The Killjoy Trio

As well as having been in several garage bands growing up, I've been in a jazz trio for the past few years. We are the Killjoy Trio and have had the opportunity to play a lot of weddings, artsy functions and of course, ward parties around the valley. Although I'm more experienced as a guitarist (although not much of one) I got into piano and jazz music quite heavily several years ago and decided it would be fun to have a small jazz combo. Unfortunately, I play piano the same way I play guitar, untrained, by ear, and as any expert would say - the wrong way. I'm a big faker - chords in the left hand, melody in the right. I can't read music very well and I can't play hymns, but playing in a jazz trio has been a lot of fun. Because I started faking my way through some jazz tunes, I figured I could convince my lifelong friend and drummer Corey to do the same. I also successfully convinced my sister in law's husband Van to join as well. They both have done a very impressive job at learning some jazz chops on the drums and upright bass. They do a really great job at masking all of my crummy mistakes and we always have a great time playing together. We even played on a local tv show a couple of years ago, 15 Minutes - whoo hoo - here's a low-res video of one of the songs we played, The Girl from Ipanema. Here's also a pic from our latest show and some Killjoy artwork.