Members Bios
Marcel Berteaux joined the It’s About Time band in 2006 after moving back to Davis after having lived in Chico for 15 years where he earned a bachelor’s degree in Recording Arts in the Music Department after having tried computer science and doing poorly. He grew up in Davis from grade school through 12th grade, He started learning classical piano at age 9 and drums at age 12 and has stuck with both ever since. He started learning to play jazz piano at age 17 taking private lessons after having played a year in junior high and senior high school jazz bands. He has played through the years in jazz and Latin jazz bands, rock bands, playing both drums or piano. He is now playing drums with It’s About Time and has played piano in the group in the past as well
Pianist Kyria Boundy-Mills joined the It’s About Time band in early 2016. In the fifteen years between third grade and the end of college, seven piano teachers in succession moved, retired, went on sabbatical, or otherwise vanished. These curious circumstances left her rather suspicious, but grateful, because each teacher emphasized different styles and skills, leaving her a well-rounded musician. The only style she did not learn in her youth was jazz. She is now making up for that: after many years of yearning, she recently started taking jazz piano lessons. (It’s about time.)
As a student at Hope College in Holland, Michigan, Kyria majored in chemistry and minored in music, with an emphasis in piano performance. After graduating college in 1987, she took a hiatus from piano to pursue a PhD in biochemistry and raise a family. She works in the Food Science department at UC Davis, studying yeast. She was lured back to the piano by her child’s second grade teacher, who needed a pianist for the class musical. This led to a position as the pianist for the Willett Elementary School Chorus for seven years. She plays piano at various events such as church services, office parties and Christmas parties. She has been the pianist with the Brigadoon Band for four years, thus named because they emerge from the mist each fall, play a few holiday gigs, then disappear.
Joe De Hope plays trumpet and flugelhorn in the band. He started playing the trumpet in second grade and actually was part of a school band featured on a local television news program in Dallas that year (yes, they had television in 1958 – black and white!). As a member of the Xavier High School band, he marched at West Point in 1965 and in the St. Patrick’s Day parade in New York City in 1966. Joe played baritone and trumpet at San Ramon High School where he was invited to try out for the California State Honor Band on the trumpet as a senior (he did not make the band). He marched with the San Francisco Boy’s Club at the East West Shrine Game in 1968. Through his friend, Reg Jensen (who played lead trumpet in the California State Honor Band) Joe was able to play several shows with the Diablo Light Opera Company (now the Diablo Theatre Company) in Walnut Creek. Joe took a substantial hiatus from the trumpet after playing at Diablo Valley College but he returned to the trumpet in the early 1990’s playing with his son in Celia Cottle’s junior high jazz band in Davis. Since then he has played with the Yolo County Concert Band, the Walnut Creek Concert Band, the Over Forte Dixieland Band (greatest name ever for a band for people of a certain age) and It’s About Time. Joe is an attorney; his practice emphasizes the defense of professionals and insurance coverage analysis and litigation.
Steve Slinkard began playing saxophone in the 5th grade on an alto sax that was purchased by his grandfather in 1925. He played throughout junior high, and he was asked to join the prestigious “IOF Robin Hood Band” of Van Nuys but had to decline due to financial restraints. At the start of high school, Steve was forced to choose between band and gymnastics. He did, however, have one professional gig (where he made over $7!), being hired by his former junior high teacher to perform in a school play. Thus, sadly, the first phase of his saxophone playing career came to an end.
Steve started playing the sax again with a church group while working as a mechanical engineer in Italy in the 1980s. After returning to the states, he began playing, along with his son Donovan, in Celia Cottle’s group “Sax by Popular Demand”. There he met Joe De Hope, with whom he became one of the founding members of “It’s About Time”. From the start he has played tenor sax and occasionally soprano sax. During the last year, after the retirement of the band’s longtime baritone sax player, Gerry Peppers, Steve has switched to playing baritone sax.
Over the years, he has performed at the Davis Musical Theater Company and with the Corps of Engineers Choir at the Capitol Rotunda. Along with bassist Jane Thompson, Steve currently performs with “Moonglow”, a combo which plays primarily at retirement homes, and he also plays regularly at the Davis Senior Center.
In the last few years Steve has been involved in the hobby of collecting and restoring saxophones, some of which he donates to deserving young music students. And, yes, he still has that 1925 alto.
Jane Thompson has played electric bass in working bands since she was 20 years old. She has played many different musical styles from rock, funk, blues, country, folk, Motown and gypsy jazz. When Jane joined It’s About Time in 2006 she had never played jazz, read bass charts or played string bass. Many thanks to It’s About Time for introducing her to jazz and encouraging her to play string bass. Jane currently plays string bass in a working jazz/Latin trio as well as other musical projects. http://www.reverbnation.com/janethompsontrio
Jane retired to focus on her music and art careers in 2013. Prior to retirement she worked for Yolo County Employment & Social Services for 28 years as a lead employment specialist and working with many youth and unemployed adults teaching workshops and helping clients gain skills to become more employable.
Chris Unkel plays tenor saxophone in the band. He has been infatuated with the saxophone for as long as he can remember. In the 1960's, the influence of Stan Getz and John Coltrane, the album "Kind of Blue," visits to New York's Village Vanguard, along with Chris's Long Island HS and Montana college bands, all combined to set the stage. Serious study really took off later, evolving into a love affair with jazz that shows no signs of slowing down. These days he is active in a number of music projects including song writing and arranging, piano lessons, and participation in a weekly jazz workshop in Berkeley, a jazz quartet named Shake Don’t Stir and a Latin ensemble called the “Brazil Project.”
Carl Van Dam started clarinet in the 5th grade and progressed rapidly through junior high school and high school with private lessons with his father who was a professional musician with a remarkable talent and experience. Music continued through high school which added sax to his interests and continued into college in the stage band and regular band. At UC Davis he play one semester in the repertory band but an engineering curriculum pretty much put music on hold. After college however he played in the California National Guard band which at the time included every young music teacher and good musician from Tracy to Redding including San Francisco. We played in many local parades as well as the Rose Bowl parade in Pasadena. During these years he played professionally with a small orchestra known as a hotel band for many high schools dances and dance clubs including the Debutants Ball. This concluded in 1972 and the dust accumulated on his horn cases for 37 years as he worked as a professional engineer for the US Amy Corps of Engineers. Retirement just brought him into an engineering consultant job but it did allow him to once again start back in music. Two friends in the It’s About Time Band talked him into trying out. After many hours in the “Wood Shed” and many Thursday night rehearsals he slowly got to the point of playing lead alto with this very interesting band. As a result he also was able to play a few times with the Over Forty Dixieland Band and a few theaters gigs in and around Davis. He has indicated that he has now logged in about 11 years commuting from Rocklin and is happy to be playing in this band that now is celebrating their 20 years of continual excellent music for the community. He’s quoted as saying it has been amazing to see the progress that so many of us has made with this band.