ORGAN ENSEMBLE
The Organ Ensemble is one of jazz’s most unique groups. Since the 1950s the organ trio has been known to be a dynamic powerhouse with its explosive energy, tremendous groove and wide harmonic pallet.
The Organ Ensemble carries forth the tradition by exploring timeless standards alongside original material. With more than a decade of collaborations together in Beijing behind them, these musicians share a unique stage alchemy that shines through in this timeless format with various vocals around China.
Susan, a young and talented jazz singer. Music is her soul food. She learns keyboard and guitar herself and has been practicing singing for years. Inspired by jazz legends such as Ella Fitzgerald, Anita O’Day, and Chet Baker, she explored varied voices and built herself a catching singing style. With great linguistic talent, she sings in Chinese, English, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Cantonese, and other languages.
She has been super active in Beijing’s jazz scene and has participated in Boucheron VIP dinners, Bentley new car launches, Italian Embassy celebration, and other music events. Her life experience and values highly agree with what jazz is, that is to pursue freedom up to the hilt yet within certain proper rules, to enjoy the pleasure of having creativity that only owns by humans.
Anyone who’s anyone in Beijing knows the name and voice of Jess. One of China’s best jazz vocalists, Jess has spent 20 years gracing stages, festivals and music venues all over China with her amazing voice. She moves between her jazz quartet, her singer-songwriter project and her electronic band, “Chinatown.”
A songwriting graduate of the world-famous Berklee College of Music, Jess has honed her craft and was recently featured in her mentor, Pat Pattison’s “Songwriting without Boundaries”. Her original music was featured in the 2010 Andy Lao hysterical remake of “What Women Want”. Jess’s vocal and writing talents have also appeared nationwide in China for commercials for GM, Audi, Samsung, BMW and many other high-end brands. In 2014, in the final climactic scene of Cui Jian’s movie release, “Blue Sky Bones”, you can hear Jess’s voice in character. Jess has fantastic control over her voice; she can easily sing different nuances and characters. A woman of many talents, she has starred as the heroine lead role in a short film “Tube Girl”. Many well-known Chinese TV and radio shows have requested her as a special guest; and if you want to find out more, there is even a documentary of her life in China which aired on national TV (CCTV4) in Sept 2014.
VOCAL 3: Fei
An independent singer and song writer, a Jazz, Soul, R&B, and Hip Hop performer and master. Fei gained knowledge and inspiration from jazz musicians like Sarah Vaughan, Dianne Reeves, Kurt Elling, Esperanza Spalding, Jose James, B， Dee Dee Bridgewater, to soul and R&B artists like Rachelle Ferrel, Lalah Hathaway, Jill Scott, Erykah Badu, Kim Burrell, and Lauryn Hill.
Fei was formerly signed by EEG, Hong Kong, a guest performer with AVEX Entertainment, Japan, and was an exchange artist with Nederlander Worldwide Entertainment, New York. She won the annual championship of Dragon TV’s talent program “My Show”. She was featured in Mustard Jazz Concert produced by Xiao Ke, as well as in top-tier jazz concert Jazz Fusion and made a live record “Studio Live Best Sound” with producer Chen Weilun. She is also one of the founding members of contemporary Soul & Jazz group Futuretro, which performed on Jiangsu TV’s most popular music show “China’s Top Band”.
Pierre is one of the most requested musicians established in China. He has played thousands of shows all over the country at the greatest venues since more than a decade after relocating from France, including many for some of the top Chinese pop stars and movie directors.
He is a highly versatile and creative artist, cultivating a mainstream jazz piano style balancing elegant lyrism and virtuosic energy with a great sense of swing. He is also specialized in playing Rhodes electric piano and analog synthesizers, very open-minded on other genre like Funk and electronica. His main influences to name a few are Kenny Barron, Bill Evans, Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea, Keith Jarrett.
GUITAR: Martin
American guitarist Martin, started studying music at age 12. The first few years of musical study were spent playing rock and blues guitar. In the United States and Europe Martin has been fortunate to perform with Grammy winning composer and band leader, John Jorgenson, as well as gypsy guitarist Lulo Reinhardt. Additional collaborations have included performances with jazz guitarist Howard Alden, Mimi Fox, John Pisano and many more.
