About 1330 Blues Band
Our name and our origin comes from the SS Pierce Building at 1330 Beacon Street in Brookline, Massachusetts. David is a psychologist with a practice in that building, and Marcos is the building superintendent. More than two years ago, conversations between these two about rhythm and blues as well as blues music led to a wonderful association of jamming with different musicians in the area. David was able to gather three other great musicians for the band: Mal Blier on lead guitar, Jay Geyer on bass, and Mike Mello on drums. Each brings a different background and different strengths that have blended together to form the band. Our practice space is in the basement of 1330 Beacon lending further support for the band’s name. We rock and sing the blues with harmonies and great instrumentals. Check us out!
Here is a little more information about the musicians:
David Doolittle, guitar and vocals
David's roots in blues and R&B go back to his college years when he played professionally with the Red House Blues Band in Central New York. After college, graduate school, marriage, career, and children, the time available for such music and fun was limited. He kept some chops up playing acoustic bluegrass on occasion with a good friend from Virginia. With the maturing of career and family, time has opened up again and 1330 Blues Band is the result. He has been most fortunate to connect with the great chromatic harmonica player Marcos Da Silva; they've jammed together with many different musicians over the past few years. David located a wonderful lead guitarist, Mal Blier, or maybe Mal located him. Mal fills and leads with professional quality. David's long time friend and great jazz guitarist Jay Geyer agreed to have some fun playing bass with them. And the drummer, Mike Mello, is a colleague's husband. Mike and Jay are the solid foundation of the band allowing Marcos, Mal and David to sing and solo to their hearts’ content. The resulting mix is 1330 Blues Band with a danceable, bluesy, rockin’ style that always gets an audience up and moving.
Marcos Da Silva, chromatic harmonica and vocals
He enjoys playing anything from dirty blues to New Orleans sounds. He's really excited to have the opportunity to take the chromatic harp to different levels with the 1330 Blues Band, since they always have a blast playing together, whether it's at the Spot (their practice space at 1330 Beacon St.) or a gig.
Mal Blier, guitar
Mal has been playing guitar since he was 13, and all through his " younger days." Then other things (family, profession...) somehow got in the way for about 25 years. When the smoke cleared, he found himself returning to music with a vengeance. This band allows him to explore all his accumulated tastes and experiences - blues, country, jazz, etc., etc. He says, "basically, I just wanna play guitar..."
Jay Geyer, bass
Jay grew up in Baltimore playing R&B, soul, and blues music on guitar. Some of the guys he played with went on to record with Motown groups, while he left for college and grad school in New England. Since then he's played mostly jazz on guitar. Playing bass with 1330 Blues gives him a chance to get back to his musical roots in a whole new way.
Mike Mello, drums
Mike Mello was lucky to find the 1330 Blues Band in need of a drummer. He joined after being away from the drums for years. The band offers him a chance to play some traditional blues and rock which contrasts with the heavier stuff he played when he was younger. Since being a versatile kind of player is important to him, he loves that the set lists they put together keep things very interesting, in terms of tempo, feel, genre and volume.
