A FREE In-Store Concert by The Neptune Quartet

Saturday , January 21, 2006
01:00 pm
Location: Elderly Instruments
in-store performance (free)

Eric Hines, Jazz Director and station manager of WNMC Radio, wrote of The Neptune Quartet, "Once these guys get a hold of something, it's bound to be twisted into some new shape. What you end up with is a sound we might call cosmopolitan bistro msuic, remembering that Django was a bistro musician."

Widely-renown Red House Recording Artist and singer-songwriter Claudia Schmidt had a different take on The Neptune Quartet: "Suddenly you are carried through a universe of Brazilian, Zappian, and Neptunian musical stories that leave you just plain fired up."

Robert Downes of The Northern Express Weekly chose to describe the quartet's music without reference to either genre or influences: "...ripsawing the air with breadcutter string patterns that ring with a dense, crisp texture and power. It's string music on a knife's edge with a hammer swinging down swift and hard behind."

So what are they? Part string quartet, part jazz ensemble, part blues band, part tango orchestra--at the same time retro and new-world. Formed in 2001, the quartet plays its own original compositions as well as the music of Django Reinhardt, Frank Zappa, Miles Davis, and Lennon & McCartney. Their diverse musical experiences transform the stage with humor, fantasy, surprise, and the celebration of a profound musical heritage.

Cellist Crispin Campbell is on the faculty at Interlochen Music Camp; his repertoire ranges from Bach to Delta blues, chamber music, and jazz collaborations.

Mandolinist Don Julin has recorded over twenty CDs ranging from folk and gospel to jazz and avante-garde; his compositions have won several awards.

Guitarist Angelo Meli attended MSU and Berklee College of Music; he has played the folk club circuit, rock & roll, Latin music, and with the blues band The Corvairs.

Bassist Glenn Wolff played in New York at such venues as Figaro's, Folk City, The Speakeasy, CBGB's, and Max's Kansas City; he is a visual artist.

Special Guest Alan Epstein joins the Quartet for the free performance at Elderly and their Creole Gallery concert Saturday evening. [See below.] Alan is the founder and a former director of the Pittsburgh Mandolin Orchestra, a contributing writer for Mandolin Magazine, and a mandolin instructor at Elderly.

The Neptune Quartet has recently performed at the Classical Mandolin Society of America Annual Conference in Toronto, the Manitou Music Festival, the Petoskey Jazz Festival, and Ann Arbor's Kerrytown Concert House. They'll be playing--again, with Special Guest Alan Epstein--at The Creole Gallery in Lansing's Old Town at 8 pm on January 21. Tickets will be available at Elderly in early January.

Don't miss this excellent gathering together of musical genres.

Check out recordings we carry featuring Neptune Quartet