Chaise Lounge
Second Hand Smoke
Pop songs and jazz standards; lovingly arranged and beautifully sung.
Chaise Lounge
At first, it sounds like the jazz soundtrack to either your favorite noir film or a Doris Day film from 1962. Then you realize that it isn't quite jazz at all but the orchestrated sound of six accomplished jazz musicians playing an eclectic mix of original songs and re-arranged iconic pop tunes that go back to the '50's that all sound unmistakably Chaise Lounge. On stage, the band looks as polished as it sounds. And the show, with Charlie Barnett and Marilyn Older's between song banter and the hysterical interplay between trombonist John Jensen and reedman, Gary Gregg is old-school , laugh out-loud entertainment . The grooves are soul deep. The lyrics are a mélange of highly crafted stories that cast a cinematic spell, running from heartbreakingly blue to flat-out funny. Singer, Marilyn Older, delivers these songs, with an easy and sophisticated grace. The blend of upright bass, an old Gretsch drum kit, a fat Gibson electric guitar, trombone and sax make up a sound that rocks and swings and grooves like that stack of Frank Sinatra, Stan Getz and Norah Jones 45's that is spinning in your head.
The Players:
Tommy Barrick: Drums
Tommy Barrick can be heard with a variety of acts ranging from swing & jazz to latin, funk and punk around the DC area. He's had the opportunity to perform throughout Europe and throughout the United States at The Knitting Factory, 9:30 Club, CBGB's, Arlene's Grocery, Brownies, The Black Cat, The Rainbow Room, The Copacabana, The Kennedy Center Concert Hall, The Birchmere, Blues Alley and many more. He recently published his first percussion method, The Paradiddle Workbook.
Mr. Barrick can also be heard on many television and film scores. Other recording projects have led to DC Wammy nominations for recordings with Chaise Lounge, American Song, The Joker's Wild, Radio King Orchestra, Bossalingo; and 5 time Wammy winner for Best hard rock/punk band, Adam West.
Pete Ostle: Bass
Pete Ostle is a versatile bass player, band leader, and tubist who served with the United States Army Band, "Pershing's Own," based at Fort Myer, Virginia. Mr. Ostle played in the Concert Band, Army Blues, Army Chorus, Army Orchestra, and Army Chorale during his 20-year tenure with the band. This included accompanying major entertainers such as Reba McIntire, Rosemary Clooney, and Bob Hope, and extensive performances abroad including at the renowned Edinburgh Tattoo, where he was featured on bass guitar with the "In The Mood" show.
Locally, Pete formed A La Carte Brass & Percussion, an innovative 10-piece ensemble for which he was band leader and played sousaphone. A La Carte was a fixture at the now-closed "State of the Union" club on U Street in Washington, DC, and shared the stage with several famous names in pop and jazz, including the Duke Ellington band at the Detroit Montreux Jazz Festival. A La Carte recorded three compact discs, two on the Mapleshade label featuring Chuck Brown, local Go-Go legend, and one with Union Records featuring Shawn Murphy of Little Feat.
Pete is the son of English-born parents. His father was an Episcopal minister, and throughout Pete's infancy and childhood, he spent his Sundays in church, where he learned all the hymns in the traditional hymnal, sang in the church choir, and took organ lessons from the choir director. After many moves (ministers tend to relocate often), the family eventually settled in East Detroit, Michigan. Pete started playing the French horn in grade school and all through high school, eventually studying French horn at Central Michigan University. When he was 16, he picked up a bass guitar during a trip back to England and later started playing in local Detroit rock groups. At Central Michigan University, he was recruited to play bass in the school jazz band and in musical theater productions. By then he had progressed to string bass as well. His primary instrument has been bass ever since. Before moving to Washington, DC, Pete performed in jazz and show bands in the Detroit area.
Pete has worked as a freelance bassist in the Washington area for several decades. He currently leads the Tuxedo Park Orchestra, a 10-piece swing band, is a member of local roots rock group, The Cutaways, and the multi-faceted music group. Chaise Lounge. He also plays double bass with the Friday Morning Music Club Orchestra and the McLean Orchestra.
Pete received a degree in Arranging and Composition from Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts.
