The Musicians

Mark left New York 30 years ago to rediscover his love of Nuyorican Salsa playing in the Cabrillo College Latin Ensemble. His music has been heard throughout the Bay Area in performance by the Bay Area Composer's Big Band, Realistic Orchestra, the Mitch Marcus Quintet plus 13, the Shotgun Wedding Hip-hop Symphony, and other smaller groups. He studied with Joan Tower and Milton Babbitt and holds a MFA in composition from Princeton. In days of yore he had the good fortune to have his chamber music performed by the likes of the Concord String Quartet and the Da Capo Chamber Players.  Currently, he also plays trombone with the Santa Cruz Little Big Band and the Cabrillo College Big Bands.

Joan studied jazz improv with Ray Brown at Cabrillo College, initially enrolled as a vocal student, she developed an interest in the bass. Joan switched to the rhythm section and never looked back! She has played in the Jazz Combos, the Big Band and the Latin Ensemble at Cabrillo and several groups around town, including the JP Players Trio and Jazz by 5 Quintet.

Rhonda has been active in the SF Bay Area music scene since 2002. She has performed and recorded with countless musical groups in a variety of styles, her favorite of which are jazz, funk and latin jazz. She is currently a member of The Seth Chaplas (a progressive rock outfit based in Concord) and El Sol.

Scott Harris has been a professional musician for 28 years. Starting out on Flute, he also plays Trombone and Soprano Sax. He fronted the Scott Harris Big Band for 20 years. He was director and arranger for the Santa Cruz Brass Quintet during the 80’s and 90’s. He has performed in 14 countries, including a three-week concert tour of China in 2001. He also played for 10 years with the Musician’s Warehouse Big Band featuring legendary drummer Louie Bellson.

Steve has been involved with music since his early years. He started on clarinet then later  moved on to the saxophone. After 4 years of college and learning how to play almost every wind instrument, he decided music retail was his profession of choice. He retired from music retail and now does band instrument repair for the local stores, schools and players specializing in saxophones. He is on the board of the Santa Cruz Jazz Festival and the Santa Cruz  Jazz Society. This is Steve’s first Latin band project   after many years of  playing in jazz  big bands and combos.  Steve  alto leads the “Little Big Band” a popular local 9 piece swing band.

Russ began playing drums as a teenager. He worked professionally overseas in Micronesia performing concerts and entertaining military personnel. Russ had a musical hiatus while running his own business in the Bay Area, but continued his studies in percussion taking lessons with various experts including John Santos and Michael Spiro. Russ moved to the Santa Cruz area this year and has been involved in the Latin Jazz Ensemble at Cabrillo College as well as orchestral percussion. Russ is excited about his involvement with El Sol and the positive direction of the salsa groove.

Gerry began playing music in grammar school back in the day when music was part of the curriculum. Born & raised in LA, he has played in many settings; from funk to orchestral. Since arriving in Santa Cruz 10 years ago, he was a founding member & leader of the Little Big Band and has more recently been focused on small ensemble jazz performance. The music of El Sol is a new and exciting direction for Gerry.

A desire to play drums and percussion started early in Mike’s childhood. With the help of his high school marching band, Drum & Bugle Corp. drumlines and Mexican-American upbringing in Southern California, learning how to march, play and sing to South American Folk and Latin American Music blossomed naturally. As a member of the Cabrillo Latin American Ensemble for the last four years, Mike is excited about being a part of El Sol’s tight polyrhythmic rhythm section, paying respect to the timbale legends of Salsa.