
Andy now plays the upright bass and I have a more "electric" jazz sound
rather than an acoustic gypsy jazz sound. We've gained some popularity
around Gig Harbor and play a few paying gigs at restaurants, parties, and
weddings.