Thurs. 8/6/26
5:30-7:30pm
Slingshot Improv Trio didn’t so much form as detonate slowly over two decades — a controlled explosion of shared history, deep grooves, and accumulated musical mischief that the Bay Area never quite saw coming but probably should have. Bassist Pete Novembre and drummer Bret Bailey formed the funk-jam powerhouse Elephino back in 1999. Bret and guitarist Matt Hartle formed Shady Groove in 2001. All three had played together as hired guns countless times before the lightbulb moment when someone finally said: what if we did our own thing?
Matt Hartle (China Cats, Painted Mandolin, Shady Groove, Grateful Sundays with the Hartle Gold Band) is widely regarded as one of the premier guitarists in the Bay Area — a fluid, soulful firecracker with a degree in Jazz Performance whose playing draws comparisons to Jerry Garcia, Carlos Santana, and Steve Kimock, yet remains unmistakably his own. Pete Novembre (OM Trio, Coffee Zombie Collective, Aza, Elephino) is the kind of bass player other musicians talk about after the show — a Santa Cruz readers’ poll Bronze medalist for Best Musician whose previous band OM Trio was voted Best Jazz Band in San Francisco in 2001.
Multi-instrumentalist and songwriter Bret Bailey (Shady Groove, Elephino, BlissNinnies, Cosmic Pinball), raised on New Orleans jazz, brings a rhythmic intuition that makes the whole thing breathe. Together, they’ve shared stages with Stanley Jordan, Henry Kaiser, Melvin Seals, Donna Jean Godchaux, Joe Craven, Ike Willis, Mark Karan, and many more — a collective résumé that hints at just how far their musical instincts can travel.
And travel they do. With a big map and no planned destination, this trio of seasoned improvisers from the jazz, funk, and jamband worlds use song and structure the way spacecraft use planets: not to land and stay, but to slingshot around and be propelled back out into the galaxy. During their mostly-improv shows, a familiar song could materialize at any time. Or not. All we can promise is that nobody knows what’s going to happen.
