Boss Guitars Free Masterclass Series

Tuck Andress, born September 25, 1952, in Tulsa, Oklahoma, is a master of fingerstyle guitar, renowned for his work in the jazz duo Tuck & Patti. His intricate playing style combines melody, harmony, and rhythm seamlessly, creating a full-band sound with just one guitar. Tuck's approach to the instrument is both innovative and deeply rooted in jazz tradition.

Since 1978, guitar virtuoso Tuck Andress, recognized as a premier player of jazz and contemporary standard music, has enjoyed one of the most enduring and creative musical partnerships accompanying wife and collaborator Patti Cathcart. Together, the duo (known as Tuck and Patti), have released six albums since 1988, culminating with the current release of their latest album, Taking The Long Way Home – their first comprised entirely of original music.

Andress has been acclaimed as an interpretive stylist with an articulate phrasing and talent for detail. His technique translates to seamless textures and tones of understated improvisational fluidity and subtlety.

John “Jubu” Smith has worked as a sideman for 41 of his 45 years, beginning as a harmony vocalist in his father’s Oakland gospel quartet before adding bass, then guitar, to his responsibilities in the group. At 19, he began playing guitar for the Oakland R&B band Tony Toni Toné, whose front man,Raphael Saadiq, he’d known since both were kids playing on the local quartet circuit.
Smith spent a decade with the Tonies before going on the road for a year and a half with Whitney Houston. For the past 15 years, he’s been touring internationally eight months per year, primarily on weekends, with Maze, featuring Frankie Beverly. Those credits don’t include countless recording sessions with the likes of Luther Vandross, Mary J. Blige, Boyz II Men, Toni Braxton, George Duke, and Geroge Benson.

Jubu, who moved from Los Angeles to Atlanta two years ago with his wife and three children, is establishing himself as the front man of his own soul-blues band, Legally Blynd, a sextet that includes his brother Eric "Pik Funk" Smith (Rihanna’s bassist for the past eight years) and others who work as sidemen for Stevie Wonder and Saadiq. He’s cut way back on doing sessions, although he has recorded during the past year with Eric Benet, Faye Carol, & K. Michelle.

An accomplished guitarist and vocalist, Vernon Black spent most of the past 20 years touring, recording and film tracking with music legends like Stevie Wonder, Herbie Hancock, Whitney Houston, Aretha Franklin, Chakka Kahn and Lionel Richie. More recently, he’s performed and recorded with contemporary artists including Ashanti, Mariah Carey, India Aire, Busta Rhymes and Celine Dion. His work can be heard in films like “The Bodyguard,” “License to K*ll,” and “Beverly Hills Cop II;” in advertising jingles for Jaguar, Chevrolet, Toyota, Nissan, Mattel and Levi’s; and in songs and sound effects on video games for Sony Play Station, Nintendo, Sega and EA Sports (Electronic Arts). And at the Jimi Hendrix Festival at Bumbershoot Stadium in Seattle Washington he was the co-music director and opened the show with the legendary "Experience" (Jimi Hendrix’s original band) - Mitch Mitchell (drums) and Noel Redding (bass).
Vernon is also a producer, composer and music director. Credits include; The Spice Girls (music director), Regina Belle (composer), Phillip Bailey (composer), Lenny Williams (composer, producer) and his 1st solo record “Sneak Previews” (composer, producer) {guest artists including Herbie Hancock, Steve Smith, Tom Coster, Phillip Bailey} and for multiple artists on his “Ice Black Productions” production company / independent record label.
Also an innovator of musical instrument design, Vernon designs his own electric guitars. He is the co-designer of the MP2 digital guitar preamp, which won the award for best guitar processor of 1993. He also received an award from the DVD Association for co-designing the DVD on CD (multi layered enhanced cd) in 2000.
In the year 2004, Vernon took a break from the "guitarist for hire" market to create a situation that would allow him to pursue and develop his own producing and writing career as well as being a solo artist. Equally so, he was motivated to create a place that gave artists a more fair and friendly (artist based business) environment. This led to the creation of his production company / independent record label "Ice Black Productions".

Jackeline Rago is a multi-instrumentalist, composer, arranger, producer and educator who specializes in Venezuelan Folk-Music as well as music from other countries of Latin America and the Caribbean.

Born in Caracas, Venezuela, Jackeline began playing music at the age of four. Prior to moving to the United States, she spent years studying the Folk-Venezuelan “Cuatro” (national string instrument) and mandolin at the “Manuel Antonio Carreño Primary School” under the tutelage of Venezuelan folklorist Angel Guanipa. During her teenage years, she completed studies in music theory and harmony at the “Escuela de Musica Prudencio Esaa” and courses in classical mandolin at “The Caracas Philarmonic Orchestra Conservatory” under maestro Ivan Adler. While in Venezuela, Jackeline also pursued studies in Afro-Venezuelan percussion under folklorists Hector Pacheco and Alexander Livinalli from the “Fundacion Bigott” in Caracas. In 1989, Jackeline graduated with a B.A. from the Music & Arts Institute of San Francisco, CA, majoring in classical mandolin. Presently, she resides in the Bay Area which has been her home base for the past 20 years. In addition to her Cuatro and mandolin expertise, Rago is an accomplished percussionist and vocalist.

Jackeline Rago is the artistic and musical director of the "Venezuelan Music Project" (Venezuelan Folk music, www.venezuelanmusicproject.com) and a founding member of the"VNote Ensemble" (formerly The Snake Trio, www.vnotensemble.com), bands which she travels and performs with in an ongoing basis. She was also a founding member of “Altazor” (Nueva Canción ensemble),” Wild Mango” (world beat music), “Keith Terry & Crosspulse” (world percussion) and “Trio Altamira” (contemporary Latin American music).

