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 Hot Club Millwood is Berryville’s own bodacious Swing Jazz band featuring the licks of Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grappelli. It’s an incredible synergy of Gypsy Jazz. The band features John Friant on bass, Gerald Kinzie on guitar, Jim Leach on percussion, Gary McGraw on fiddle, and Chip Schutte on guitar. You’ll experience the history of the era while you enjoy the energetic show of musical interaction.
John Friant - bass/vocals
John Friant was born and raised in Berryville, Virginia. In early 1964 he watched the Beatles perform on the Ed Sullivan show, and decided he would learn to play the guitar. He bought an old guitar at a pawn shop, and has been playing ever since. While attending UVa in the early 1970's, John played guitar in various rock 'n roll bands in the Charlottesville area. John plays stand-up bass and sings vocals for Hot Club Millwood, a gypsy jazz swing band.
In addition, John plays bass and does the vocals for the Shenandoah Sheiks, a local big-band jazz group, and for the GK Trio, a local progressive jazz trio. John also plays violin, mandolin, guitar and vocals for the Brogue Rogues, a traditional Irish music group; guitar for the Pyletown Fling, an old-timey Appalachian mountain string band; violin, guitar, hammer dulcimer and vocals for the Rogues Gallery, a local bluegrass/country band; and guitar, bass, fiddle, mandolin and vocals for The Elderberries, a local 60's folk group. In his spare time, John practices law in Berryville. He hasn't quit his day job yet.
Gerald Kinzie - lead guitar
Gerald Kinzie has been playing with Hot Club Millwood since its inception. This was a natural outgrowth of his association with Chip Schutte, who he began regularly playing with in 1993. Gerald can be found performing with three bands: the Shenandoah Shieks, the GK Trio, and Hot Club Millwood. He is a 1975 graduate of Shenandoah Conservatory, lives in Winchester, VA, and is gainfully employed as a guitar instructor with Loudoun County public schools.
Jim Leach - percussion
Jim Leach was born and raised in Portland, Oregon. He served in the Army and was stationed in Germany. He married an Army nurse, had three kids and travelled all around the United States finally settling in Virginia.
Jim started drumming in a High School band and has been perfecting his percussion skills ever since. Jim plays a wide variety of percussion instruments.
He started playing together with Gerald Kinzie a decade ago and now plays in a variety of bands, from hot gypsy swing with Hot Club Millwood to progressive jazz with the GK Trio. The band Rogues Gallery plays all the stuff in between. Family and music are the two loves of Jim's life.
Gary McGraw - fiddle
Gary McGraw has played the violin since he was 3 years old (over 39 years for those of you counting). He started learning by ear using the Suzuki method in Tennessee, touring in 1976 with Shinichi Suzuki himself and playing in Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, the Omni, and Disney World. During high school in Texas and Tennessee, Gary played in all state orchestras all four years. He also toured Europe with a youth orchestra playing in Carnegie Hall a second time, Notre Dame Cathedral, and Royal Albert Hall (among other venues). Gary learned to improvise in college at the University of Virginia where he played for the first time with Rhine Singleton in 1985. He played with the Charlottesville Symphony for four years during college as well as playing out in Charlottesville with Grassroots. During grad school and after, Gary picked up the mandolin and worked hard on improvisational style. He played with Gricklegrass for a couple of years in all the bars in Winchester. Va. His band Where's Aubrey gradually coalesced into existence in the mid-90s and began recording all original music in 2001. Since 2006, Gary has attempted to channel Stephane Grappelli with Hot Club Millwood. He also plays fiddle with Rogues Gallery. Gary plays a violin made in Paris between 1750 and 1800---a Gagliano clone. His mandolin is a Flatiron. While not playing music, Dr. McGraw raises two boys, writes books about software security, and helps run Cigital.
Chip Schutte - rhythm guitar/vocals
54 years old/Real Estate broker/father of 3/husband-started playing Django tunes with Gerald in 1993-4; had listened to Django's music since the 70's but it seemed so intimidating-all those chords! Well, Gerald showed me how to approach it, and several instructors since (Pat Donahue, Mike Neer, Rob Soper, all at Millwood blues week) showed me new chords and songs until-voila-here we are. The last piece was meeting Gary, to carry the violin parts. It's been a great learning experience; I still don't understand however, how the dude did it with just 3 fingers on his left hand. Now that Gerald has moved, all Hot Club Millwood musicians are Clarke County residents.
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