Peter Sprague July 1987 with Bob Magnusson & Tripp Sprague

Peter Sprague in a performance broadcast on public TV in July 1987, featuring Bob Magnusson on bass, Tripp Sprague playing flute and sax, and Duncan Moore on drums. Sprague picked up the guitar at age 12, studying with San Diego jazz guitarist Bill Coleman. He turned to jazz and formed the Minor Jazz Quintet with like-minded schoolmates. Following a year of study at the Interlochen Arts Academy, Sprague studied with Pat Metheny in Boston and performed with Chick Corea’s band. Sprague began his recording career in the late ’70s, with several releases on the Xanadu label (the Path, Message Sent On the Wind, Bird Raga), before moving to the larger Concord Jazz Records, for which he released Musica Del Mar and Na Pali Coast. He has since acquired the rights to all of his albums and made them available via his own label, SBE.

BetaGems are culled from an archive of over 1000 beta video tapes recorded between from 1983 into the 1990s. Most feature live music performances broadcast on television in San Diego CA, though there are also rarely seen commercials, comedy clips, and other material that doesn't seem to be anywhere else on Youtube or online. Most of the tapes were recorded on a Sony SL-HFT7 Super Beta Theater Hi-Fi Stereo - the same model was refurbished and is being used for these digital transfers and uploads.

In rare occasions where a BetaGems clip does appear elsewhere, we're only uploading if our own beta master is better quality or contains material not seen previously. Much footage comes from public television and public access broadcasts that the taper, who worked for a local cable TV production company in the 1980s, monitored nightly for several years. Some of the programming is strictly regional, mostly from the San Diego area.