John Jensen: Trombone
John Jensen performs with the Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra and recently made a historic tour to Egypt, which included performances at the Giza Pyramids and at both the Cairo and Alexandria Opera Houses. John has been a featured performer at the White House, the Corcoran Art Gallery in Washington DC, and the Kennedy Center. John has performed with the McCoy Tyner Big Band and has been featured with Urbie Green, Milt Hinton, Stephanie Nakasian and Hod O'Brien. He
performs frequently in concert, and at clubs and private parties in the metropolitan DC area and throughout the East Coast. He has been featured at jazz parties throughout the USA. John played for 10 years with John Previti's "Mingus/Monk Tribute Band" and also is featured with the group Chaise Lounge. He has been on dozens of recordings and will soon release his third CD as leader.
Gary Gregg: Sax, clarinet, flute
GARY GREGG (clarinet, tenor saxophone and flute) Gray performs with many DC
ensembles,
including Chaise Lounge, The Cutaways, The Tuxedo Park Orchestra and his own
sextet. Perhaps
the area's leading exponent of swing clarinet, hot tenor and cool flute his
playing
provides local big bands with both the soaring clarinet and "down home" tenor
playing reminiscent of the swing era. Gary grew up in Las Vegas and began
his musical training there at an early age.
Charlie Barnett: Guitar, piano, accordion
As a film composer, Mr. Barnett's scores have appeared in more than four hundred television and theatrical films. His work in documentary film has won awards including the Cine Golden Eagle for his work on National Geographic's Tibet's Hidden Kingdom, a Peer Award for The Discovery Channel's Raising the Mammoth and Emmy nominations for Holocaust: the Untold Story and Cosmic Journey (for A& E). The Paperclips score won the 2004 Rome International Film Festival's Jerry Goldsmith Award. Paperclips has also won the Christopher Award for 2006 and was nominated for an Emmy He has also written music for Saturday Night Live, The Cosby Show, Third Rock from the Sun and Weeds. . Recently his score for the PBS series, The Appalachians, was released by Sony records. His score for Dreamer, a documentary about C.S. Lewis, produced by Walt Disney Productions was recently released .as part of the The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe boxed set. His 2008 feature films include: Kickin' It, War Child, Bedford: The Town They Left Behind, Keeping the Lights On and My Father's Will; all of which are due to be released in 2009. His television efforts this year include the score for the PBS series, Closer to Truth
Mr. Barnett's concert music career includes worldwide performances of his orchestral and chamber works. His Serenade for Double Bass was recently performed in London and has been performed by the National Symphony Orchestra, His violin concerto, Concerto in Fourths, The Brooklyn Affair and the symphony, The Blue Chevrolet were recently released on Big Kahuna Records. His viola concerto, From Istanbul, was recently recorded by Osman Kivrac.. Mr. Barnett's was commissioned to write a spoken word piece in collaboration with Dr. Maya Angelou for the Pageant of Peace in Washington DC in 2007. In November 2008, Mr. Barnett was "artist in residence" at the University of Wisconsin- Stevens Point where his symphonic pirate movie was premiered along with an animated film produced by the amazing students there.
He has also arranged and produced pop and jazz records for countless artists including Thrice for Island/Def Jam and Jason Falkner for Elektra. And he continues to proudly play with the eclectic lounge band, Chaise Lounge, whose second album is due to be released in early 2009.
Mr. Barnett can also be heard as an occasional commentator on NPR.
Marilyn Older: Vocals
Marilyn Older has been singing professionally since she graduated as a music technology major from American University in Washington DC. A native of North Carolina, she has written songs and performed with a variety of bands including Nixon's Cat and Dead Girls & Other Stories. As a pianist she toured with Doc Scantlin's Royal Palms Orchestra playing engagements from New York's Copacabana to a royal wedding in London. As a songwriter she has contributed songs to Chaise Lounge's first CD, The Early Years and to a number of independent feature films, the most recent of which is Bama Girl , which premiered at the 2008 SXSW film Festival in Austin, Texas. She has been nominated for the 2009 Wammies as one of Washington DC's best jazz vocalists.
Her other life consists of a career as the Director of the Holistic Practitioners' Business Association, and raising her two children, Savannah and Frazier.
Pop: Chamber Pop