WHo We Are

 Rudy "El Professor" Ramirez - Guitar

Hailing from beautiful Costa Rica, Rudy “El Professor” Ramirez has Spanish guitar in his blood.  His grandfather was a professional guitarist who taught Rudy’s father how to play who, in turn, taught El Professor to play typical Latin music: boleros, guajiras, huapangos, guarachas, rancheras, etc. Moving to San Francisco in high school, Rudy gravitated towards classic rock, blues, R&B, Latin rock, jazz and salsa, gigging all over the Bay Area.  “Music is the language of the world,” is his mantra and Rudy shares his love of music with his students at the College of San Mateo where he teaches Ethnic Studies (hence the moniker, “El Professor”).  Pura Vida!


Kerry Wing - Guitar

Kerry is a guitarist, singer-songwriter, producer and music teacher from San Francisco.  Growing up in a musical family, he would hum and sing melodies before he could speak.  His travels have taken him around the world and he has studied music in places such as Brazil, India, Europe and the Pacific islands.  Kerry has had his music featured in films, TV and on KFOG radio.  He is performing with the Blue Flamingo Quartet, Pacific Vibration, Zanzibar and as a solo artist as well.

John Higham - Bass

Raised in England in a classical-music-only family, John rebelled against piano lessons, built his first guitar and amplifier from scratch at age 16, and taught himself to play.  That early initiative fed two of John’s passions.  His passion for engineering lead to an entrepreneurial career in Silicon Valley. John’s passion for music wove through numerous bands, theatre billings, musical equipment designs, and a CD album to the present where he is designing healthcare computer systems by day, and gigging on bass with various jazz bands at night.  BFQ is fortunate to have John’s musical depth as well as his prodigious video and audio recording talents.

Chris Cortez - Drums

Drummer, producer, and radio host Chris Cortez has been active in the SF Bay Area music scene for nearly 4 decades. Appearing at countless festivals and venues in the United States, France, Switzerland, and Mexico, he has worked in multiple genres from rock, metal, reggae, funk, world music, reggae, latin, and jazz. He has performed with Apple Gabriel (Israel Vibration), Della Grant (Twinkle Brothers), Marty Dread, Humble Soul, The Motivators, G.C. Cameron (Temptations/Dub Nation), Andrew Speight, Tod Dickow, Le Perez, Israel Tannenbaum, Daria Nile and Dr. Pascal Bokar to name a few. After 27 years, he continues to lead SF’s Native Elements and hosts Midday Jazz at 91.1FM KCSM while currently engineering and producing independent and commercial label projects from his home base, Nice N Up Studios in San Francisco.