Stumbled up to Border's Books and Records one night and opened the door to the most fabulous new sound in Austin jazz! It was The Jon Barry Project. It took the band about two measures of their mesmerizing, rhythmic contemporary jazz to fill up the seats and create standing room only listening in the coffee shop at Borders. Nobody left early and nobody gave up their seats, because nobody wanted to miss one second of this great group. This band is a must see!
Recording Magazine described their sound as Pat Metheny meets Spyro Gyra. They play everything from spicy latin, fusion, and dreamily beautiful ballads to rocking jazz. J.B. Slimp is the leader on nylon and electric guitar, with Greg Hudgins on bass guitar, Will Herrington on piano and keyboards, Lou Beltran on steel string acoustic guitar and Steve Miller on drums. Slimp and Herrington wrote most of the numbers on their second album, Friends Like These, released in 2000.
David Benoit and Boney James have both used The Jon Barry Project to open their shows. Not bad for a group that started in Austin in 1998.
Visit their website at www.bwrecords.com. Get music from CDBaby.
