PDF Brochure - Chris McNulty

TRIO
DELUX…
TRIO
DELUX…
is a concept that vocalist-composer Chris McNulty and
guitarist- composer Paul Bollenback have developed in
recent years to showcase their music in an
intimate, and affordable setting.
Paul Bollenback
Chris McNulty
Ugonna Okegwo
TRIO DELUX was formed when a Paul Bollenback
Quartet performance (featuring McNulty and bassist
Ugonna Okegwo) was forcibly changed to a trio
performance when the drummer missed his
connecting flight! The resulting music was so
magically powerful, energetic and intimate that
the audience (and the musicians!) were completely
enthralled. Since then the trio of guitar, voice and bass
has had several successful gigs, most
recently at the Blue Note, in New York.
McNulty, Bollenback and Okegwo are the
original TRIO DELUX.
The music itself is a combination of original works in a
variety of styles, interesting and soulful
arrangements of standards, and jazz
arrangements of contemporary music,
from movie themes to Stevie Wonder tunes. Bollenback
uses several different guitars for
contrast, and McNulty sings lyrics and sounds.
Add a guest and the possibilities are endless…
TRIO DELUX will be in the studio for their
first record release in the summer of 2005.
TRIO
DELUX…
CONTACT:
For booking inquiries:
Heidi Berg Management
heidibergjazz@aol.com
elefantdreams@aol.com
Tel: 212.662.5206
Fax: 212.961.0847
www.paulbollenback.com
www.chrismcnulty.com
www.ugonnaokegwo.com
www.elefantdreams.com
Photos by Char Smullyan • Graphic Design by Dan Smullyan
In many cases, McNulty and Bollenback appear as a
duo, featuring a third musician, a special guest
musician from the local region in which they are
performing. This has been extremely successful with
pianist Andrei Kondakov in his native Russia, with bassist
Anthony Cox in Minneapolis, and with a
variety of guests in the New York City area,
which the duo calls home.
Ugonna Okegwo
Chris McNulty
Bassist, Composer
Vocalist, Composer, Arranger
Ugonna Okegwo is one of the most distinctive and
sought-after jazz bassists in the world. Critics across
the globe have praised him for his rich tone, supple
sense of swing, stylistic range and inventiveness.
These qualities have not only earned him a place on
the bandstand with jazz legends as diverse as Clark
Terry, Benny Golson, Pharoah Sanders and Joseph
Jarman—they have established him as one of the
leading lights of a younger generation redefining
jazz for the new century.
Chris McNulty is a vocal legend who has been astounding and moving audiences since her emergence on the international
jazz scene in 1985. Her risk-taking, fluid, and strongly emotional approach never fails to connect with the audience, no
matter what style. She has been hailed by critics in the US as a rare find among jazz singers and in her native Australia
as a true original and naturally gifted talent: a singer who melds the sounds of jazz, blues, pop and funk into an intensely
musical style.
Paul Bollenback
Guitarist, Composer, Arranger, Educator
Guitarist Paul Bollenback has become one of the most established, versatile and respected
musicians of his generation. His steady rise to fame began with his association in the
early 1980s with saxophone legend Gary Thomas. After recording with Thomas on the
horn player’s debut release for Enja Records, “7th Quadrant,” Bollenback went on to
make 6 more recordings with Thomas, and in 1989 began working with the legendary
jazz organist Joey DeFrancesco, an association that has lasted upwards of 15 years, and
includes 15 recordings with the organ great.
Bollenback’s debut as a leader was in 1995, on Challenge Records, entitled “Original
Visions.” He went on to do 3 more projects for Challenge, featuring the likes of Joey
DeFrancesco, Terri-Lyne Carrington, Jeff “Tain” Watts, and Joe Locke.
As a sideman, Paul Bollenback has played with an impressive spectrum of musicians, in
many different styles, including Stanley Turrentine, Gary Bartz, Joey DeFrancesco, Jeff
"Tain" Watts, Joe Locke, Gary Thomas, Steve Wilson, Shunzo Ohno, James Moody,
David “Fathead” Newman, Geoffrey Keezer, Jack McDuff, Charlie Byrd, Paul Bley, Chris
McNulty, Carol Sloane, Carter Jefferson, Herb Ellis, Jimmy Bruno, Keter Betts, and East
Meets Jazz (with tabla virtuoso Sandip Burman).
As an educator, Bollenback currently teaches jazz guitar and ear training at Queens
College (NYC), City College (NYC), Columbia University (NYC), New School (NYC), and
Peabody Conservatory. He has given clinics at colleges around the U.S. and around the
world.
"Not one jazz virtuoso could put the definition of jazz into words, but all agreed that
you know it when you hear it. That's the way it is with Paul Bollenback. It's bona-fide
playing, unambiguous, up-front and powerful,”—George Benson
His debut recording, Original Visions, as a leader with Challenge Records, is “one of the
most creative efforts by a guitarist in recent memory” —Jim Fergusson, Jazz Times
“The best and most unique jazz guitarist of our time,”—Joey DeFrancesco
Look for a new recording from Paul Bollenback on the Elefant Dreams label, summer of
2005.
