Articles and Press on 2AZZ1

Jazz in two-part harmony Craig and Mary Durst keep building their musical career together By Paul Andersen Correspondent

Thursday, February 27, 2003 - SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA can be a very tough marketplace for musicians trying to make a living.

Even though there are a multitude of venues scattered throughout the area catering to many musical tastes, landing a gig that provides any kind of stability can often be impossible. There is just so much competition that finding a club or restaurant that will allow a band or artist to build an audience over time is virtually unheard of.

And when you constrict that market down to those clubs offering jazz, the fraternity of musicians with steady dates becomes mighty small indeed, and you will usually find them counting their blessings when it does occur.

2AZZ1 is one of those rare groups that can definitely use a blessing calculator.

A jazz combo led by the husband-and-wife team of Craig and Mary Durst, they recently ended a nearly three-year run of Friday nights at the Rusty Pelican in Glendale, and are making regular appearances at two other Southland venues. They perform on the first and third Saturdays of every month at La Palapa Del Mar in Belmont Shore, and the second and fourth Thursdays at Opah in Rancho Santa Margarita.

"We" ve been here (La Palapa) since Labor Day,'' says Craig Durst, saxophonist and co-leader of the popular jazz-fusion band, which has been steadily building an audience twice a month at La Palapa with its music, which is a saucy mix of four types of jazz smooth, fusion, urban contemporary and straight-ahead.

"The owners here love having entertainment, but they are very low-key about it," ' adds Mary, who co-leads the band as she holds down the piano, vocal and arranging chair. "(Owner) Mary de la Haye, who everyone calls Bear, had a pair of concert pianists for parents, and she would sit under one of the two grand pianos in their home listening to them play. And Phil Knowlton, her (business) partner, is just this incredible jazz aficionado who will sit with us when we" re done and discuss what we played. Imagine, an owner who actually listens to the music!

"There are no stipulations at all," ' she continues. "We can play originals as well as our traditional and smooth jazz compilation of tunes, and we" re getting a lot of regulars who come in every week just to hear us, as well as new people all the time. And of course, we get quite a few who come by from our church.''

Every Sunday, the couple has been trekking down from their home in Burbank to Light and Life Christian Fellowship in Long Beach, where they have served as music directors for nearly 12 years now.

"People are sometimes surprised when they find out we actually play music for a living, because, obviously, we" re rather low-key about it at church, though our band there does definitely rock,'' Mary explains.

The Dursts are originally from small neighboring towns near Jackson, Mich., where they met briefly while young musicians. But it wasn't until both came separately to Los Angeles that their paths entwined, both professionally and romantically. In 1980, Craig moved to L.A. to finish his education and pursue a career in music. At about the same time, while attending college in Indiana, Mary had the opportunity to audition for a jazz-fusion group based in Los Angeles. In true Hollywood fashion, she sang over the long distance telephone line from her dorm room for recording executives on the West Coast. Three days later, she was in Los Angeles, recording an album.

The two crossed paths again professionally in 1981 and soon began dating. In 1984 they got married, and have been performing together ever since, first as onKall, then as the dual-titled 2AZZ1 and the Body and Soul Band. Ranging from a quartet to a nine-piece band, depending on the show, they specialize in a high-energy, upbeat form of smooth jazz, though they can also play a whole range of straight-ahead standards. Occasionally, the two will work as a duo. Their chemistry truly is two as one.

"You see, we know how to disappear if we have to," ' Mary laughs.

Their most recent CD, "REaDy," ' came out nearly two years ago, and continues garnering airplay around the country.

"Smooth jazz is a pretty liberal art form, but Los Angeles is very conservative compared to the rest of the nation in terms of presenting it," ' reflects Mary. "But we don" t sit around and obsess about it. We go with the success of the day, instead of tomorrow. And the CD is doing well we've got people coming in and requesting tunes off of it.''

"We" re especially pleased with the response we've gotten from it, because we hadn't really pushed it all that much,'' adds Craig.

The duo is recording a pair of CDs, one gospel, the other a smooth jazz follow-up to "REaDy," ' at their own studio.

"We learned a lot from that one that it may have been a bit too diverse for the format so the new one will be a bit smoother," ' says Mary.

"We" re still at that spot (with our music) where we hate to go to bed at night, but we love to get up in the morning. We really have this zeal for what we're doing. We're ready. And we don't mind being categorized as a smooth jazz band. We figure we can tear it up once we get our foot in the door.''

Paul Andersen is a La Canada freelance writer.

