Teri Roiger – vocals
Roy Nathanson – saxophone
John Menegon – bass
Bill Ware – vibes
Matt Garrity – drums
ROY NATHANSON has had a varied career as a saxophonist, composer, bandleader, poet, actor and teacher. During the thirty years Nathanson has led the Jazz Passengers, the band has recorded 10 CDs and toured extensively. As primary composer for the band, Nathanson has written songs for a variety of singers including Elvis Costello, Deborah Harry, Jeff Buckley, Jimmy Scott and Mavis Staples. Nathanson also leads Sotto Voce, a band that investigates various relationships between text and music in performances and recordings. His radio play, You’re The Fool, was performed and commissioned on NPR and his meditation on time, The Rock Concert, was commissioned by the Science Museum of the University of Wisconsin. His first book of poetry Subway Moon is on Buddy’s Knife Editions and his poems have appeared in Natural Bridge, 5AM, the Brooklyn Rail and other publications. His non-profit organization, Subway Moon, connects teenage songwriter/musicians around the world with his Sotto Voce band in professional performances. He has also collaborated in theatre and film with David Cale, Chantal Akerman, Peter Sollett and Ray Dobbins through composition, co-writing and acting. Nathanson has received two New York Foundation for the Arts composing awards, a Chamber Music America Award in composition and grants from the Rockefeller Foundation and NPR. He was a recipient of a Bessie Award and a Joseph Jefferson Award in Chicago. He has been featured in the NY Times, Wall Street Journal, The New Yorker, The Brooklyn Rail, The Guardian, The London Independent and various other international publications. He has been a guest lecturer/teacher at University of California, Berkley, Hampshire College, New England College MFA program and has run the music department at New York City’s Institute for Collaborative Education for 12 years. Nathanson’s archives have recently been bought by NYU’s Fales Library for their permanent collection.
TERI ROIGER
VOCALIST, PIANIST, SONGWRITER
“Teri has an intuitive laid back sense of time reminiscent of Abbey Lincoln and Betty Carter but with her own uniqueness.” JACK DEJOHNETTE (legendary jazz drummer & NEA Jazz Master)
An American jazz musician vocalist, pianist, songwriter, educator, and producer, Teri lives in New York City and also spends time in New York’s Hudson Valley. She began playing piano at age 5, and played church organ throughout her teens. When she discovered jazz in her early 20s – and shortly after made her first demo with the legendary stride pianist Butch Thompson – her musical path was set.
Throughout the years, her music has taken many exciting twists and turns. She has performed as a DUO with her husband, bassist John Menegon, throughout the U.S., Canada, Mexico, and Europe, and they have been featured artists at the San Miguel Jazz Festival (Mexico), Panama Jazz Festival (Panama), and Bolzano Jazz Festival (Italy), where they presented concerts and masterclasses. The depth of her experiences and love of jazz is apparent when she brings all their talents to live performances, the recording studio, and through her moving lyrics and compositions.
BILL WARE – VIBRAPHONE
Harkening back to a violinist whose freedom from slavery was bought in performance, Bill Ware’s place within American music is best described as a proud lineage. Vibraphonist, bassist, composer, pianist, educator and creative adventurer, Ware’s genre-bending career, well into its fourth decade, has been nothing short of riveting. A founding member of the Jazz Passengers and Groove Collective, he’s also collaborated with Steely Dan, John Zorn, JD Parran, Marc Ribot, Bobby Sanabria, Deborah Harry, the BBC Concert Orchestra, Chico Mendoza, Bobby Previte, Joe Henderson, Jerome Harris, the Buffalo Philharmonic, the Minnesota Symphony, Elvis Costello, Arturo O’Farrill, Andy Summers, Marshall Crenshaw, Pink Floyd’s David Gilmore and many more.
JOHN MENEGON – BASS
New York City bassist John Menegon started his career playing bass in Montreal. After having worked for several years on the Canadian jazz scene with the great guitarists Sonny Greenwich, Mike Gauthier & Nelson Simons, and saxophonists Steve Grossman & Pat LaBarbara, he went on to hone his skills in NYC in the mid-80s. Since moving to New York to study Jazz at Long Island University on a full scholarship, John has performed/recorded with Dewey Redman, David “Fathead” Newman, Matt Wilson, Frank Kimbrough, John Hicks, Yoron Israel, Jack DeJohnette, Kenny Burrell, Joel Frahm, Pat Metheny, Kenny Barron, Paul Bley, Anthony Braxton’s Tri-Centric Orchestra, Nick Brignola, Jimmy Cobb, Al Foster, Slide Hampton, Sheila Jordan, Lee Konitz, Joe Lovano, and many others. In addition to touring, recording, and composing, he has created and taught Jazz Workshops on the music of Jaco Pastorius, Miles Davis, and Charles Mingus at Williams College (Williamstown, MA). He has also taught master classes at Jazz Festivals around the world, including the Panama Jazz Festival, Bolzano, (Italy) and San Miguel de Allende.
MATT GARRITY – DRUMS
Drummer, Matt Garrity has been on the New York music scene since 1994. He has performed and recorded with some of the best in the business, including Grammy winners: Joe Lovano, Vincent Herring and Steve Slagle, as well as David Williams, Teri Thornton, Peter Bernstein, David Amram, Eric Alexander, Judi Silvano, Gary Versace, Ron McLure, Ed Cherry, Joel Forrester, Jeremy Pelt and Jerome Richardson.