Bernie's Blog
August 19, 2010
I wasn’t sure what to expect after not being at Warmdaddy’s for almost a year, I must say it was a very pleasant surprise. It was a packed house and a very appreciative crowed, boy I wish these folks would come out to every gig. Drivetime’s new material went over better then I could have hoped for and the band sounded great. As always Michael Tozzi was as gracious a host as ever, on a personal note if and when you have a chance to go out and see one of Michael’s shows please do it. There are very few of us jazz lovers and supporters who actually participate in the jazz community in Philadelphia which I’m sad to say is an endangered species. Michael will never tell you this but he has work hard and long to keep jazz in Philly and he deserves more then he is receiving in time and money. If you can please be sure to send him a thank you note at www.ijazzglobal.com he certainly deserves much, much more. Once again thank all of you for being at Warmdaddy’s and Drivetime will see you all real soon. July 30, 2010 For all the folks who came out to MOM’S Maxwell’s in Doylestown I want to thank you all very much. It would appear your turn out has clinched us a place to play on a regular basis in Doylestown. I will post those dates as they come in. We are also headed down to Warmdaddy’s in South Philly on Aug 12th. This will be monumental because we have been doing more originals and the gang on Columbus Ave have not heard any of our new stuff so I’m excited to see the reaction as we turn from a Smooth Jazz cover band to an all-original Urban Organic Jazz group which has been our goal since we started the band. The other thing is we haven’t been at Warmdaddy's for almost a year so this should be pretty interesting. Now about the new CD that I have been getting hammered about from some of our most die hard fans. I have been in the process of moving and getting Justin & Reina moved into their new digs too so the project has been on hold until I can get my new studio up and running. I promise once this is done we’ll knock it out. All the material has been written we just need to record various parts and then it’s off to our producer who in this case will be Jeff Bichaylo. Jeff has reached a new level of production and I am extremely proud to work with him. I also wanted to mention that Andrew Neu has agreed to do a tune on the CD, Jeff and I are working on something that Andrew can really bite into, Thanx Andrew for agreeing to do this. Check Andrew’s music out at www.andrewneu.com/press/view?id=2 I’ll be posting a new blog after Warmdaddy’s so please check back for the latest news from Drivetime. June 20, 2010 Last night was awesome, playing Chris’ Jazz Café has been a goal of Drivetime’s since we started the band. I can’t say I was disappointed either, what a great venue and I hope we are invited back. It was also nice to have Justin sit in, as always he sung his heart out and definitely was a crowed pleaser. Now we’re off to Doylestown to do Mom’s Maxwell’s in July, it will sure be nice to play at home, haven’t played in town for at least a year. I hope folks remember who we are?????? Anyway I want to thank Margo & Gloria for being such steadfast loyal listeners and always being involved with our various projects. Well Happy Fathers Day, I’m gona just be soaking in the pool all day, these late night gig’s are a bitch………… May 21, 2010 Thanks to all who attended the show last night. To Steve and Andre I really appreciate your efforts to try and film & photograph in such poor lighting. And for all those folks who travailed to the Tritone to see Drivetime & Siora I can't thank you enough. Now it's off to Chris' Jazz Cafe........ April 2, 2010 Ah, spring is here! I know things have been quite and you haven’t heard much from us in the last three months but I assure you we are hard at work. We have started writing and recording our new CD, which has no title as of yet but we are creating and defining the Drivetime sound with all new original material. It will be full of surprises. I intend to take us in directions that I’m sure you will find intriguing. Drivetime has also reached out to some other artist to enhance the experience. We our bringing on board Phyllis Chapell from Siora http://www.siorajazz.com for a cover of “Mas Que Nada” made popular by Sergio Mendez and Brazil 66 and most recently done by The Black Eyed Peas. We hope to give it a modern but traditional mix and we are thrilled that Phyllis is going to join us. Also Jimmy & I have written our first vocal tune together “Its Love We’re In” and we are bringing in Paul Jerome one of the founding members of the first ever Blue Eyed soul groups out of Philly, The Temptones that included Daryl Hall and spawned Hall & Oats. We have also solicited the help of guitar legend Jef Lee Johnson http://www.myspace.com/jefleejohnsonmusic on one of Jeff Bichaylo’s tunes “On My Mind Again” I am still fishing for other top smooth jazz artists that will give this CD the spice I’m looking for. We do have some appearances this summer at The Tritone, and then back to Warmdaddy’s in August. So stay tune. January 1, 2010 Well here we are at the end of another year and what an incredible year it has been for Drivetime. Teaming up with Justin Guarini for the Sellersville