Longtime trumpeter finds success with KC jazz band by Kristin Danley-Greiner Altoona Herald-Index, March 15, 2006
Voted “Best Jazz Band” by The Pitch readers
2006 Pitch Music Awards
Insert August 2, 2006
©2006 New Times, Inc. All rights reserved.
It’s no accident that the Grand Marquis also received nominating votes in the Blues/Soul category. On the right night, the group would get a nod in the country category, too. What the Marquis understands is that moment in the late ‘40’s or early ‘50’s when rhythm & blues, blues, jump blues, jazz – even Bob Wills’ western swing – were close enough in spirit to share musicians, backbeats and wardrobes. Speaking of wardrobes, there’s not a band left in KC that can out-vintage the Grand Marquis. Especially the hats, suits and drummer Lisa McKenzie’s delicious threads. 
The X Entertainment Magazine
July 2006
Our Best of KC-Local Band category was strictly write-in – so we got a variety of responses from the Kansas City music scene. In the end, the local jazz-swing fivesome Grand Marquis was the top pick.
The X Entertainment Magazine
July 2006
A Grand ol' Time
By John Beaudoin
The talents and passions of the five members of the Grand Marquis – named Kansas City 's Best Band by readers of The X – are as diverse as the band itself.
From the multi-talented percussion of Lisa McKenzie to the rich soulful voice of Bryan Redmond, the veteran Grand Marquis deliver their own brand of swinging, interactive jazz and soulful blues.
In between McKenzie and Redmond – two of the founding members of the band – are bassist Ben Ruth, guitarist Sammy Nicolier and trumpeter Chad Boydston.
A few hours with this group, and fans quickly recognize the respect paid to Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington and many other jazz greats.
As always, the fivesome was humble when told about its award. “We're just having fun,” said McKenzie, on a break from their most recent set at Ameristar's Depot #9. “We do appreciate those people that come out to see us. I don't know that we deserve that title. I feel fortunate to play in a band like this.”
The thousands of fans who have taken in a Grand Marquis show since 1998 may disagree.
And the chemistry of the band resonates during each song, from “So Far Away,” (wihich will be found on their fourth CD, due out by Christmas), to “The Mooche,” and “Paseo Street Strut.”
“We do enjoy each other's company,” Redmond said.
Added Nicolier, “It's cool to think that people think of the Grand Marquis when they think of the best band in the city.”
The Grand Marquis are regulars at Blue Springs ' Trouser Mouse, 12 Baltimore in downtown Kansas City and play every Thursday night at Jazz: A Louisiana Kitchen in midtown Kansas City.
The Pitch
November 3, 2005
©2005 New Times, Inc. All rights reserved.
Marquis Moon: these young cats keep Kansas City swinging
By Lorna Perry
 |
| There's some real gone cats in the Grand Marquis. |
During the Great Depression, a mind-boggling number of rowdy clubs and ballrooms sprang to life in downtown Kansas City , creating the perfect environment for a late-night community of bootlegging, gambling and boogie-woogie to take hold. A prolific jazz scene took shape, and musicians from all over the nation flocked to town, eager to participate in the wild musical climate that kept tempo with the city's freewheeling days and lawless nights. Many of the clubs simply never closed for the night, and musicians stayed up into the wee hours of the morning honing a robust style of swing that became a Kansas City trademark — riffed-out, bluesy and packed with more horn power than a herd of Herefords.
Kansas City swing is real party jazz — remember that phrase. It's the kind of music that gets people riled up and sends them jitterbugging across the floor. What few people know is that we still have some active, traditional swing bands right here in town. For example, there are the Scamps — heading toward their 60th year of performing — and the nationally acclaimed act Tim Whitmer and the KC Express. But before you reach for some of that ol' bathtub gin, think about ordering a Red Bull and vodka instead. Because there's a swinging band right here in town that not only represents a younger generation of musicians and listeners but also has a history as eclectic as its music is danceable.
The Grand Marquis came on the scene in 1998. But the earliest glimmer of what would eventually become the band began two years earlier, when bassist Ben Ruth, a freshman at the University of Missouri-Kansas City met local punk-rock drummer Lisa McKenzie (of Cher UK and Goodpuss fame) at the Corner Restaurant where they both worked. Musicians daylighting as servers and cooks is commonplace; what was unique about McKenzie and Ruth is that, when they met, they were both rock-and-roll musicians yearning to learn jazz.
