The Sunday night jam at JD Gates on School Street is attracting dedicated players, and diehard blues fans – with guitarists and drummers joining  or sitting in for –members of the house band to serve up a night’s worth of electric blues and blues-based rock ‘n roll. If you like your music loud and heavily solid-body-guitar-based, JD Gates is staking out Sunday nights as its territory among the contingent of blues jams on Long Island.

The regulars are Joe Vicino and David Nesdall, who trade guitar leads; Rob Jack, with his driving bass runs, and Dave Losee, providing the foundation drumming, along with some intricate stick work and cymbal action. Some weeks Scott Foley subs for Losee on drums and Bill Quinn adds keyboards to the house ensemble. 

Some of the regulars who spell the house band members are Jerry Romano and Donald MacMurray who take over for Nesdall and Vicino respectively, while Ed Barnum has been sitting in on drums. Steven Farella sometimes slings his left-handed Les Paul, while Frank J. Marcario and Kenneth Bennett take their turns on drums. 

Players and fans stream through the door throughout the evening. The long bar opposite the stage provides unobstructed viewing, while comfortable chairs to one side of the stage provide lounge-like accommodations. Tables between the bar and the stage allow for a place to sit and grab a bite to eat and/or enjoy a drink. 

“The level of musicianship is very high,” said Vicino, who has been running Wednesday night blues jams for years at a succession of locations on Long Island, currently at the Sun Set Grill in Seaford. He has managed to attract some of the base of players from these jams to join him in Glen Cove on Sunday nights. 

“Some old friends and new friends come to play and the crowd is so into the music, at the end of the night, they do not want us to stop,” he said. 

Vicino encouraged all those from Glen Cove and environs, as well as players and fans from anywhere on Long Island, to come by on Sunday nights and give it a go on stage or just stop by and enjoy the music.