Jackeline Rago has been a guest artist on recordings and performances by prominent artists such as John Santos and the Machete Ensemble, Andy Narell, Mike Marshall, Holly Near, Linda Tillery and the Cultural Heritage Choir, Isay Barnwell (Sweet Honey in the Rock), Marco Granados (Venezuelan flutist), Aquiles Báez (Venezuelan guitarist), Alexander Livinalli (Venezuelan percussionist), Rebeca Mauleon, Omar Sosa, the Oakland Youth Chorus, various Windam Hill recording artists and many other musicians and ensembles within the U.S. and Venezuela.

Just recently, Rago received the “Award of Excellence in Music“ given by the Mission Cultural Center for the Latino Arts in its 30th Anniversary, in San Francisco, CA. Additionally, Jackeline is a recipient of awards and grants from the Rockefeller Foundation, California Arts Council, Meet the Composer/Readers Digest Commissioning Program, The National Endowment for the Arts, the Lila Wallace Readers Digest Foundation and AIM (Adventures in Music program sponsored by the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra). Furthermore, Rago was an Artist in Residence of the State of California from 1989 to 2001.

Jackeline Rago has performed nationally and internationally for over 20 years showcasing the music of Latin America with an emphasis in Venezuelan Folk-Music.

A hectic touring schedule; twenty-one recordings as a leader, countless sideman recordings including Ray Brown, Bobby Hutcherson, Roger Kellaway; soundtrack performances on three of Clint Eastwood’s distinguished films—most notably Academy Award-winning Million Dollar Baby; raconteur, arranger, acclaimed educator, in residence at USC’s Studio/Jazz Guitar Dept., when does Bruce Forman rest?
Deep immersion in American culture inspires Forman to contribute to the traditions that he draws from. Reunion! (the newest project) revisits the famed Poll Winners sessions with cohorts John Clayton and Jeff Hamilton, playing instruments owned by Barney Kessel, Ray Brown and Shelly Manne; Formanism (his trio project); original works like The Red Guitar; his high-rated podcast, GuitarWank; Cow Bop and the “road challenges” down historic byways like Route 66; JazzMasters Workshop; Junkyard Duo; GrumpsTV (a fifty episode YouTube variety show during the lockdown), the popular ‘first chorus of the day’ series on Instagram…these are only the latest answers to the endless question that underlies Bruce Forman’s creativity. His music and life reflect every step of his journey, and demonstrate the awareness of an artist who’s very much at home in the world, and at the top of his form.
The Red Guitar is serious one-man theater, incorporating great musical virtuosity and storytelling skills to explore the obsessive demands that music places on its truest followers. Junkyard Duo, scavenging music from the edge of sound, uses an unusual sonic landscape to create a rich and exciting musical palette…hobo chic at it’s most utmost. And though he can shred bebop at blistering tempos with the best of ‘em, he is no urban snob. Cow Bop, Forman’s unique “western bebop” band, hit four separate charts with its CDs, Swingin’ Out West, Route 66, Too Hick for the Room and Cowlifornia Swing. Having won the Route 66 Challenge three times with Cow Bop, he created a linear music festival in 2013, establishing a new paradigm for touring and the use of social media, which included a collaborative mentoring model for young musicians.
Bruce Forman’s life and musical journey provide an American saga that is still in full swing. His Texas origins, his early career in San Francisco and New York, and his years on the road, all contribute to the unique and highly personal vision that he demonstrates today.

Carl Lockett is a Bay Area legend. A musical child prodigy, Carl started out as a drummer, then went to the guitar. By the age of 14, he was playing gigs around the Bay Area, even opening for the legendary Redd Foxx’s comedy shows. For over 4 decades, he has made a name for himself in the music industry.

Eternally youthful, and upbeat, he still wears his passion for music on his sleeve. At his live shows, if you watch closely, you’ll often see him break into a big grin, the music just gives him that much joy.

Carl has played live, and on studio albums with Chuck Mangione, Randy Crawford, Jimmy Smith, Joey DeFrancesco, Hank Crawford, Faye Carol, Jimmy McGriff, Plaz Johnson, Tammy Terrell, Esther Phillips, The Platters, The Ink Spots, Big Mama Thornton, Jackie Wilson, The Drifters, Papa John Creach, Brook Benton, Dakota Staton, The Coasters, Bill Summers, and David Ruffin. His complete mastery of his instrument and his class and talent,has had him in diverse settings, ranging from a perfect third in a traditional organ trio (touring with Jimmy McGriff, and Jimmy Smith), to sitting in for Jerry Garcia when Jerry was unable to make a gig with David Grisman.

In the past he has played the North Sea, Montreaux, & Monterey jazz festivals, all three Blue Note Clubs in Japan and the 1980 Winter Olympics. His impressive career includes a motion picture role as a nightclub band member in the Academy Award nominated Peggy Sue Got Married, and an appearance on The Tonight Show performing with Chuck Mangione. His soundtrack work includes performing on The Twilight Zone with Merl Saunders, and Cannonball Run with Burt Reynolds.

Recently he played the 2007 Monterey Jazz Festival with Joey DeFrancesco, and played gigs with noted B3 masters, Dr. Lonnie Smith, and Akiko Tsuruga. Fate took Carl to Battle Creek, Michigan. Some of the guitar techs from the Heritage guitar factory in Kalamazoo Michigan, were in the audience, and after the gig invited him to the factory. There they requested to sponsor Carl, and took his order for a custom made Heritage Golden Eagle, compliments of the Heritage Co.

This world class musician is currently in the studio, laying down tracks, for a soon to be released project and performing live.

This project has been made possible in part by California Arts Council, a state agency.

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

The Sound Room, 3022 Broadway, Oakland, United States

Concerts, fests, parties, meetups - all the happenings, one place.

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