28 PUNCHMAGAZINE.COM {punchline} At a beachside venue in Half Moon Bay, a jazz quartet is getting into the groove. The bandleader, a vibraphonist named Jalen Baker, wields his mallets in ways that require quite a lot of core strength. The bassist bobs and bends, the pianist plunges into a rousing riff and the drummer builds into cymbal-crashing crescendos. It’s a good day to be at the Bach Dancing & Dynamite Society. “I love places like SF Jazz … I give them a lot of credit, but it’s not my favorite place to go hear jazz. I’d rather be here,” says Barbara Douglas Riching. In addition to her role as artistic director and president, she’s also the daughter of the Bach’s fiery and free-spirited founder, Prentice “Pete” Douglas. You need only attend a show at this 200-seat venue to sense as a San Mateo County probation officer. “More beatnik than beat cop, Pete didn’t conform with correctional life,” reports The Mercury News on Pete’s life. “He wrecked his county-issued Chevrolet—and cracked gum in court. He was most comfortable wearing a Mediterranean fisherman’s cap and smoking a pipe.” The siren song of the sea drew Pete to Half Moon Bay, where he bought a ramshackle beer joint and transformed it into a beach house—a lively one where he regularly hosted parties and jam sessions. On one memorable day, Pete and a few friends were hanging out when visitors popped in to show off some newly acquired dynamite, suggesting they blow it up on the beach. Pete and his pals opted to swing dance to Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos instead, the drama of the music heightened by the subsequent thundering BOOM outside. When Pete opened an official music venue in his home the following year, he had its name all ready to go. the palpable intimacy and authenticity of this place. “My dad felt very strongly that jazz was like chamber music—and it should be presented that way, in a very intimate situation. I totally agree,” says Barbara. “People feel like they’re a part of one organism in this room. It feels like we’re all really connected.” The greats have flocked here since its opening in 1964, with Etta James, Bobby Hutcherson, Bill Evans, Duke Ellington and Dizzy Gillespie taking the stage. BEGINNING WITH A BANG At 17, Pete snuck into his first bar and encountered Southern California’s spirited jazz scene. The contagious music of swing, bebop and West Coast jazz caught hold of his soul and never let go. Later in life, Pete took a gig PHOTO: JOHANNA HARLOW ABOVE: Barbara Douglas Riching stands beside photos of Bill Evans and Carmen McRae in Half Moon Bay.
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