They also learned that the transition from rock to jazz is not a smooth one. "I didn't understand it — I could hear the chord changes, but when I tried to translate it to my electric bass, it didn't work," Ruth tells the Pitch from behind a cloud of his bandmate's cigarette smoke inside the swanky, historic 12 Baltimore club. "So I knew I had to learn stand-up."
McKenzie had similar adventures in genre hopping. "Don't get me wrong, I love punk," she says. "But the whole time I played, I always felt like I wasn't playing like I wanted to, which really pushed me into wanting to learn to play jazz. So I started taking lessons."
Ruth and McKenzie started a jazz combo, the Moose Malloys, which was more about practice and honing improvisational chops than playing out.
During this period, McKenzie also traveled to Africa several times to attend a drum clinic in Ghana , an experience that has influenced her distinctive drumming style. "My favorite thing to play on drums is the toms — tom-heavy stuff — which is definitely African-influenced," she explains.
Thirty lost pounds and a bout with malaria later, McKenzie was introduced to local top-flight rockabilly musician Carl "Slim" Hanson in 1998, through a mutual friend who knew they were both looking to start a jazz band. When McKenzie and Hanson added upright bass player Andy Dondzila and a sax player named Bryan Redmond to their mix, the Grand Marquis was officially a band.
Initially billed as a rockabilly act, the Marquis' lineup changed for the first time in 1999, when McKenzie's original jazz comrade, Ruth, replaced Dondzila on bass. Things got even hotter for the Marquis in 2002, when trumpeter Chad Boydston joined.
Boydston, unlike the other Marquis members, had a good idea early in life that he wanted to be a jazzer. Born and raised in Iowa , he was handed a trumpet by his father at age 6. Dad was passing on the torch — he's an accomplished trumpet player himself who got to sit in with Louis Armstrong a time or two. "Trumpets can express," Boydston says. "I got hooked on solos — that was a real turning point for me."
It also helped that he got a few lessons and advice from Wynton Marsalis while he was still in high school. "When I went to see Wynton play the first time, he knew I was serious because I brought my trumpet with me to his master class," Boydston says.
After graduating from the University of Northern Iowa , Boydston headed south. "I went to New Orleans to play, and basically everyone was telling me you don't really want to move down here — it's not that great," he says. "So other than New Orleans , it's Kansas City or New York , and New York is at the top of the food chain. But I came here, and I think KC is better than Chicago — you can get gigs here."
In 2003, Hanson, frontman and co-founder of the band, decided to call it quits. Because of his famous talent and flamboyant leadership, many people thought that his retreat spelled the end for the Marquis. But for McKenzie, Ruth and Boydston, there was no question whether to keep the band going.
"The night that Slim quit, Chad and I were talking on the phone about it. And then we called Bryan and said, 'You're going to sing!'" McKenzie recalls.
Unlike McKenzie and Ruth, sax player Redmond is not from Kansas City . He's a west Tennessee son of a Baptist preacher, raised on roots and country music. His granddad introduced him to jazz and the blues. He moved to Kansas City when he was 9 and first played sax publicly at age 10, in church. He later joined the high school jazz band and then attended UMKC on a dental school scholarship. After ditching dental school, he knew that he wanted to make a go at gigging. So when he answered McKenzie and Hanson's 1998 want ad seeking a sax player, Redmond knew he'd found his band.
"This is the first band I've sung in, and, yeah, I was scared," he says. "But I took a lot of the songs Slim did, stuff I co-wrote and sang back-up to, and just did them my way."
Redmond's energy onstage and his love for the music are infectious. He often explains the details of songs before the band plays them — both the covers and Marquis originals such as "Paseo Street Strut" and "Cointreau's Raid" — filling the audience in on the songs' historical or mythological origins. The entire band embodies that old-school swing look and feel with its suits and ties, but it's Redmond , with his pomaded hair, porkpie hat and suspenders, who completes the Marquis' speakeasy air.
With Redmond secured as sax player and singer, the band started looking for a guitarist.
"I knew as soon as I heard them play that I wanted to be in the band," says axe-slinger Sammy Nicolier. Born and raised in France , Nicolier's eclectic guitar style dates to his enrollment at age 5 in a music academy.
"Sammy isn't a power guitarist — at least not in this band," Boydston says. "He's very graceful, very virtuosic. You can hear that Django Reinhardt influence when he plays."
