Our Story

The Players

Del Mar, California Powerhouse Park

To purchase digital CD go to our Bandcamp Page

Hard Copy Cd’s will be available December 2024

Our musical adventure started 45 years ago when we (Bryant Allard, Steve Feierabend, and Bim Strasberg), while still in high school discovered jazz and decided to form our own band. Having all grown up together in Del Mar, CA, a small beach community just North of San Diego, our friendship actually goes back even farther (grade school). We became close friends and in 1978, after graduation, the three of us moved to Boston to continue our musical studies; Steve and Bryant attended the Berklee College of music while Bim worked gigs around the Boston area. Over the years, we all continued to play professionally but went in our own directions settling in different parts of the country. Only on the rare occasion when our travels coincided did we have the opportunity to perform together. 

In August of 2000, however, we were invited to play as the Del Mar All-Stars in a jazz concert series back in our hometown. While Steve was still living in San Diego at the time, Bim traveled from New York and Bryant from Portland, Oregon, for the reunion. The experience was something of a revelation despite our different paths, we found that there was an uncanny empathy in our musical sensibilities, and this ignited a desire to continue performing together. With the help of a close friend, San Diego guitarist Peter Sprague, we returned to San Diego to record our first CD "Reunion" in 2003 as “The Powerhouse Quintet” at Spragueland Studios. Our name is taken from Powerhouse Park, where we performed some of our first concerts together 45 years ago. 

Twenty years after out first CD, we have come back together to reunite at Spragueland studios to record our newest CD “Shared Stories”. We want to thank Peter Sprague for all of his support and master engineering, drummer Tim McMahon who has played on both Cd’s, Ivar Antonsen (pianist on our first CD), and John Opferkuch (Pianist on our recent release). These are all incredible musicians who played masterfully, and best of all, dear friends. 

The music reflects our similar backgrounds which are rooted in John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Sonny Rollins, and others of that generation. We hope you enjoy our music and we look forward to many more concerts and recordings.

Steve Feierabend-Tenor Saxophone

Bryant Allard-Trumpet and Flugelhorn

Bim Strasberg-Bass

Tim McMahon-Drums

John Opferkuch-Piano on 2023 Cd Shared Stories

Ivar Antonsen-Piano on 2002 Cd Reunion

Peter Sprague-Recording Engineer, Spragueland Studios San Diego

Storyteller

by Steve Feierabend

Be Yourself

by Bryant Allard

Basia’s Dream

by Bim Strasberg

Waiting for Bella

by Steve Feierabend

To watch more videos from our CD release “Shared Stories” 2023 go to our Youtube Channel