Five Play

The all-women's ensemble Five Play (the similar name Fourplay was already taken) is a smaller spin-off group of the Diva Jazz Orchestra. Drummer Sherrie Maricle from Buffalo, N.Y., the founder of both bands, was inspired by the Blue Note type groups of the '60s to the extent that she wanted to lead a quintet with a similar mainstream jazz, hard bop style. Founded in the late '90s, Maricle organized the combo with help from Diva manager Stanley Kay, conceived as a historical "band within a band" along the lines of what Bob Crosby, Cab Calloway, Benny Goodman, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, and Buddy Rich did. The original lineup included Maricle, saxophonists Karolina Strassmayer, and San Francisco native Laura Dreyer, pianist Lorraine Desmarais, and bassist Nicki Parrott. This established an international composition of the quintet and jazz in the modern era, as Strassmeyer came to the U.S. from Austria, Desmarais hailed from Montreal, Canada, and Parrott came to Diva and Five Play as an emigre from Australia. They recorded Five Play's debut CD On the Brink in 1998, playing standards, originals of contemporary peers, and bop favorites. For their second recording, Five Play...Plus, Maricle replaced the pianist and bassist with Japanese nationals Tomoko Ohno and Noriko Ueda, respectively. She added Israeli born saxophonist and clarinetist Anat Cohen, American born trumpeters Jami Dauber from Chicago, New Yorker Barbara Laronga, and retained Strassmayer. By 2006, the CD A Jazzy Way had Five Play as a backup band to Portuguese vocalist Maria Anadon minus Strassmayer, Dauber and Laronga. Cohen left to start her solo career, Dauber was retained, and Strassmayer headed toward working in Latin jazz bands, while Ann Arbor. MI saxophonist Janelle Reichman was recruited via her ties at the University of Michigan with Diva pianist and U-M professor Ellen Rowe. They produced the 2008 recording What the World Needs Now, their fourth overall effort for the Arbors label. ~ Michael G. Nastos, Rovi