Jessica McAllister Kane
Drawing inspiration from vocal greats like Sarah Vaughan, Ella Fitzgerald, and Billie Holiday, Jessica McAllister began singing jazz professionally at age 15. "My all-time favorite album? Sarah Vaughn and Her Trio Swingin Easy," Jessica says. After touring the U.S. and overseas for 3 years with a nationally ranked jazz choir, Jessica went to UCSB where she studied music. There, she narrowed her focus to singing as a soloist, and began performing around the California central coast with The Roman Glowlights. She also began to compose songs. Two of her compositions appear on The Roman Glowlights CD Since 7:30. She is a versatile jazz vocalist, having sung in a variety of settings, including a female vocal quartet called The California Jazz Girlz; a 20-piece ensemble; The UCSB Jazz Band; a swing band called The Starlighters; and several jazz combos in California. While Jessica has explored many facets of the broad jazz genre, she feels most at home singing the timeless classic standards that the Roman Glowlights Jazz Trio embraces. Jessica was recently married. Her new name is Jessica McAllister Kane, though we're still referring to her as Jessica McAllister on most of this website.
Ed Baum
At age six, Ed Baum was with his family in the audience for a pipe organ concert. "Before the music even started, I was watching the performer preparing the instrument," Ed says. "I could just sense that something really cool was about to happen." After the concert, he told his parents he wanted to learn to play a keyboard like that. They started him on private music lessons that same year. By high school, Ed was co-writing songs with classmate Jeff Wing. Baum and Wing formed a pop rock band called Spin Cycle that became regionally successful in Southwestern U.S. The two still collaborate on compositions; Wing wrote the lyrics for a number of songs on The Roman Glowlights recent CD - Since 7:30. After Spin Cycle split up, Ed worked on his Jazz technique and played a series of solo piano jobs in Santa Barbara nightclubs and restaurants. "I was the cocktail pianist, playing 4 or 5 nights a week," Ed says. "You know the scene: tips in a brandy snifter on the piano." Eventually a steady Saturday dinner solo piano gig evolved to include a bass player, and then drummer Grant Friedrich, who plays drums on the CD Since 7:30รข, and The Roman Glowlights were born. "We were doing kind of a Bill Evans Trio thing," Ed explains. "We had a lot of fun, stretching out musically." Later, Jessica McAllister joined, adding vocals to the mix. "I love playing the old standards from the first half of the twentieth century," Ed says. "Those songs are classics for a reason. Back then, a song couldn't be sold simply on the production values of a recording or the visual appeal of a music video. It was all about the content of the compositions. That's why those brilliant melodies and lyrics live on."
Armand Renga
Music has always played an important role in Armand Renga's life. In the days before television, his family would sit around the piano while his mother played her favorite songs of the time. During the family music sessions, Armand's father played the mandolin, his older sister sang, and he played the accordion. "Those songs my family played are now the standards we play in The Roman Glowlights," Armand says. His father bought him a steel guitar and amplifier at age eight. Music lessons followed, and soon Armand could read and play music competently on accordion and guitar. He played the accordion on a radio commercial for a local music store at age ten. In high school, Armand began playing the Fender Stratocaster guitar in a rock band that played local parties. "Around that time, I began listening to Jazz," he explains. "I bought an album by Andre Previn, Shelly Man, and Red Mitchell called The Bells Are Ringing. I wore out the grooves on that record." In his twenties, Armand played the flute, and sat in with a number of Santa Barbara bands. He joined a traditional Cuban salsa and son montunos band called Rumbon. The band already had two flute players, but needed a bass player. The band members pitched in to buy Armand an Ampeg electric upright bass, his first. Years later, Armand received an upright string bass as a birthday gift. "I got that wooden bass about 25 years ago, and I've been playing it ever since," he says. "I like to play with as many different people as I can." Armand joined The Roman Glowlights in 2004 when pianist Ed Baum saw him playing with another Jazz group and asked him if he could fill in on bass that Saturday night for a gig at a local music club. The musical chemistry flowed perfectly that evening, and he immediately became a permanent member of the group.
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