Since 2012 Martin has been performing and teaching music in Beijing. He holds a teaching certification from China Music Conservatory, which allows him to teach private lessons and workshops all over China. Additional workshops in China include lectures on jazz at music conservatories such as Beijing Midi Music School and Beijing Modern Music Conservatory. On occasion Martin acts as a judge for music students at jazz competitions.
GUITAR/ VOCAL: Greg
Greg is a singer, guitarist and harmonica player from Detroit who relocated to Boston, and gets around doing performances of all kinds of feel good music. Whether performing with one of many bands or as a solo act, Greg’s energy and delivery are a unique experience. Greg is an outstanding guitar player and his voice has been likened to Marvin Gaye, Lenny Kravitz, Stevie Wonder and Brad Nowell. He honed his skills playing in blues and cover bands in the 90s and formed his own funk and soul band, Michigan Blacksnake who were nominated for a Boston Music Award as Best Funk Band.
Playing all kinds of gigs in the USA and were invited to the House of Blues and Jazz in Shanghai, he would play over half a dozen residencies at that amazing venue bringing his version of American blues and Soul to the fans in China.
DRUMS: Nico
Nico is a French drummer, educator and music producer who has been involved in numerous musical projects since the 90’s. After being very active on the French music scene since an early age, his art and passion made him travel the world and explore.
In 2009, he finally settled down in Beijing, after discovering the city while touring with his French soul-jazz trio Blue Mantra then as a sideman of Hazel Payne, 1978 Grammy Award winner. Since then, he has become one of the most demanded drummers in China and has shown his rare musical taste and versatility in all kinds of projects, from the Beijing jazz, folk, rock and experimental scene to China’s most popular music acts, movies and TV shows. Having played over 3500 concerts worldwide, he is also a highly sought-after recording artist and produces tracks for the gaming and movie industry.
TRUMPET: Noah
Noah was born in Portland, Oregon to a musical family. Early on, he knew playing music was his life’s purpose. He attended Temple University in Philadelphia where he studied trumpet under the great Terrell Stafford. After graduating with a Masters degree he moved to New York City. He currently tours the world with several jazz groups, such as the Gordon Webster Band, Michael Gamble and the Rhythm Serenaders, Jonathan Stout, and the Hot Sardines.
In 2017, He was awarded “Best Soloist” award by a panel of Grammy-winning artists at the World Jam event in Madrid, Spain. Noah has a deep respect for the jazz tradition, and embraces all types of jazz music. His first album, entitled “Common Thread,” is comprised of all original music. “Common Thread” seeks to reflect stories and emotions of our lives through music, as well as common things that all human beings share. He released an album of original Swing music that he composed and arranged, called “Head to Head.”
BASS: Guang Jun
Guang Jun, a great talent bass player who lives in Beijing. He studied traditional Chinese music with his father when he was a boy and started studying double bass in 1999. He graduated from MIDI Music College, then studied Jazz with many famous musicians such as Hongwei Kong (Golden Buddha), Yong Huang, Ling Zhang, and Yue Liu.
After performing on stage for the first time when he was 17, he has cooperated with many world well known Jazz musicians and won the audience applause at many music festivals and corporate events.
SAXOPHONE: Dean
Born in Buffalo, NY and raised in Florida, Dean’s music career began at an early age. In 1995 he attended the University of North Florida on multiple music scholarships. After studying with saxophone legend Bunky Green for three years, Dean left school and hit the ground running with touring and recording, garnering a vast range of experience in Jazz, R&B, Rock, Pop, Funk, and Gospel, as well as producing and arranging numerous projects and leading several of his own groups in various musical genres.
In 2011 Dean moved to London and immediately got to work with his own groups, performing at several famous venues including Ronnie Scott’s, Pizza Express Jazz Club Soho, and Charlie Wright’s. Late 2015 saw the release of Dean’s solo album debut Inter/change. His first single to national radio from the album was “In the Bag”, which landed in the top 25 on the Billboard Smooth Jazz chart, top 15 on Smoothjazz.com’s radio chart, and was one of the top 5 Most Played Songs on radio in 2015 as reported by Accu Radio.
Corporate Clients:
Mercedes Benz, BMW, Porsche, Bentley, Audi, Piaget, IWC, Boucheron, Tissot, Bvlgari, Cartier, Louis Vuitton, Samsung, Moet & Chandon
Video Links:
* “I’ve Got You Under My Skin” ft. Susan
