20 some years ago Brooks Giles was playing 6-nights a week with former Ramsey Lewis bassist Eldee Young's group at the Westin Singapore's Somersets Bar, while I was playing 6-nights a week leading my trio at The Bar & Billiard Room of Raffles Hotel. We were playing right across the street from one another and met for the first time then. We became friends and saw each other every now and then after his 3-month contract came to an end, when one of his tours would bring him through Singapore again or when I would come through someplace like Thailand where he held down a residency for a while. Even after we each left the Far East for home in America, we kept in touch intermittently by phone. When I returned to my hometown of Cincinnati in 2017 Brooks was in Frankfort KY taking care of his elderly parents. He gave me my first gig in the area at Jimmy Can't Dance in Louisville sometime shortly after I got here. We don't play together often, but I have played in his band in KY and he has played here with me at The Greenwhich or The Washington Platform, and Brooks did appear on my 2022 album, Friends, Old & New.
Organist and pianist Wayne Yeager I have known even longer than Brooks, from when I booked jazz 4-nights a week at Doc's Place in N. College Hill in the mid-1980's. Wayne was also on my Friends, Old & New release. Drummer Isaiah Cook is a 'Young Lion' who I've had the pleasure of playing with a few times in the Cincinnati area, when I can get him(!) . . . when he isn't on tour with singer and violinist, Emmaline. Almost 250 years of experience will be on display this Friday Jan. 19th @The Jazz Spoon https://gregchako.com/event/5400718/669096433/greg-chako-s-all-star-organ-quartet
Free off-street parking on-sight. Authentic Mexican Food. Besides Brook's awesome vocals, Blues & Jazz, we will also be playing selections from my album Friends, Old & New! https://gregchako.bandcamp.com/album/friends-old-new