Swing Dance with Matt Munisteri & His Syncopated Detonators

Join us at Common Ground Downtown for a night of dancing to Matt Munisteri and His Syncopated Detonators, playing swinging music from the 1920s-1940s. The group features Matt Munisteri on guitar, Jon-Erik Kellso on trumpet, Danton Boller on bass, Joe Barbato on accordian — and a drummer to be named later.

Bandleader and guitarist Matt Munisteri is a Brooklyn native who grew up as almost assuredly the only bluegrass banjo player on his block. His lifelong interest in early American music led him from Country and Ragtime guitar, through Blues, to Tin Pan Alley and Jazz – all by the eighth grade. His own compositions and playing reflect this life-long devotion to the history of American Popular song – linking rural and urban, long gone and contemporary.

After graduating from Brown University, Munisteri moved back to Brooklyn where he soon became a busy full time freelance musician. Today, he’s one of New York’s first-call vintage guitar stylists, and a bit of wild card, he’s regularly called upon to play on a wide range of CDs, television and radio commercials, and among his recent concert appearances are: Jazz at Lincoln Center with violinist Mark O’Connor’s Hot Swing; Lincoln Center’s Avery Fischer Hall with Wynton Marsalis and The Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra; Carnegie Hall with the New York Pops Orchestra and Vince Giordano’s Nighthawks; Switzerland with Kenny Davern and Ed Polcer; New Zealand and the States with Prairie Home Companion’s violinist Andy Stein; Europe with Jenny Scheinman and Rachelle Garniez; and several jazz festivals as a featured member of Steven Bernstein’s Millennial Territory Orchestra. His own band, Brock Mumford, has made several European tours, and plays to full houses in New York at Joe’s Pub and the Jazz Standard.

Trumpeter Jon-Erik Kellso started playing professionally in and around Detroit, Michigan where he was born in 1964. Jon began early, playing in a big band at age 11, in the International Youth Symphony at age 13, and in a concert alongside Wild Bill Davison at age 17. Kellso played with a wide variety of groups there, including the J.C. Heard Orchestra. Since moving to New York City in 1989 to join Vince Giordano’s Nighthawks, Jon has enjoyed performing and recording with the likes of  Howard Alden, Marty Dick Hyman, Linda Ronstadt, Banu Gibson, Leon Redbone, Ken Peplowski, Bob Wilbur, and many more. Recent engagements include a tour of Brazil with pianist Judy Carmichael; various appearances on Garrison Keillor’s “A Prairie Home Companion” live Public Radio International show; several jazz fest at sea cruises; concerts at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. with John Lithgow; a week as featured artist at Jazzland in Vienna; a 10 week tour of the U.S. with Ken Peplowski’s Kingdom of Swing big band; concerts as a featured soloist in the U.K., Germany and Australia; annual appearances in jazz clubs and festivals in New Orleans; and jazz parties and festivals throughout the United States and Europe. Kellso can be heard on several television and movie soundtracks, including the Nickelodeon children’s show “Blue’s Clues,” and the recent movies “Ghost World,” “The Aviator,” and “The Good Shepherd” with Vince Giordano’s Nighthawks.

Indiana native Danton Boller played electric bass in teenage rock bands in Southern California, but a switch to upright under the tutelage of Dave Brubeck Quartet bassist Eugene Wright sent him in entirely new directions. Boller has since applied lessons from Wright and California State University Long Beach instructor Chris Kollgaard to high-profile gigs with Roy Hargrove, Seamus Blake, Robert Glasper, and Anthony Wilson. A New Yorker since 1997, Boller has focused lately on his own recordings, a forthcoming duo release with Wright, and a new piano trio project. He also works with drummer Ari Hoenig and singer Kat Edmondson.

Joe Barbato has played accordion, piano and keys on numerous recordings and performances with artists ranging in styles from country to jazz. Originally from Boston, Joe has lived in Pittsburgh and New York City playing alongside musicians – Dave Budway, Jimmy Ponder, Jeff “Tain” Watts, Jenifer Jackson, Matt Munisteri, Marvin Sewell – to name a few. Joe has toured Europe and the States he continues to freelance in the Boston and New York area.