The Grand Marquis, which has toured extensively and made countless weddings memorable, recently celebrated its 800th show. But the act never gets stale; at any given performance, expect to see baby boomers and Gen Y-ers cutting slices outta the same rug.
"You know, we didn't start out saying this is exactly what we're going to do. It kinda morphed," McKenzie says.
"It's still morphing — that's the beauty of it," Boydston adds.
"I think people started taking more notice of us when Ben joined the band," McKenzie says. "He added a rock-and-roll element and rawness, which added a new dimension. His playing has real energy and character."
"I love the real smooth and clean notes and stuff, but I just don't play like that. It's kinda raw — I like to dig into notes," Ruth says.
Any 18th and Vine bass player from the '20s would probably agree. After all, KC swing, which was born of late-night jam sessions, is a sound that swings harder than any other jazz out there.
"We play party jazz — the jazz of the people that really came out of the '20s and '30s and was music for people to dance to," Boydston explains. "You don't have to have a music degree to understand it. You can just enjoy it."
The Pitch “Best Of” Issue 2005
2005: Music: Hello, Kansas City !
No matter how many classic masterworks receive new packaging from great labels such as Blue Note and Impulse, and no matter how many times Wynton Marsalis fires up the Lincoln Center to pay homage to the 20th-century titans of this great American art form, interest in jazz is fading like the cinder of an abandoned cigarette. Thank the spirit of Bix Beiderbecke, then, for the Grand Marquis. From 150,000th street down south up to KCI, you won't find a more energetic or more faithful KC jazz act than this youthful five-piece. Having recently celebrated its 700th show, the Grand Marquis is still prompting unsuspecting bargoers every weekend to take drink and dame in hand and dance to the jump rhythm of the "Paseo Street Strut" or any of its many traditional-sounding originals. The Grand Marquis is a band out of time yet completely comfortable in its surroundings, as evidenced by the unflagging, sly smile of singer and saxophonist Bryan Redmond. The Count would be proud.
“Grand Marquis” CD Review
Grand Marquis a Keeper
by Chris Waage
This one's a keeper. Roots jazz with an attitude, vocals that take you back to Cab Calloway, solid horns and a tight rhythm section. Bryan Redmonds' vocals make the CD for me, but the instrumental tracks - especially "Lester Leaps In" - flat out swing.
The trumpet and sax work is well-done, and these guys did their homework. Styles are dead on, and the tracks all work together. Creative, fun and just a little out there to make it new. The CD is definitely worth picking up, and don't forget to see their live shows if you have a chance. My favorite tracks: St. Louis Blues - a cool treatment of W.C. Handy's classic, and Cointreau's Raid, which flat out grooves. Even my 5-year-old daughter is dancing around the room when this one's on. Oh yeah - I forgot to mention that even the CD sleeve art is cool.
Guest Informant Magazine
2005/2006
(Excerpts from) Swing Town : the beat goes on with KC's legendary jazz scene
by Lorna Perry
…To really boogie down and swing dance, Jazz: A Louisiana Kitchen ( 1823 W 39 th St. ; 816-531-5556) is an ideal destination. This hot Cajun spot offers music six nights a week, with food and drink specials to boot. The atmosphere is always fun, especially when the Grand Marquis, one of the city's hottest jump-and-jive bands, takes over. This cool five-piece, with echoes of ‘30's KC and '50's Memphis, has been getting folks out of their seats and up on the dance floor for the past seven years, invigorating audiences with their hard-swinging, old-school, blues-based jazz and rockabilly style. Experienced swing dancers show up and get their groove on whenever the Marquis play, which is always exciting for spectators as well as the dancers themselves.
“The word ‘jazz' is confusing because it covers a variety of styles from the 1920's through today,” Grand Marquis sax man and singer Bryan Redmond points out. “Someone's perception of that word can mislead them about a band,” he goes on, “but we are definitely the dance and party music kind of jazz mixed with other styles like rhythm-and-blues.”
“We're accessible to a wide variety of people, and kids up to 90-year-olds love us,” adds Lisa McKenzie, Grand Marquis' drummer. “I love to see and elderly couple in the crowd dancing; you can tell the music takes them back to when they were young. To me, that's cool.”…
…Musically, good times are always to be had in Kansas City . “We live in a great music town,” sums up Grand Marquis' Redmond . Whether you're checking out a new sound, cutting a rug to old-fashioned swing, or just relaxing to mellow jazz, K.C. has a band and venue to suit your mood. Who cares if it's no longer the Roaring Twenties? Just close your eyes, listen to the music, and the legend lives on.
