Q’ed up: BYU Faculty Jazz ensemble

Q’ed Up is the faculty jazz quintet from Brigham Young University. The group started as FJQ in 1983 by Ray Smith, Steve Call, Lars Yorgason, and John Donner. The group has had a number incarnations since that time involving many great players such as Jeff Campbell, Craig Larson, Ken Green, Bob Taylor, Rich Dixon, Steve Erickson, Brian Harker, Rob Honey, and others. The Q was always useful in the name of the group because it could be either quartet or quintet. This gradually morphed into Q’d Up, and the current personnel has been stable for a number of years. Q’d Up is Ray Smith on saxophones, flutes, clarinets, and electronic wind instrument; Steve Lindeman on piano, Hammond B3, and synthesizers; Matt Larson on acoustic and electric basses; Ron Brough on drumset, mallets, steel pan, and auxiliary percussion instruments; and Jay Lawrence on vibes, drumset, and auxiliary percussion instruments. The rose among thorns is Kelly Eisenhour who adds not only charm but phenomenal vocals to the ensemble. Q’d Up has a unique and infectious sound that is a product of the personalities of the players, the arrangements and compositions of Steve Lindeman and Jay Lawrence, the blend of a wide variety of sounds and styles stemming from the impressive versatility of each of the group members, and the energy and synergy that come with the love of the music and of each other. Q’d Up has three CD’s under that name. The first is self-titled Q’d Up. The second is SQ’d Horizons, and the most recent is Q’d Up 3. The last two albums include vocals by Kelly Eisenhour, and the newest album also includes spectacular trombone wizardry of Andy Martin, top call trombonist from Los Angeles. The CD’s have received much critical acclaim and have enjoyed considerable airplay around the country. As former downbeat magazine editor and jazz critic, Dan Morgenstern puts it (in his liner notes for the band’s second CD, SQ’d Horizons): Q'd up [is] a most unusual sextet made up of fellow jazz faculty members in the Brigham Young University School of Music, all also active first-call freelancers on the Salt Lake City music scene. What makes this group unusual? For one thing, there is the impressive instrumentarium at its command: some 25 instruments, no less. For another, four are skilled arrangers and composers. And then, and perhaps most significantly, all are first-rate players and improvisers who work together in a way that can only come about when gifted musicians have spent time playing together and have become finely attuned to each other. Add to all that the rare ingredient of good taste, and we are indeed Q'd up for music that communicates to a listener's heart, head and feet. About the individual members of Q’d Up: Ray Smith (winds) has studied with some of the most important names in saxophone, including Michael Brecker, Eugene Rousseau, Joe Lovano, Bob Berg, Bob Mintzer, Bob Sheppard, Gary Foster, Jerry Bergonzi, and many others. He has performed with Eddie Daniels, Arturo Sandoval, Les Elgart’s, and Ray McKinnley’s Big Bands, and many others. Smith is a Professor of Saxophone at Brigham Young University, and in his 25th year of directing Synthesis, BYU’s premier big band. As a performer, he is equally at home in classical and jazz styles, adept at all five woodwinds, electronic wind instruments, and ethnic flutes. He has over 170 CD credits, and many film scores and television themes, including Good Morning America, The Today Show, and many others. Dr. Smith has performed with the Utah Symphony, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, and is a member of the Utah Saxophone Quartet. In 1998, Smith was the recipient of the Voice of Jazz Award for the State of Utah. Jay Lawrence (drums, percussion, vibes, composer, and arranger) has worked with Brian Bromberg, Pete Christlieb, Cyrus Chestnut, Hank Jones, Phil Woods, Eddie Daniels, and Milt Jackson. He has appeared on over 80 albums, with such figures as Joey DeFrancesco, Mike Stern, Tamir Hendelman, and Tom Garvin. He has also accompanied such celebrities as Liza Minelli, Sammy Davis Jr., Linda Ronstadt, Cher, Tom Jones, Dionne Warwick, Roy Clark, Ann-Margret, Gladys Knight, Lou Rawls, Loretta Lynn, The Coasters and others. In addition to being a first-call percussionist in the Salt Lake City area, he is an adjunct instructor of jazz studies BYU. Ron Brough (drums and percussion) is Division Coordinator for Percussion and Performance at BYU, and has been the Director of Jazz Studies, as well. He has performed as percussionist in the Utah Chamber Orchestra, the Pioneer Memorial Theater Orchestra, Ballet West, the Utah Opera Company, and the Salt Lake Mormon Tabernacle Choir. With these and others, groups, he has toured throughout the U.S., Canada, Japan, Europe, Russia, Israel, Australia, and New Zealand. He is active in the recording studios of Salt Lake City, working on various movie film-scores and film trailer projects. Brough holds BM and MM degrees from the University of North Texas, Denton, and a DMA from the University of Northern Colorado. Steve Lindeman (keyboards, composer, and arranger) has studied jazz piano with David Baker, Barry Harris, Ronnie Matthews, Jack Reilly, Kenny Barron, and Tamir Hendelman, and Latin jazz piano with Rebecca Mauléon-Santanta. He has worked with a wide variety of artists, including John Mellencamp, Bob Berg, Bob Minzer, Frank Foster’s workshop big band, and many others. He teaches music theory, and jazz studies at BYU. Lindeman is a product of David Baker’s Jazz Studies program at Indiana University, and holds a MM in theory from Queens College, CUNY, and a Ph.D. in theory and history from Rutgers University. By the time that Matt Larson (acoustic & electric bass) was 12, he was playing with his father's trio and transcribing the bass lines of Ray Brown, John Clayton, Brian Bromberg and John Pattitucci. He is regarded as Utah’s premier jazz bass player, and is also the first call bassist for jazz related studio work in Utah; he has recorded for many national film and television scores, trailers, and commercials. He has worked with Maureen McGovern, Keith Lockhart, Joey DeFrancesco, and Frank Vignola. Matt plays both acoustic and electric bass, allowing him to play nearly any style of music. He holds a degree in jazz composition, and a Masters in business administration from the University of Utah. Matt performs and records regularly with a variety of music groups in the Salt Lake City and surrounding areas.