Since journeying to New York from her native Australia in 1988, Chris has garnered accolades from critics, jazz musicians,
and fans alike. She has collaborated and performed with some of the finest musicians on the jazz scene today including:
Gary Bartz, Paul Bollenback, Gary Thomas, Mulgrew Miller, Peter Leitch, Joe Locke, Ugonna Okegwo, John Hicks, Igor
Butman, Tom Lellis, Billy Hart, Ed Howard, Dave Pietro, Steve Wilson, Ray Drummond, Jeff “Tain” Watts, George Mraz,
Kenny Washington, John Di Martino, Rob Bargad, David Budway and Mark Soskin. Chris’s debut recording in the States,
Waltz For Debby (Discovery 1990), received outstanding reviews in several publications and features the official published
lyric by Chris of the great Miles Davis classic, Blue in Green. Chris has gone on to record several CDs since then, A Time
for Love (Amosaya 1996) and most recently I Remember You (Mop Top 2004). During this time crossing over from
lyricist to full fledged music composer. Dance Delicioso, Chris’s 5th release in the United States features several outstanding
original compositions and is set for release in the spring of 2005. Chris McNulty has lived in NYC since 1988.
“He is very individualistic, both in his soloing
and accompanying. I love the way he plays
in the ensemble,” says Tom Harrell, with whom
Okegwo has worked for several years. “Ugonna
does some really creative things that I haven't
heard anyone do with his articulation and
timing.”
Here’s what musicians and critics alike have to say…
“She is a musician whose voice is her instrument, and
what a great voice she has. She can
handle the harmonies and
intricacies of the compositions
she chooses so well and flawlessly. Chris McNulty is an exquisite instrument, along the lines of
a Sarah Vaughan or Ella Fitzgerald…
she is in control no matter where she
takes a melody. If there is any justice,
Chris McNulty will be the next great voice.
She already is as far as I am concerned.”
—Gary Bartz, 2002
“This is what a ‘jazz’ voice recording should be
shooting for. Here is a real ‘jazz’ vocalist.”—Gary
Bartz, 2002. Review of I Remember You, Mop
Top Records 2004.
“…she's a much more impressive performer than the
more celebrated Diana Krall and Jane Monheit, and considerably more the real thing, where jazz is concerned, than Norah
Jones. How she isn't better known is a mystery.”—Ray Comiskey, The Irish Times, Dublin, January 2005. Review of
performance at The Pendulum, Dublin January 16, 2005.
“Superb was the only way to describe her.... She was rhythmically breathtaking…a class act…Ginger Rogers and Fred
Astaire never danced to Cheek to Cheek the way McNulty sang it as she took it uptown....” Kevin Jones, The Australian,
Sydney, 1993, Review of performance, Sydney 1993.
“…this seasoned pro never gives less than her all. With a crack crew behind her on every step, this set crackles with the
kind of feeling you thought you had to go back to old records to find. A real treat throughout.”—Chris Spector, Midwest
Record Recap, August, 2004 Review of I Remember You, Mop Top Records, 2004.
"….Beautiful songs. Beautiful voice. Beautiful presence….”—Mike Pinfold, Howden Jazz Society, U.K., 2002
Born March 15, 1962, in London, to a German mother and Nigerian father, Okegwo was raised in Germany
and grew up listening to African-American music—James Brown, Jimi Hendrix, Miles Davis, Ornette Coleman,
and, eventually, the great Charles Mingus.
In 1986, he moved to Berlin to study with the American expatriate bassist Jay Oliver, and with the American
pianist Walter Norris. There Okegwo caught the attention of many prominent jazz musicians, most notably the
trombonist and Mingus alum, Lou Blackburn, who invited Okegwo to tour Europe with his Afro-Jazz group
“Mombasa.” While working with Blackburn, Okegwo met and played with trumpeter Joe Newman, drummer
Oliver Jackson, and the bassist Major Holley, who encouraged him to move to New York.
In 1989, Okegwo made the leap to Manhattan and began playing with musicians like saxophone legends
Big Nick Nicholas, Junior Cook, and James Spaulding. In 1992, a call from legendary vocalist Jon Hendricks
led to steady work as a sideman - on stage and in recording studios. In 1994, Hendricks even
took Okegwo to the White House to perform for the President. During this time,
Okegwo‘s artistry attracted two other gifted young musicians—
pianist Jacky Terrason and drummer Leon Parker.
The trio joined forces and at famous
clubs like the Village Gate
and Bradley‘s, developing
one of the most creative and
explosive group sounds of the
nineties.
Recently, Okegwo expanded his
horizons and became a bandleader. In
2002 he took his quartet to Europe and
documented the group with a recording
entitled “UOniverse” (Satchmo Jazz). The
material, which consists of his compositions
and brilliantly arranged standards, draws from
a wide range of influences, including jazz, funk,
African, and classical music.