Album Notes

The Julie Lyon Quartet is a swinging, dynamic classic jazz group featuring Julie Lyon on vocal, Tom Cabrera on drums, Larry Hutter on bass and Scott Montgomery on piano. This group brings new life to the old standards with fresh, signature arrangements performed in the classic style of greats such as Ella Fitzgerald, Nat King Cole and Sarah Vaughn. They are stylish and sophisticated yet always dedicated to the great tradition of a uniquely American art form. The Julie Lyon Quartet performs the absolute finest in jazz, standards, blues, swing and be-bop and provides accessible, entertaining music for everyone.

Live recordings are funny. Almost as soon as we record we decide that we can do it better. That kept happening again and again until we had to assign ourselves a deadline or endlessly chase the elusive perfect performance. This recording is something of a history of our various performances at a number of venues over a 4 month period in 2006. Live recordings can be full of challenges. Listen and you’ll hear the sounds of restaurant patrons dining and having conversations. During ‘Cry Me A River’ you’ll hear Scott’s son Diego cry as if on cue. Kids screaming, waiters taking orders, people laughing and having fun, it’s all there. (Sometimes people even listen to the band.) Between Then and Now is an example of what we do. We play these wonderful old songs, sometimes for small audiences, sometimes for big festivals and a little bit of everything in between, but the title, Between Then and Now is a little more than that. It’s an indication of our musical evolution and development and our hope to never stop growing. I hope you enjoy what you hear. If you attended one of these performances I hope it brings back fond memories as it does for us.

Julie