BSQ – 8PM & 10PM

BSQ was founded six years ago by Bob Schwartz. Bob grew up listening to Duke Ellington on late night radio broadcasts and came of age hanging out with the Thad Jones – Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra Monday nights at the Village Vanguard. Bob started playing flute at age 10; by high school he was winning Mozart competitions and playing sax and flute in big bands and small jazz groups. After studying at Berklee and gigging with Andy Laverne and David Berger in college, Bob concentrated on his legal career. But he kept studying sax, with Joe Temperley, James Cotton and Tedd Baker, who along with Jeff Antoniuk encouraged him to start performing again. Pianist Rob Orwin, bassist Herb Nachmann and drummer David Martin have similar lifelong commitments to the music. Bob met the band’s vocalist, Nina Schwartz, when she was performing in a college musical production for which he was playing the first reed book.

BSQ released its first CD, T’ain’t What’cha Do, in 2011, and its second, Look For The Silver Lining, featuring Tony Martucci on percussion, in 2013 at Twins Jazz. The band’s repertoire reflects their love of seldom played standards, post-bop, sambas, Ellingtonia, and unexpected treatments of familiar material. With an increasingly busy calendar, BSQ plays in a variety of DC-area venues and occasionally in Las Vegas.