WildMan
About
the Band Members:
Jay Feldman, Bass, Vocals
Playing professionally since
1976 in local rock/ top 40, jazz/ big band and classical ensembles including
Sassparilla (with bandmates Charles and Geoff), Allen Houser Quintet (live
recording received airplay on local jazz radio station), Daryl Davis Band, DC
Motors, Layers (Baltimore-based Top 40 Rock band) and the Montgomery County
Symphony Orchestra. Studied music at Montgomery
College and additional private upright
bass instruction with Kennedy
Center bassist Paul
Robinson. Taught privately at local music store chain for 10 years. Has
performed in concert with Rock 'n Roll legend Chuck Berry and Motown vocalist
Percy Sledge.
Geoff Holdridge, Violin, Mandolin, Vocals
Classically
trained musician from age four, with 12 years of formal musical training and
thirty years of professional experience, Geoff is versed in many styles, from
blues and rock to country, jazz, old timey, and medieval. He has performed
and/or recorded with Outa Scope, WildMan, The Free Radicals, The Deacons, Bay
Country, Mike Baker and Blue Smoke, Danny Gatton, Solar Circus, Section Eight
(featuring Barry Sless and Mokie Segil, who are now touring with Phil Lesh),
Ron Holloway, Sassparilla, Knee-Deep in the Marsh, Joe Glazer, Washington
Recorder Society, Guff, Hesitation String Band, and Boplicity. He also studied
jazz theory and improvisation with John Mehegan and classical viola at Yale University.
Charles Mitchell, Drums, Percussion, Vocals
Has earned his living as a
professional performance drummer and vocalists for over 35 years. He received
an Associates Arts degree from Northern
Virginia Community
College in the late 1970s and spent years
performing with many well known local DC area musicians, including Deanna
Bogart, Daryl Davis, Linwood Taylor, Ruby Hayes, Michelle Walker, and Ron Holloway. Charles left the DC area
for the West Coast in 1988 and spent 3 years working a circuit between LA and San Diego, mostly
performing and recording with Glen and Mark Fisher under the name Fish and the
Seaweeds. He then came back to the East Coast and performed and recorded with
the Section Eight, featuring Barry Sless and Mokie Segil, who are now touring
with Phil Lesh of Greatful Dead fame. Charles then toured from 1992 to 1996
with Relix recording artists, Solar Circus, recording 4 CDs with them. Jason
Crosby played piano and violin for Solar Circus and has gone on to perform and
record with many national acts (currently Robert Randolf). Charles and Jason
performed a set with Bruce Springsteen while with Solar Circus. They also
opened for such notable groups as, Hot Tuna, Taj Mahal, Widespread Panic,
Aquarium Rescue Unit, New Riders of the Purple Sage, Jefferson Starship, Moe,
and God Street Wine. Charles recently was chosen to play percussion, backing up
Skunk Baxter from the Doobie Brothers/Steely Dan. He has recorded and/or
performed with Joe Glazer, Sassparilla, the Bruce Middle Jazz trio, Wayne
Wilentz, the Deacons, and others. He has taken a master class with Horacio "El
Negro" Hernandez and just finished a three-year graduate program with
scholarship at the Levin School of Music in DC.
John Sterling, Guitar, Vocals
A consumate
stylist with over 10 years of formal training from age 7 and decades of
professional recording and performing experience. Instructors have included Tom
Principato and Sam Toronto. John founded and led his own band, Idle Hands, for
9 years during the 1980s and 1990s, playing every club from Purple Moose and
Fager's Island in Ocean City to Front Royal, Baltimore
to Richmond.
Idle Hands was house band for two years at The Bayou. He has gone on to push
improvisation and ensemble skills for the last 10 years in blues, funk, jazz,
and soul, performing and recording with The Chris Polk Band, The Johnsons, The
Deacons, and others. John performed all the guitar work on the CD for the band,
The Passing Strange, produced by Tom Copala on Umana records. He also has spent
a lot of time working as a pick up guitar slinger, subbing for many bands in
the DC area. Recently he has has played bass for the classic rock band,
Switched At Birth, and also spent two years playing bass and singing backup
vocals for Cindy Ashland and Country Thunder.