Steve Weikle Lead Alto Saxophone ,Flute,Clarinet Steve Weikle's day gig is as an IT Systems Engineer. In High School, Steve was all county and all state bands and played in concert and jazz ensembles. Steve started off playing flute in the 5th grade. . The first time Steve heard a big band,. It was the Concord Commanders from Concord College in Athens, WV. He says "A genetic switch must have been thrown in my head because that sound was unbelievable to me. There was a sax soli where the reed section stood up and played the melody...I knew right then and there that I was going to play in a band like this someday." Steve joined the Atlanta Swing Orchestra in the spring of 2001 and leads the reed section. What would you like for the Atlanta Swing Orchestra to be? " As good as we can be.. as good as the tonight show band? I believe it's possible. Just as I have proven throughout my life... anything is possible if you set your mind to it. " . John Patton - Saxophones, Solo Clarinet John Patton is a Professor Emeritus of Pastoral Theology at Columbia Theological Seminary and has a part-time practice as a licensed marriage and family therapist at the Samaritan Counseling Center of Atlanta. He is a retired United Methodist minister who has an undergraduate degree in psychology and a theological degree from Emory University and a Ph.D. degree in Religion and Psychological Studies from The University of Chicago. He is married and has four children and ten grandchildren. John studied piano and clarinet in his youth. In high school, he played tenor saxophone and was leader of the swing band. While in college,he sang in the Emory Glee Club and played all four years with the Emory Aces, a swing band well known in Atlanta from the late thirties through the early fifties. During college and seminary years he often sang in and directed vocal groups, sometimes writing vocal arrangements patterned after the groups that sang with the big bands of the forties and early fifties. His last band experience for some time was year in the mid-fifties when he played clarinet in the Charlottesville, Virginia municipal band. From the late fifties until the early nineties, other than sometimes singing in church choirs, John had an almost complete recess from musical activities. As he approached retirement, however, he decided to find a way back to playing music. He got out the old clarinet, heard about and joined the Callanwolde Concert Band. He bought a soprano saxophone, began taking some lessons at Carere Music in Doraville, and buying and selling several other saxophones and clarinets. Currently, he plays baritone saxophone in the Callanwolde Band, alto sax and clarinet in the Atlanta Swing Orchestra., and takes jazz piano lessons from pianist-arranger Ted Howe. Steve Wright - Lead Tenor More info on Steve as it becomes available. Bob Cook - 2nd Tenor - Band President Bob might be considered a music dropout. Showing much early promise as a classical pianist, Bob disappointed his mother by ending his formal piano training at the age of 11. By age 14 he had rejected the Clarinet and settled on Saxophone finding his true love to be rock & roll/rhythm & blues. While in high school in Charlotte, he founded, managed, directed and played saxophone and piano in a garage band called the "Caravelles". The Caravelles played clubs, school dances, proms and fraternity parties in North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia. Highlights included playing the Beach Club in Myrtle Beach, S.C. with Maurice Williams and the Zodiacs and warming up the crowd at Park Center in Charlotte, N.C. for touring recording artists. A week playing the Pavillion on the pier at Myrtle Beach, was a high school fantasy come true. When law school and responsibility loomed, the Saxophone was put on hold.. After law school, Bob became a founder and managing partner of Parker, Johnson, Cook & Dunlevie which merged in 1996 with Womble Carlyle Sandridge and Rice, PLLC. Bob practices in the area of commercial financial transactions. Bob and the Sweetheart of Sigma Chi, Jeanie Gailey Cook, have three daughters, a son, two sons-in-law, a daughter-in-law and a grandson. Now there was some time for music and Bob was coaxed out of musical retirement by Mike Moffit, the music minister at Northside Methodist Church . In addition to the Atlanta Swing Orchestra, Bob plays with the Northside Methodist Orchestra, and the NOW contemporary worship band. He has played with the Atlanta Lawyers Orchestra and performs with "No Appeal," a small group of rock and roll lawyers from Womble Carlyle. Bob thanks the late Lee Wells, family friend and band director at Norview High School in Norfolk, Va., for early private saxophone lessons and his uncle, Frank Barr, for his Selmer clarinet. " I would also like to mention my early piano teachers but I've forgotten their names. However, I will never forget one thing they taught me--the fear and terror of piano recitals. I guess that's why I now play saxophone." John Liles – Baritone Sax John's musicial career started with the violin in elementary school and continued with guitar in his teens and 20s, he finally settled on the saxophone. He has studied with Amy Lee (Neville Brothers, Jimmy Buffet) and Atlanta saxophone master Bob Newman (Woody Herman 3rd Herd and many others). John played for a number of years on tenor, baritone and soprano saxes with the Owls, a local jazz improv combo, and in the horn section of the Whooping Cranes, an R&B/rock band, in addition to the occasional jazz and blues jam session around town. A more dubious claim to fame was as long time member of the Seed and Feed Marching Abominables, a fun community marching band. John's musical experience has not been confined to playing an instrument. For most of the 1980s, he worked as a professional actor in Atlanta, performing in numerous musicals and light opera as well as non-musical theatre. Jazz and big band swing music are favorites for John, so when the opportunity to join the Atlanta Swing Orchestra came up about two years ago, he was ready to sign up. Being able to play this wonderful music with such a great group of musicians is a continuing source of enjoyment . HISTORY | CLIENT COMMENT | PERSONNEL | BIG BAND MUSIC LISTEN TO OUR SOUND | BOOK THE BAND! CONTACT US | SCHEDULE| SPECIAL EVENTS| LINKS HOME