Montreux was an American

fusion Fusion, or synthesis, is the process of combining two or more distinct entities into a new whole. Fusion may also refer to: Science and technology Physics *Nuclear fusion, multiple atomic nuclei combining to form one or more different atomic nucl ...

band, specializing in the blend of

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...

and bluegrass, with

jam Jam is a type of fruit preserve. Jam or Jammed may also refer to: Other common meanings * A firearm malfunction * Block signals ** Radio jamming ** Radar jamming and deception ** Mobile phone jammer ** Echolocation jamming Arts and entertai ...

elements. The band was active from approximately 1982 until 1990, and recorded on

Windham Hill Records Windham Hill Records was an independent record label that specialized in instrumental acoustic music. It was founded by guitarist William Ackerman and Anne Robinson (née McGilvray) in 1976 and was popular in the 1980s and 1990s. The label was ...

. The name of the band came from the jazz festival in Switzerland of the same name, at which an early version of the band was formed under a different name.

Band members

The group consisted of four core members: *

Darol Anger Darol Anger is an American violinist and founding member of The David Grisman Quintet. Career Darol Anger entered popular music at the age of 21 as a founding member of The David Grisman Quintet. Anger played fiddle to David Grisman's mando ...

Violins The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...

Barbara Higbie Barbara Higbie (born 1958) is an American Grammy Award, Grammy nominated, Bammy Awards, Bammy award winning pianist, composer, violinist, singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. She has played on over 100 CDs including songs with Carlos Sant ...

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

synthesizer A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and ...

s and

voice The human voice consists of sound made by a human being using the vocal tract, including talking, singing, laughing, crying, screaming, shouting, humming or yelling. The human voice frequency is specifically a part of human sound production in ...

* Mike Marshall -

mandolin A mandolin ( it, mandolino ; literally "small mandola") is a stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally plucked with a pick. It most commonly has four courses of doubled strings tuned in unison, thus giving a total of 8 ...

s and

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

s *

Michael Manring Michael Manring (born June 27, 1960) is an American bass guitarist from the San Francisco Bay Area. Biography Michael Manring was born in Annapolis, Maryland,Tom Mulhern, ''Bass Heroes: Styles, Stories & Secrets of 30 Great Bass Players : from ...

Fretless bass A fretless bass is a bass guitar whose neck does not have any frets. While the instrument is played in all styles of music, it is most common in pop, rock, and jazz. It first saw widespread use during the 1970s, although some players used them befo ...

s and

Additional members included: * Todd Philips - Bass *

Andy Narell Andy Narell (born March 18, 1954) is an American jazz steel pannist, composer and producer. Biography Narell took up the steelpan at a young age in Queens, New York. His father, who was a social worker, had started a program of steelpan playing ...

steel drums The steelpan (also known as a pan, steel drum, and sometimes, collectively with other musicians, as a steelband or steel orchestra) is a musical instrument originating in Trinidad and Tobago. Steelpan musicians are called pannists. Descriptio ...

*Tom Miller -

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...

*Will Kennedy -

Philips, in particular, was a prominent member of the band early on, stemming from his connection with Anger and Marshall when they played together in the

David Grisman Quintet The David Grisman Quintet is a self-styled alternative bluegrass/acoustic jazz band founded by David Grisman in 1975 in San Francisco, California, US. The quintet draws from genres including Bill Monroe's bluegrass legacy and Django Reinhard's 1 ...

History

The group's roots are in Paris, where Darol Anger met Barbara Higbie in the late 1970s. They performed together and began writing music. They released their first album, ''Tideline'', in 1982. Anger met violinist David Balakrishnan through

David Grisman David Grisman (born March 23, 1945) is an American mandolinist. His music combines bluegrass, folk, and jazz in a genre he calls "Dawg music". He founded the record label Acoustic Disc, which issues his recordings and those of other acoustic mu ...

, and with Mike Marshall they formed the band Saheeb in 1980. Around the same time, Anger met

Will Ackerman William Ackerman (born November 16, 1949) is an American guitarist and record producer who founded Windham Hill Records. Career Early years Ackerman was born in Palo Alto, California. His adoptive father was a professor of English at Stanfor ...

, who was impressed by Anger's fiddling on the album ''Fiddlistics'' and asked him to record for

Windham Hill Windham Hill Records was an independent record label that specialized in instrumental acoustic music. It was founded by guitarist William Ackerman and Anne Robinson (née McGilvray) in 1976 and was popular in the 1980s and 1990s. The label was ...

. Anger brought in long-time colleagues Mike Marshall and Todd Philips to join him and Higbie (they were later joined by

). Balakrishnan left the band to study

composition Composition or Compositions may refer to: Arts and literature *Composition (dance), practice and teaching of choreography *Composition (language), in literature and rhetoric, producing a work in spoken tradition and written discourse, to include v ...

and Anger took on the violin roles full-time. In 1984, Anger, Phillips, Marshall Higbie and Narell performed at the

Montreux Jazz Festival The Montreux Jazz Festival (formerly Festival de Jazz Montreux and Festival International de Jazz Montreux) is a music festival in Switzerland, held annually in early July in Montreux on the Lake Geneva shoreline. It is the second-largest annual ...

