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Quartet of Happiness

Quartet of Happiness Radio

General Info

  • Genre: Experimental / Jazz / Other

    Location BOSTON, Massachusetts, US

    Profile Views: 25859

    Last Login: 11/11/2011

    Member Since 6/22/2006

    Type of Label Indie

  • Bio

    .... .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .... The architects of Quartet of Happiness are saxophonists Kelly Roberge and Rick Stone. The pair met while each pursued a Master’s Degree at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. Frustrated by the role of modern jazz as the province of intellectual wonkery, Roberge and Stone shared the inspiration to put the sense of pure, childish fun back in jazz. .. The seeds of this quirky quartet were sown in 2003, while Roberge and Stone were on tour in Japan with a big band during the summer after their graduation from conservatory. They’d been on tour for a solid month, playing the same compositions day after day. To keep themselves amused (and freak out the audience), they began to act out. They’d storm the audience during a solo, and perform various other shenanigans to the chagrin of the demure Japanese bandleader. It wasn’t long, though, before the bandleader succumbed to the effect that the pair’s antics had on everyone and eventually embraced the behavior as part of the performance. .. Armed with this new encouragement, Stone and Roberge began to take their ideas further, and thus the Quartet of Happiness was born. The band appeared in various incarnations before the more cohesive present lineup, which now includes one of the most formidable rhythm sections in Boston: bassist and fellow NEC alum Kendall Eddy, and drummer Austin McMahon. Now a veritable quartet of four kindred, goofy souls, the Quartet of Happiness has toured the Northeast, Midwest, equally at home playing in a downtown New York club and schools in the middle of Iowa. An important part of the band’s ethos is reaching out to younger audiences in schools and clinics. .. Some notables that members of the quartet of happiness have collectively performed and/or recorded with include Billy Hart, Bob Brookmeyer, George Garzone, the Either/Orchestra, Steve Lacy, David Liebman, Ira Sullivan, and the band “Boston.” .. "Unlike 95 percent of living jazz players, Quartet of Happiness doesn't act like culture stopped evolving in 1959. The Boston-based modern jazz band is like Coltrane's quartet had Coltrane lived to embrace Monty Python, Japanese horror movies and the X-Men (and swapout McCoy Tyner for a second sax)." -The Boston Herald .. "Happiness is...a quartet" -June Wulff, The Boston Globe .. "If the zany antics of The Quartet of Happiness can open the world of music and theatre to our children and inspire their teachers then it is indeed a welcome change." -Kathryn Adams, Leonardo Digital Reviews .. "Combining off-kilter jazz improvisation with comedic performance art, this Boston-based ensemble offers up a rollicking pastiche of musical skits and gamelike exercises. Much of the material probably works better in person: The complex vocal interplay of a scene called “The Man From the Music,” for example, is nearly incomprehensible without visual cues. But the instrumental tracks have a delightfully skewed aesthetic, and the Quartet’s impression of a radio tuning in stations at random is just plain funny." -Forrest Dylan Bryant Jazz Times ..............

  • Members

    Rick Stone, alto sax; Kelly Roberge, tenor sax; Kendall Eddy, bass; Austin McMahon, drums

  • Influences

    Matt Wilson Quartet, Frank Zappa, GWAR, Django Bates, Jerry Seinfeld, Charles Ives, Hector Berlioz, Igor Stravinsky, Steve Lacy, Sun Ra, Hermeto Pascoal, Bingo Gazingo, Ryan Stiles, Mostly Other People Do the Killing, George Garzone, Rob Scheps, everyday life

  • Sounds Like

    .. .. .. .. .. .. .. Quartet of Happiness Advertisement Video .. .. .. .. .. .. .. The Monster Meets George Garzone Movie Trailer .. .. .. .. .. .. .. The Monster Meets George Garzone Movie (part one) .. .. .. .. .. .. .. The Monster Meets George Garzone (part two)

Comments

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  • Richard Harris


    NEVER EVER EVER QUIT Quartet!
     