The Pitch
August 4, 2005
©2005 New Times, Inc. All rights reserved.
KC Confidential: Life is grand when you find the right band.
By Jason Harper
It was a Sunday in July in Kansas City, and I was sucking down gin and staring down a newspaper deadline like it was the barrel of a pearl-handled pistol. I had 12 hours to cook up some copy to keep the pink slip at bay. My cat's ribs were showing, and my wife needed new stockings.
Sliding Workin' With the Miles Davis Quintet into the stereo, I hopped in the car and gunned it for 18th & Vine in search of salvation. But when I got there, the place was deader than Dizzy Gillespie. The Blue Room and Red Vine were closed, and the show was over at the Gem Theater.
I set a course for the Savoy, which had given happy feet a place to stomp back in the day. I needed some nitro, so I put in "Better Git It in Your Soul" by Charles Mingus. Some dapper cats celebrating a stag party came charging out of the Savoy, but inside, the chairs were already stacked on the tables. I drove up to the Phoenix Piano Bar (closed) and the Majestic Steakhouse (closed), through Kansas City's red-light district -- named, apparently, for the traffic signals every six feet.
At Jardine's on Main Street, the bartender said that the Wild Women of KC had already played two early shows, so I made my way to Jazz on 39th. The right kind of music was on the jukebox, but there were fewer people around than drinkers at an Islamic barbecue.
Luckily, I got a call from the Pitch's clubs editor, Lorna Perry, who had taken a break from a six-day bourbon-and-cocaine binge to get some work done. A sweet little jazz band was playing at Fred P. Ott's, she said. "P. Ott's?" I asked. "Ain't that a rock-and-roll joint?"
"Just get yer ass down there and see fer yerself, ya bastid," she snapped. I knew better than to argue with a strung-out broad, so I made a beeline for the Plaza.
I had to fork over two clams at the door, but inside, the scotch was strong and the jazz was stronger. Crammed into a corner of the yard-sale-decorated dive was the Grand Marquis -- the best reason to believe that Kansas City jazz hasn't yet gone the way of Charlie Parker's liver.
Decked out in cufflinks, suspenders and a straw Panama, singer Bryan Redmond belted out the blues and played the sax like he was born with a silver reed in his mouth. It made my heart sick that the Grand Marquis has been around for seven years and has played more than 750 shows without getting so much as a plate of cookies for its work keeping this city's heritage alive. Soaking in the band's slow-cooked stew of real Kansas City jump and jive, I wondered how five white kids, none of them much older than 30, could play so damned good.
I'd have told 'em I could make 'em all stars, but, hell, I'm just a two-bit hack working for a free paper.
The Pitch
January 13, 2005
©2005 New Times, Inc. All rights reserved.
We're A-Muggin' With Grand Marquis
When we hear the words jump and Grand Marquis in the same sentence, it's usually in the context of our old college roommate calling us to rescue his dead-Mercury-drivin' ass from a Wal-Mart parking lot. But in the context of local jazz, Grand Marquis means the best jump-and-jive band to come out of Kansas City since Count Basie rocked the cannabis clouds in Sol Stibel's Club Reno on East 12th Street in the mid-1930s. That may not sound exciting to anyone who never caught on to the short-lived late-'90s retro swing craze, but we know from experience that, after witnessing singer and saxophonist Bryan Redmond channel Cab Calloway to the slick stomp laid down by Lisa "Best Chick Drummer in Town" McKenzie for a few numbers, even the staunchest flat-foot-floogie haters'll be stomping their feet. Do the Paseo Street Strut tonight from 7 to 11 p.m. at Jazz: A Louisiana Kitchen, 1823 West 39th Street , 816-531-5556.
CD Review posted on the www.porthalcyon.com website
Grand Marquis
By Dante Murphy
It all starts with "St. Louis Blues". Well, not really, that's the ninth of thirteen tracks on this collection, but you can tell a lot about a jazz combo by their rendition of that definitive tune. Kansas City's Grand Marquis band says, in no uncertain terms, that they have the chops to stand with the big boys.
