Elite jazz quartet to perform Sunday

By Jerry Fink

Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2009 | 6:12 p.m.

For less than the price of a CD jazz fans can hear live music performed by a quartet of elite Las Vegas musicians this weekend.

The Hammond B-3 Quartet makes its debut concert at 2 p.m. Sunday at the Winchester Culture Center.

“There’s a possibility we could keep this going if we get a good response Sunday,” says Ronnie Foster, one of the nation’s premier Hammond B-3 organists. “I love all the players in the band.”

With Foster are Calvin Brooks on guitar, Bobby “Boppin’” Barnes on tenor saxophone and Jess Gopen on drums.

Foster was a member of George Benson’s band for many years and recorded with the likes of Roberta Flack, Donny Hathaway, Chet Atkins, David Sanborn, Sheila E., Dee Dee Bridgewater, Lee Ritenour, the Temptations, Stanley Clarke, Robbie Robertson, Earl Klugh, Stanley Turrentine and Grant Green.

Brooks performed for President Clinton as part of Aretha Franklin’s band and worked with singer Lou Rawls and with many of the stars of Motown. He has recorded four albums, including the highly-praised “Jazz Standards Recorded Live,” made at Harrah’s Las Vegas.

Barnes was a key figure in the Detroit jazz scene before retiring to Las Vegas and Gopen is a member of Ronnie Foster's other quarter.

“We’ve all played together off and on for years,” says Foster, a native of Buffalo, N.Y.

Foster, who has been performing and producing records for more than 30 years, is known as a talented funk and soul-jazz keyboardist.

He learned classical piano as a child but has a teenager became a jazz pianist and eventually began playing organ as well.