Rodney
Burge

My playing career began inconspicuously in 1965 with a job in a three piece ensemble at a pizza joint in Davis, California for the grand sum of $5 per night.  

The first full-time work came in 1970 with a group in Sacramento, CA followed by a long term gig at Yosemite Valley to work with a dance trio at the Ahwahnee hotel for six months. Performances were six nights a week.

In 1972, I began  a two-year stint as a GI in West Germany, returning to the Bay Area in 1974 and found work with a local drummer and guitarist. That engagement changed into a solo partnership venue in 1975 and lasted until 1977.

I then took my performances to southern California Kern County area meeting and getting to work with the first woman to have ostensibly played electric guitar professionally, Mary Osborne.

I returned to Yosemite valley in 1984 and continued sporadically until 1990.

In 1988 and from 1991 to 92 I performed a solo engagement at the Beverly Hilton Hotel as the lobby pianist, working six nights a week six days a week.

In 1992, I returned to the Bay Area and found work as a solo performer at Scott’s Seafood in Walnut Creek, performing three nights weekly until 2014.

In July 1997, I joined a Sunday brunch trio (saxophonist, drummer and vocalist) at Scott’s Seafood in Jack London Square (Oakland, California) performing there every Sunday until March 2020.

Other work as a soloist or within trios and quartets was fairly constant from 1995 to 2020. Solo work became more concentrated with the performing in retirement homes.