The FOUR PIECE SUIT highball is a mix of sea-foam-soaked guitar and squalling tenor sax, shaken—not stirred—with surf tangos, Battista-era mambos, beach blanket boppers, spy music, crime jazz, and movie themes. Romance, humor, and sophistication with a big beat are the watchwords of this mainly instrumental band.
Truly beyond category, their eclectic instrumental, sometimes jazz, sometimes rock style, brings forth a unique blend of long forgotten musical influences and often suggests a certain film noir feeling.
FOUR PIECE SUIT derives its strength from a number of influences, featuring everything from instrumental artists of the 1950s and 60s (The Shadows, The Ventures, The Champs, Duane Eddy) to classic R&B, to John Lurie, to modern Acid Jazz. It is not unusual to hear adventurous mixtures of Isaac Hayes and Henry Mancini, with dashes of Perez Prado and Xavier Cugat. For new fans with less musical foundation, they would envision the likes of Medeski, Martin, and Wood, collaborating with the Art of Noise to create a soundtrack for a new David Lynch or Tim Burton film.
The sexy, sophisticated, yet tongue-in-cheek music of FOUR PIECE SUIT is frequently featured on HBO’s Sex and the City, and NBC’s series, Ed, as well as Dexter, and numerous cable shows, among them America’s Top Model, Run’s House, Keeping up with the Kardashians, Duck Dynasty, Lillyhammer and many more. The band has also been heard in many independent films, including Sundance Festival Winner Blue Vinyl. They have also done a full score for an HBO claymation film, Real Men Wear Hawaiian Shirts, an award winner at the San Francisco Film Festival. Their latest foray, into rhe world of video games has landed their Falso Latino style in Tropico, among others.
Even as their CDs and film work introduce them to new audiences, it is the “uncharted waters” of their live performances which create the word-of-mouth that brings in legions of loyal fans. From the Fillmore in SF to the Windows on the World Bar at the NY World Trade Center, they have played to crowds of 50 to 50,000. A hot 4PS show at the Lizard Lounge in Cambridge is like seeing Louis Prima’s band at the Copa in 1958, walls sweating, booties shaking, and a half a grin on the face. Like many of the greatest bands, only at a live show can one really “get” what FOUR PIECE SUIT is all about…
Over 25 years composing, recording, and performing throughout America and Europe.
Extensive film and television soundtrack work, Best known for HBO’s Sex And The City.
Genre: truly eclectic and quirky mix of Surf, Swing, Jump, R&B, Latin, Spy, Film Noir Crime Jazz, Swamp, British Invasion, 70s funk, Blues, Roots Rock’n’Roll, Jam Band...
Musicians:
Four Piece Suit is a continually evolving and revolving group of musicians. The repertoire, original tunes and oddball cover versions, is also constantly in flux.
The June 12, 2021 show at the Porch will be a quintet:
Milt Reder. Guitar, Vocals
Seth Pappas. Drums, Vocals
Jeff Giacomelli. Sax, Vocals
David Becker. Bass, Vocals
Justin Lopes. Keyboards.
Albums
Capitol, Rounder, Ocean, Swang
Awards: Sundance Blue Vinyl, Grammy Nominated for Mancini, part of Ultralounge series (Platinum)
