Rocket Sixty-Nine

Rocket Sixty-Nine was formed in 1994 by drummer Ram Garza and Matteo Bosisio during the height of the Swing revival, dance movement that had started to become popular in Texas and the Southwest. With a thriving live music and club scene, Austin, Texas became a city where numerous Swing revival bands thrived. Most notably, the list includes 8½ Souvenirs, Merchants of Venus, The Lucky Strikes, One O' Clock Jump, and Rocket Sixty-Nine Rocket Sixty-Nine was started in late 1994 and by summer of 1995 the group was the regular house band at the Carousel Lounge on Tuesday nights for a two year run up through summer 1997. The group would have great success playing in the region while also traveling to Houston and San Antonio. While 8½ Souvenirs was touring for RCA records Rocket Sixty-Nine served as the openning act for their engagements in the region. The group would go onto have regular engagements at the Caucus Club, The Speakeasy and several other venues in Austin. By 2000 the group had broken up due to the decline of the swing dance scene and not enough clubs willing to support those bands in Austin. The CD Jump Shot! is a worthy studio documentation of Rocket Sixty-Nine and shows the band carving a niche with using Jump blues and early R & B repertiore and sound much like the groups of Louis Jordan, Big Joe Turner, and Roy Milton. The group consisted of singer, three horns (trumpet, trombone, and tenor sax), guitar, piano, bass, and drums. The first set of the charts for the group were arranged by Rick Blair, Dylan Russell, and David Cloyd; later Jack Cooper would be hired to transcribe and write the majority of the book. Eventually Cooper would replace Russell on tenor sax and the group would drop the trombone reducing the horn section to two (after Jump Shot! was recorded). Their CD Jump Shot! was self produced and distributed throughout the Texas and Southwest region, it can be purchased on online distribution sites still to this day. The CD was written up as favorable in the Austin Chronicle by reviewer Jay Hardwig giving is 2.5 of 4 stars.