Regina Carter

“I think a lot of people look at the violin and they get a little nervous. They have a stereotype of what the violin is–very high, kind of shrill-sounding with long notes, and a lot of vibrato. It doesn’t have to be that at all, it can be a very fiery persuasive instrument and that’s how I like to use it.”-Regina Carter

Famous for her scintillating and sophisticated violin solos, Regina Carter, born August 6, 1966 to a proud school teacher in Detroit, Michigan, is an American jazz powerhouse. Discovering the passion for classical violin at the tender age of 4, Carter embarked on an educational journey and honed her skills at the Suzuki Method until she was 9. It wasn’t until high school in Cass Technical High School that she got musically inclined to jazz violin when her close friend, future jazz singer Carla Cook, introduced her to the music of Ella Fitzgerald, Jean-Luc Ponty, Noel Pointer, and Stephanie Grapelli, who notably convinced her that jazz was her calling. Even in high school she started performing with the Detroit Civic Orchestra, with pop/funk group Brainstorm and pursued jazz studies with Detroit trumpeter Marcus Belgrave, bassist Bob Hurst and organist Lymon Woodard. She then received a degree in music from Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan and moved on to the prestigious New England Conservatory Music in Boston before focusing on her jazz career in 1987.

She first came into the spotlight when she teamed up with New York’s all-female jazz quintet Straight Ahead which included Cynthia Dewberry, Gailyn McKinney, Eileen Orr and Marion Hayden up until the year 1995. Her funky smooth jazz, old style swing and classical quintet music has produced 3 albums for Atlantic jazz label with Carter leaving the group before the release of the third album “Dance of the Forest Rain”. She soon found herself working with Max Roach, the String Trio of New York and the Uptown String Quartet before she recorded her self-titled debut recording “Regina Carter” (1995)and another album dedicated to her mother “Something for Grace”(1997) on Atlantic. Leaving Atlantic Records for Verve Records in 1998, she recorded two more albums “Rhythms of the Heart” and “Motor City Moments”, acclaimed as one of her finest.

December 31, 2001, she recorded “Paganini: After a Dream” for Verve records after playing a concert in Genoa. She became the first jazz musician and the first African-American to play the 250-year old II Cannone Guarnerius violin which was formerly owned by Niccolo Paganini. Also a mentor of the Suzuki method at the Berklee College of Music and Stanford Jazz Workshop, she has also done sessions with Faith Evans, Mary J. Blige and Detroit techno legend Carl Craig.

On the fretful year of 2006, her mother Grace Carter passed and as a tribute to the woman who first encouraged her into music, she recorded and released the album “I’ll Be Seeing You: A Sentimental Journey” which included her violin interpretations of the popular “Sentimental Journey”, “This Can’t be Love” and “A-Tisket, A-Tisket”.

Edited: September 25th, 2011

Jeff Golub

“It’s really important as an artist to keep evolving. Too many artists play it safe, especially after they’ve had some success. I never want to recreate what I’ve already done. I always want to take my music to a new place, with no limits as to where it can go.” –Jeff Golub

Contemporary jazz and multi-awarded guitarist, Jeff Golub was born on the 15^th of April 1955 in Akron, Ohio.

Inspired by the blues of the ‘60s guitarists Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and the legendary Jimi Hendrix and after listening to a Wes Montgomery record in his early teens, Jeff found his passion in music and pursued that calling as he entered the Berklee Music College in Boston.

He moved to New York in 1980 and had his first exposure in collaboration with rock star Billy Squier. He appeared in 7 albums and 3 world tours with Billy. Henceforth, he became a highly sought for session player and a sideman for artists such as Ashford and Simpson, John Waite, Peter Wolf, Rod Stewart and Tina Turner.

In 1988 he released his first solo by Gaia Records, “Unspoken Words” which was regarded by the Guitar World as smooth, versatile, full of taste and soul. He joined the Rod Stewart band and played for 8 years. Soon he embraced his role as band leader and instrumentalist when he left the Stewart band in 1995 and formed the contemporary jazz group, which he dubbed “Avenue Blue” in 1994. Their self titled “Bluemoon” debut was an immediate success reaching the second spot on both R&R and The Gavin Report’s contemporary jazz charts. It was hailed by Jazz Times as “An elegant excursion into atmospheric, R&B-touched jazz”. Releasing hits like “Naked City”(1996) and “Night Life”(1997) for Mesa Bluemoon/Atlantic records, Jeff soon left the band and became a solo artist with his debut album “Out of the Blue” released in 1999.

