Danny Ross (Piano)
Danny feels great love and passion for music and loves being the pianist in the OBB with [Director] Dave Cannon. He has spent his whole life in music and has spent a lifetime learning how records are actually made, and his goal is to deliver the sound of freedom to the world. And since Jazz is freedom, he wants to share his love of freedom
with the world, through music.
Danny has a BS in Applied Physics from Xavier University, and a masters and doctorate in Electrical Engineering (Electromagnetics) from the University of Michigan. By day, he is an aerospace executive, inventor, and system architect. He is involved with sensors for aircraft and aircraft survivability and design. Well-known internationally, his sensor systems and aircraft are in use all over the world on important missions every day. He is passionate about helping his customers in the most dangerous places in the world to accomplish their missions and survive.
He studied piano with Peggy Stern in Manhattan and learned the skill of playing any song in any key! He was trained in Washington DC by Louis Scherr on how to play like Bill Evans and how to think like an arranger. He mastered a variety of tone techniques under the tutelage of Bill Harris. Together they studied the piano technique of Arthur Rubenstein to achieve the desired touch and tone on the piano. Danny also learned from Bill Harris, to improvise the way that Chopin and Bach and Beethoven actually did. He has also studied jazz piano with Robert Redd.
Danny is highly sought after and plays with numerous bands in Washington, DC, a “ringer” who sits in with many local jazz groups. He also has his own piano trio (The Dan Ross piano trio), and the original songs of his Jazz Fusion group (DC-Choppah) are heard on WAMU.
Danny's goal is to make the musicians smile! Then the magic happens.
Herb Nachmann (Bass)
Bassist Herb Nachmann has a very musical life. In addition to playing with the OBB, he currently plays in the BSQ (Bob Schwartz Quartet), which has performed at Twins, Malmaison, Alfios, Bourbon Boulevard, Blackwall Hitch, and a host of private events. With vocalist Kim Scudera and pianist Chip Smoley, Herb also performs regularly at
various retirement communities.
He studies with Pepe Gonzalez, focusing primarily on all aspects of the acoustic bass and its role in music.
Previously, Herb has played in the Difficult Run Jazz Band under the direction of Gordon Ramsey, and The Potomac Jazz Orchestra under the leadership of John Blount.
Notably, Herb played at the Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport for honor flights, which made it possible for veterans to visit their war monuments here in D.C. Their group was led by vocalist Christiana Drapkin. These performances occurred from 2014 until the pandemic required flights to stop.
Ken Kilpatrick - (Guitar)
Ken, a native of upstate New York was inspired to play guitar after hearing his father sing and strum the
songs of Hank Williams. A strong High School music program provided opportunities in vocal groups,
shows, musicals, and pit bands. Weekends were spent playing in rock bands.
Ken attended American University, playing in the AU Jazz Ensemble led by Dr. Robert Tennyson. After
college came several years playing with DC based Chicago style blues bands, often opening shows for
the blues greats. Over time Ken found his own personal heroes, Barney Kessell, Herb Ellis, and Freddie
Green. He studied privately with jazz guitar great Paul Wingo.
Ken spent 25 years with DC’s Satin Doll Trio, playing locally, and up and down the East Coast.
Appearances include The Kennedy Center, The Corcoran Gallery Hammer Auditorium and Embassies, as
well as The Ritz-Carlton, The Carlyle Club, and Twins Jazz. Out of town he performed at the
Metropolitan Room(NYC) and The Jazz Corner(Hilton Head, SC). Media venues include Black
Entertainment Television (BET on Jazz), WJLA, and WPFW. The trio released four albums.
Prior to joining OBB, Ken spent six years playing with The Difficult Run Jazz Band led by Don Junker and
he currently plays with the Shenandoah Valley’s Yesterday Swing Orchestra. Along with solo and duo
performances around the DMV, Ken plays with The Walt Johns Trio and leads his own trio, appearing
regularly in the DC area.
Nick Ruggieri (Drums)
Nick started drumming at age nine in school concert bands as well as the marching drum and bugle corps.
For three years after high school he studied big band drumming, and eventually enrolled at the Berklee School of Music in Boston, majoring in Percussion Performance. While in Boston, Nick continued his studies with notables such as Fred Budha, percussionist for the Boston Pops; as well as Alan Dawson, the famous jazz drummer/instructor; Joe Hunt, the drummer who played with Stan Getz and Antonio Carlos Jobim in their 1960’s bossa nova jazz ensemble; and Bob Gullotti, percussionist for avant-garde jazz band The Fringe.
Later, Nick toured the New England and Canadian provinces with the Brian Tracy Orchestra, a performing show and dance band from New Hampshire. He was also the house drummer at the Willow Jazz Club in Boston, and in the early 1980’s played with many great touring jazz artists.
In the mid-80s’s Nick toured with Pacific Orchestra, an all-original reggae/ska band out of Key West. This band recorded on RAS Records with the famed Riddim Twins (Sly and Robbie), and on Landslide Records with Eddy Offord, who was the producer for 311; Yes; and Emerson, Lake and Palmer. Nick also played with Mama Jama out of Annapolis, which specialized in reggae, soca, and Afro-pop music styles.
In the early 1990’s Nick moved back to the DC area and played with area Americana “roots”-style bands: blues, country, rockabilly, R&B, New Orleans marching and dixieland bands, jazz, Latin, and big bands. He also played in pit orchestras for local high school productions when the occasion arose.
Currently, Nick performs with many area artists/groups, the main groups being The Rick Whitehead Trio, Brother Bill Jazz Band (a Blue Note tribute group), Dave Chappell Band (DC area Guitar Legend), and Charlie Owen and Pocket Change (60’s & 70’s Soul Music).