Guilty Pleasures and Hip Hits

The No-Mads celebrate music’s reign as the defining art form in 20th-century popular culture of Europe and the Americas. The No-Mads’ instrumental program is an international tapestry woven from swing, TV and film themes, novelty songs, bebop, rock, crooner hits, bal-musette, show tunes, Italian folk songs, Bossa Nova, sounds of the Quintette du Hot Club de France, and more. In nostalgic reinterpretations of familiar tunes that maybe you’ve forgotten you know and love, and in novel arrangements of obscure gems -- all played on guitar, accordion, and percussion -- you’ll find delight from beginning to end.

Artist Biographies

Robert Kennedy

Robert Kennedy is a San-Francisco-based jazz organist, accordionist, pianist, and composer born and raised in the American South and resident in the Bay Area since 1988. He has released two albums as a leader of organ-centered jazz combos, and appears as a sideman on commercial recordings of straight-ahead and acoustic / hot-club jazz, rock, fusion, and pop. Through memberships in The Vivants, Bistro Moustache, Mission Hot Club, and numerous freelance projects he has become one of the Bay Area’s busiest jazz accordionists.

Ned Boynton

Ned Boynton is an educator and player bringing a unique approach to jazz and live performance to the Bay Area. He is listed as one of the USA’s top jazz guitarists in The Great Jazz Guitarists: The Ultimate Guide by Scott Yanow, has served as Musical Director for Talk Show Live and Live at the historic Purple Onion in North Beach, led his Django Reinhardt-inspired trio Cafe Americain, and held the post of Associate Director of Jazzmasters Workshop. In those roles and more, Ned has woven himself into the guitar fabric that shapes the jazz community. He has been a featured clinician at the North Wales International Jazz Guitar Summer School in Wrexham, UK, and has performed with Bucky Pizzarelli, Anthony Wilson, Gary Potter, John Pisano, Howard Alden, Mundell Lowe, Bruce Forman, Les Paul, The Hot Club of San Francisco, Dan Barrett, Raul Reynoso and many others. Ned is the founder and guitarist for the only Gypsy Surf Italian Rock Jazz band in existence today: Surfer Roma. He can frequently be heard at Caffè Trieste and other North Beach venues.

Erik Cruze

Percussionist Erik Cruze is a bay-area native and former student of Chuck Brown. He has been playing clubs and touring for 40 years in countless bands and solo acts, and has No-Mads Premier Elite Drummer Status thanks to numerous musical miles logged with our group.