“Out of the Blue” stepped out front with an original collection of the kinetic blend of blues and the soulful melodies of funky Latin jazz like the notable tracks “Lucky Strike” and the evocative “The Velvet Touch”, which established Golub’s musical maturity and acknowledged him as one of today’s most inventive and graceful guitarists.

In 2000, he joined the GRP roster with “Dangerous Curves” that had tracks spending 12 weeks in the top 20. This album hit the Billboard’s Contemporary Jazz Chart with a number 1 and  2 new adult contemporary singles. His other album, “Do it Again” which was his remake of Average White band’s “Cut the Cake”, spent an impressive 6 weeks on the top spot on NAC radio and a number 8 spot at the Billboard’s Contemporary Jazz Chart.

Participating in the Guitars & Saxes tour in 2003 with saxmen Richard Elliot and Steve Cole, and guitarist Peter White, Golub, having this improviser’s mentality, took his fame to a new level as he stressed that his albums had a strong soul-jazz component despite being compared with artists like David Sanborn, Joe Sample, The Crusaders, Ronnie Laws and the late Grover Washington Jr.

Golub’s kinetic blend of jazz, R&B and rock music has epitomized the powerful, evocative and earthbound side of smooth jazz and made him one of the contemporary jazz/blues hottest artists.

Edited: September 4th, 2011

Astrud Gilberto

Renowned Queen of Bossa Nova, International Latin Music Hall of Famer, Latin Recording Academy’s Lifetime Achievement Grammy awardee and ‘The’ Girl from Ipanema, Brazilian jazz legend Astrud Gilberto was the youngest child born to a Brazilian mother and a German father on March 30, 1940 in Bahia, Brazil and raised in Rio de Janeiro. Hereditarily inclined to painting and the arts as influenced by her father, she seemed to be the only one in the family with a talent in music with a unique passion for art.

Formerly Astrud Weinert, she teamed with classmates of a so-called musical clan in her mid-teens. Some of these were songwriters Carlos Lyra, Oscar Castro Neves, Roberto Menescal and Ronaldo Boscoli. Her bestfriend amongst these, Nara Leao, who later on became another Bossa Nova artist, was the one who introduced her to Joao Gilberto, the great Father of Bossa Nova, an exceptional singer and guitarist in 1959. They got married and migrated to the United States in 1963. There they started playing native Brazilian music and producing albums with the help of famous jazz and saxophone artist Stan Getz. Notable albums of such collaboration were the first “Getz Au-Go-Go” (1964) and “The Astrud Gilberto Album” (1964) which was then nominated as Album of the Year, both from Verve Records. It didn’t take long before their divorce during the mid ‘60s and her new relationship with her friend and musical partner Stan Genz. She also introduced the sultry, soothing vibes of Brazilian jazz music to the world in her succeeding albums “The Shadow of Your Smile” (1965), “Look to the Rainbow” (1965), Beach Samba (1966) and many more. She bagged the Grammy’s Record of the Year Award (1965) and nominations for Best New Artist (1965) and Best Vocal Performance Female (1966).

Her rise to fame began with her song “The Girl from Ipanema”, a scintillating Brazilian jazz fusion with American pop music which she recorded with former husband Joao Gilberto and then husband Stan Getz. Released in 1977 through Audio Fidelity Records, this seductive yet classy effervescent single sold over a million copies that established her in the music industry as an international jazz sensation and had her inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame (2000). The demand for her music grew as she continued to record soundtracks for movies such as “Juno”, “The Deadly Affair” and “Get Yourself a College Girl” in which she also had a special guest appearance like she did in most popular US television shows of all time and in Africa, Japan and Europe. She even recorded the song “Number One to the Sun” for an American aviation company Eastern Airlines advertisement.

Astrud started writing her own songs in the early ‘70s and released albums of her original compositions such as “Astrud Gilberto Now” (1972) and “That Girl from Ipanema” (1977). In one of her albums, her dreams came true as she recorded one of her songs “Far Away” with one of her most admired artists, the legendary Chet Baker. She received an award at the Tokyo Music Festival for one of her compositions “Live Today” which was co-written with Jerome Schur. And in the early ‘80s, she formed a sextet composed of piano, bass, drums, guitar, trombone and percussion, in which her son Marcelo Gilberto joined as a bassist.

