Denise Perrier vocal | David Udolf piano | Gary Brown bass | Michael O'Neill saxophone and bandleader
DISCOGRAPHY Denise Perrier
Albums
I Wanna Be Loved
East Meets West
Live Albums
Live at Yoshi's
The Second Time Around
Denise Perrier was born in Louisiana and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area. She has built an international reputation headlining festivals, concert halls and jazz clubs in Paris, Venice, Milan, Helsinki, Moscow, St Petersburg, Rio de Janeiro, Tokyo, San Miguel de Allende, Guadalajara, and la Ciudad de Mexico to name a few. Louis Armstrong heard her singing at the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco and hired her for his Las Vegas review. Denise has performed at Jazz at Lincoln Center where she sold out 6 shows in a weekend. She has appeared at SFJazz as the headliner as well as a featured guest with other artists. In 2011and 2015 she did shows at The Hotel Nikko’s Razz Room (now Feinstein’s) built around Dinah Washington and Bessie Smith. She has performed at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, Monterey Jazz Festival, San Jose Jazz Festival, Stanford Jazz Festival, and the Jazz Festival of San Miguel de Allende. In November of 2016 she was the headliner at the 12th Annual Vladivostok Jazz festival in Russia. In January of 2018 she appeared in three different venues of the Havana Jazz festival as well as appearing on their national arts television show.
Born in Manhasset, New York, pianist David Udolf moved to the Bay Area in early 1991. A sought after sideman, he has played with Terri Bryant of the Fifth Dimension, saxophonist Herb Geller, R&B legend Bo Diddley, and toured nationally for six years with San Francisco’s own legendary New Pickle Circus. Local artists he has worked or recorded with include: Jules Broussard, vocalists Opie Bellas (with whom he did a concert tour of South Africa), Sherri Roberts, Clairdee, Jennifer Lee, Lavay Smith, Diane Witherspoon and Kenny Washington, the Chuck Metcalf Quartet, Hal Stein, trumpeter Warren Gale and the Joe Henderson Memorial Big Band, The Jules Rowell Group, Pete Yellin, Donald Bailey, the Mark Stock Trio, Noel Jewkes and a host of other rich talent. He has worked extensively with vocalist Mary Stallings, performing at international festivals and concert venues in Switzerland, Prague, Melbourne, and Tel Aviv as her accompanist and music director. In the fall of 2013 he appeared with Mary at the esteemed Monterey Jazz Festival; and in 2016 they were joined by saxophonist Ernie Watts for a Dr. Martin Luther King Jazz Tribute concert presented by the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Society and broadcast live on WWOZ. David has studied piano privately with Hal Galper and Kenny Werner among others. He has his own ongoing practice teaching piano privately and at College of San Mateo. He received an MSC in Philosophy from the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, and is a certified teacher of the Alexander Technique.
Bassist, Gary Brown, was born into a family of musicians and by his eleventh birthday he was already performing in jazz bands with his two brothers and his father, jazz trumpeter Wilbert Brown. In the past 20 years Gary has toured extensively in the United States, Europe, Asia ,South America and the Middle East where he has recorded and shared the stage with Flora Purim & Airto, Pharaoh Sanders, Jeff Beal, Steve Winwood, Narada Michael Walden, Dianne Reeves, Lou Rawls , Ernie Watts, John Lucien, Torninho Horta , Eddie Henderson , Joyce, Alex Acuna, Dori Caymmi, George Duke, Roy Ayres ,Oscar Castro Neves , Lyle Mays, Giovanni Hidalgo, Mike Shrieve, Paul McCandles, Alphonse Mouzon, Andy Narrell, Pete and Sheila (Sheile E.) Escovedo, Jose Neto Quartet. As a member of Terra Sul he composed and co-produced their CD "Kindness of Strangers" (Motown jazz label MOJazz). In addition to the co-writing and arranging Gary also shares the producer credits with drummer Celso Alberti for recording artist Zaza's ambitious CD "Book of Kings”. Currently dividing his time between performing with Flora Purim & Airto, and the Rebeca Mauleon Group, Gary continues to compose, perform and produce for various artists.
Michael O’Neill, a San Diego native, began studying clarinet at an early age. His first mentor was his neighbor, the great jazz and studio drummer, John Guerin. After the usual involvement with school bands and orchestras, Michael did a stint in the Air Force Band. In college, while majoring in Biology, he minored in music studying composition and arranging as well as jazz performance. After a brief career in science, Michael returned to music full time, studying saxophone with the great Joe Henderson while playing in dance bands, salsa bands and doing local jazz gigs. During this time Michael became interested in composition and formed groups to perform his original material, a trend that is ongoing today. Besides jazz composition, Michael’s interests have taken him into orchestral and ethnic musical forms. In the 1980's he began writing music for documentaries and television for which he now has a long list of credits. Jazz performance residencies as leader include 13 years at the Ritz Carlton Half Moon bay, 7 years at Cetrella Half Moon Bay and 6 years at the Hotel Sofitel in Redwood Shores. Michael has performed and/or recorded with Idris Muhammad, Joe Locke, Michael Wolff, Giacomo Gates, Geoffrey Keezer, Maria Muldaur, Eddie Fisher, Rodney Jones, Kim Nalley, Jackie Ryan, Tony Lindsay, Margie Baker, Faye Carol, Brenda Boykin, Jeff Chambers, Rob Schneiderman, Mark Levine, Frank Jackson, and many others.The Michael O'Neill Quintet featuring the great vocalist, Kenny Washington, has headlined the Monterey Jazz Festival, San Jose Jazz Festival, the Mid-Atlantic Jazz Festival, SF Jazz, the Blue Note in Napa, Jazz at Pearl’s, Oakland and San Francisco Yoshi’s, Anna’s Jazz Island, the Jazz on the Hill Festival, the Oakland Art and Soul Festival, the San Jose Jazz Society Concert Series and many others.
Photo credits: Perrier (Knox Photography), Udolf (Bob Barry 2012), Brown (Jeffrey Phillip Shaw), O'Neill (Dave Lepori)