Paul Combs' Pocket Big Band to perform July 31st at the Roost Jazz Cafe, Amesbury, MA

AMESBURY, MA (www.paulcombs.com) - The Roost Jazz Cafe in Amesbury, MA today announced that the Paul Combs' Pocket Big Band will be performing Saturday July 31st at 8:30pm. Reservations may be made by phone by calling 978.388.9333. Seating at $5.00 per person is also available at the Roost on the evening of the performance, based on availability.

Lead by Paul Combs, music educator, composer and performance artist, the Pocket Big Band is a nine-piece jazz ensemble that has many of the orchestral qualities and power of a big band while maintaining the musical intimacy of a small combo. The instrumentation features Combs playing alto sax and a collective of eight other Boston-area jazz musicians playing tenor sax, baritone sax, two trumpets, trombone, piano, bass and drums.

Paul Combs formed the band in the fall of 2001 as a nonet, a format that was once the standard instrumental group in the 1920's, and later widely influential in the 1950's and 60's. Combs proved to be prescient. According to Downbeat (February 2004), "Little big bands have returned. Nonets and tentets are suddenly back in the limelight." The Paul Combs Pocket Big Band is today on the vanguard of the return of the nonet to jazz.

The musicians performing with Paul Combs July 31st at the Roost will include Jim Cameron, Bob Coviello, Chuck Gabriel, Don Hemwall, Doug Leaffer, Paul Marcantonio, Jim Pastore and Cliff Weeks. The band will perform the arrangements of Tadd Dameron, Sammy Nestico, Lennie Niehaus, Bob Pilkington, Willie Smith (who wrote for Joe Lovano's Grammy winning "52nd St. Dreams" CD), and others. The band's repertoire also includes several compositions of Paul Combs' own work and selected jazz classics from the books of Woody Herman and Stan Kenton.

Paul Combs' Pocket Big Band also appears alternating Sunday summer evenings, performing from 7:00 -11:00pm at the Chit Chat Lounge, 103 Washington Street, Haverhill, MA.

The Roost Jazz Cafe, located at 33 Main Street, Amesbury, MA blends the style of a Manhattan night club with the atmosphere of a San Francisco cafe. Situated in a newly converted space in the historic Mill Yard in downtown Amesbury, MA, the Roost presents jazz artists from Boston, New York and other areas on weekends and local musicians during the week. The Roost Jazz Cafe's Web site is www.theroostjazzcafe.com