Their eponymous album delivers ten classic covers and three well-turned originals, spanning hot jazz, classic swing, and blues. Trumpeter Chad Boydston blows the 'amen, huzzah, and hallelujah' in the spiritual "Keep Your Hand on the Plow", trilling and dancing an improvised melody over the pulsing rhythm of bassist Ben Ruth and drummer Lisa McKenzie. Vocalist Bryan Redmond shows his true gift on a blazing rendition of "Lester Leaps In" that's sure to pack the dance floor.
The band attempts to capture the vintage, compressed sound of an early 78 on "I'se a Muggin'", but the effort falls flat, spoiling what is otherwise a solid rendition of the classic Stuff Smith composition. Instead of sounding evocative, it sounds like a mistake—the 1936 recording with Django Reinhardt's Quintet of the Hot Club of France is more vibrant and multi-tonal, more real.
That's really the only knock on this modern swing quintet, whose selection of varied tempos and styles sets them apart from latter-day one-trick-ponies like Big Bad Voodoo Daddy. The guitar work of Sammy Nicolier is sweet and powerful, especially on the Reinhardt classic "Souvenirs".
Grand Marquis reminds the listener of the gone-but-not-forgotten Squirrel Nut Zippers, who shared an appreciation of pre-WWII music, a sense of humor, and a solid group of musicians. All bow to the Grand Marquis.
Kansas City Star
August 14, 2005
“On The Bill: Grand Marquis Celebrates its Seventh Anniversary”
by Ward Triplett
The Kansas City band Grand Marquis started playing together back in 1998, as a four-piece band. The now-quintet released their third album this year, played their 750 th show in May and will celebrate their seven-year anniversary Saturday with a show at the Bulldog on Main Street . They've also earned a solid reputation around town for their blues and jazz-heavy sound and versatility.
“I describe it as one part jump blues, one part Kansas City Jazz – we call it red hot jazz – and a bit of the New Orleans or Dixieland feel,” singer/saxophonist Bryan Redmond said. “No matter where you are or come from – background, nationality, age – hopefully there's something you'll like about us. We've seen crowds where preschoolers all the way up to grandparents are dancing to us. It means different things to different people, but that's something I really like about the band.”
Grand Marquis has some unusual influences for a Midwestern band. Only bassist Ben Ruth is a Kansas City , MO native. Drummer Lisa McKenzie has studied drumming in Ghana . Guitarist Sammy Nicolier is a transplant from the Burgundy region of France . Trumpeter Chad Boydston chose Kansas City over New Orleans after determining he needed to move away from Des Moines , Iowa to pursue his musical muse. Redmond 's family is from west Tennessee , although he grew up here, attending Shawnee Mission North and then UMKC's jazz program. He was enrolled in the Dental School , but quickly found his true calling by answering an ad for someone needing a sax man. He found himself on the ground floor of the Grand Marquis.
At the time singer/guitarist Carl “Slim” Hanson fronted the band. Over time the band evolved; Andy Dondzila, originally on upright bass, bowed out in 1999 with Ruth deftly stepping in. They added fifth member Boydston in 2002. In 2003 Hanson retired and took his lead vocals and guitar with him. They quickly found Sammy Nicolier, who brought his guitar virtuosity. Redmond, who had been co-writing songs all along, literally stepped up to the mic.
They perform a mix of originals and covers of songs like “Piney Brown Blues,” “Minnie the Moocher,” and “St. Louis Blues,” although sometimes it's hard to tell the new songs from the old. That's part of what keeps their music fresh and interesting.
Keeping a band together this long is an accomplishment in and of itself, balancing a full schedule of shows (12-15 performances per month) with family time. It's amazing they find time to rehearse to add new material. “We work as much or more as any band in our genre in town,” Redmond added.
Last year they did take a shot at something a little bigger. They pulled off a successful two-month summer tour of 30 jazz and dance clubs from Seattle to Miami . It taught them a few things. “It let us know we could do it,” Redmond said. “We came back a tighter and better band, and better friends. That doesn't happen with a lot of bands, so it was encouraging. It was definitely a good experience.”
Redmond said the anniversary gig may hold a couple of surprises. They've invited Hanson to step back up for a number or two, and he expects to play fan favorites and share some stories of making music in Kansas City . “Mostly we're taking a moment to thank our fans for their support and look forward to the future.” For the Grand Marquis, the future definitely looks bright.