    The Power of Persistence
     
    TODAY'S THOUGHT IS ABOUT PERSISTENCE ...

    "Lots of people LIMIT THEIR POSSIBILITIES by

    GIVING UP EASILY.   NEVER tell yourself this is

    TOO MUCH FOR ME. It's NO USE. I CAN'T GO ON.

    If you do you're LICKED, and by your OWN THINKING TOO.

    Keep BELIEVING and keep on KEEPING ON."

    ~ Norman Vincent Peale

    FALL SEVEN TIMES AND STAND UP EIGHT!

    NEVER, EVER, EVER, EVER GIVE UP!

    With LOVE, RESPECT, and PEACE my friend,

    Richard

    www.myspace.com/richardharrislive

    Please take a minute and give my music a listen!

    MY ALBUM "LOVE'S SWEET SONG" HAS BEEN NOMINATED FOR A WAMMIE AWARD AS JAZZ ALBUM OF THE YEAR! LISTEN TO SOME SWEET SOUNDS - AVAILABLE @ www.RichardHarrisLive.com


     

    27 days ago
  • Richard Harris


    Have a GREAT WEEKEND Quartet!
     
    We can change the world with Kindness and Love!

    TODAY'S THOUGHT IS ON THE POWER OF KINDNESS ...

    "You have it easily in your power to increase the sum total of

    this WORLD'S HAPPINESS.

    How?

    By giving A FEW WORDS OF SINCERE APPRECIATION to

    someone who is LONELY or DISCOURAGED.

    Perhaps you will forget tomorrow what KIND WORDS you say

    today, but the recipient may cherish them OVER A LIFETIME."

    ~ Dale Carnegie

    With LOVE, RESPECT, and PEACE my friend,

    Richard

    www.myspace.com/richardharrislive

    Please take a minute and give my music a listen!

    MY ALBUM "LOVE'S SWEET SONG" HAS BEEN NOMINATED FOR A WAMMIE AWARD AS JAZZ ALBUM OF THE YEAR! LISTEN TO SOME SWEET SOUNDS - AVAILABLE @ www.RichardHarrisLive.com

    2 months ago
  • Richard Harris



    MY ALBUM "LOVE'S SWEET SONG" HAS BEEN NOMINATED FOR A WAMMIE AWARD AS JAZZ ALBUM OF THE YEAR! LISTEN TO SOME SWEET SOUNDS - AVAILABLE @ www.RichardHarrisLive.com


    Have a LAUGH TODAY Quartet!

     

    TODAY'S THOUGHT IS FROM GEORGE CARLIN ...

    “There's no present. There's only the immediate future and the recent past."

    "Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that."

    "When cheese gets it's picture taken, what does it say?"

    "When someone is impatient and says, "I haven't got all day," I always wonder, How can that be? How can you not have all day?"

    "I thought about how mothers feed their babies with tiny little spoons and forks so I wondered, what do Chinese mothers use? Toothpicks?"

    "Have you ever noticed that anybody driving slower than you is an idiot, and anyone going faster than you is a maniac?"

    "If it’s true that our species is alone in the universe, then I’d have to say that the universe aimed rather low and settled for very little."

    "Weather forecast for tonight: Dark. Continued dark overnight, with widely scattered light by morning."

    "I put a dollar in a change machine. Nothing changed."

    ~ George Carlin 

    With LOVE, RESPECT, and PEACE my friend,

    Richard

    www.myspace.com/richardharrislive

    Please take a minute and give my music a listen!

    Cool Jazz CD's @ www.RichardHarrisLive.com

    OR

    CDBaby.com / ITunes

    2 months ago
  • Richard Harris



    MY ALBUM "LOVE'S SWEET SONG" HAS BEEN NOMINATED FOR A WAMMIE AWARD AS JAZZ ALBUM OF THE YEAR! LISTEN TO SOME SWEET SOUNDS - AVAILABLE @ www.RichardHarrisLive.com

    Make A Difference Today Quartet!

     

    TODAY'S THOUGHT IS ABOUT MAKING A DIFFERENCE ...

