My Associates

     The Lizards are a New England based dance band featuring a quartet of musicians fervent with the desire and talent to ignite flames under dancing feet. With a wide ranging and hopelessly eclectic repertoire including everything from Irish and Scottish traditional jigs and reels to Balkan, blues and swing tunes (often juxtaposed next to each other) the Latter Day Lizards bring excellent musicianship, playfulness, drama and unrelentingly infectious rhythm to their dance performances. With Peter Barnes on piano, guitar and flute, Bill Tomczak on clarinet, sax and drum and Dave Langford on fiddle and guitar, they blend swing, rock-and-roll and jazz influences with traditional foot-stomping dance music to make an innovative, spontaneous and rhythmically inflammatory sound. The Latter-Day Lizards are slithering at http://www.latterdaylizards.com
 
 

Bare Necessities

     Imagine four incurable romantics armed with musical instruments transported back to play the stately  dances, bawdy melodies and flirtatious dance tunes of the  17th and 18th centuries. Picture the members of this quartet as being known throughout present-day America as  leaders in the instrumental folk-music scene. Equip them with an unerring sense for the nuance of beauty coupled  with touches of humor, and you'll have a good idea of the  sound of Bare Necessities.

Bare Necessities is a Boston-based quartet known nationwide for its unique presentation of English country dance music. The quartet, composed of Earl Gaddis and Mary Lea (violin and viola), Peter Barnes (flute and whistles), and Jacqueline Schwab (piano) has been playing weekly country dances since 1978, performing music primarily from the 17th and 18th centuries. They have toured in England as a band and have played for concerts, festivals, workshops, balls and dance camps throughout the United States and Canada over the years. In the course of concertizing and dance playing, they have become increasingly free in their improvisatory explorations of these beautiful melodies. The resulting sound is that of both chamber and folk music, yet extraordinarily inventive and playful with its interweaving of harmonies and countermelodies. Bare Necessities has their own web page at http://www.sover.net/~marylea/bnhome.htm

 

Dark Carnival

    An eclectic, we'll-play-whatever-you-throw-at-us-and have-a-good-time-doing-it trio hired for contradances, English dances, waltz and vintage dance events, bar-mitzvahs, weddings and rent parties. Lise Brown on flute and sax, Mary Lea on violin and Peter Barnes on piano and guitar.

Yankee Ingenuity

     Excellent musicianship, wide-ranging repertoire and styles and a sense of drama and playfulness within the framework of good dance music have contributed to Yankee Ingenuity' s unique  sound and place in the folk music and dance communities. One of the oldest ongoing bands in  the country specializing in contra and square dance music,   its members are kept busy playing Irish, French- Canadian and Appalachian-based dance music for an ever-widening audience.

Almost entirely a local phenomenon a few decades ago, traditional New England dancing is thriving in an atmosphere of renewed interest across the country. Contra dancing uses dance steps and figures similar to square dancing except that it is done in long lines of people facing each other. It is a more accessible and informal style of dancing than the widespread Western or club style of square dancing and is finding great appeal among younger people both in rural areas and the nation's cities. Live music is always played for these dance events, the musicians drawing upon a vast repertoire of British Isles, Canadian and American jigs, reels and waltzes, many of which are two or three hundred years old. Yankee Ingenuity takes this music and plays it in a style reflecting both their respect for the tradition and their own more modern roots. Swing, rock and roll and jazz influences blend with simple drones or unaccompanied melody lines to make music that is both exciting and familiar, modern yet based in folk traditions,  spontaneous and rhythmically precise. Synthesizers and  drums join violins and pennywhistles in a cohesive and vibrant mix which has inspired both dancers and listeners  alike for over a decade and a half.

The members of Yankee Ingenuity come from diverse  backgrounds within the traditional dance music world and  have appeared at dance events, festivals, television programs and concerts from the Pacific Northwest to Denmark,  France, Scotland and most areas in between. Members of the  band are Peter Barnes - piano, synthesizer, flute and whistle,Cal Howard - string bass, Mary Lea - fiddle,  Jack O'Connor - tenor banjo , mandolin, octave mandolin, and Tony Parkes - piano and dance caller.

Yankee Ingenuity can be heard on their latest album Heatin' Up The Hall on the Rounder/Varrick label (No. VR-038). The schedule for Y.I.'s Monday Night contra series is at http://lydiamusic.org/concord.html
 
 

Childsplay

     Childsplay's two dozen musicians are made up some of the leading virtuosos in traditional dance, jazz, swing, English country, Appalachian and Swedish music. When playing altogether the sound is a vibrant, powerful and eclectic experience which surrounds listeners and dancers alike - playful, innovative and driving. In smaller groupings Childsplay's members can authentically present the elegance of 17th century English dance music, the lilting beauty of Celtic jigs and airs, the driving rhythms of hoedowns from the mountains of Southern United States, the smoky improvisations of jazz or the wild syncopations of chorinho music from Brazil and Venezuela.
 Tying together these far-ranging stylists are their instruments - each of the musicians plays a violin made by band member Bob Childs. In his workshop in Cambridge, Massachusetts Bob produces instruments with a deep, sweet and dark sound whose quality has captured the interest of leading string performers throughout the United States and beyond. The list of owners of his violins and violas is a roll call of America's eminent folk instrumentalists, including Matt Glaser, Ruthie Dornfeld, Mary Lea, Joyce Anderson, Laura Light, Kerry Elkin, Mark Simos, Deborah Knight and many other notables.
Amongst this sea of fiddlers premier bassist Ralph Gordon and I ride herd on the rhythm. Childsplay is an impossibly fun gig, and the sound ranges from light jazzy solo styles to Also Sprach Zarathustra. The band has two recordings, Twelve-Gated City and an album of waltzes.
 Childplay has performed at many concerts and dances throughout the United States  including the Smithsonian Institute (the National Museum for History and Art and the Museum of American Culture) in Washington, D.C., Camp WannaDance Uptown in Seattle, the Victoria's Revenge Dance weekend in Cape May, New Jersey (1995 and 1996) and the New England Folk Festival.

More information at  http://www.childsplay.org/