(GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass.) – A night of original jazz compositions featuring composer-musicians who ordinarily play top jazz clubs and concert stages around the world takes place on Saturday, October 13, at 8pm, in the Celestial Bar at Castle Street Cafe, when Larry Chernicoff’s Beauty and the Beat Band performs, featuring a reunion of the Tokarz Brothers – Charlie Tokarz on woodwinds, and Fran Tokarz on bass.

In addition to bandleader Chernicoff on vibraphone and the Tokarzes, the club gig, which has no cover charge, includes Don Davis on woodwinds, Peter Primamore on piano, and Lydia Chernicoff on violin.

“I haven’t played in a club for about 35 years,” says Chernicoff. “It’s not a snobby thing; I just I don’t think of my music as nightclub music. It tends to be softer, and leans toward classical chamber music. But the Celestial Bar at Castle Street Cafe is a ‘musicians’ club,’  a place people like to play. The owner of the restaurant, Michael Ballon, is a dedicated jazz lover who has continued to present jazz music for several decades. And there’s never a cover charge at Castle Street.”

This is also an on-stage reunion of the fabulously talented Tokarz brothers. Fran Tokarz left the Berkshires years ago to travel the world, but he’s been sneaking back here from time to time and showing up with his bass in clubs and parking lots. Charlie Tokarz is one of the the A-list woodwind players in the Northeast; everybody knows him, and he plays with about 50 bands, in every style of music imaginable. The Tokarz brothers haven’t played together very much for a while. Until now.

Chernicoff has been playing with Don Davis on and off since 1975 in Woodstock, NY. Davis is a master who has played with Carla Bley, Eugene Friesen, Lee Konitz, Karl Berger, Bill Laswell, the highly acclaimed Microscopic Septet, John Lindberg’s Tripolar, LL Cool J, and many others. His playing is exciting, soulful, tender, and sometimes hilarious. You can hear Davis’s alto sax every day with the Microscopic Septet during the opening theme of Fresh Air on NPR.

Lydia Chernicoff is a versatile, classically trained violinist with a master’s degree from the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore. She is a founding member of the award-winning Trio Appassionata, and has performed at Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, and in Spain, Germany, Venezuela, Brazil, and the Czech Republic. She appears with the Baltimore Chamber Orchestra, the Lancaster Symphony Orchestra, and has performed with members of the renowned contemporary music ensemble, Alarm Will Sound. She occasionally breaks out and plays with her dad’s jazz groups, with the Pink Floyd tribute band Several Species, and other crossover projects.

Peter Primamore is a tremendously gifted pianist, a versatile composer, and a true original. He has played with bassists Tony Levin and Victor Bailey, drummers Jerry Marotta and Lenny White, guitarist Chieli Minucci, Rolling Stones saxophonist Tim Ries, among many others. He is a sought-after commercial composer whose music has appeared on Sex and the City and the Today Show. Primamore is also the founder of the Organic Music Library, an innovative online resource for music, film and video productions.