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BIOGRAPHY:
Mel Tormé is considered
to be one of the great jazz singers of all time but he was also an extraordinary
drummer, songwriter and arranger. He was truly a renaissance musician who
could do it all and whose peers highly respected throughout his almost
60 year career.
2019 marks the 20th Anniversary
of his passing in 1999 and his son Steve March-Tormé, a remarkable
singer and artist in his own right is honoring him with his show “Tormé
Sings Torme”, which features a ten piece band playing many of the arrangements
Mel and his long time friend Marty Paich wrote specifically for the dektette.
Besides a lineup
of memorable tunes including, “Lulu’s Back in Town”, “Sweet Georgia Brown”,
“Don’t Mean a Thing If It Ain’t Got That Swing”,“Blue Moon” and of course
Mel’s “The Christmas Song”, Steve also brings personal stories and his
own insight into his relationship with his dad, woven into the performance.
A video presentation of photos and footage is also available on request.
A pared down version of this concert can also be performed with a quartet
but for the full effect, you’ll want to experience it with the ten piece
band.
If you’re a fan
of Mel’s or just a fan of great music and entertainment, this is a show
you must see. Booking now for 2019.
Steve's extraordinary voice
has electrified audiences in venues from the Detroit Jazz Festival to the
McCallum Performing Arts Center in Palm Desert, CA, to the Smith Center
in Las Vegas, and worldwide from London to Japan, Australia to Brazil and
Canada. It might seem an obvious choice that Steve would enter the family
business, but he discovered his love for music almost by accident. Steve
was born in New York City to the multi-talented Mel Tormé and the
former model/actress, Candy Tockstein. They were divorced when Steve was
young, and Candy married Hal March, an actor/comedian best known as the
host of NBC-TV’s The $64,000 Question Show, but who also starred on Broadway
in Neil Simon’s Come Blow Your Horn. An avid baseball player and fan growing
up in Westchester County, N.Y., Steve's dream was to play for the Yankees.
He was a devoted fan who listened to games on the radio in the basement
of his family home. Following every game, he’d switch to the Top 40 music
stations and sing along with such artists as The Four Seasons, Nat King
Cole, The Temptations, Ricky Nelson, and Gene Pitney. With his natural
ear for harmonies, his favorite quickly became and remains The Beatles.
By the age of 12, he knew that he wanted to be a performer, and at 13 he
earned his first paycheck fronting his own band. After his family moved
to Beverly Hills, he continued to develop as a musician and his influences
grew to include Joni Mitchell, James Taylor, Todd Rundgren, and Steely
Dan.
Steve recorded
his first LP, Lucky, for United Artists Records, supporting it with a 20-city,
national concert tour. Upon returning to California, he produced and sang
on Liza Minnelli’s Columbia Records release Tropical Nights, which became
a favorite of the New York dance clubs.
Following
Lucky, Steve received a phone call from noted jazz critic Leonard Feather,
inquiring his interest in auditioning for a vocal group that Leonard's
daughter, Lorraine Feather, was starting up with her friend Charlotte Crossley
of The Harlettes. The recommendation came from Quincy Jones, who'd seen
Steve perform at a tribute to Henry Mancini at the Hollywood Bowl. Steve
went to the Planet Records offices to sing "Serenade in Blue" and "Blue
Suede Shoes" for producer Richard Perry and his partner, movie producer
Joel Silver, and got the gig as the solo male voice in the trio Full Swing.
After the debut album (entitled Full Swing) was recorded, it was followed
with tours of Brazil and Japan. Another Full Swing highlight: singing with
his father, Mel, at the Kool Jazz Festival at Carnegie Hall. Steve sang
the lead part on Mel's arrangement of "What Is This Thing Called Love,”
previously performed by the Meltones. After Richard Perry sold Planet Records,
Steve left the group to pursue his solo career.
Honing
his craft as a performer, Steve worked as an actor, playing the male lead
in a mini-series for RAI (Italian) Television, and appeared on a number
of variety television shows back home. He spent three years as the featured
vocalist on ABC-TV’s $100,000 Name That Tune and also hosted two Los Angeles-based
television shows, Video 22 (a precursor to MTV) and Box Office America.
Steve’s first
solo project after Full Swing was his CD Swingin’ at the Blue Moon Bar
& Grille, recorded with a crackerjack big band. It also features a
duet between Steve and Mel (“Straighten Up and Fly Right”) and showcases
an improvised scat lesson between father and son. That disc was followed
up by The Night I Fell For You, featuring an alluring arrangement of the
Lerner & Loewe classic “On the Street Where You Live,” and a number
of Steve’s original tunes, many penned with longtime collaborator, pianist
and musical conductor Steve Rawlins. In reviews of both CDs, critics singled
out these new songs as “contemporary yet timeless,” and “combining a wry
sense of humor and a natural feel for romance, with classic melodies.”
Those two releases were followed up by The Essence of Love, a collection
of some of the most romantic, well-crafted standards ever written, including
“Blue Skies,” “Stardust,” “Every Time We Say Goodbye,” and a playful duet
with jazz icon Diane Schuur on “The One I Love Belongs To Somebody Else.”
His current jazz CD, So Far (on iTunes, cdbaby.com, and amazon.com), combines
the most popular material from his first three CDs into one “best of” recording.
