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MARCUS WILLIAMS AND LISA GRANT DUGUID performing as
MARCUS & LISA "Outstanding work that they're doing in music" ---Michael Nelson, WPFW-FM, Washington, D.C. Marcus & Lisa are an exciting duo that performs jazz, popular standards and contemporary music. They have played for audiences at the Washington Harbor (Georgetown) for Fete de la Musique, the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Coyote Grille, Bangkok Blues Restaurant and Bar, the Fairfax Fair (Celebrate Fairfax!), Fort Ward Park Amphitheater, the Courtyard Concert Cafe, outdoor summer concerts, Borders Books and Music stores throughout the metropolitan Washington, D.C. area, the Bahamas Embassy for the Prime Minister of the Bahamas, the Organization of American States, Barnes and Noble, as well as corporate and private receptions and parties. Over the years they have performed with various groups at such venues as the U.S.Capitol, the Bethesda Naval Hospital Officer's Club, the Hyatt Regency at Fair Lakes, the Chesapeake Jazz Society, and the America Restaurant at Union Station, among other engagements. They have appeared on their own television special and their CDs can be heard on selected radio stations in Washington, D.C., New York City, Montreal,and as far away as the Ukraine. The Marcus & Lisa Trio with Randy Lema on acoustic and electric bass, perform for restaurants, lounges, concerts, and private events. Marcus & Lisa and Friends perform as a quintet. The current line-up includes either Rob Maletick or Russell Lyles on saxophone; Randy Lema on acoustic and electric bass; and Adam Williams on drums. The Marcus Williams Trio performs jazz and popular instrumentals in Washington, DC area restaurants and nightspots. The current line-up consists of Marcus Williams, guitar; Randy Lema, acoustic bass; and Barry Robinson, drums. |
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About Marcus & Lisa Marcus Williams. While his primary instrument is guitar, Marcus performs on bass guitar, guitar synthesizer, piano, keyboards, and saxophone. As a bassist, he played jazz, rhythm and blues, and other types of music with a number of musical talents including Quincy Jones, Duke Ellington, Billy Taylor, Bobby Hebb, and Grady Tate, as a member of the Orchestrated Crowd, a jazz orchestra in Nashville, Tennessee. Over the years he has performed on a number of television and radio programs with various musicians and vocalists. He has composed, arranged, and performed for documentary videos and radio commercials. He is responsible for the original compositions and arrangements performed by the duo. Also, he plays electric bass with the "Moonlighters", a Washington, D.C. based blues band. They have performed at such venues as the Kennedy Center's Millennium Stage, Capitol Hill, and the Virginia Wine Festival.
Lisa Grant Duguid. Lisa's musical talents were recognized at an early age when she performed for her mother's tea parties. She is a graduate of the prestigious High School of Music and Art in New York City. While at Hunter College she was lead vocalist for the Hunter College Jazz Ensemble. She has performed at the Apollo Theater in New York City. Lisa has worked in the recording studio and has performed with a number of bands and musicians in the New York City and Washington, D.C. metropolitan areas. She possesses a tremendous vocal range and stage presence. |
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Booking and Ordering Information Marcus & Lisa or Marcus & Lisa and Friends are available for private affairs, concerts, festivals, clubs, and coffeehouses. Please contact Marcus Williams by email at marcar@erols.com.
All CD releases are available for sale from Amazon.com by clicking onto the link below. Or you may order directly from Marcus Williams at marcar@erols.com. Retro Blue $12.99 plus $2.00 mailing/handling. Paris Underground $12.99 plus $2.00 mailing/handling. Jazz, Romance, & Passion $12.99 plus $2.00 mailing/handling. Christmas Songs (Cassette of six selections of guitar, vocals, and harp.) $5.00 plus $1.50 mailing/handling. All prices are in US dollars. Virginia residents add 4.5% sales tax. |
About Retro Blue, Paris Underground, and Jazz, Romance, and Passion RETRO BLUE
In streetlight conversations we talk about the old days at school... As one might expect with a CD entitled Retro Blue, many of the songs are from a time long ago. "Dindi", "Ain’t Misbehavin’", "Blue Bossa", "Come Sunday", and "Sugar", hail from the jazz standards tradition that brings to mind the old Blue Note, Verve and Riverside recordings of the 1950s and 1960s. Recall, if you will, old grainy black and white photos of Wes Montgomery, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Sarah Vaughn, Stanley Turrentine, Stan Getz, Kenny Burrell, Grant Green, and Jimmy Smith. You get the picture. Although we add our own spin to these tunes, we tried to capture the atmosphere of these earlier recordings, and pay homage to these remarkable artists who made the music of that era timeless. Smokey Robinson’s "Oo Baby, Baby", and B.B. King’s "The Thrill Is Gone", are well known rhythm & blues and blues classics. The music here is driving and forceful, but retains the bittersweet flavor of the originals. "Baby , Come to Me", "Save the Best for Last", and "I Can See Clearly Now", are later R&B favorites that transcend categories. "Baby, Come to Me" has been reincarnated as a “smooth jazz” favorite and we hope we have captured that spirit by giving it an even jazzier feel with Russell Lyles’ sax solo. Finally, we present the original selections. In the title track, "Retro Blue", we look behind us both lyrically and musically. "Retro Blue" is a rather sentimental reflection on the past that weighs the risks of going down a road already traveled. It asks whether we can ever go back again. Like the lyrics, the music has a retro feel with a nod to the ballads and torch songs of yesterday with a dash of jazz stylings. "Mysterious" has both contemporary and retro leanings. While retaining an easy-listening contemporary jazz feeling, it could just as well have been released in the 1970s. "Mysterious" was influenced by groups like the Jazz Crusaders, and artists like Joe Sample, George Benson, and the late Stanley Turrentine. "Night Cats" is our heartfelt tribute to the lions of jazz. It presents a fantasy jam session comprised of jazz musicians past and present. Although it salutes jazz as a tradition, Night Cats is purely a product of today with its contemporary rhythms and sample-type sounds. PARIS UNDERGROUND. Marcus & Lisa's Paris Underground, was released in December, 1998. It contains jazz standards that evoke the Paris of yesterday and today with "Perdido", "Someone to Watch Over Me", "Four on Six", "Gee Baby, Ain't I Good to You", "Tenderly", "I Didn't Know What Time It Was", and the contemporary selection, "Bring on the Night". Original compositions include "Paris Underground", "Toll-Free Lili", "We Sleep to Dream", "Paris Nights", and "The Boulevard". JAZZ, ROMANCE, & PASSION. "Jazz, Romance, & Passion" was Marcus & Lisa's debut CD. It is an eclectic mixture of jazz, popular, R&B, and world music. Selections include standards, contemporary, and originals: "Sweet Love", "Time After Time", "It's Lyrical", "When Sunny Gets Blue", "Passport East", "My One and Only Love", "St. Catherine Street", "Carmen's Tide", "You Mean the World to Me", "One Note Samba", "Jazz-It Blues", "Never Say Never", "Red Rock Canyon". |
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