Video
3-Minute Intro
If you want to get a quick sense of what the Bob Roden Quintet is like, click HERE to get a great overview in just three minutes!
BRQ YouTube Channel
Many more BRQ videos are available to view on the BRQ YouTube Channel: click HERE to visit!
BRQ Full Concert Videos
BRQ has appeared four times in the long-running free community concert series at San Francisco's historic Cadillac Hotel in the heart of the Tenderloin. Our first appearance there was on March 6, 2020, just a few days before the Covid lockdown. We were finally able to return in 2023, and have played there annually since.
All concerts in this series are recorded on video, and we are delighted to share those videos with you here. We never repeat a song at the Cadillac, and we play about 10 pieces each time, so you can do the math -- it's a lot of video, and for us, a lovely historical record of our evolving repertoire.
First up below is our most recent concert, from March, 2024. The three earlier concerts follow.
Note that the advantage of viewing the full concert videos is that you get the between-songs banter (which my daughter refers to as my "lectures") that is missing from the individual song videos that appear on YouTube. It's an incalculable loss, but what are you gonna do?
So pour yourself a glass of wine, kick back and spend a little quality time with The Bob Roden Quintet! Just click on the image (or links) below to get started.
And by the way, we'll be back at the Cadillac Hotel for our next concert at 1:00 p.m. on Friday, March 6, 2026. Come join us!
Click HERE or on the image below to play our most recent Cadillac Hotel concert from March, 2025.
Click on any of the links below to view our earlier Cadillac Hotel concerts:
Selected Concert Excerpts
In case you don't have the time for a full concert video, below are a few selected highlights. Be aware, though, as noted above, that with these individual videos you don't get to experience Bob's jokes or other clever between-tunes repartee. OMG!
Just click on these to enjoy (after they start, click in the box in the lower right to expand):
Don't Worry 'Bout Me
Bob sings one of his favorite ballads, which on the surface seems to be about an amicable breakup, but which on closer examination runs much deeper.
Mister Ed
BRQ gets the crowd excited by playing its up-tempo jazz version of what is arguably the greatest TV theme song ever written.
I Get a Kick Out of You
Bob follows in the footsteps of the great Ethel Merman, who was the first to sing this Cole Porter classic in the 1934 Broadway musical "Anything Goes."
Blues in the Closet
BRQ plays the classic Oscar Pettiford tune. It is built around one of the most infectious instrumental phrases ever devised by man, and is really, really fun to play.
One For My Baby
(and One More For the Road)
This is one of those rare songs that is so distinctive that it nearly defies classification. It also manages to convey an entire story with just a few well-chosen words.
Till Tom Special
BRQ plays the classic Benny Goodman Sextet tune. The original version featured Charlie Christian playing the first recorded electric guitar solo!
Vaccinated Woman
Finally -- a LIVE recording of Bob's original tune, which sets down once and for all the cold, hard realities about love in the time of Covid! Fun to compare this version with the remotely-recorded shelter-in-place version below.
Shelter-in-Place Videos
Creators got to create, right?
BRQ coped with the Covid era in part by creating a series of videos in which the players' separate, remote performances were combined on video into group performances. It's not quite like playing live, but it's fun and was a way for us to keep sharing our music with the world during that period.
Here are a few of the videos we made in this manner. After you click on the video, remember to click in the box in the lower right corner to view it full screen!
Seven Come Eleven
BRQ plays a toe-tapping, syncopated instrumental first recorded in 1940 by The Benny Goodman Sextet.
Vaccinated Woman
Bob's original song"Vaccinated Woman" is a little blusier than the group's usual fare, but hey, blues is where jazz came from. We're still waiting for an invitation to play it on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert!
Oscar's Bounce
Bob's original composition "Oscar's Bounce" is a musical tribute to friend of the band Oscar Anderson, who appreciated good jazz like few others.
Exactly Like You
BRQ's take on this timeless standard was inspired by Nina Simone, who found a depth in the the song that had eluded others before her.
Old Fashioned Audio
Finally . . . when we were first starting out, we made several audio recordings so people could hear what we sounded like. They've been eclipsed by video in the ensuing years, but I still love listening to them, so here they are for your edification.
OLEO
(rhythm changes bebop tune by Sonny Rollins)
SOMEBODY LOVES ME
(standard by G. Gershwin, B. MacDonald and B. DeSylva)
BLUE BOSSA
(latin classic by Kenny Dorham)