Rudy was loved and respected by jazz musicians in the Bay Area for almost sixty years as a leader of both an octet, and an excellent seventeen piece big band; this concert is a tribute to his memory. In the aggregate, the members of Rudy Salvini Jazz Octet bring, literally, several centuries worth of musical experience to Old First. Collectively, they are a virtual embodiment of that fabled period in Bay Area music known as the big band jazz era. Just a partial list of musical greats they have played with or accompanied reads like two blocks on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame: Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, Marvin Gaye, Duke Ellington, Tony Bennett, Sammy Davis Jr., Isaac Hayes, Peggy Lee, Mel Tormé, Billy Eckstein, Nancy Wilson, Natalie Cole, Lena Horne, Dionne Warwick, Henry Mancini and more.