Longtime friends Joe Schlesinger and Colin Williams reunite for two no-cover performances shaped by New Orleans, Muscle Shoals and more than 25 years of musical friendship.
PUERTO VALLARTA — The Family Dinner Band will bring an unusually broad musical conversation to Puerto Vallarta this week, with two no-cover performances that connect New Orleans jazz, funk, Afro-Cuban rhythm, Americana and the shared history of two friends who have played together for more than 25 years.
The band is scheduled to perform at 10 p.m. Wednesday, September 23, at Social Club PV, Basilio Badillo 447 in the Romantic Zone. A second performance is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Thursday, September 24, at Maestro's Piano Bar inside ACT2PV Theater, at Basilio Badillo and Insurgentes. Both venues list the performances as having no cover charge.
At the center of the group are pianist Joe Schlesinger and bassist Colin Williams, who met in 2000 as freshman roommates at Loyola University New Orleans. Music quickly became the center of their friendship. They learned how to work as professional musicians by approaching French Quarter clubs, finding steady gigs and playing together through college.
Their lives later carried them to different cities and careers. Schlesinger settled in Nashville, building parallel lives in jazz and medicine. Williams moved to San Francisco, performed across a wide range of musical settings and founded the music program at the Bay School of San Francisco.
During the pandemic, monthly video calls renewed a friendship that had never disappeared. Those conversations led to more time together, more opportunities to play and eventually to Family Dinner, an album and band built around the idea that family can also mean the people we choose to welcome to the table.
"We can choose our family and choose who sits at the table with us," Schlesinger said in written responses provided to Vallarta Today.
The album was recorded in October 2025 at the historic FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, with musicians spanning four generations. Williams played acoustic and electric bass. Gary Talley contributed guitar and steel guitar and served as assistant producer. Spooner Oldham played Hammond B3 on two tracks, while Jeff Coffin contributed saxophones and piccolo.
The sessions also connected the new project to the studio's history. Schlesinger recorded one of his original compositions on the same 1967 Wurlitzer associated with Aretha Franklin's FAME sessions. The musicians later gathered for an actual family dinner, an evening that helped inspire the album's name and cover.
Musically, the band resists a single category. Williams describes the sound as eclectic: classic New Orleans rhythm and blues can turn into 1970s jazz-funk, a contemporary song can make room for a bowed bass solo, and Afro-Cuban ideas can appear inside a familiar jazz standard.
That unpredictability is possible because the two musicians know each other's instincts so well. Schlesinger said their long musical friendship does not make the performance predictable; it gives them the confidence to take greater risks without losing the audience.
ACT2PV's listing for Thursday's performance names Puerto Vallarta drummer Aaron Hernandez alongside Schlesinger and Williams and promises piano, bass, drums, groove, melody and surprise.
For Schlesinger, the goal is larger than demonstrating the band's range. He hopes the audience leaves feeling included and a little closer to the people around them.
"What I hope people feel is joy," he said.
Performance details
Wednesday, September 23 — 10 p.m.
Social Club PV
Basilio Badillo 447, Romantic Zone
No cover
Thursday, September 24 — 7:30 p.m.
Maestro's Piano Bar inside ACT2PV Theater
Basilio Badillo at Insurgentes, Romantic Zone
No cover; ACT2PV advises a suggested two-drink or 200-peso purchase. The piano bar is on the second floor and has no elevator; staff assistance is available.
Music and album information: Joe Schlesinger — Family Dinner
