Monkey House is a musical group founded by

Don Breithaupt Don Breithaupt (born April 8, 1961) is a Canadian pianist, singer/songwriter, composer, arranger, producer and author. He received his musical education at Berklee College of Music in Boston, where he studied Jazz Composition and Arranging, and h ...

, a Canadian-born pianist, singer/songwriter, composer, arranger, producer and author. The group got its name from a 1970 book by

Kurt Vonnegut Kurt Vonnegut Jr. (November 11, 1922 – April 11, 2007) was an American writer known for his satirical and darkly humorous novels. In a career spanning over 50 years, he published fourteen novels, three short-story collections, five plays, and ...

History

The band formed in 1992, performing songs Breithaupt had written that seemed too jazzy or different for other bands to cover. A number of guest artists have contributed songs and have performed on their albums, including

Drew Zingg Drew Zingg (born 1957) is an American rock, blues, soul and jazz guitarist, best known for his performing with Steely Dan and Boz Scaggs. Biography Zingg was born and raised in New York City. Eventually he learned the guitar and spent about ten y ...

Elliott Randall Elliott Randall (born June 15, 1947) is an American guitarist best known for being a session musician with popular artists. Randall played the well-known guitar solos from Steely Dan's song "Reelin' in the Years" and Irene Cara's song " Fame". The ...

Michael Leonhart Michael Leonhart (born April 21, 1974) is an American jazz trumpeter and multi-instrumentalist. Solo career In 1992 Leonhart was honored with the first Grammy Award for outstanding high school musician in the US (he attended Fiorello H. LaGuardia ...

, and

Jay Graydon Jay Joseph Graydon (born October 8, 1949, Burbank, California) is an American songwriter, recording artist, guitarist, singer, keyboardist, producer, arranger, and recording engineer. He is the winner of two Grammy Awards (in the R&B category) wi ...

Steely Dan Steely Dan is an American rock band founded in 1971 in New York by Walter Becker (guitars, bass, backing vocals) and Donald Fagen (keyboards, lead vocals). Initially the band had a stable lineup, but in 1974, Becker and Fagen retired from live ...

is one of Breithaupt's biggest influences. The band makes melodic pop with a sophisticated, jazzy twist, with some horn arrangements. Their debut album ''Welcome to the Club'' was released in 1992, on the Aquarius label, based in Canada. It included a cover of a song written by

Donald Fagen Donald Jay Fagen (born January 10, 1948) is an American musician best known as the co-founder, lead singer, co-songwriter, and keyboardist of the band Steely Dan, formed in the early 1970s with musical partner Walter Becker. In addition to his w ...

called "Lazy Nina", which was covered by

Greg Phillinganes Gregory Arthur Phillinganes (born May 12, 1956) is an American keyboardist, singer-songwriter, and musical director based in Los Angeles, California. A prolific session musician, Phillinganes has contributed the role of keyboards to numerous alb ...

in 1984, but never recorded by Fagen himself. Their second album ''True Winter'', on the Marigold label, released in 1998, found Breithaupt collaborating with Little Feat’s

Richie Hayward Richard "Richie" Hayward (February 6, 1946 – August 12, 2010) was an American drummer best known as a founding member and drummer in the band Little Feat. He performed with several bands and worked as a session player. Hayward also joined ...

and David Blamires of the

Pat Metheny Patrick Bruce Metheny ( ; born August 12, 1954) is an American jazz guitarist and composer. He is the leader of the Pat Metheny Group and is also involved in duets, solo works, and other side projects. His style incorporates elements of progre ...

Group. In 2005 the compilation album ''Big Money: Singles Remasters Rarities 1992-2005'' was released. It contained thirteen tracks from the first two Monkey House albums, plus four fresh tracks including the single "Tough Love". Guests included

Kevin Breit Kevin Breit is a Canadian musician from Northern Canada. Breit has collaborated in numerous bands, and recorded solo albums on his own Poverty Playlist label, and Stony Plain Records. He is also well known for session work on numerous Grammy awa ...

(

Norah Jones Norah Jones (born Geethali Norah Jones Shankar; March 30, 1979) is an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. She has won several awards for her music and as of 2012, has sold more than 50 million records worldwide. ''Billboard'' named her the ...

), Mark Kelso (

Gino Vannelli Gino Vannelli (born June 16, 1952) is a Canadian rock singer and songwriter who had several hit songs in the 1970s and 1980s. His best-known singles include "People Gotta Move" (1974), "I Just Wanna Stop" (1978), " Living Inside Myself" (1981) a ...