In 2002 after being inducted in the world’s most prestigious hall of fame, she took a time off from her public life and continued to push through animal rights’ advocacies.

Edited: August 21st, 2011

Fred Tompkins

Tompkins played in his native Missouri for several years after high school and attended the St. Louis Institute of Music starting in 1964, pairing it with summer courses at Berklee College and the Aspen Music School. During this period he received instruction from Lee Humphreys, Trudy Kane, Graham Hollobon Harold Bennett, Manus Sasonkin, Lukas Foss, and Vincent Persichetti. Early influences on his study and playing were John Coltrane, Art Blakey, MJQ, Paul Hindemith and Béla Bartók.

In 1967 he changed his base of operations to New York City and developed an important relationship with jazz drummer Elvin Jones, with whom he would make recordings which also featured Joe Farrell, Jimmy Owens and other musicians. His career was put on hold, however, when he was conscripted in 1968. He was, however, able to find time to compose during this period, and it was during this time that his composition “Yes” found its way on to Elvin’s LP “Polycurrents”.

The 80s saw Tompkins setting music to the poetry of E. E. Cummings and Emily Dickinson. (Lucy Shelton premiered his Three Poems to E. E. Cummings in a “live” radio broadcast on WBAI-FM radio in New York City), and in the 1990s he composed music to pieces by John Keats, Samuel Taylor Coleridge and St. Louis poet, Michael Castro. The early 80s also saw the premier of pieces Tompkins composed for the French horn player John Clark (musician), which also incorporated the use of string synthesizer, arco bass, pizzicato bass and drums.[5] In 1989, the world premiere of his piece “Duet Melody” was held at the Bar Harbor Festival and was performed by David Bilger and his wife Dorinne Bilger.

Tompkins has since also worked with Paul DeMarinis, Chuck Loeb, Frank Tusa, Lawrence Feldman, Noah Young (musician), Bryant Hayes, Rick Cutler, Norman Carey, Anthony Jackson and many others. In 1990, he returned to St. Louis and continues to compose, perform (most notably with: Debby Lennon, Ralph Butler, Gary Sykes (musician) and Charlie Dent (musician), and Dave Black (musician), announce on radio and participate on the board of the New Music Circle. His CD, “There is a Zone” is a compilation of all his recorded music to the poetry of Emily Dickinsos.

Edited: May 13th, 2011

Trio Trés Bien

The Trio Trés Bien is composed of three brothers, Jeter, Harold, and Howard Thompson. Jeter Thompson was the pianist and leader of the world famous Quartette Trés Bien, known for their recording hits, “Boss Trés Bien” and “Kilimanjaro” on Decca Records. He is now the leader of the Trio Trés Bien. Howard Thompson, the drummer with the Trio Trés Bien has performed with Josh White, Jr., vocalists Spanky Wilson and Johnny Hartman, and saxophonists Jimmy Forest and Sonny Stitt. Howard is a left handed drummer with an arsenal of tight rolls and natural swing. He has performed on numerous concerts and shows with the Trio Trés Bien in and around the St. Louis area.  For more than two decades, the brothers have performed in the St. Louis metropolitan area, playing high-profile concerts, private parties, and at nightclubs and corporate affairs.

The group’s latest CD, Coming Together represents the musical synergy of three brothers that culminates in what we feel to be, a universal language that can be heard and felt by all who appreciate music. As you listen to the music on this CD, you will become engaged in a musical journey that is filled with contemporary, swinging jazz. The jazz on this CD is flavored with African, South American, and Asian accents. We invite you to join the trio on its musical journey and reflect on the theme of love as you listen to “Tender Hearted”. Continue the journey and envision the beauty of the Far East on “Sunset in Japan”. Imagine the beauty of the rainforest on “Brazilian Rainbow”. Clap your hands and pat your feet to the beat of “Plink” and “Funkarama”. Appreciate the majesty of the Mt. Kilimanjaro as you listen to one of my original compositions, “Kilimanjaro”. Come together with your loved ones and enjoy the new and exciting sounds of the Trio Trés Bien.

