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[
Metro Jazz Voices | SoundLove | North Star Jazz |
Big Band Machine | Creole Kitchen | North Star Saxophone Quartet ]
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Metro Jazz Voices
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SoundLove
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North Star Jazz
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Big Band Machine
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Creole Kitchen
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North Star Saxophone Quartet
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Metro Jazz Voices render jazz standards, popular favorites and rare gems in sophisticated four-part harmony, backed by one of the best rhythm trios in Detroit. Selections from all eras of the Great American Songbook are featured, from standards like “Pennies from Heaven” and “Over the Rainbow” to modern classics like “Me and Julio, Down by the Schoolyard.” The sound is comfortable and yearning, the harmonies sweet and fascinating. Some arrangements are similar to the “New York Voices,” “Manhatten Transfer” and “Lambert, Hendricks & Ross.” Voice tones turned in by Meri Slaven, Nicci Der-Stepanian, Carl Cafagna and Jeremy St. Martin, and instrumental support provided by Scott Gwinnell, piano, Jordan Schug, bass, and Mike Higgins, drums. 
Created and designed for wedding
receptions and corporate events, SoundLove puts on a show you and
your guests will never forget! Available from 6 to 9 pieces, this
outstanding variety band can service virtually any occasion -- large
mixed-generation receptions, fund-raisers and conventions, formal
cocktail parties, anniversary and birthday parties, with audiences
ranging from small to large, discreet to exhibitionist -- we can
do it all. Male and female singing and a horn section
allow us to play almost any tune, any style, you name it. We'll
entertain ALL your guests, from teens to seniors and everyone in
between. With SoundLove, you can count on dancing the night
away!
Formed in 2004, the
NorthStar Jazz Sextet has quickly become one of Detroit's hottest
jazz acts, having performed at jazz festivals and nightclubs across
Michigan and the Midwest. Past performances have included the
Detroit International Jazz Festival, the Michigan Jazz Festival,
the Idlewild Jazz Festival, the Summer Solstice Jazz Festival,
Rusty's Jazz Cafe (Toledo, Ohio), and the "Ed Love Show"
on WDET FM. The group can be seen regularly at Baker's Keyboard
Lounge (Detroit), the Union Bar & Grill (Kalamazoo), and
Cliff Bell's (Detroit). North Star employs a 3-horn
sextet format, partly inspired by the T. S. Monk Sextet and Art Blakey's
Jazz Messengers.
North Star has a particularly wide
palette, with different front-line instrument combinations, and selections that feature the strengths of each band member. Regular
sidemen include Detroit pianist/composer Scott Gwinnell, Dr.
Scott Cowan, trumpeter and Professor of Jazz, Western Michigan
university, saxophonist James Hughes, drummer Scott Kretzer
from Toledo, and bassist extraordinaire Jordan Schug, pared with Cafagna's tenor and soprano saxes
as well as flute. Repertoire consists of original works by
Carl and other band members, leading composers such as Horace
Silver, Donald Brown, Wayne Shorter, and Benny Golson, and choice jazz
standards. Matt Collar, from allmusic.com, calls
North Star a "combination of muscular swing and harmonic
intellectualism", and dubs us "the epitome of post-bop
professionalism". Mark Stryker, from the
Detroit Free Press, describes Carl Cafagna as a "brawny
saxophonist, with a gift for organizing a band". North
Star Jazz is one band you'll want to see again and again!
Dedicated to the sweet
sounds of New Orleans, Creole Kitchen offers an authentic helping
of America's truly indigenous classical music founded in the birthplace
of Jazz -- the Big Easy. Grab some jambalaya, head to Bourbon Street,
and groove to dixieland, jive swing, blues, and zydeco hits with some of
the Detroit area's finest musicians!