THE CONNIE DOOLAN QUARTET
Musical Style/Genre: Folk/Jazz.
Background:
The Connie Doolan Quartet (www.conniedoolan.com) is a San Francisco Bay Area group comprising four veteran musicians who artfully blur the boundaries of folk and jazz, resulting in an intelligent and sensitive connection of the two genres. Their unique sound – characterized by strong vocals and smart instrumentation and arranging – is at once mature, emotionally aware and elegantly sexy, whether the band is performing a sultry standard from the American Songbook or providing a fresh, rhythmic take on an ancient Irish ballad. The group released their debut CD in 2006, Haunt Your Heart (Fiddling Cricket and celebrated the new recording with concerts including a performance Oct. 11 2006 at Berkeley, Calif.’s venerable Freight and Salvage Coffee House.
The Band Members:
- CONNIE DOOLAN, vocals.
- JULIAN SMEDLEY, violin, viola,
- MIKE WOLLENBERG, guitars.
- STEVEN STRAUSS, string bass, ukulele
About the CD – Haunt Your Heart (2006, Fiddling Cricket)
- Haunt Your Heart was recorded at recorded at MuscleTone Studios in Berkeley, Calif. and at Lumpacoal Studio in Canyon, Calif.
- The recording is an eclectic mix of songs from the Irish, English, American and jazz traditions, ranging from
the time-honored “Barbara Allen” to the cleverly sexy “Beautiful Things” (Anthony Newley, Leslie Bricuisse)
and “Who Are You?” (Tom Waits). Connecting the material is a theme of love’s losses and their impact on the spirit – tempered by a reminder to laugh and savor the good times when things get too serious.
- The 13-track CD is currently available at performances, on Cdbaby.com and at Down Home Music Store (www.downhomemusic.com).
BIOGRAPHIES – THE CONNIE DOOLAN QUARTET
CONNIE DOOLAN has been singing professionally for more than 25 years in numerous styles including swing/jazz, musical theater, cabaret, opera and folk. She performs and records with the Connie Doolan Quartet, a San Francisco Bay Area group that artfully blurs the boundaries of jazz and folk. The group’s debut CD, Haunt Your Heart (Fiddling Cricket) was released in summer 2006.
Known for her clear, earthy voice and fresh presentation of material, Connie is as at home singing an ancient Irish ballad as she is delivering a sultry standard from the American Songbook. She attributes much of her interpretation technique to her background in theater, having worked as an actor in regional theater including on the stages of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Oregon Repertory Theater, CitiArts Theater, PCPA Theaterfest and Upon These Boards (featured vocalist in UTB’s world peace event Lysistrata Project at Berkeley Rep.)
As a singer, Connie has performed and recorded with Bay Area vocalists Sylvia Herold and Patrice Haan in their Mehitabel trio and with the cabaret act Calliope. She has also performed and/or toured with: the Magic Theater (“Caliban Dreams,” opera); Zephyr (Orff-based performance ensemble); Z Space Theater (“Ariadne,” musical theater); Sons & Daughters of Orpheus (percussion ensemble); The Avalanche Choir (folk-bluegrass-gospel band).
Connie is a sought-after vocal instructor and teaches music to children as well as adults at music camps including Lark In The Morning in Mendocino, California, B.C Swing Workshop and Puget Sound Guitar Workshop in Washington.
JULIAN SMEDLEY started his musical career singing as a choirboy in an English Cathedral. As a violinist he was a frequent guest on BBC television & radio, was signed to Decca Records and toured Europe with his group The Bowles Brothers.
Leaving London for the US, he joined Cornish Institute’s jazz orchestra, playing with artists such as Art Lande, Ralph Towner, Gary Peacock and Gil Evans. He’s appeared with Johnny Mathis, The Clubfoot Orchestra, Third Ear and Dan Hicks, and plays with Paul Horn, the Hot Clubs of San Francisco and Berkeley, Mike Wollenberg, Magnetic Poets and the Connie Doolan Quartet.
MIKE WOLLENBERG is best known for his work as a fingerstyle solo guitarist. By playing two or three parts simultaneously or by suggesting bass lines or chord patterns and allowing the listener’s ear to fill in the gaps, Mike is able to create the illusion of there being much more than just one guitar.
Recording projects include two solo albums, The Hand that Feeds Me and Just Another Fool on the Hill and inclusion on the Windham Hill collection of lullabies On a Starry Night. He has also recorded with Darol Anger, Mike Marshall, and Dave Balakrishnan. He also recorded a jazz album with Connie Doolan Quartet bandmate Julian Smedley (name and date here).
Mike grew up in Berkeley California playing a variety of acoustic styles. He was inspired by Doc Watson and Tony Rice, and for a time became involved in the Bay Area Bluegrass Scene. He even went through a guitar contest phase, winning the Salt Flat Hoedown flat-picking contest in 1977.
When Mike’s interest began to shift towards acoustic Swing music, he helped co-found, with Dix Bruce and Bob Alekno, the popular string swing and jazz band Back Up & Push (named after an old fiddle tune). BU&P was in the thick of the exciting new acoustic scene spearheaded by David Grisman and his Quintet, and performed with such notables as Clarence Gatemouth Brown, Juice Newton, mandolin legends Jestro Burns and Tiny Moore, Duck Baker and the David Grisman Quintet. In the 80s Mike became the bass player for Back Up and Push. In this role he developed a bassist’s sensibility -- the skill to create a groove to propel a band without the aid of drums. These elements would become intrinsic to his unique solo guitar style. Bass credits outside of Back Up & Push include performances with Vassar Clements and Laurie Lewis.
Mike’s solo guitar style is rooted in the great Joe Pass, Tuck Andress, Martin Taylor tradition but also draws heavily from his bass and acoustic guitar experience.
STEVEN STRAUSS was born in San Francisco to a Lancashire shop girl and a Portuguese jet engine mechanic from Lanai. Hi-Fi enthusiasm was a household rule every weekend, with Alfred Apaka and Martin Denney Group stacked on the changer next to Stan Kenton and Henry Mancini. (Steven had to go to his room when guests dropped in and the Kent Bowman pidgin comedy LPs came out, but this only encouraged him to sharpen his ear.)
At 14 he picked up the ukulele and later the string bass, and ever since his musical career has traversed a wide variety of engagements and styles. Some of Steven's more successful long term positions include three years with the trio of the late blue balladeer Charles Brown, a decade of alternative folk rock with Penelope Houston, three years of authentic Tex Mex conjunto with Los Pinkys Originales, four non-contiguous years as a founding member of the Django-centric Hot Club of San Francisco, more than two years playing bass and singing relief for Lavay Smith and the Red Hot Skillet Lickers, in addition to casual ties to The Royal Society Jazz Orchestra, trad jazz pianist Ray Skjelbred, the Blue Room Boys, Eric and Suzy Thompson, The California Cajun Orchestra, and Don Burnham's western swing outfit Lost Weekend.
Steven's done session work for such recording artists as Bobby Black, Jeremy Cohen, Sonya Hunter, Jane Voss, Alice Stuart, Radim Zenkl, Stephen Yerkey, Pray For Rain, Tommy Carns, and a really nice looking gal who played a harp, brown hair, had a horse. One of his passions is string arranging, and he's written 20 string charts for the recordings of such singer-songwriters as Hannah Marcus, Connie Champagne, Pat Johnson, CJ MacDuffie, and Anna Gurski, as well as for some of the bands in which he’s played.
MEDIA CONTACT:
Connie Doolan
Email: conniedoolan@sbcglobal.net
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