YARON GERSHOVSKY – Music Director/Piano/Keyboards
STEVE HASS – Drums
GARY WICKS – Bass
ADAM HAWLEY – Guitar
TIM HAUSER
Tim Hauser began his musical career in high school on the New Jersey Shore, singing in both the glee club and the R&B doo wop group, The Criterions. His decision to pursue music came when he met Frankie Lymon in the summer of 1956. The Criterions recorded for the New York label, Laurie Records, and were supported by the efforts of Alan Freed. Following high school, Tim attended Villanova University, and received a BS degree in Economics. While at Villanova, Tim was a member of a folk singing trio, The Troubadours Three, the famed Villanova Singers, and a folk ensemble The Coventry Lads, which included classmate Jim Croce.
Following college, Tim served in the US Air Force, and New Jersey Air National Guard, and was an actual Mad Man, working in New York for the advertising agency Sullivan, Stauffer, Colwell, and Bayles. He then worked in the marketing department of Nabisco.
Tim founded the first Manhattan Transfer group in 1969, and made one album, Jukin’ for Capitol Records. Following the group’s demise, Tim worked as a New York City cabdriver, and eventually founded the current Manhattan Transfer group in October of 1972.
Tim’s work also includes producing records, having produced about half of the Transfers albums, the soundtrack for The Marrying Man, cuts on A League Of Their Own, and Richie Cole’s Hollywood Madness. Tim also appeared as Woody the bandleader in The Marrying Man, and was recently featured in the Hugh Hefner documentary, Hugh Hefner, Playboy, Activist, and Rebel.
Tim’s hobbies include automobile restoration, cooking, and baseball. He is the owner of Tim Hauser Foods, a manufacturer of boutique pasta sauce, and is also featured on Sirius XM’s Fifties on 5 and Sixties on 6.
Tim lives in Los Angeles and has 2 children, Basie and Lily.
ALAN PAUL
Alan Paul is one of the founding members of The Manhattan Transfer and a nine times Grammy Award winner. He began his professional career on Broadway at the age of 12 in the original cast of Oliver. He was born and raised in Newark, New Jersey and graduated from Newark State College (now Kean University), earning a BA degree in Music Education. After graduation from college, Alan returned to Broadway in the original cast of Grease where he created the roles of Teen Angel and Johnny Casino. In 1992 Alan received two Honorary Doctorate degrees, one in The Humanities from his alma mater Kean University and another in Music from Berklee School of Music,along with his partners.
His contributions as writer and arranger are also well represented and for his work in these categories he received four Grammy nominations for his compositions, Twilight Zone/Twilight Tone and Code Of Ethics and vocal arrangements for Ray’s Rockhouse. He also received a Grammy nomination for Best Jazz Vocalist, Male forI Remember Clifford (from Vocalese). Some of the other songs he has penned include, Smile Again, Spies In The Night, Malaise en Malaisie, All Heart, The Quitetude, What Goes Around Comes Around, Santa Man, It’s Good Enough To Keep, Stompin’ At Mahogany Hall, Nothin’ Could Be Hotter Than That and Ragtime In Pixiland.
In 2004 Mr. Paul released a solo CD, Another Place In Time, which he co- produced with arranger/conductor David Snyder. He also produced CDs for singer, Laura Ellis – Here Lies Love (King Records) and vocal ensembleSounds Divine. He is currently in the studio recording his new CD, Shoo Bop.
Mr. Paul lives in Los Angeles with his wife of 30 years, writer/model Angela Paul and their daughter, recording artist Arielle.
JANIS SIEGEL
Over the past four decades, the voice of Janis Siegel, a nine-time Grammy winner and a seventeen-time Grammy nominee, has been an undeniable force in The Manhattan Transfer’s diverse musical catalog. Alongside her career as a founding member of this musical institution, Siegel has also sustained a solo career that has spawned more than a half dozen finely-crafted solo albums and numerous collaborative projects, amassed a large international fan base and garnered consistently high critical praise.
Over the years, Janis’ unmistakable voice has become one of the group’s most recognizable trademarks. She sang lead on some of the Transfer’s biggest hits, such as Operator, Chanson D’Amour, Twilight Zone, Birdland, The Boy from N.Y.C. Spice of Life, Ray’s Rockhouse, The Shaker Song, Mystery, and co-wrote and sang lead on the Grammy winning Sassy. She also gained a reputation as a vocal arranger by writing five of the charts for the group’s acclaimed masterwork, Vocalese, seven charts for the group’s Grammy-winning album Brasil, and won a Grammy herself in 1980 for her arrangement of Birdland. In 1993, she and her Manhattan Transfer colleagues received their honorary doctorates from the Berklee School of Music, and in 1999 they were among the first class of inductees into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame.
These days, you can find Janis in the place she loves most, the studio, producing various ventures for other artists and singing on a wide array of projects, including JaLaLa, her female trio gearing up for its second CD, touring with her west-coast based trio Alan Pasqua, Darek Oles and Steve Hass, and singing with N.Y. based pianist John diMartino.
Siegel who lives with her son Gabriel in Manhattan , feels that some styles are timeless and universal, regardless of prevailing trends. I think people will always respond to emotion and to great songs sung well, she says. When you come down to it, people want to feel something.
www.janissiegel.com
CHERYL BENTYNE
Cheryl Bentyne joined The Manhattan Transfer in 1979 and it has been with her that the group has attained its status as the most successful harmony group of all time garnering them 10 Grammy Awards!
Originally from Mt. Vernon, Washington, Cheryl was raised in a very musical family. Her father was known as The Benny Goodman of the Northwest and she began singing with his Dixieland Swing band at the local Elk’s Club at age 14. After high school, Cheryl moved to Seattle and joined The New Deal Rhythm Band.
Soon after, she debuted with The Manhattan Transfer on the landmark album, Extensions. Since then, some of Cheryl’s most memorable contributions to the group run the gamut from her Grammy nominated solo in Meet Benny Bailey to her portrayal of Lucy in the Blee Blop Blues video to her exquisite voicing of Django Reinhardt’s guitar solo on Clouds to Miles Davis’ solo on Tutu – her talents are much of what is The Manhattan Transfer. Cheryl’s phenomenal voice has also appeared on bassist Rob Wasserman’s highly acclaimed album, Duets and the soundtracks to Mortal Thoughts and Dick Tracy.
Cheryl has expanded her talent beyond singing to include composing and vocal arranging. She won a Grammy Award with Bobby McFerrin for their vocal arrangement of Another Night In Tunisia. She also co-wrote the lyrics to Sassy from The Offbeat of Avenues.
In addition to her collaborative work, Cheryl has released several solo albums, including Something Cool, Talk of the Town, Moonlight Serenade, The Lights Still Burn, Cheryl Bentyne Sings Waltz for Debby, The Cole Porter Songbook, The Gershwin Songbook, Let Me Off Uptown and The Book of Love. Her most recent project, Spa MusicBLISSONGS, is now available, along with her other albums, online.
Cheryl currently lives in Southern California with her daughter Zoe, now 16.
www.cherylbentyne.net