Edited: May 13th, 2011

Carolbeth True

Carolbeth True has been a very active member of the St. Louis musical community for many years.  She is adjunct professor at Webster University—teaching jazz and classical piano, and also maintains an extensive private student roster.  She fronts both her own group, The Carolbeth Trio, as well as the new group with her son David on drums—Two Times True.  She is the pianist with Hard Bop Heritage, a modern jazz ensemble led by local trumpet legend Randy Holmes; with the Sessions Big Band; with Wind of the Spirit praise band at her church; and is an original member of the cast of The Jazz Story, a 1-hour overview of jazz history at the Sheldon Concert Hall.

Carolbeth has backed many name jazz artists, and performed a number of concertos with various orchestras.  In 2005, she was named St. Louis Musician of the year by St. Louis Magazine, and was the 2007 recipient of the Excellence in the Arts Award from the Arts and Education Council of Greater St. Louis.  Carolbeth received the Riverfront Times Jazz Musician of the Year award in 2008. She is heard on two trio CDs, “New World Harmonica Jazz” with Sandy Weltman, two Sessions Big Band CDs as well as “I’m All Smiles” with vocalist Debby Lennon, and most recently on the 2007 collaboration with her son David True on drums: “Two Times True”, on the Victoria Records label, as well as on the soon-to-be-released CD of saxophone-great Larry Johnson entitled “Circles.”

As applied to pianist and composer Carolbeth True and her relationship to the St. Louis jazz scene, “MVP” also might stand for “most versatile player.” True thrives in variety of settings, whether she’s working in a duo with singer Debby Lennon, the small combo Hard Bop Heritage, the Sessions Big Band, her own trio or Two Times True, the group she co-leads with her son, drummer David True. She’s an expert accompanist and an able soloist whose taste, technique and tone enhances and elevates just about any musical circumstance.

Edited: May 13th, 2011

Utter Chaos

Formed in 2008, Utter Chaos is dedicated to recreating the sounds of the classic Gerry Mulligan piano-less quartets. We perform compositions by Mulligan and his sidemen (Bob Brookmeyer, Art Farmer, etc.), jazz standards, and originals, all done in the unique style and sound that made Mulligan a jazz legend. Utter Chaos has performed at some of the finest venues in St. Louis, including Jazz at the Bistro, the Sheldon Concert Hall, and Jazz at Holmes Lounge on the Campus of WashU.

Utter Chaos is a brand new ensemble dedicated to recreating the unique sounds of the Gerry Mulligan/Bob Brookmeyer piano-less quartets of the mid 1950s. Baritone saxophonist Andy Ament is joined by Cody Henry on trombone, Chris Turnbaugh on bass and Jerry Mazzuca on drums. All members of the quartet are graduates of the SIUE jazz department and work extensively around the St. Louis area in a large variety of bands and ensembles. Gerry Mulligan, Bob Brookmeyer, Chet Baker, Art Farmer, Paul Desmond, and Stan Getz, just to name some of our most direct influences. The members of Utter Chaos keep busy teaching and performing music all over St. Louis and the midwest. From heavy metal to dixieland, hip-hop to country, we pride ourselves on playing in a wide array of bands and ensembles. Our musical interests know no bounds.

Edited: May 12th, 2011

Tony Viviano

Tony started singing at the tender age of three, inspired by his older brother, Joe. When Tony was 10 years old, Joe bought two albums by Frank Sinatra and learned the lyrics and emulated Sinatra’s phrasing; When Bobby Darin came out with “Mack the Knife” and “Clementine” they learned the lyrics to the songs on those albums. Joe and Tony ran a produce route in those days, and their father did not allow a radio on the truck, so by the time the truck was loaded and on the highway, they were singing the songs from the album, track by track.

After getting encouragement from Milton Berle to go to Las Vegas, Tony met Tony Bennett at Caesar’s Palace in 1971, Mr. Bennett was encouraging, but Tony came back to St. Louis, and got his first real gig at The Topper, in Riverview. From there he went to the Bissell Lounge and then the Midtown Lounge in Alton, Illinois.

Tony’s career started to take off soon after, with long-running performances at the Ramada Inn in North County, Fishers Restaurant in Belleville, Illinois, Scheinhorst Hofamburg Inn in Frontenac and the Steeple Chase at the Chase Hotel on Kingshighway. He went on to Rizzo’s top of the Tower, The Mayfair Hotel, and the Plankhouse, around a two week engagement at Casconies in Kansas City. From there Tony played at Stan and Biggie’s at the airport, and then at the Tower Club at Westport Plaza.