Theater, The World Cafe', The 10! Show and Preston & Steve Morning Show on WMMR has been a gas. I wish I could adequately express to all our supporters just how incredibly thankful I am for your support. This year we had a new CD releases party at Warmdaddy's hosted by Michael Tozzi, numerous newspaper and magazine articles, we made it to the coolest European Smooth Jazz web site, and of course the wedding. Drivetime is also very excited for 2010 starting off with our appearance at The Triumph Brewery in New Hope on January 15th, it would be real nice to have a local venue again, we hope to see you all there because it's you who make us look good. Here's wishing all of you a very Merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! October 16, 2009 I don’t even know where to start for this blog. The past two months have been just unbelievable. I have seen the union of my daughter Reina to Justin Guarini on September 26th, which was one of the most beautiful days I can remember for all of us. Countless articles and interviews about the wedding and the Sellersville Theater concert, appearances on NBC, which believe it or not used to be CBS down on City Line Ave and I got to visit the old studio where we filmed the Discophonic Scene back in the day, boy was that cool, lot’s of memory’s floating around my head for day’s. We also hit WMMR 93.3 for the Preston & Steve show which was a blast, what a great bunch. There are links on the web site for all the promo’s and wedding press, Look at the Press Kit page for most of them, there are also some on the Home page. I am also blown away for the unwavering support from our friend’s and fan’s, for both the wedding and the Sellersville show, I am truly humbled by your kind words and the fact that you were there when we needed you. I will tell you this, it is just the start; I am already at work planning our next CD and a series of shows so stay tuned. And as I like to say at gig’s “Stick around, we are just getting wound up”. August 18, 2009 I wanted to let you all know some of the things that have and will be going on with the band over the next few months. Saturday Aug 15th Drivetime did the Verizon Block Party in Hewlett, Long Island with Justin and it was covered by the TV Guide network. I’m not complaining but it was the hottest day I’ve ever had to played out side, wow……… My hat is off to my band mates who got through the day without a whimper. I want to personally thank Kim from TV Guide who without her help we would have melted for sure, she is now an honorary band member and was dubbed “dude of the day” for having to listen to the Phillies game on the way home without complaining. Drivetime will be back at Warmdaddy’s in September for the ijazzglobal “Groove Series” with Michael Tozzi which is always a pleasure doing. And now the big news, in October we will be doing our first concert at the Sellersville Theater with Justin and we hope you can make it, I promise it will be the best show you’ll see all year. CD sales have been great and the MP3 of “What You Won’t Do For Love” is doing really well too. Thanx to all of you for your support and kind words on Facebook. Remember Drivetime loves ya baby……… July 15th, 2009
Let me begin this blog by saying we have the best supporters in the world, you made the CD release party a total success. You people came out in droves……..thank you, thank you, thank you. I want to thank Justin Guarini for flying in from Orlando to appear with us and sing some tunes. I want to thank Jen Miller from Loudseed for the great publicity campaign she ran for the event, I want to thank to Michael Tozzi from ijazzglobal.com for his support. Thanx Peg for your diligence on cd sales. I won’t embarrass everyone by naming you individually, you all know who you are but you all made it a super night and I sincerely hope you all had a great time I know I did. After working for many months on the cd and planning the cd release party I have to tell you for three days after I was a vegetable, I couldn’t get out of my easy chair. But as usual though, there is not rest for the wicked, I am starting work on our new cd and I promise it will not take as long as Reflections. Once again, I want to thank everyone who participated in the CD Release Party, old listeners and new listeners and rest assured Drivetime is just getting wound up………
April 3, 2009
Summer will soon be here and I am excited about some of the things that are going on with the band. Once again Michael Tozzi is single handedly working to keep jazz alive in Philly, I knew he wouldn’t let us down. He has a new Internet station ijazzgloble.com and he has resumed the Thursday After Work “Groove Series” at Warmdaddy’s, hope to see you there. We have had some great performances there and want to thank everyone for their support and kind words. Drivetime is proud to be associated with Michael and Warmdaddy’s. The cd will be done shortly, it’s been taking a little longer then I thought only because I’m taking the time to make sure it’s enjoyable, I do promise to have it out before our next gig at Warmdaddy’s. The one note I would like to add is the great performance that Justin Guarini gave on What You Won’t Do For Love, I’m am certain this will be a much listened to cut and hopefully played for years to come.
