Cell Block 7 to play at Sacramento Music Festival
The Lodi-based Dixieland jazz band will perform for visitors from Japan
On Memorial Day weekend, Sacramento will turn into one of the hottest spots in Northern California for music lovers.
The Sacramento Music Festival may not be limited to jazz anymore, but plenty of jazz bands still show up to keep the city swinging.
One of them is Cell Block 7, a Dixieland band based out of Lodi. The band plays at McGuire’s on the first and third Tuesdays of each month — at least when they’re not traveling. The trip to Sacramento is a relatively short one — the band has visited Alaska, Scotland, Hungary, Taiwan and other locales, along with playing all over Northern California — but they’re not going to skimp on the festivities.
“We’re playing once on Friday, twice on Saturday and three times on Sunday,” band leader Bob Romans said.
One of the Saturday performances will be special.
A delegation of 32 people are visiting Sacramento from its Sister City of Matsuyama, Japan over Memorial Day weekend, and they’ll be staying at the Embassy Suites by Tower Bridge, one of the musical festival’s venues.
When they learned about the festival, they requested that Romans and his band play at the Embassy Suites.
“They said they wanted to hear Cell Block 7 jazz band,” Romans said.
They will attend Cell Block 7’s afternoon performance, and Romans will introduce the mayor.
The band has been very popular in parts of Asia. In 2004, they went on a 12-day tour of Taiwan.
“We played in all of the five major cities in their shopping malls,” Romans said.
Unlike U.S. shopping malls, malls in Taiwan are major venues. The shopping centers Cell Block 7 played in were often 20 to 25 stories high with a central atrium that doubled as performance space.
“They loved us. It took us two hours to sign autographs,” Romans said.
The band also had the opportunity to play a half-hour set on the Great Wall of China.
“We’ve been a busy band,” Romans said.
The eight-piece band has been performing since the 1980s. The current lineup — which features several original members — features Romans and Bob Sakoi on the cornet and double-bell euphonium. Jim Maihack plays the trombone and double-bell euphonium along with providing vocals, Pete Main plays the soprano saxophone and clarinet, John Convery plays banjo and provides vocals, Tom Downs plays the tuba, Daryl Hosick the piano, and Coleman Sholl the drums.
When they’re not playing during the festival, the band hopes to check out the other groups playing. Since they’ll be toting several large instruments, music and music stands, they may not be able to see as many as they’d like, but they’re going to try, Romans said.
Their favorite thing is connecting with other bands and their fans. Cell Block 7 no longer plays at the Sacramento Music Festival every year, but they were a festival feature from 1994 to 2008.
The Music Festival started
as a jazz event but has expanded in recent years to include country, rockabilly, bluegrass, Latin and marching bands.
Lodians are invited to come up to the festival and hear Cell Block 7 and the other great acts. If they miss it, though, the band will be back at McGuire’s on June 6, and will be playing the Vagabondos del Mar crab feed in Rio Vista on June 3.
The event plans to go through 2,000 pounds of cracked crab and 2,000 pounds of artichokes, Romans said.