Four Piece Suit

The Four Piece Suit story began in 1996. Coming out of one of the world's most highly acclaimed live R&B/Jump bands, Barrence Whitfield and the Savages, Four Piece Suit introduced their unique romantic and exotic blend of instrumental music with all the fire and groove that made them club favorites from Halifax to Helsinki. Their debut CD, Ready to Where?, was added to 120 radio station playlists around the U.S.A., breaking into the CMJ charts, and making it onto the Grammy ballot for Best Pop Instrumental and Best Instrumental Arrangement for their version of Henry Mancini's Something for Cat from "Breakfast at Tiffany's", which appeared not only on their own CD but also on the Mancini tribute CD, Shots in the Dark , on Del-Fi Records.

The Four Piece Suit highball is a mix of sea-foam soaked guitar and squalling tenor sax, shaken--not stirred--with Finnish surf tangos, Battista-Era mambos, Depression swing, Slavic hoe-downs, spaghetti Westerns, beach blanket boppers, spy music, crime jazz, and movie themes. Just the thing for audiences thirsty for a shot of rock'n'roll in their cocktail music, with a twist of romance.

In recent months, despite the fact that their music goes way beyond any one category, Four Piece Suit have become associated with the Swing movement, largely owing to their frequent pairings with Big Bad Voodoo Daddy for sold-out shows in venues like San Francisco's legendary Fillmore auditorium, Los Angeles' House of Blues, and before an audience of 30,000 at Boston's Hatch Shell, home of the Boston Pops.

From Austin to Boston, guitarist Milt Reder, Saxophonist David Sholl, drummer Lorne Entress, and bassist Dean Cassell continue to criss-cross the country. They've done sold-out shows at Austin's Continental Club for South by Southwest, live broadcasts on Chris Douridas' National Public Radio show, and are frequently featured on MuchMusic TV. At MixFest '98 they rocked a Boston audience of 50,000 on the bill with Barenaked Ladies, Hootie and the Blowfish, and Royal Crown Revue. They've also shared stages with Los Lobos, Sam Butera, Natalie Merchant, and Pat Boone as the most versatile opening act since Booker T and the MGs.

Four Piece Suit has been working closely with Big Bad Voodoo Daddy producer Brad Benedict, creator of the Platinum Ultralounge CD series on Capitol. The band have since become regulars at Capitol Studios and will make their major label debut on the Welcome to Coolsville and Coolsville Christmas compilations on Benedict's Coolsville/Interscope label. They have also surfaced on numerous compilations, including the Mancini tribute, Cherrydisc's Tube II , Instrumental Fire, Perfect Swing , and others.

An obvious choice for film soundtrack work, Four Piece Suit's most recent project was for the HBO film Stag with Kevin Dillon. Their in-house state-of-the-art studio, Rear Window, featured on the cover of the August '96 Mix magazine, enables them to work quickly and inexpensively on music "made to order" for producers, directors, and music supervisors. (See the section on the recording studio for more details on this.)