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Five Play

FIVE PLAY, the sister group of the world-renowned DIVA Jazz Orchestra, was formed in 1999. The quintet is comprised of the large ensemble's rhythm section and two of its foremost soloists.

FIVE PLAY is rooted in the jazz tradition and is fueled and inspired by the members' collective, creative vision to swing through the 21st Century. The quintet's repertoire is comprised of innovative arrangements of classic and contemporary standards, as well as original music composed and arranged by band members. The group's library was conceived to highlight the distinctive styles of each individual and to create a unique, fresh, exciting and powerful ensemble sound.

FIVE PLAY has performed at many of the most prestigious concert halls, music festivals, universities and jazz clubs in the United States, including Carnegie Hall and The Kennedy Center. The group has also performed at major festivals in Israel, Japan, France, Germany, Spain and Portugal. In 2004 the quintet and its members were highly ranked in Downbeat Magazine's Annual Readers' Poll.

FIVE PLAY's premier recording, On the Brink (Arbors Records), was voted #1 by Nat Hentoff in Jazz Times' 1999 Year in Review issue. The follow-up release, Five Play Plus (Arbors Records), was voted one of the Top 10 CDs of 2005 by Coda Magazine. The quintet also partnered with Portuguese vocalist Maria Anadon on her Arbors CDs A Jazzy Way (2006) and Smile (2010). FIVE PLAY's most recent recording, What the World Needs Now(Arbors Records), was released in June 2008 to critical acclaim.

Sherrie Maricle, drums
Tomoko Ohno, piano
Noriko Ueda, bass
Jami Dauber, trumpet
Janelle Reichman, tenor saxophone and clarinet

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20
Album Review

Five Play: Live at the Deer Head Inn

Read "Live at the Deer Head Inn" reviewed by Richard J Salvucci


I haven't been to the Delaware Water Gap in Pennsylvania in years. But if I make it there, I hope to time my visit to coincide with Five Play at theDeer Head Inn, which bills itself as the “oldest continuously running jazz club in the country." Long may it prosper, for there are good musical things happening there. Big bands and their leaders have always had small groups:from Benny Goodman to Stan Kenton, and Woody Herman and Tommy ...

155
Album Review

Five Play: Five Play ...Plus

Read "Five Play ...Plus" reviewed by Elliott Simon


On the Brink (Arbors, 1999), the premiere effort from drummer Sherry Maricle's DIVA Big Band extraction Five Play, left no doubt that this all-female quintet can swing powerfully and bop across a broad musical spectrum. Maricle's upfront rhythms and the double alto attack of Karoline Strassmeyer and Laura Dreyer demonstrated a tight in-the-pocket sound that was crisp and polished. Although female jazz drummers and horn players are still a rarity in most quarters, the ensuing years have seen an ever-increasing ...

241
Album Review

Five Play: Five Play... Plus

Read "Five Play... Plus" reviewed by Jack Bowers


Here's another bright and swinging album by drummer Sherrie Maricle's able quintet, Five Play (a.k.a. DIVA Lite), encumbered at times by questionable mixing but as a whole quite engaging. For the group's second recording on Arbors, Maricle has assembled an international troupe of all-stars from the larger ensemble--alto saxophonist Karolina Strassmayer hails from Austria, tenor Anat Cohen from Israel, bassist Noriko Ueda and drummer Tomoko Ohno from Japan--and set aside room for guest shots by two members ...

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"What these women bring to the table is a finely tuned sense of democracy, style, purpose, and full intent to swing. Their equality and balance is in evidence right off the bat." —Michael Nastos, AllAboutJazz

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