Comprised of members Fred Valdez (piano), Roland Bundock (bass), Tony Rizzi (guitar), and John Berry (baritone violectra), the soft jazz quartet Three Cats & a Fiddle issued a lone album in 1964, Gentle Jazz. The group's leader was Rizzi, who performed and/or recorded with such artists as the Paul Smith Quartet, the Dave Pell Quintet, Ted and Dick Nash, plus Herbie Mann during the '50s and '60s (Rizzi also was one of the studio musicians that played off-camera for such '60s TV shows as The Smothers Brothers). In the '70s, Rizzi formed Tony Rizzi and His Five Guitars, issuing the acclaimed Plays Charlie Christian shortly thereafter. ~ Greg Prato