), as well as Hayward and Blamires. Their fourth album '' ''Headquarters'''' was released in 2012, on the Alma record label, which is affiliated with the

Universal Universal is the adjective for universe. Universal may also refer to: Companies * NBCUniversal, a media and entertainment company ** Universal Animation Studios, an American Animation studio, and a subsidiary of NBCUniversal ** Universal TV, a ...

Music Group. This album reached a wider audience, receiving positive reviews and airplay on jazz, pop, Adult Album Alternative, Adult Contemporary, and Smooth Jazz radio. Guest artists included

Kim Mitchell Joseph Kim Mitchell (born July 10, 1952) is a Canadian rock musician. He was the lead singer and guitarist for the band Max Webster before going on to a solo career. His 1984 single, " Go for Soda", was his only charted song on the US ''Billboa ...

Rik Emmett Richard Gordon Emmett (born July 10, 1953) is a vocalist, guitarist, and member of the Canadian rock band Triumph. Career Emmett left Triumph in 1988 to pursue a solo career. His first solo album, '' Absolutely'', was released in 1990 and beca ...

and

. An album anthology entitled ''

Retrospective A retrospective (from Latin ''retrospectare'', "look back"), generally, is a look back at events that took place, or works that were produced, in the past. As a noun, ''retrospective'' has specific meanings in medicine, software development, popu ...

'' was released in 2013, which includes almost everything Monkey House released over their first two decades. In addition to tunes from their first three albums, the 44-song anthology includes previously unreleased material like "I'm Not That Guy" from the ''Headquarters'' sessions, five instrumental tracks and some interviews. A sixth album was released in June 2016, ''

Left Left may refer to: Music * ''Left'' (Hope of the States album), 2006 * ''Left'' (Monkey House album), 2016 * "Left", a song by Nickelback from the album ''Curb'', 1996 Direction * Left (direction), the relative direction opposite of right * L ...

'', on the Alma/

label. The title references the fact that Breithaupt packed up and moved from Toronto to the west coast, or "left coast", arriving in the Los Angeles area by February 2013. The core group of musicians on the album are drummer Mark Kelso, bassist Pat Kilbride, and guitarist Justin Abedin, with Breithaupt contributing on keyboards, and bassist Peter Cardinali guesting on one track. Besides

and

, other guests include backing vocalists David Blamires (

Group)

Lucy Woodward Lucy Woodward is an English-American singer-songwriter. She has recorded for Atlantic, Verve, and GroundUP and has sung background vocals for Rod Stewart, Barbra Streisand, Snarky Puppy, Celine Dion, Pink Martini, Gavin DeGraw, Joe Cocker, Cha ...

(

Snarky Puppy Snarky Puppy is an American instrumental band led by bassist Michael League. Founded in 2004, Snarky Puppy combines a variety of jazz idioms, rock, world music, and funk and has won four Grammy Awards. Although the band has worked with vocalist ...

) on backing vocals, William Sperandei on trumpet, and saxophonist

Donny McCaslin Donald Paul McCaslin (born August 11, 1966) is an American jazz saxophonist. He has recorded over a dozen albums as a bandleader in addition to many sideman appearances, including on David Bowie's final studio album, ''Blackstar'' (2016). Early ...

and

also return to contribute solos. The album debuted at number 9 on the iTunes U.S. Jazz chart, number 2 on the iTunes Canada jazz chart, and peaked at Number 24 on the Billboard Jazz Albums Chart

Discography

* ''Welcome to the Club'' (Aquarius /

EMI EMI Group Limited (originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records Ltd. or simply EMI) was a British transnational conglomerate founded in March 1931 in London. At the time of its break-up in 201 ...

, 1992) * ''True Winter'' (Marigold /

Koch Records MNRK Music Group (pronounced "monarch", formerly known as Koch Records and eOne Music) is a New York City-based independent record label and music management company. It was formed in 2009 from the music assets of Koch Entertainment, which had b ...

, 1998 ) * ''Big Money: Singles Remasters Rarities 1992-2005'' (GDM, 2005) * ''Headquarters'' (Alma /

, 2012) * ''Retrospective'' (GDM, 2013) * ''Left'' (Alma /

, 2016) * ''Friday'' (Alma /

, 2019) *''Remember the Audio'' (Alma/Universal, 2022)

External links

Band home page at Almarecords

Monkey House official website

References

{{Authority control Canadian jazz ensembles Musical groups from Toronto Musical groups established in 1992 1992 establishments in Ontario