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| Antoinette Montague and the Bill Easley Quartet in New York The Bill Easley Quartet with vocalist Antoinette Montague will play Friday, April 14, 2006 at The Bacchus Room, Bona Fides Ristorante/Giardino, NYC. Featured in the Bill Easley Quintet is Donald Smith, the highly regarded pianist, vocalist and flutist. Bill Easley has had a diversified career, as a professional musician, spanning more than forty years. His arsenal of woodwind instruments includes; Tenor, Alto and Soprano Saxophones, Clarinet, and Bass Clarinet, Flute, Alto Flute and Piccolo. In recent years he has played in bands led by such notables as Ruth Brown, Jimmy Smith, Jimmy McGriff, Bobby Short, Louie Bellson, Nicholas Payton, Charles McPhearson, James Williams, Roland Hanna, Earl May, Illinois Jaquett, Ron Carter, Frank Foster, Mercer Ellington, Panama Fransis and Grady Tate among many others. In addition to his extensive discography as a sideman, he also has three recordings as a leader; Easley Said (with the Bill Easley Sextet) Wind Inventions and First Call and are available at Amazon.com. Bill Easley has recently appeared with the Cab Calloway Band in Japan; with Ruth Brown at the Jazz AuBar; with Bobby Short at the Hotel Carlyle (for his last performances); with Johnny Mathis at the Westbury Music Fair and with Michell Lagrand at the Kennedy Center. Donald Smith, pianist, vocalist and flutist has played with such luminaries as Lester Bowie, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Chip Shelton, Cecil Bridgewater, Oliver Lake, the Salim Washington Sextet, the Art Ensemble of Chicago, the Hamiet Bluiett Quartet, the World Saxophone Quartet, DeeDee Bridgewater and James Jabbo Ware and the Me We and Them Orchestra. He has also been featured on several albums with his brother, Lonnie Liston Smith, and his band, The Cosmic Echoes. Antoinette Montague is a Jazz singer who loves people and thrills audiences with her crystal-clear tone, her range and her emotional intensity. "I enjoy and learn from Bill Easley's no-nonsense approach to music...he makes it look like magic." Antoinette was in the Great Women in Music Festival at Birdland with the Duke Ellington Band (filmed by BET on Jazz), Mike Longo's NY State of the Art Band for the 88th Birthday Celebration of Dizzy Gillespie, and selected by a special panel of Judy Pitts, Sheila Jordan and Martin Mueller to perform at the 40th Anniversary of St. Peter's Church and the 10th Anniversary of International Women in Jazz. She and her quartet have performed at the VC Jazz Festival, and Madame X, Cornelia Street Caf, Cleopatra's Needle, Tribeca Bar and Grill, Trumpets, Cajun and the NAACP's Tribute to Milt Jackson. Antoinette brings a business sensibility to Jazz as she is a Vice President at Bottomline Publications and she contributes all she can to help Jazz venues and organizations. She has spent years learning from and supporting some of the best in Jazz for many years including Carrie Smith, Etta Jones, Norman Simmons, Della Griffin, Tom Aalfs, Inez McClendon, Jim Carson, and everyone she can listen and learn from. She is soon to release 'For the Love of Music' with Mulgrew Miller, Bill Easley, Peter Washington and Kenny Washington. write your comments about the article :: © 2006 Jazz News :: home page |