About our name: The Aussies call friends “mates”. People often comment on how much we seem to enjoy each other. That is important to us, and with our “sunny” disposition, SolMates plays to ignite the dancer inside our patrons, whether it’s head swiveling at a distant table or hips swaying on the on the dance floor.
SolMates have been performing in the East Bay for six years. Our members are from San Lorenzo, Castro Valley, Danville, Martinez and Pleasanton. SolMates reflects a diverse history of individual musical experience and draws its material from a wide variety of popular oldies to appeal to numerous dance styles including swing, rock, funk, samba, bossa nova, line, jump blues, blues shuffle, cheek-to-cheek, do-your -own-thing and the ever-present, groovin’ in place.
John Hazen, our saxophonist and harp player, quit his day job 10 years ago and got serious with sax instruction from Bay Area heavyweight Pete Cornell and a stint with the Berkeley Jazz Workshop. From work cronies steeped in the tradition of blues musicians like Sonny Terry out of Oakland, he was inspired to learn the blues harmonica. He has performed at numerous private parties, East Bay clubs and festivals and benefits with Standard Deviations (Jazz), Loose Gravel, New Tattoo Blue and the SolMates.
Jerry Brown, our guitar player has been playing guitar since the age of twelve with a short timeout to help raise his family. After high school he helped form an original band “Orisha” that played around the Bay aArea throughout the 70’s. His most memorable time was playing the Holiday Inn/Ramada Inn circuit in the Midwest, meeting interesting people and seeing some of the most incredible scenery. Since joining SolMates he has embraced their concept of playing music that both enhances the dining experience and provides the clientele the “groove” to exhibit their dancing skills.
John Bulette, our bass player (sometimes known as Oldledbottom) has been playing bass since he was 15 years old. Into a variety of styles, this self-taught bass player has played hard rock, blues, country, pop, oldies, disco in the 70’s and occasionally even church choral music. He is an old-school four string bass player at heart and is the ultimate team player, keeping the grooves basic and danceable. John was an original SolMate. More recently, after hearing their very impressive song catalog and all around good vibe, he is very happy to be back. It has taken years to get to the bottom….lead bottom that is.
Ted Theodore, our drummer, began percussion on the family furniture as soon as he could stand near it. Making a “deal with the devil” the parents gave Ted his first drum set around age 5. Ted played in the school bands throughout his formal education years and followed up with five years of gigging in various Bay Area bands, even sitting in with Brass Horizon, a contemporary of Tower of Power. Ted remains the drummer for long standing Bay Area bands including Tommy and the 4 Speeds and the Chris Bradley traditional Dixieland band.
Debbie Zamaria is our lead vocalist. You’ve heard of “joy of cooking”, well Deb is “joy of singing”. You’ll see that Deb “feels the music” and loves it when our audience is resonating with the lyrics, melody and/or rhythm. You’ve just got to see her in live performance to appreciate Deb at her best. Deb comes from a musical family where she enjoyed singing with her dad, and later in high school and adult choirs in San Francisco. Before SolMates, Deb was lead vocalist for Loose Gravel. Deb says, “I’m sort of an “adult onset” vocalist. I came into my voice at a later age, when I finally stopped trying to sing soprano”.
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