Pop band fronted by Al Hoffman (lead vocals). Al recalls “Joe Rubino (drums), Denny Weston (bass ex-Counts), Tony Eckhart (piano and B3 ex-Counts), Louie Dee (Louie D’Eugenio -tenor and alto sax ex-Swingtones)…
Later Louie left and we added Joey Adams (tenor and alto sax) who had just been discharged from the Army, and then we added another horn Tony D’Antoni (tenor and alto sax)… This was the group I worked with when I bought the club Hoffman’s Lounge… From club to club we worked… the Surf Club, Bittner’s, Keystone, Old Mill, etc… in the Baltimore area.
“The Esquires came to a halt when our keyboard player Tony Eckhart got sick and died of cancer… We then added Joe Pente to take his place, only to have Tony D’Antoni killed in a tragic car accident while on break in Florida… That was the end of two of “Baltimore’s finest.” “After a while came John Tamberrino, a kick-ass drummer, who is now at rest…”
Hoffman, Pente, Joe Adams, and Tamberrino later formed the Charades, a gig that lasted from 1964 into the ‘70s… and the rest is history.”