March 2005
CD Review of “Grand Marquis”
by Bruce Hibbs, President, Kansas City Blues Society
Cab Calloway is alive and well! Or at least that was my immediate reaction upon slipping in a brand new CD that Dick Schulte was holding, entitled simply “Grand Marquis.”
A Kansas City group that has been playing around and about since 1998, and a band that I previously heard just a couple times in the past. We liked the band well enough that we were just waiting for another chance, ‘cause man they swing, they jump, they are retro and metro, taking you back in time without apology, while putting their own stamp on each of their songs – original or Marquis-arranged.
Bryan Redmond is out front on saxophones and vocals. Sammy Nicolier takes care of the guitar. Ben Ruth is on bass, and Lisa McKenzie on drums takes care of the rhythm, the driving, arguably the most fun and interesting part of the band.
However, I can't wait to meet this trumpet and cornet player, Chad Boydston. He weaves and sings with through that horn throughout – whether tastefully in the background or fiercely high and bright, the guy's got the lip with talent. A couple of things I was fascinated with were how these five can produce such a big band sound, and on some songs they can sound like an old 78rpm shellac record (I'm assuming it has something to do with their equipment, but would enjoy finding out).
On to just a little about some of the songs on the CD itself: A very nice original from Bryan Redmond called “Paseo Street Strut” starts things off and immediately sets the pace and the tone for the rest of the album. All instruments are introduced, and just enough to promise more which is all we want.
“I'se A Muggin'” is one of those mentioned above that sounds like a record from long ago. Jumping right ahead, and I don't mean skipping, but jumping up tempo with “18 th Sunday in Ordinary Time.” Good sax work here, and the rhythm section begins to shine, along with some plunger muted trumpet thrown in for good measure.
Sammy Nicolier on guitar takes center stage for “Souvenirs,” kind of laid back and nice. In fact, real nice. Of course, you know this band is like a firecracker with a short fuse and just won't stay still for long.
Up we go again to the tune of the walls falling down at Jericho , with “Cointreau's Raid.” Now we're cranking it up full of the promise of the intricate rhythms laid down as each instruments plays its melody, including that trumpet player coming on strong. The lady on drums along with the bass both get a workout on this one, which continues with some more gospel-feeling depth on “Keep Your Hand on the Plow.” Again, super rhythm laid down for the sax and trumpet player to show off.
Jumping and shouting, they just keep it coming, and it gets darn hard to type while trying to chair dance as “Lester Leaps In” swings down. Super upright bass licks tossed in like cookies with milk. Finally, back to the old time ‘30's or ‘40's sound with “If You'se a Viper.”
Follow this with the old “St. Louis Blues,” tuned up and arranged beautifully by the Grand Marquis. “Kiss of Fire has more of an early ‘50's feel, followed by “Piney Brown Blues,” a song paying tribute to a club owner in the heyday of old Kaycee. There has been a whole lot of blues and jazz through this town, and Grand Marquis reminds us of our heritage.
Another jazz tribute, this time to the great Duke Ellington sings out with “Black & Tan Fantasy,” featuring the sax and trumpet trading riffs in this instrumental. I tell you, this band looks at a lot of different times and places, and ends their most enjoyable CD with “ Juba and a O'Brown Squaw” – with its Native American sounds dancing around the happy sounds of the playing of Boydston, just how I would end the CD.
I present to you for your pleasure, Grand Marquis.JAM: Jazz Ambassador Magazine, Kansas City
April/May 2005 Issue
Destination: Kansas City
By Julie Cirlincui
Swing and jump at Jazz: A Louisiana Kitchen (39th & State Line). You can enjoy happy hour while you wait your turn for a pool table, or have a cocktail on the patio if you miss the courtyards and humidity of New Orleans. When you’re ready to eat, the menu features blackened seafood, pasta and Creole delights. You’ll be treated to live music Wednesday through Sunday starting at 7pm. With any luck, you’ll get to hear Grand Marquis (Thursdays). Their high-energy delivery of Swing, Dixieland and Jump Blues is both raw and polished – sometimes simultaneously! They’re guaranteed to have you dancing in the aisles.
JCCC Campus Ledger
January 23, 2003
Grand Marquis Swings with Jazz and Blues
By Courtney Farr, Editor
As a freight train rolls the front plate glass windows of Jerry's Bait Shack in Old Town Lenexa, jazz fills the small bar. Grand Marquis proves that the jazz, swing and blues heritage that moved Kansas City in her prime are alive and well.
