Happy Anniversary to the Zzymzzy Quartet!!!

Always a Swingin’ Time

The Zzymzzy Quartet: Paul Homicz, Beston Barnett, Matt Gill, Pete Miesner. Photo by Dan Chusid.

Zzymzzy Quartet, the popular Gypsy Jazz/Swing outfit, celebrate their 20th anniversary as a group this month, with plans for festivities at Lou Lou’s Jungle Room inside the Lafayette Hotel, North Park, on Saturday, October 12, from 8-10pm (no cover charge).

Heading up the quartet is Beston Barnett on guitar and vocals with featured members Matt Gill on clarinet, Paul Homicz on upright bass, and Pete Miesner on guitar and lead vocals. A good way to remember Zzymzzy is that it rhymes with whimsy. In fact, their name comes from a hypothetical “last word” in the dictionary, thus, their tagline “the last word in Gypsy swing.” Over their two decades together they’ve played dances, parties, weddings, festivals, art openings, and events throughout Southern California.

Barnett is looking forward to playing the newly refurbished venue in the basement of the Lafayette Hotel. “It still has the beautiful clam shell stage it’s always had, but now with gold, jaguars, and crazy chandeliers. We performed there many times back in the day when many of the swing dancers and traditional jazz lovers frequented there, but we have not played there since its fabulous facelift.”

The Zzymzzy Quartet will be playing at the amazing Lou Lou’s Jungle Room inside the Lafayette Hotel on October 12.

“We are all about playing live,” Miesner added, “especially for the swing dancers. We were lucky enough to have crossed paths with that community early on, and it has been the best. It is invigorating to play for a room of dancers. I’m really looking forward to having fun at this occasion.”

“They just keep coming out.” Barnett exclaimed. “Some of these people go out dancing almost every night! It’s incredible! It’s always great to play for a seated audience or a café crowd, but a roomful of dancers is a whole other level of energy.”

Zzymzzy @ Gator by the Bay. Photo by Liz Abbott.

The quartet has some great cameos planned, with appearances from people they’ve performed with over the years, including Isela LeClair, vocals; Billy Hawkins, trombone; Claudia Gomez, tap dance; Valentina on the Rocks, burlesque; the First Saturday Swing Dancers; and DJ Doug LeClair between sets.

The band has stayed intact for 20 years, with the exception of Homicz, who replaced the original bassist Patrick Marion along the way. “I love this band,” Homicz emoted since his hire. “I always have a good time at our gigs, especially when the audience picks up our vibe. We don’t plug into amplifiers for many of our gigs, so I’m really glad that I don’t have to cart a big bass amp around. Folks have told me that one of the reasons they like the band is that they enjoy hearing an overall natural sound.”

A Nashville native, Barnett enjoyed jazz and gospel music from an early age, and especially relished hearing legendary Gypsy Swing guitarist, Django Reinhardt back then. “I was listening to the Reinhardt compilation Djangology on vinyl when I was 12, but it didn’t really take off until the Zzymzzy Quartet came together.”

Little taste of Zzymzzy:

Barnett reflected back on that reality. “The only way to really get serious about a style of music is to put a band together,” he stated. His first step was joining forces with Miesner, who had an affinity for the old American Songbook writers such as Hoagy Carmichael and Irving Berlin, which melded the group’s swing and Gypsy roots repertoire. “I consider myself very lucky,” Miesner explained, “in that I can decide I want to sing an old tune that I like, find a lead sheet for the band, and voila!”

“After Miesner, I brought in bassist Patrick Marion, whom I’d played with before,” Barnett continued, “and then I went hunting around for a clarinet player to complete the quartet. Upon inquiring at the Windsmith music shop, they handed me Matt Gill’s business card.”

Gill responded to Barnett’s call quickly, recalling the moment. “He said to drop by a house party and bring my clarinet.” A classically trained clarinetist, Gill knew he had to switch gears. “My first music teachers had been jazz musicians from the Berklee School of Music in Boston where I grew up, so I was digging back to some jazz theory I learned from them. From there it all just clicked as I’m realizing now that I’m really meant to be a jazz musician. When we started playing for swing dancers with their energy feeding us and vice versa, I knew I had found my musical happiness.”

Barnett emphasizes the broader genre description beyond the obligatory Gypsy Jazz label. “We sing much more with a lot more vocal harmony, and we swing more than standard Gypsy Jazz, loping and bouncing rather than burning. I see my job as more Django Reinhardt, Matt as more Benny Goodman, and Pete as more Hoagy Carmichael,” he concluded.

Having fun at OB Peoples.

Barnett eloquently summed up his successful 20-year journey of pleasing myriad audiences with their unique blend of rhythm and soul. “I’m a big believer of the idea of music having utility. The Zzymzzy Quartet works because we have a vibrant audience here that understands what to use it for as they understand that music with a bouncy rhythm and some sly improvisatory tricks is the right thing to dance to; we’ve been lucky.”

Miesner mulled over the past 20 years with a final thought: “Somehow, we are still friends and enjoy hanging out, joking around, and playing music—somehow we have managed to not drive each other crazy—which is quite an accomplishment for a band!”