Spotlight On...Trowzer Boa Live in West Chester, PA 29 August

On Saturday, 29 August, I traveled out to West Chester, PA to see Trowzer Boa, aka Dave Renz in RL. He and his band, the Dave Renz Jazz Duo, were playing at a local, downtown winery, Kreutz Creek Winery. The winery's slogan is "Built on dreams with determination...capturing the art of the wine making process, from vine to bottle." The actual winery is located in West Grove PA, but the place in town sells exclusivley all the wine made there in the pub.

The store front window served as stage and the drummer was perched up there in the window with the remaining band members in front. The band consisted of Dave on sax, a bassist and keyboardist, as well. The band members are all former students of the high school where Dave teaches.

The band played for an amazing 3 hours, taking several breaks. Not being a huge jazz fan, I couldn't say what tunes they played but I thought they were terrific and I smiled and smiled. Nothing like live music to give a person a new respect for a particular form or style of music. This band had an all together fantastic sound and I had a blast. The crowd was fun, there was lots of laughter and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

From his website: "Dave Renz has been playing saxophone professionally on the East Coast since the early 1990’s. His compositions and performances have appeared on cd’s alongside Steve Howe, Ian Anderson (Jethro Tull), Robert Hazard and Annie Haslam (Renaissance). He has recorded with some of the top players/producers in the industry, most recently for Grammy winning producer Phil Nicolo as part of the Klemmer-Hill-Reid project. Dave Renz has performed From New York City to Nags Head North Carolina, and appeared multiple times at the Berks Jazz Festival and Music Fest in Allentown PA. Look for him regularly at Chris’ Jazz Cafe in Center City , The Blue Point Grille, in Princeton New Jersey, and in and around the Philadelphia area."

Since his performance in West Chester, I had occasion to see Trowzer for the first time in SL. Unaccompanied by the band, Trowzer still plays an amazing sax. If you love jazz, check out Trowzer at your next opportunity.

Shellie Sands