Five Point Five Jazz was founded in 2001 with Chuck Weber, Mike Sweeney and Dennis Fischette. Paco Leon joined the band in 2003 as a sub for Mike. One day at a rehearsal Chuck brought Paco and Mike together for a bass/piano/guitar combo and voila! We discovered a unique, solid sound and a marketable product!

Dennis one day decided to record one of our coffee shop performances and discovered on average most of our tunes lasted five and a half minutes. We were trying to figure out a band name, Chuck was born in ‘55, our drummer’s lucky number was 5, we had 5 to 6 players and thus the name Five Point Five was born. Trivia fact!!!

The Musicians

Guitarist, Mike Sweeny started musical training on trombone at age 8, played in award winning ensembles in Philadelphia well into college. Mike switched to jazz/rock guitar while in college and worked as a professional musician while putting himself through school.

He has studied jazz guitar with such greats as Chuck Anderson of Philadelphia, Tom Roberts and the late Warren Nunes locally. He has participated in the Stanford Jazz residency workshops with Tim Volpicello, Pat Martino, Bruce Forman and others.

Recently he picked up the trombone after a multi-decade hiatus and plays with the Los Gatos Big Band, and the Charles Hamilton Big Band that recently toured China in 2003 and Vietnam in 2004.

Guitarist, mentor and instructor Carey Evans is the latest musician to join Five Point Five. Chuck met Mr. Evans (71) at Garden City in 1996 while Carey was performing with Smith Dobson. Chuck started taking guitar lessons and thus was the beginning of a musical relationship. In 2000 Chuck and Carey performed for six months at a local restaurant as the Jazz Duo. Mr. Evans, originally from Pittsburgh PA, is a Wes Montgomery style guitarist that actually gave lessons to a 12 year old up and coming guitarist in the 50’s by the name of George Benson.

Bassist, Chuck Weber and band leader, started his musical endeavors at age 24 when he bought his first guitar, a ’79 Fender Stratocaster. He promptly started studying jazz guitar with Walt Trinidad’s jazz guitar class at Soquel’s Cabrillo College in 1980 to 1981. Chuck bought his first bass in 1986. Involved in multiple activities such as photography, Scuba diving, and the outdoors, music was secondary.

Early 1997 was the turning point. After retiring from his part time vocation as a SCUBA diving instructor, Chuck’s wife told him of this “open invite jazz jam” at a local pizza parlor in Santa Clara. Chuck became the Thursday night rhythm guitarist. Noticing the bass player was showing up late, he started filling in on bass. Realizing bass players are in demand, he got serious about playing bass in 1998.

Drummer Jersey Forman led the jazz jams sparking Chuck’s commitment to music.  Participating in Peter Spitzer’s jazz combo’s, Jao Neves’s Brazilian jazz class at the Mountain View School of Music, De Anza College jazz classes and playing with the Charles Hamilton Big Band, he evolved into a solid bass player.

It was in these venues he met Dennis (1999), Mike (2000) and Paco (2002). Chuck’s day gig is sales, so it’s only natural for him to hustle the gigs. His bandmates call him the “gigmeister”.

Percussionist, Mike Connor was born in Ohio, raised in Colorado and calls the Bay Area home. He grew up in a musical family. His father led jazz bands, played trumpet and owned and operated a music store. Mike started playing drums in Colorado as a kid in local rock bands, one aptly named for the times "The Late Sunday Dreamers". Mike continued to play drums in various groups while in the army and stationed in Vietnam. Mike returned to the drums at the right time - when he turned 40 - took private lessons and started playing in a church rock band as well as other local rock and blues bands. Mike attended multiple semesters of DeAnza's Jazz Improv class and also attended Jazz classes at the Mountain View Community School of Music. Mike has been an active member of the local jazz scene now for over 10 years and is very appreciative of the encouragement and opportunities it provides. Mike lives in San Jose with his wife Arden and two wonderful daughters Chloe 6 & Sara 9. To pay for his musical addiction, Mike works with leading companies to help develop and execute Web 2.0 and beyond strategies and initiatives and is also writing a book on the topic.

Trombonist, Dennis Fischette started playing professionally at age 14 with the Savannah Cellar Savers Brass band and the Clyde Saxton band in upstate New York. During college he played jazz and classical music at Cornell and Berkeley. Locally he studied at the Mountain View School of Music, played with the De Anza College Daddio’s Big Band.

He recently toured China and Vietnam with the Charles Hamilton Big Band, played with the Oakland Civic Orchestra and plays with several jazz ensembles locally.

Tenor saxophonist, Bert Morris is our on call musician for when Mike or Paco have other commitments. He has 50+ years of playing experience and is an absolute pleasure to play with. Bert is 72 years young.

Upcoming dates:

Picchetti Winery, 13100 Montebello Road, Cupertino  408-741-1310 
www.picchetti.com

1-4pm

May 24th

July 26th

August 30th

Sept 5th

Dominico Winery, 1697 Industrial Road, San Carlos, CA 94070   (650) 593-2335 
www.domenicowines.com

1-4pm

June 13th