, and their recording during the festival marked the second album for the band. In 1985, Anger and Marshall embarked on a separate project, focusing on their bluegrass roots. The result was ''Chiaroscuro'', named for their love of the

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

culture. In addition to Higbie, Narell and Philips, Marshall and Anger brought in

, a leading session recorder with Windham Hill, to record with them. The chemistry worked well between the group, and Manring joined the band full-time (Phillips left to pursue solo projects). After extensive touring, the four core musicians wrote and recorded another album in 1987, ''Sign Language''. Windham Hill recognized the group as the All Star band of the record label. Montreux's style became distinctive and unique, and by this time they adopted their band name. They also picked up Anne-Marie Martins as their agent and manager, who led them to become one of the most successful Windham Hill bands live. After more touring, the band got into the studio for the last time, creating ''Let Them Say'' in 1989. In 1990, the band broke apart.

Marshall Marshall may refer to: Places Australia * Marshall, Victoria, a suburb of Geelong, Victoria Canada * Marshall, Saskatchewan * The Marshall, a mountain in British Columbia Liberia * Marshall, Liberia Marshall Islands * Marshall Islands, an i ...

went off to create the 'Modern Mandolin Quartet' (specializing in classical pieces arranged for mandolin) and recorded albums on Windham Hill. Anger, again with David Balakrishnan, formed the

Turtle Island String Quartet The Turtle Island Quartet is a string quartet that plays hybrids of jazz, classical, and rock music. The group was formed in 1985 by David Balakrishnan, Darol Anger, and Mark Summer in San Francisco. They released their first album on Windham H ...

in 1985 and left to pursue that group full-time. Manring and Higbie embarked on solo careers, with their initial solo albums being released on Windham Hill. All members of the band still perform as of 2006, and Manring and Higbie reunited for the August 27, 2006

reunion concert in Saratoga, California. Though the band has not reunited since their initial breakup, Anger and Marshall still collaborate, and Higbie and Manring occasionally record with Marshall and/or Anger. Since the

BMG BMG may refer to: Organizations * Music publishing companies: ** Bertelsmann Music Group, a 1987–2008 division of Bertelsmann that was purchased by Sony on October 1, 2008 *** Sony BMG, a 2004–2008 joint venture of Bertelsmann and Sony that wa ...

buyout of Windham Hill, no artist has returned to record on the record label, though their music is consistently recycled in new collections published by BMG (now

Sony Music Entertainment Sony Music Entertainment (SME), also known as simply Sony Music, is an American multinational music company. Being owned by the parent conglomerate Sony Group Corporation, it is part of the Sony Music Group, which is owned by Sony Entertainment ...

Popular tunes

Though many may not recognize Montreux's tunes by name, the group's music is often heard during radio shows and on commercials: *"To Be" (Higbie) was featured on baby diaper commercials and was, for a short time, used by

Rush Limbaugh Rush Hudson Limbaugh III ( ; January 12, 1951 – February 17, 2021) was an American conservative political commentator who was the host of '' The Rush Limbaugh Show'', which first aired in 1984 and was nationally syndicated on AM and FM r ...

during his radio show.

National Public Radio National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other n ...

occasionally uses it for their

Fresh Air ''Fresh Air'' is an American radio talk show broadcast on National Public Radio stations across the United States since 1985. It is produced by WHYY-FM in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The show's host is Terry Gross. , the show was syndicated to 6 ...

and

Morning Edition ''Morning Edition'' is an American radio news program produced and distributed by NPR. It airs weekday mornings (Monday through Friday) and runs for two hours, and many stations repeat one or both hours. The show feeds live from 5:00 to 9:00 AM ...

programs.

MTV MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...

also produced and filmed a

music video A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a m ...

of "To Be" in 1988 (shortly after the tune was nominated for a Grammy), and, as of 2006, showcases the video on their website. *"Let Them Say" (Higbie and Marshall) is used as the promotional preview song for

and

Talk of the Nation ''Talk of the Nation'' (''TOTN'') is an American talk radio program based in Washington D.C., produced by National Public Radio (NPR) that was broadcast nationally from 2 to 4 p.m. Eastern Time. It focused on current events and controversial issu ...

NPR National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...

and is usually heard every morning during the Morning Edition program.

Discography

*''Tideline'' (1982) (As 'Darol Anger/Barbara Higbie') *''Live at Montreux'' (1985) (As 'the Darol Anger/Barbara Higbie Quintet') (

Grammy Award The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pres ...

nomination for Best Engineering) *''Chiaroscuro'' (1985) (As 'Mike Marshall & Darol Anger') *''Sign Language'' (1987) (Grammy Award nominated for the song "To Be") *''Let Them Say'' (1989) *''Montreux: A Windham Hill Retrospective'' (1993) (a

greatest hits A greatest hits album or best-of album is a type of compilation album that collects popular and commercially successful songs by a particular artist or band. While greatest hits albums are typically supported by the artist, they can also be crea ...

compilation album A compilation album comprises Album#Tracks, tracks, which may be previously released or unreleased, usually from several separate recordings by either one or several Performing arts#Performers, performers. If by one artist, then generally the tr ...

; compiled by Windham Hill producer Robert 'Bob' Duskis)

External links

Darol Anger's homepage

Mike Marshall's homepage

Barbara Higbie's homepage

Michael Manring's homepage
{{DEFAULTSORT:Montreux (band) Musical groups established in 1985 Chamber jazz ensembles American jazz ensembles from California Windham Hill Records artists 1985 establishments in California