Gaucho has been together and working 4-7 days a week in their home base of San Francisco for over 10 years and tours regularly. Winner's of the SFweekly's reader's poll in 2009 for "Best Jazz and Blues Band," in the time they have been together they have played tons of gigs, made 6 albums, licensed songs for commercials and films, their 2 biggest being Pixar and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in Manhattan While Gaucho is a gypsy jazz band, they also are deeply inspired by the music of Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Fats Waller, Bix Beiderbecke, Hoagy Carmichael, James P. Johnson and much of the early American Jazz and Blues musics. Due to the fact that all the band members were born in the later part of the 20th century, they are also all influenced by the music they grew up with. Gaucho feels that while they love the music of the 1920's-1940's and that those sounds are their focus, they are also still alive today and strive for a fresh and living take on these older styles! The band centers around the trio of Dave Ricketts (guitarist, composer and bandleader for Gaucho) Rob Reich, Accordionist extraordinaire and the wonderful bassist, Ari Munkres. Craig Ventresco and Victor Wong do some sweet guitar playing in the band as well as Ralph Carney on Saxophone and Steve Apple on drums! Also, as the band has grown over the years, it has earned the respect of other great musicians and some have graciously recorded with the band. It is a deep honor to list the following names: Leon Oakley, the cornetist of SF's Turk Murphy Band, Clint Baker, Marty Eggers, NYC's Tamar Korn co-wrote songs with Ricketts for the Gaucho CD,"Pearl" and star vocalist of "Part-Time Sweetheart," Georgia English. Gaucho plays many Bay Area gigs but the band is best known for it's now 12+ year residency at Amnesia on Wednesday nights from 8:00-10:00 PM at 853 Valencia Street in San Francisco's Mission District.