Miss Jo's San Francisco

SHOWING THAT IT’S NEVER TOO LATE TO POLISH OFF YOUR ACT and take it on the road, Miss Jo’s husband, Jeff, is again hustling piano gigs for a living.

Piano playing was Jeff’s first career, in his native New York, where in 1976, at 24, he started performing  in Manhattan clubs, including the legendary Jimmy Ryan’s in midtown.

Sadly,  five years later he had to give up playing keys as  jazz clubs were closing after decades of vibrancy. Pay was increasingly crumby and gigs were getting harder to land. It was a story being played out in other U.S. cities.

Today, the pay may not have gotten any better, but the experience of getting a second chance at a music career in San Francisco is enough to keep Jeff in the game.

It was his dad, valve trombonist Frank Orchard, who insisted his son learn to play the piano over other instruments. He wanted Jeff to always be able to make money performing alone.

Frank knew how hard it was to scratch out a living making music, even as a sideman during jazz’s mid-20th century heyday, when he played alongside greats like Louis Armstrong, Bobby Hackett, Willie “The Lion” Smith, Pee Wee Russell and Lips Page. To make ends meet, Frank took on odd jobs, like selling sheet music, band instruments and water softeners.

Last night, Jeff played piano and Hammond B-3 organ with Bohemian Knuckleboogie, a swinging San Francisco blues band, which closed out this year’s Fillmore Jazz Festival in the City. Band leader and University of Houston graduate, Mike Pitre, is a talented trumpet player who hails from Port Arthur—- and he’s the one who gave Miss Jo her Internet moniker.

Old Media Miss Jo also is polishing her New Media skills as Bohemian Knuckleboogie’s webmaster.
Color photos by Miss Jo, including below video from last year’s Bohemian Knuckleboogie jazz fest performance. The music is a Mike Pitre tune, with Jeff on keys.