The above information is from “Sweet, Hot and Blue, St. Louis’ Musical Heritage”, by Lyn Driggs Cunningham and Jimmy Jones, printed in 1989. Tony’s career has certainly blossomed even more in the ensuing years; some of this is documented in Tony’s Scrapbook, an assortment of newspaper articles written over the course of his career.

Tony and his band have performed at the most elegant and prestigious hotels, country clubs, restaurants, & night clubs in St. Louis, Las Vegas, Chicago, Kansas City, Miami, Ft. Lauderdale, and at numerous Italian Fests around the country.

Tony and three of his brothers also have an act; “The Viviano Brothers Variety Show”, featuring impersonations of famous singers. Joe does Frank Sinatra, Jerry is great as Dean Martin, Frank appears as Elvis and a little Louis Prima, and Tony performs Tony Bennett, Bobby Darin and Louis Prima songs.

Edited: May 12th, 2011

Matthew Von Doran

Born in Germany in 1960, Matthew Von Doran grew up in Washington D.C., and Canada before the family finally settled in the Manhattan Beach area of Los Angeles County. The youngest in the family, he came under the musical influence of his older siblings, who exposed him early on to the sounds of the ’60s and ’70s. “I have a typical guitar player background,” says Von Doran. “I started off in rock, listening to everything from the Beatles and Jimi Hendrix to Black Sabbath, Zeppelin and Aerosmith to Peter Frampton, Elton John, James Taylor and Crosby, Stills & Nash. So I was always into a fairly eclectic mix of things.”
Von Doran began playing guitar at age 15 and by the time he got to college, in 1978, he started checking out jazz. He recalls one particularly significant turning point in his musical direction at that time. “At the junior college I was going to I saw Emmett Chapman, the guy who invented the Stick. He played a noontime concert, which was pretty amazing, and he did a tune off the Mahavishnu Orchestra’s first album, Inner Mounting Flame. I think it was ‘A Lotus on Irish Stream.’ And this tune was so beautiful that I went out and got that record, and that was it for me. As a beginning player I was intrigued by all the chords that were very challenging to play in jazz. And this Mahavishnu album had all that quality but it also appealed to my rock sensibilities.”
Swept away by the fusion movement, Von Doran soon became exposed to other important guitar influences, including Al Di Meola, Pat Metheny, John Scofield and Bill Frisell. And his search only led him deeper into jazz. Following stints at Citrus College and Mt. San Antonio College, he enrolled at the Guitar Institute of Technology (GIT) in 1980 and remained there for a year. “During that period I was exposed to some amazingly good players there like Pat Martino, Robben Ford, Steve Morse, Don Mock, Joe Diorio,” he says. “So that had a tremendous influence on my playing and was another turning point in my education.”

Edited: May 12th, 2011

VooDoo Blues Band

The VooDoo Blues Band is the house band for the weekly jam session at Hammerstone’s in Soulard. But the band has developed into more than just a blues band—on any given Sunday you may get driving funk, blues-ified jazz classics, R&B and, of course, our mainstay—down and dirty, gut-bucket, horn-drenched blues with that signature St. Louis blues slide guitar sound in the tradition of Albert King and Bennie Smith, with boogie piano on top. The band may cover tunes by Herbie Hancock, Grover Washington, Elmore James, Muddy Waters, B.B. King, Ray Charles, Jaco Pastorius and Albert King. Like Albert, the band is likely to put its own bluesy, funky twist on the covers—the only rule is that the groove has to be there!

The Voodoo Blues Band has been doing the Hammerstone’s blues jam for nearly 10 years running. During that time, many musicians have been in the band, including blues legend Bennie Smith, who still joins us every other week. Come down and see us – Hammerstone’s is located at the corner of 9th and Russell in the historic Soulard district of St. Louis, Missouri (just south of the ballpark), and the jam session runs from 4 until 8 every Sunday.

The band has recently cut its first CD, featuring some familiar blues standards, some tunes that have become the VooDoo Blues Band’s “signature” songs, and some bluesy originals penned by band leader, Raul Consuegra. The CD will be available soon. Sign up to our mailing list, and we’ll let you know when you can buy your copy! Better yet, come on down to Hammerstone’s and pick one up at our CD release party!

Edited: May 12th, 2011