The Dick’s Den Wednesday program roars into 2016 with a January docket helmed by multi-instrumentalist Doug Neel. Neel is skilled as an educator and a performer, serving on the adjunct faculty of several Ohio colleges and playing with a wide variety of bands, symphonies, and orchestras. In the jazz world, he currently plays with Canta Brasil, Trio NOT, Michael Shirtz, Stan Smith, and more. As he explains below, Neel has put together a robust residency program that highlights his talent with the guitar, the trombone, composing and arranging, and also covers a great deal of different styles. Each week’s show will start at 9:30pm, and the cover is $4. Keep reading for more details on each week’s performance.
Doug Neel: “My personal goal for each show is to bring something different each week that showcases different elements of who I am as a musician, and I believe I’ve assembled a collection of performances that does just that.
Wednesday, January 6th: Trio NOT w/ special guest, Kevin O’Neill
I’m kicking off my residency by featuring my trio from Northwest Ohio, Trio NOT. You could call this group a ‘modern organ trio,’ as we play in a traditional configuration (guitar, keys, drums). However, our keyboardist does not play a ‘real’ organ, and our repertoire pulls from numerous influences/sources (jazz, rock, funk, R&B, grunge, country, etc.). We’ll play anything from standards to selections from Marc Johnson, Larry Goldings, Nirvana, Green Day, Bob Marley, Al Green, etc. The trio consists of myself on guitar, Kyle Turner on keys, and Nelson Overton on drums (the ‘NOT’ in Trio NOT is our last initials – Neel, Overton, Turner). Additionally, for this show, we are honored to feature long-time friend and ‘Columbus legend’ Kevin O’Neill on sax. This promises to be an excellent show!
January 13th: Brass Session
This is a group that I’ve been rehearsing with for some time, and our PREMIERE PERFORMANCE will be on 1/13 @ Dick’s. In short, this is a trombone 4tet with rhythm section (replace bass w/ sousaphone, though!), and we specialize in 4-horn arrangements of classic rock songs (stuff by Queen, Blood, Sweat, & Tears, The Beatles, etc.). Also, for the last set of the evening, we’ll be dropping down to a ‘combo’ version of the band, with me switching back to guitar for the remainder of the night. I am VERY excited to premiere this new group at Dick’s, as it consists of some of the top ‘trombone slingers’ in the region:
Ryan Hamilton – trombone
Doug Neel – trombone/guitar
Doug Moran – trombone
Matt Smith – bass trombone
Nick Labita – piano
Tony Zilincik – sousaphone
Joe Nelson – drums
January 20th: ‘Night Of Standards’
For this particular outing, I wanted to do an evening of simply playing jazz standards, as I so rarely have an evening to plug my guitar directly into my amp without pedals and other doomsday devices mucking up my tone. 😉 So, I assembled a crew of some of the finest cats available ‘in the field’:
Brian Lang – saxes
Doug Neel – 7-string guitar (sans ‘doomsday devices’)
Danny Bauer – keys
Matt Paetsch – bass
Maxwell Button – drums
January 27th: ‘Night Of Originals’
I am honored/privileged/lucky to be able to play the amount of music I do with the musicians I get to play it with. Truly! However, with all the performing I’ve done over the years, I’ve YET to do an evening featuring MY OWN compositions. My final Wednesday of my residency will rectify that! I will be presenting a night of all original compositions, and I’m VERY excited about the band I have selected to present them with me. These are cats that I’ve worked with in multiple settings, and I know they will bring the versatility and ‘moxy’ required to make this night a success:
Doug Neel – 7-string guitars (with ‘doomsday devices’)
Matt Adams – saxes
Tony Bonardi – keys
Jeff Bass – electric bass
Danny Aguiar – drums/percussion”