Rick Sherman at the Village InnRick Sherman provides expert, entertaining live musical services for:

  • nightclubs/restaurants/ lounges
  • weddings
  • corporate functions
  • holiday celebrations
  • private parties
  • concerts

A NEWPORT BEACH LANDMARK?

Artist Steve Simon has honored Sherman with “landmark” status by including him in his book “Newport Beach; Celebrating Ninety Years”. Among portraits of well-known Newport Beach tourist spots and attractions such as Newport Harbor, the Balboa Fun Zone, the Balboa Island Ferry, The Cannery Restaurant, and the Newport and Balboa Piers, Rick Sherman is the only person thus recognized in this book of paintings of Newport Beach landmarks.

Rick has a large email following of fans and friends who frequently support his live performances. While Rick performs in configurations such as The Rick Sherman Duo, The Rick Sherman Trio, and The Rick Sherman Band (4 to 7 musicians), he also frequently performs in a unique one-man-band format. Unlike some other “one-man-band” entertainers, he does not use any pre-recorded backing tracks. He prefers to play all his instruments live. By playing left-hand bass on one keyboard, while playing piano, organ, “guitar”, “flute”, “vibraphone”, “violins”, etc. with his right hand on another keyboard, and controlling 2 drum machines with his feet, and while doing all of this, also singing, he can in fact sound like a band.

Rick’s strengths include expertly performing a wide variety of musical styles (please see this Sample Song List), encouraging requests from the crowd, and maintaining a warm, inviting, open attitude, combined with a good sense of humor.

Rick has performed year after year for many popular annual Balboa Island events, including The Art Walk, The Balboa Island Parade, and the Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony and Snow Day (at the Fire Station). The City of Newport Beach chose Sherman for the main entertainment at the grand opening of The Bob Henry Memorial Park. The Orange County Business Journal utilizes Sherman year after year to perform for its “CFO of the Year”, “Excellence in Entrepreneurship”, “Women In Business Awards”, “Family Owned Business”, “Innovator of the Year”, “Civic 50 Orange County”, and “General Counsel Awards” high-profile award ceremonies.

Within the context of the various bands and vocalists Rick has worked with, he has performed an incredibly wide variety of musical genres, including: rock, pop, blues, R & B, jazz, fusion, classical, and even country-western. Sherman’s synthesizer playing is featured on the record album “High Tide”, recorded by the Lido Jazz All-Stars, while his most notable band experience was with the group “Mandrill“, an afro-latin/jazz-fusion funk band which had previously recorded 14 albums on various major record labels, including United Artists, Polydor, and Arista.

Since 1978, Sherman has appeared most frequently at popular nightspots in Newport Beach. Enthusiastic, standing-room-only crowds request everything from The Doors to Duke Ellington, Billy Joel to Garth Brooks, The Moody Blues to Miles Davis, and James Brown to Neil Diamond, and Sherman convincingly plays it all. Sherman states, “The wide variety of requests really keeps me on my toes musically, and prevents both me and the crowd from ever getting bored.” Vocalists frequently pop in for impromptu performances. Past sit-ins have included Dick Dodd (The Standels), Otis Brown (The Drifters), and, at different times, Bill Medley and the late, great Bobby Hatfield (The Righteous Brothers). While Orange County performances for Rick Sherman over the years have included locations such as The Disneyland Hotel, Cattleman’s Wharf, and Mr. Stox Restaurant in Anaheim, well-known Newport Beach performance venues for Rick have included The Village Inn (see below), Cafe Lido, The Velvet Turtle, The Cannery, The Rusty Pelican, and The Hyatt Newporter. Most notably, Rick was the featured entertainer every Saturday night for the final 8 years of the renowned Villa Nova restaurant (now home to “The Winery, Newport Beach”). ON AUGUST 24TH OF 2023, SHERMAN CELEBRATED HIS 45-YEAR ANNIVERSARY OF PERFORMING AT THE VILLAGE INN ON BALBOA ISLAND, working for the Village Inn’s 5th owner since starting there in 1978!!! Presently, Sherman performs the 2nd Saturday of each month at Vittorio’s Restaurant in Huntington Beach. Please check Rick’s “Schedule” page (MENU ITEM) for more details, as well as other performances.