
Sinister Dexter was formed in the summer of 1998 to fill the need for a great local party band. Started by horn players, we put together a band that we wanted to go see - which of course meant a horn heavy sound and classic funk music!
We started by playing college parties and small Bay Area clubs, such as the Quarternote in Sunnyvale and the Blue Chalk Cafe in Palo Alto, and have worked our way up since then. In May, 2004 we got our first chance to play in San Francisco - at the legendary Lost & Found Saloon. We played regularly there, including a sold out New Year's Eve show to close 2004, until it closed in 2005.
As the band matured, we began playing a more eclectic mix of genres - blues, rock, ska, latin jazz, and a heavy dose of funk - anything with a solid groove that we could put great horn parts to, including our own original music. In 2004 we recorded and self-produced our debut CD, Dexterity. The disc includes 16 original tracks spanning the genres we've played over the years.
In mid 2005, the band went through a major change when our lead singer and frontman left the group to move to New York. Luckily, lightning struck and we recruited the incredible Rebecca Lipon to replace him. She is a great performer, and her addition forced us to take things to the next level. We reworked our old arrangements and added many new charts to our book, trimming the fat and getting back to our core concept as a funk and soul band.
With the lineup mostly unchanged since 2005, we have refined our sound to all new levels of funkiness. 2009 was one of our busiest years, playing 18 great private and public shows at venues throughout the Bay Area, and we hope to continue that streak into the future.