Nailing down exactly how to refer to the Marquis' style and music is difficult, due to their mixing and blending of swing, blues and jazz. No matter what you call it, their music is fun, distinctive and enjoyable. Credit part of their unique sound to the African drumbeats incorporated by drummer Lisa McKenzie. She took traditional African drum lessons while studying anthropology in Ghana . “I think it definitely adds a New Orleans style,” said McKenzie, “that (Africa) is where the New Orleans style came from.”
Speaking of Africa, McKenzie was forced to miss the band's first two gigs due to a case of malaria she contracted while in Ghana . McKenzie nearly died from the disease. “There was a doctor at Truman Medical Center from Nigeria who saved my life,” said McKenzie. She said that without that doctor's experience, she might not have recovered.
Now, years later, Grand Marquis is celebrating their second album. “Le Chant du Diable Bleu” (translated from French as “The Chant of the Blue Devil”) was named in honor of Walter Page's Blue Devils, a classic Kansas City jazz band that included musicians such as William “Count” Basie, Jimmy “Mr. Five by Five” Rushing and Oran “Hot Lips” Page. The musical quality of the album is simply superb.
On a self-produced and self-promoted CD from a band that still works day jobs to support themselves, the music is better than most mass-produced studio work.
The album opens with a swinging tune, “Daisies” that while the music is upbeat, laments over a love now gone and buried.
“Change My Way of Living” has a big band feel with a quick pace and features some wicked saxophone work.
“No More Worries” slow the pace down, digging into blues roots with a slow, sad saxophone playing counterpoint to a wailing trumpet. The album finishes with two more slower tunes, “Single Malt Serenade” and the heavy “Bad Dream Blues.” It is followed by an amazing hidden track that sounds like a spoken word piece with music from the ‘Beat Generation.'
Saxophonist Bryan Redmond said this year's addition of Chad Boydston on trumpet helped fill out the band's sound on “Chant…”
Redmond joined the band after answering an ad insisting on “no cutoff jeans or sandals.” Redmond said he remembered thinking “Well, that's me.”
“We've always stayed positive because we know we've got something people need to hear,” said Boydston.Longtime trumpeter finds success with KC jazz band
by Kristin Danley-Greine
At an age when most kids are learning what “rhythm” means, jazz musician Chad Boydston of Pleasant Hill was belting out tunes on his beloved trumpet, following in his dad’s footsteps.
This East High School graduate began playing seriously when he was just six years old. His dad, trumpet player Bob Boydston of Altoona, was his musical role model.
“I think my dad turned me on to playing the trumpet. I thought it was so cool that he played, and he was a hell of a trumpet player,” Chad, 34, said. “When I was a kid, I thought, ‘Wow, I want to do that.’”
The elder Boydston had played in a number of bands when younger and even performed with the Des Moines Symphony, his son said. So it is only fitting that Bob remains Chad’s biggest fan and supporter, watching his son make a name for himself in Kansas City where he now performs as a trumpet player in a jazz band called The Grand Marquis.
“Dad didn’t have a lot of time to perform, though, because he was a baker with odd hours,” Chad said.
The road Chad took on the path to stardom began with his father playing the trumpet for him when he was little, then picked up steam when he attended East High School.
“I had a really good music teacher my freshman year, then he moved on and we had a different music teacher who had other attributes that we learned from,” Chad said. “He got the marching band to a respectable level, although I hated marching band.”
But Chad loved being in the high school jazz band, getting his first chance at being in the spotlight.
“My freshman year, we were asked to play a solo over the chord changes and everyone was grumbling about it, but I had the guts to say I’d try it. So I gave it a shot and fell in love with the ability to express myself in that little space without being told what to play or how to play it,” said Chad. “It’s your time to do what you want to do. That’s the part where art comes into play with the music and that’s why I’m into jazz.”
While in high school, Chad also snagged himself airtime with the help of Altoona resident and famed disc jockey Dic Youngs of KIOA. Prairie Meadows Racetrack and Casino had recently opened and was auditioning for a bugler. Chad said he had heard about the job and since it looked like a “good paying gig,” his parents said he should try out.
Chad said The Des Moines Register had run a photo of him with information about him trying out for the Prairie Meadows bugler position. With a little push from his high school band director, the situation snowballed to where he performed a short ditty over the telephone from home during Youngs’ radio show.