    "Any time you have an opportunity to MAKE A DIFFERENCE

    in this world and YOU DON'T, then you are WASTING YOUR

    TIME on Earth.”
     
    ~ Roberto Clemente

    ACT AS IF WHAT YOU DO MAKES A DIFFERENCE ~

    IT DOES!

    With LOVE, RESPECT, and PEACE my friend,

    Richard

    www.myspace.com/richardharrislive

    Please give my music a listen!

    Cool Jazz CD's @ www.RichardHarrisLive.com

    OR

    CDBaby.com / ITunes

    3 months ago
  • Richard Harris



    LISTEN TO SOME SWEET SOUNDS FROM MY NEW CD "LOVE'S SWEET SONG" AVAILABLE @ www.RichardHarrisLive.com

    LAUGH, LOVE, AND LIVE Quartet!

     

    TODAY'S THOUGHT IS ABOUT LAUGHTER ...

    We were BORN TO LAUGH!

    Babies start laughing when they are only 10-12 weeks old.

    HUMOR helps us to think out of the box.

    The AVERAGE CHILD laughs about 400 TIMES per day.

    The AVERAGE ADULT laughs only 15 TIMES per day.

    What happened to the other 385 laughs?

    WE CAN ALL LEARN A LOT FROM A CHILD ABOUT
    HOW TO LAUGH ~ AND HOW TO LIVE!

    REMEMBER TO LAUGH AS MUCH AS YOU BREATHE
    AND LOVE AS LONG AS YOU LIVE!

    With LOVE, RESPECT, and PEACE my friend,

    Richard

    www.myspace.com/richardharrislive

    Please give my music a listen!

    Cool Jazz CD's @ www.RichardHarrisLive.com

    OR

    CDBaby.com / ITunes

    4 months ago
  • Richard Harris



    LISTEN TO SOME SWEET MUSIC FROM MY NEW CD "LOVE'S SWEET SONG" AVAILABLE @ www.RichardHarrisLive.com

    Merry Christmas Quartet!

     

    S.O.M.E. - (So Others Might Eat), feeds and assists the poor and destitute here in the Washington D.C. area

    TODAY'S THOUGHT IS ABOUT PRECIOUS CHRISTMAS GIFTS ...

    "The joy of BRIGHTENING OTHER'S LIVES, BEARING each others' burdens, EASING other's loads and supplanting EMPTY HEARTS AND LIVES with GENEROUS GIFTS becomes for us the MAGIC OF CHRISTMAS."

    ~ W. C. Jones

    IT IS THE PERSONAL THOUGHFULNESS, THE WARM HUMAN AWARENESS, THE REACHING OUT OF THE SELF TO ONE'S FELLOW MAN THAT MAKES GIVING WORTHY OF THE CHRISTMAS SPIRIT!

    With LOVE, RESPECT, and PEACE my friend,

    Richard

    www.myspace.com/richardharrislive

    Please give my music a listen and let me know what you think!

    Cool Jazz CDs @ www.RichardHarrisLive.com

    OR

    CDBaby.com / ITunes

    5 months ago
  • EVRIM TUZUN

    Have a perfect 2011!
    EVRIM TUZUN

    www.Evrim.tv
    www.Evrim.tv

    1 year ago
  • Jodi PRatt



    say hello to my friend.

    1 year ago
  • Black knight Records

    "Give me the power of the money and it will not matter any more who is commanding"
    THE OFFICIAL "(BLOCK HUGGAZ)" Request Block Huggaz at 102jamz.com Radio Station in Orlando Request Line: (407) 919-0102 or 1-877-919-0102 (Toll Free) in log on to the MUZIK PAGE www.myspace.com/thagoonies305 or www.powerfulconsciousproduction.com
    ..
    Download Mixtape | Free Mixtapes Provided by DatPiff.com..

    1 year ago
  • Jean-Philippe ICHARD

    Hello,
    Happy new year 2001!!
    ..
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9u23j-eUC3Q
    ..

    Jean-Philippe Ichard

    1 year ago
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