Beacon Street Jazz is one of the artists who will shine the light on the upcoming Art & Music Gallery Stroll on Friday. (See story on B-1.)The group, consisting of saxophonist Kurt Vinhage, singer Mackenzie Mondek, bassist Steve Campbell and guitarist and founder Rene Beltran, will perform from 6-9 p.m. at CREATE PC, 1500 Kearns Blvd F110.Beacon Street Jazz is no stranger to performing the Gallery Stroll, and the first time it performed at a Park City gallery was back in 2020, Vinhage said.“We were busking up in Park City during Christmas, and our instruments started to freeze over because of the cold,” he said. “So we knocked on art galleries and asked if we could play inside for 15 minutes.”Jude Grenney, owner of J GO Galleries, which is now called JG Art Gallery + Events, invited them in.“She liked us so much that she invited us back for a paid gig,” Vinhage said.It so happened that Mountain Town Music’s director Brian Richards caught the band at the gallery, Beltran said.“And we’ve had a relationship with Mountain Town Music ever since,” he said.Beltran started Beacon Street Jazz more than four years ago in Salt Lake City.“I moved here from southern California in December 2020 for family reasons, and I had been playing out in L.A. for a bunch of years with a bunch of different people,” he said. “The original idea for this band was to play music with somebody.”Since Beltran didn’t know anyone in the Salt Lake music scene, he entered ads on Craigslist and KSL classifieds, and that’s when he met trumpeter Josh Coy and bassist Tyler Grundstrom.“Kurt came in not long after that,” Beltran said. “The hope was to get to a point to play out, and that happened really quickly because the trumpet player, bass player and Kurt threw themselves into it. My head spun at how we got so good, so quickly.”Mondek, a music therapist at Primary Children’s Hospital in Lehi, joined shortly afterwards.“I had quite a few friends in the Park City ski patrol community, and one of my friends was Tyler who knew that I loved to sing,” she said. “As part of my job as a music therapist, I do music throughout the day when I work with kids, but I loved the idea of doing music as an expressive outlet for myself. And as soon as Tyler invited me in, I was hooked. I was happy to play with these guys.”Shortly thereafter, Coy and Gundstrom respectively moved to San Francisco and Alaska, so Beltran submitted another ad on KSL.com for a bassist. And that’s how he met Campbell. “A friend of mine, who I had known since high school and was in the very first band I was in, keeps an eye on KSL.com,” Campbell said. “After Rene had placed an ad, my friend relayed the information to me, and I called Rene.”Kurt Vinhage picked up his saxophone after a 10-year break to join Beacon Street Jazz. Credit: Courtesy of Beacon Street JazzIn the few short years Beacon Street Jazz has been together, the ensemble, who works with drummers Ian Kemp and Jamie Dalton, have performed in the Salt Lake and Park City area, according to Beltran.“We have a standing gig in Salt Lake City at the Grand America,” he said. “We just did Jazz in the Park in Park City and have performed at the Red Pine Lodge at Canyons and did a three-night stint at the Empire Lodge.”Beltran booked those and other gigs quickly after forming the band, which surprised Vinhage.“When we got together, we weren’t sure we were going to play out, actually, because at least three-quarters of the band at the time were returning to their instruments after a long hiatus — especially me,” he said. “We were sort of just jamming just for ourselves.”Vinhage’s return to the saxophone took about a decade.“I took a long break during my graduate work, and I set down the instrument for 10 years,” he said. “I picked it up a week before the first rehearsal, and it was fun to get back into it.”Vinhage did experience some challenges after dusting off the instrument.“I knew I could learn it again, but I did not play well that first rehearsal,” he said with a laugh. “I was late because I had ridden my bike, and I was shocked they called me back. But Rene thought I might improve.”Beltran also acclimated to his instrument over the years.“I first took guitar lessons when I was 8 or 9, and I hated it,” he said laughing. “I didn’t like the guy who was trying to teach me. I didn’t like the songs. So I lasted a year at my father’s insistence, and I didn’t pick it up again until I was in my mid 20s.”And that’s when his son and daughter became teenagers.“I seriously started studying and worked to play in my own bands,” he said.Rock music was Campbell’s entry to bass playing via the guitar.“I was a guitarist first, since junior high school, and liked bands like Johnny Winter, Deep Purple and ZZ Top,” he said. “I got into playing bass like a lot of bass players. You want to join a band, and bands always need bass players since there weren’t a lot of bass players back then. Once I started playing bass, I found that I actually liked it better.”Lead singing in a jazz band wasn’t something that was on Mondek’s radar, even though she loved singing.“I was a shy kid, but I gravitated to music because I loved it growing up,” she said. “I started taking voice lessons when I was in middle school, and I studied voice classically as a high soprano. I always loved the feeling I got through singing and how I could connect with people.”Eventually Mondek decided to pursue music as a career, but she didn’t want to teach and she didn’t want to perform.“That’s how I ended up finding music therapy,” she said. “But it’s been awesome to find this band.”Although the Beacon Street Jazz members followed different paths to the band, they all love performing together.“One of the greatest things about jazz is that every performance is different, but in some ways we know what to expect in how we’re going to react to each other,” Vinhage said. “I really feel like we read each other well, and most importantly, we have fun. I started playing with these guys one day a week, and it’s turned into something profitable for me. But if we were still playing once a week, I still wouldn’t stop. It’s a very creative outlet for me.”Campbell enjoys the camaraderie on and off the stage.“I think we have good chemistry when we play together because there’s something about the way we mesh,” he said. “One thing I like about this band is that they’re daredevils. If we get a request that we don’t know, we’ll pull up a chart for it and attempt it. And it usually goes well. Not all the time, but generally it goes pretty well.” Mondek loves the support from her bandmates. “Everyone loves music, and to be in a group where we can nerd out about music and what happens when we play together is amazing,” she said. “And there’s the chemistry that Steve talked about.”Beltran is elated to perform with musicians of his bandmates’ calibers.“This is the kind of music where improvisation plays a big part, and improvising can be scary sometimes, but it’s generally where I find the most satisfaction,” he said. “Everybody in this band also has a great time, and trying to play with musicians who have other than great time is really no fun.”“Having a good time makes for a good time,” Mondek added.Art & Music Gallery StrollWhen: 6-9 p.m., Friday, Sept. 27 Where: Galleries throughout the Park City area Web: parkcitygalleryassociation.comThe post Beacon Street Jazz illuminates CREATE PC appeared first on Park Record.