“I did it before school at 7 a.m. and my mom was still in bed. I hadn’t told her I was doing it and I ended up sounding terrible on the local radio station. I couldn’t do warm-ups, because I didn’t want to wake up my mom. I just talked briefly on the phone, then put it down and started playing. I was so worried about waking up mom and her yelling at me over the air, that I messed up,” he said.
“It was an embarrassing moment. My heart was pounding so much, trying to concentrate on what I was doing with my mom sleeping in the room next door. I showed up at school and of course, everyone had been listening to the radio and was willing to tell me they’d heard me and I missed notes,” he added.
Even though that happened years ago, Youngs said last week that he recalls it clearly.
“I remember putting him on the air,” Youngs said. “Any time you can help somebody out like that — a young person who wants to get started in music and playing in a jazz band, I’m more than happy to help.”
Unfortunately, when Chad showed up for the Prairie Meadows bugler auditions, he discovered that candidates had to use an actual heralding trumpet, which is different than a regular trumpet.
“I had a little trouble with it, and then I was in the running with a guy who had performed as a bugler at a bunch of other race tracks,” Chad said. “That was his gig, so he inevitably got the job.”
After graduating from high school, Chad decided to pursue his love of music by earning a bachelor of arts degree in music performance with a minor in jazz at the University of Northern Iowa. But there was a period of time before moving to the heart of jazz music in Kansas City when he did not play. He moved back home after graduating from college and did not pick up his horn for two years.
“I was burned out and needed to find myself. I had no real direction and was just going to work,” he said. “But I finally picked it up again and it felt right. Unfortunately, the thing about Des Moines, — and Iowa in general — is that there just isn’t much opportunity out there for a musician and it’s very easy to get discouraged. But I started playing in a funk band, getting little gigs,” he said.
“I decided then that I’d better start getting serious about it and come hell or high water, I was going to shoot for the top or go down trying. I wanted to become the greatest trumpet player that I could be and not stop.”
Chad forged ahead into the professional realm.
“If I could make a living doing what I love, then I was going to attempt. It’s not easy. Still, to this day, I question maybe whether I should’ve gotten an education degree and become a teacher, but you see it time and time again, those that teach no longer play in bands like I do,” he said. “It’s tiring, working a day job and having this night life at the same time. But I love it. Maybe I was a jazz musician in my former life, because this just feels right to me.”
Before ending up in Kansas City, Chad checked out New Orleans, one of the homes of jazz music. But he said it “didn’t agree with me.”
“It was weird, standing there looking over the levee with a boat floating at eye level. Being from the Midwest, I wasn’t used to that. Then you had little lizards everywhere and giant cockroaches running around,” he said. “With the tragedy that’s happened down there, checking it out before moving there was probably the best money I’d ever spent.”
With New Orleans out of the question, Chad considered the three other landmark spots in the country for jazz — Chicago, New York and Kansas City — and ended up in the latter.
“I got hooked up as a pastry chef, which is how I made money while playing gigs at first. I had to laugh, because I was baking like my dad,” he said. “But that’s when I met one of the waitresses who was playing drums in a band that did junk blues and rockabilly. They asked me to bring my horn and sit in some time and they hired me on the spot. After the front man left, we turned into a more serious jazz and swing unit and have grown since then.”
His band, The Grand Marquis, has embarked on a paid tour across the country and has three CDs out, in addition to following a schedule of performances in the Kansas City area. Chad still works in the food industry with a catering business, but works only part-time now.
“It’s a crazy schedule. I don’t have a lot of free time. I’m up early for work at 7 or 8 a.m., then work until 4 p.m. or so,” he said. “Then I come home and get ready for the night’s gig. They start at different times, but I’ll play until 1 or 2 in the morning, then come home, eat something, go to bed and get up and do it again.”
Despite the hectic schedule, Chad still finds time to return home to visit his parents. His dad and stepmother have been to Kansas City to hear him perform, too.
“Dad loves coming down here. Whenever I go up there, we’ll go to his church and play duets together on the horn,” he said.
The more people that hear him play, the greater the chance that he will be discovered and skyrocket to an even higher level in the music profession, Chad said.
“Enough famous people come in and out of this city that if I put myself out there enough, pretty soon people will hear about this guy in Kansas City who will blow your mind. The trumpet player in Conan O’Brien’s band is originally from Kansas City, so hopefully, opportunity will come knocking for me,” he said. “I’m taking this as far as I can.”