December 23, 2008 We’ll it’s Christmas, thing's have been just poppin’ for the band, we are just about done our Reflections CD and should be available by the end of January ’09. We had a great time doing the Fat Jack’s gig in Feasterville with Justin so if your looking for some serious rib’s Fat Jack’s is the place to go. Also we have had Delton Walker sit in a couple of nights, what a great player and what a groove. I want to personally thank Justin Guarini for coming out to Stephanie’s on December 20th, his voice is so amazing, please if you ever get a chance to see him do it, I promise you won’t be disappointed. That’s it for now, Drivetime wishes you all a Very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!!!!! Be safe and may all your dreams come true in the upcoming year… Once again 97.5 WJJZ has flipped for a new (hip mellow rock) format. Drivetime would like to send out its thanks to Michael Tozzi & Frank Childs for their stellar effort to keep Smooth Jazz in Philly. Drivetime is also infuriated by the way these two guy's we're treated by the new management. Told to pack up their crap their services we're no longer needed and escorted to the door, like criminals. What's criminal here is the total lack of respect for Tozzi & Childs for fifteen years of service to the Smooth Jazz community here in Philadelphia. No matter whether you liked them or smooth jazz for that matter, this is 2008 and Radio Stations still behave like it's the fifties, In an industry that's falling apart, low Compact Disk sales and download piracy, you’d think they wouldn't start feeding on their own. I’m sure this will be the last time a radio station will try to do Smooth Jazz in Philadelphia so if you love the music you’ll just have to come out to see us. We are the island in the storm the oasis in the desert and we will deliver for you die hard listeners. "Do not look forward in fear, nor back in anger but around in awareness" August 14th 2008 Since June Drivetime has been rehearsing with two new players, Jimmy DellOrefice (keyboard) and Michael Piper (drums) make sure you check out their bio pages. These two guys are “dynamite” they bring to the table the feel and chops that you would expect from the heaviest dudes on the jazz scene today. We are honored to have these guy’s along for the ride. On August 1st we did a gig at Stephanie’s with the new line up and once again our buddy Justin Guarini sat in and did some tunes, I want to thank Justin and the boys, "you killed them as usual". I would also like to mention that Justin just returned from a USO tour of Afghanistan and we are extremely happy he got back in one piece. Thank you my friend for taking time out of your busy schedule to do this, no matter how you feel about the war you went and did this anyway, you the man!!!!!!! Don’t forget we have Warmdaddy’s comin’ up on Sept. 11th remember we hit at 6pm for the WJJZ Grove Series. July 30, 2008 Well it’s been a great summer so far and we hope all is going well for our avid listeners. Drivetime is busy putting together two cd’s an ambitious project to say the least. The first cd is a collection of the cover tunes that we do at gigs and the second cd will be our primer original material. On July 3rd we had a great show at Warmdaddy’s thanks to our good buddy Dave Dales who rocked the house, Thanx Dave. We are still perusing new venues to make it easier for some of you to get out to see us, so keep the faith. In the meantime don’t miss our gigs at Stephanie’s and Warmdaddy’s. April 2, 2008 Drivetime & WJJZ have partnered up for some great shows. Since February Drivetime has been playing for the WJJZ “Groove Series” at Warmdaddy’s every other Thursday after work. This gig is awesome; there is no cover charge and there’s a free buffet so for the price of a beer you can get a great show and dinner. We hope you join us at this great venue. We are working to expand our influence throughout the Philly area so please make sure to spread the word and make sure you come out to support your favorite band DRIVETIME. January 11th 2008 Wow! Sorry it took so long to post this, it's been ten months since my last post, can you believe it? Let's start out with our appearance at Warmdaddy's and the WJJZ House Band Contest. Although we didn't win WJJZ has decided to put all their weight behind Drivetime in a series of opportunities’ that we are very excited about. Look for our adds on WJJZ 97.5 for more info............ We would like to welcome a new member to our team Tony Clarke who will be our Publicist & Tour Manager please visit his web site at www.theclarkegroupltd.com for more info On December 29th we had the extreme pleasure of having Justin Guarini (American Idol) sit in with Drivetime and do some amazing vocals. Justin is a long time family friend and we are pleased at his success. And in my opinion well deserved. Wow! what a set of pipes............... On another note the CD is in production and we anticipate its conclusion sometime in the fall of 2008. Don't be discouraged if you are looking for something sooner but I have decided to make sure everything on this project is what is expected of us, as they say; patience is a virtue. March 18th 2007 Notes of interest: Over the last three weeks we have had some great shows, this includes some very spirited sit in performances by some of the best jazz player’s on the planet. We want to thank Rick Whitehead for coming up from DC, what a superb guitar player and new friend. Congratulations to Rick on his winning of the Washington Area Musician's Association (WAMA) 2006 "Best Jazz Instrumentalist" award! Also want to thank our old guitar playin’ buddy Gene Terramani for sitting in this weekend, Most of the players in Drivetime have played with Gene off and on for over thirty years, and it never gets old. Gene feel free to sit in anytime your busy concert schedule allows. We want to thank drummer Dave Mohn for his enthusiastic performance covering for Denny on the Feb. 17th. And thanks to Dave Dales with his unique vocal style and great keyboard ability made our gig on Feb. 10th a party and a half. And we can’t forget Jeff Bichaylo’s contribution on keys the night Rick Whitehead sat in with Drivetime. Thank all of you for making Drivetime a unique experience every time we play. We also want to thank all the great people who come out to see us, we sure have had some fun gang, we love it and we love you. |