Steve’s latest
CD, inside/out, goes back to his roots as a singer/songwriter, words and
music written by Steve, on which he not only sings but also plays keyboards
and guitar. Inside/out was written and recorded in the pop vein that Steve
was weaned on as a teenager and young adult and includes cleverly penned
homages to Steely Dan, Todd Rundgren and Joni Mitchell. (Available on itunes,
amazon.com, and cdbaby.com.)
Steve performs
shows backed by configurations ranging from trio to symphony orchestra
in venues around the world, from intimate jazz clubs to performing arts
centers to festivals. Because a natural interest exists in hearing Steve
sing the songs his dad was known for, he did a 28-city cross-country tour
for Columbia Artists Mgt. Inc. (CAMI) entitled Tormé Sings Tormé.
Steve is proud to have had the opportunity to pay tribute to his father
in a show featuring a ten-piece band (dektette) playing the extraordinary
arrangements penned by Marty Paich exclusively for Mel, and a multimedia
presentation of photos and video clips. A Hi-Def, 5.1 Surround Sound version
of Tormé Sings Tormé was released on AIX Records, and won
Best Music Dual Disc at the EMX DVD Awards Show in Los Angeles.
In addition to
his performing and recording career, Steve hosts his own radio show on
the Music of Your Life network every Wed. and Thurs. afternoon. And, he
is the weekday afternoon host on 91.1 FM The Avenue in Green Bay, Wisconsin,
and ?KVYL-FM Vinyl? in Lake Havasu City, Arizona. He can also be heard
every Monday morning on KVYL-FM at 9 a.m. Mountain Time for a sports segment
called “Mondays with March-Tormé.”
ACCLAIM AND PRESS QUOTES
"Steve March-Tormé's recent,
sold-out performance at The Naples Philharmonic Center for the Arts was,
quite simply, an extraordinary musical event!” Bruce Klauber, NAPLES SUN
TIMES
“Remarkable vocalist ... a natural
and brilliant performer.” Glenn A. Mitchell, L.A. JAZZ SCENE MAGAZINE
"Second generation talent can be
hit-or-miss. You can hit yourself if you miss this one ... the guy is so
personable, his voice so becoming and his performance so filled with élan,
that he is always interesting ..." NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
“Steve March-Torme is more than a
jazz singer--he’s a consummate entertainer. An exceptionally versatile
artist ....” Bernard Bauer, MUSIC CONNECTION MAGAZINE
"March-Tormé's voice is seductive
and effortless ... his joyous sense of rhythm, the warmth with which he
unfurls a ballad and the surprisingly nimble technique he displays, point
to a singer coming into his own." Don Heckman, L.A. TIMES
“Steve March-Torme has a terrific
set of ears and a nearly infallible sense of pitch, qualities that are
rarer among jazz singers than one might think.” Howard Reich, CHICAGO
TRIBUNE
“The stage lights grew brighter and
with an unassuming gesture to the band ... BAM BAM BAM the evening took
off the ground never to land until after the last standing ovation.” Janice
Marie Wilson, JETSETTERS MAGAZINE, Las Vegas
“Like Dad, young March-Tormé
also shows great writing skills as well as strong and true vocal chops.”
PEOPLE MAGAZINE
“A stylish, intelligent singer, March-Tormé
can not only put across the standards, but has written an impressive number
of cleverly worded, tuneful songs--the kind that hardly anyone is writing
anymore.” READING EAGLE
"When you add up all the plusses
this entertainer offers: the singing, the piano playing and related musical
talents, his articulation, the charisma, it's time that the general public
‘discovers’ him, as did his audience on this special evening." Bob Agnew,
L.A. JAZZ SCENE MAGAZINE
“... a songwriter of exceptionally
high caliber, showing that the talents he exhibited on his first album
were just a hint of what he’s got to offer ...” CABARET NEWS
“The show high-spot for me, however,
was another of Steve’s tunes, the climactic and tearaway ‘Swingin’ At The
Blue Moon Bar & Grille,’ a jazz-inclined piece so evocative it made
me want to track the place down and hang out there immediately. In the
old days, it would have been released as a single and climbed the charts,
probably replicating his dad’s success with ‘In A Mountain Greenery’.”
Peter Vacher, LONDON JAZZ NEWS
“He closes with his own ‘Swingin?
at the Blue Moon Bar & Grille,’ which looks like becoming a classic,
and for an encore gives us Chaplin?s ‘Smile,’ completing two glorious hours
of brilliant song styling.” Michael Darvell, CLASSICALSOURCE.COM, London
“ Mel Tormé must be grinning
from ear to ear with pride as he looks down on the singing act of his son,
Steve March-Torme. Each one is absolutely superb in both departments: singing
and showmanship.” Eric Stevens, SPLASH MAGAZINE
“Steve’s bandstand presence is full-on
in that uniquely American way; he’s out front, moves well and looks smart,
leaving nothing to chance. At the snap of a finger, he turned this colourful
room into Las Vegas at show-time before moderating the tempo and making
it the most intimate space in town. In the language of show business, he’s
a class act. He’ll be back again, that’s for sure.” Peter Vacher, LONDON
JAZZ NEWS
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