Bassist Pat Klobas and pianist Michael Udelson are a San Francisco Bay Area jazz duo noted for adapting classic rock standards into vehicles for jazz improvisation. Klobas was a native of Beaverton, OR, and started playing electric bass at age ten; he later switched to acoustic, studied classical and jazz at San Francisco State, and played with several local orchestras. Udelson, meanwhile, grew up in Washington, D.C., and studied classical piano as a youth, then took up jazz while majoring in music at Oberlin College. He moved to San Francisco in 1981 and made a living performing in hotels and restaurants, including the Redwood Room of the Clift Hotel beginning in 1984. In 1994, Udelson teamed up with Klobas as the regular house group at the Redwood Room, performing together several nights a week under the name Standard Deviation. In the meantime, Klobas played in pit orchestras for a number of theater musicals, and performed with the likes of Rosemary Clooney, Stevie Wonder, and Harry Connick Jr., as well as working as a music educator. In 2000, the duo released its first CD, Standard Deviation, on Orchard Records; they were subsequently forced to revert to their real names when another band already called Standard Deviation protested. The album mostly featured jazz treatments of songs by rock artists like Cream, the Allman Brothers, the Grateful Dead, and Santana, among others. ~ Steve Huey, All Music Guide