HOT 'N HAPPY CLASSIC TRAD JAZZ FROM RAGTIME TO SWING
The Gold Coast Jazz Bandperforms the popular music of America in the first third of the 20th century, from Ragtime to the dawn of the Swing era, a period of incredible musical creativity when the Golden Age of American Popular Song met the Jazz Age.
Since its formation by the late Phil Stiers in 1993, the Gold Coast Jazz Bandhas presented this uniquely American music with energy and style guaranteed to put a smile on your face, set your toes to tapping and feet to dancing.
Our book includes more than 300 tunes of the period, including New Orleans and Chicago-style traditional jazz, rags and novelty tunes, hot dance numbers, and early swing tunes. It's the music of Jelly Roll Morton, Louis and Lil Hardin Armstrong, Kid Ory, Joe "King" Oliver, Bix Beiderbecke, young Duke Ellington and Benny Moten, the great songwriters of Tin Pan Alley, Broadway, and more.
The music is timeless, with proven appeal not only to members of the "Greatest Generation" who grew up with it, but also to the young Lindy Hoppers and swing dancers of today, discovering this "hot and happy" music for the first time.
We've played it for dances, jazz society meetings, festivals, club dates, church services, funerals, wakes, private parties, business and civic gatherings, fund raisers, campaign rallies and all manner of other events. Not to mention a seven-year run performing at Little Switzerland in Sonoma, followed by eight years at the Redwood Cafe in Cotati. In 2014, the full seven-piece band spun off a five-piece ensemble we called the Gold Coast Five. With trumpet, trombone, clarinet, banjo and tuba, the smaller group offered authentic New Orleans-style traditional jazz for smaller venues, such as garden parties, wine tastings, business grand openings, birthday celebrations, wedding receptions and other special events where acoustic music was more appropriate. This proved to be fortuitous.
When live music performances were effectively shut down by the arrival of the COVID pandemic in March 2020, the smaller band proved to be just the right size to be able to play outdoors safely following all applicable COVID mitigation protocols. During 2020 and 2021, the Gold Coast Jazz Band played regularly in storefronts and on street corners for Open & Out Santa Rosa, a performing arts program of the Downtown Action Organization of the Santa Rosa Metro Chamber of Commerce. Now with the worst of COVID behind us, the Band continues as a five-piece ensemble, but capable of adding additional instrumentation when the job requires.
The 2023 Gold Coast Jazz Band is Bill Badstubner, trombone, vocals, and leader; Tom Barnebey, cornet, trombone and vocals; Ed Foster on reeds; Steven Radice on banjo, guitar and vocals; and Candy Woodworth on tuba and vocals.
Our founder, the late Phil Stiers, used to say "the band's followers have 'Gold Coast-itis',a condition thought by some to be incurable, whose symptoms are an uncontrollable urge to dance and smile a lot." The music is just as infectious as ever thirty years later.
See the Schedule page of this site for a list of our upcoming appearances.
Follow us on Facebook at "The Gold Coast Jazz Band" . There you'll find event reminders, photos, videos and recordings spanning the history of the band. Or, bookmark this website: www.goldcoastjazzband.com
Or, for further detailed Information & Booking contact: Bill Badstubner at badstubner@aol.com or 707-889-1346 - voice or text.