"U" Entertainment : May 17, 2002
2AZZ1 and the Body and Soul Band

IT sits there on a mound in a swirl of freeway ramps, a low-slung, woodsy fauna-inflected bastion of seafood, at the true junction of the 134 and 2 freeways. It may not seem at first glance to be a hot night spot, but for the past two years the Rusty Pelican has been steadily gaining a reputation as a great place to hear live jazz on Friday nights, thanks to the superlative sounds of 2AZZ1 and the Body and Soul Band.

"Yeah, can you believe it, this weekend begins our third year here," enthused Craig Durst, saxophonist and co-leader of the popular jazz-fusion band, which has been packing the fans in every week with their music, which is a saucy mix of four types of jazz smooth, fusion, urban contemporary and straight ahead.

"It's almost unheard of to have a gig this steady, especially as a band playing music like we play. Once a month would be good (for most musicians) here in Southern California, but this has been every week!," he said. "Were becoming a staple around town.

"It's the gig that, as a musician, you always hope to get," reiterated his wife, Mary, who co-leads the band as she holds down the piano, vocal and arranging jobs. "There are no stipulations at all. We can play originals as well as our traditional and smooth jazz compilation of tunes, and we're getting a lot of regulars who come in every week just to hear us, as well as new people all the time."

The Dursts, who live in Burbank, are originally from small neighboring towns near Jackson, Mich., where they met briefly while young musicians, but it wasn't until both came separately to Los Angeles that their paths entwined, both professionally and romantically.

In 1980, Craig moved to L.A. to finish his education and pursue a career in music. At about the same time, while attending college in Indiana, Mary had the opportunity to audition for a jazz-fusion group based in Los Angeles. In true Hollywood fashion, she sang over the long distance telephone line from her dorm room for recording executives on the West Coast. Three days later, she was in Los Angeles, recording an album.

The two crossed paths again professionally in 1981 and soon began dating. In 1984 they got married, and have been performing together ever since, first as onKall, then as the duel-titled 2AZZ1 and the Body and Soul Band. Ranging from a quartet to a nine-piece band, depending on the show, they specialize in a high energy, upbeat form of smooth jazz, though they can also play a whole range of straight ahead standards. Occasionally, the two will work as a duo. Their chemistry truly is two as one.

"You see, we know how to disappear if we have to," Mary said.

Their most recent CD, "Ready," came out nearly a year ago, and has been garnering airplay around the country.

"Smooth jazz is a pretty liberal art form, but Los Angeles is very conservative compared to the rest of the nation in terms of presenting it," said Mary. "But we don't sit around and obsess about it. We go with the success of the day, instead of tomorrow. And the CD is doing well. We've got people coming in and requesting tunes off of it."

"We're especially pleased with the response we've gotten from it, because we hadn't really begun pushing it until the last six or eight weeks," added Craig. "We weren't concerned at first with hooking up with the right label, the right lawyer, the right distributor. But even without doing that, it has done well. We're getting added to a lot of Internet radio stations, like www.smoothjazz.com, and college kids are really picking up on it. So now, we feel we're ready for the next step.

The duo played at the Playboy Jazz SummerFest in Pasadena last year, and got featured in the news clips of three different TV stations.

"It was great exposure. But Billy Mitchell (the local keyboardist, composer and jazz promoter) told us it would probably take two or three years before we could start hitting some of the other festivals," he said. "So we continue to do private parties and industrial gigs, where sometimes there can be 10,000 people attending, but we know that were just getting them warmed up for the main course. But we know we can pull it off, and Mary has been working on some new tunes, so there will be another CD at some point. But right now, our eggs are in this basket."

"What it comes down to," explained Mary, "is taking care of the basics. My bottom line is Craig, and living a spiritual life together first. After that, you just have to remember to run your business clean, and keep it in order."

"Oh, and you have to always remember to practice, too!" she said with a laugh.

"You see," concludes Craig, "were still at that spot (with our music) where we hate to go to bed at night, but we love to get up in the morning. We really have this zeal for what we're doing. We're ready. And we don't mind being categorized as a smooth jazz band. We figure we can tear it up once we get our foot in the door.

"And besides, were too old to go out and get jobs!"

Paul Andersen is a free-lance writer based in Monrovia. Write to him in care of the San Gabriel Valley Newspapers, Features Department, 1210 N. Azusa Canyon Road, West Covina, CA 91790, or by e-mail at ira25@losfeliz.com

LA Times: October 20, 2001

Taking The Off Ramp To Jazz
Rusty Pelican serves up tasty musical menu

By PAUL ANDERSEN, WEEKEND
Saturday, October 20, 2001

GLENDALE -- It sits on a mound in a swirl of freeway ramps, a low-slung, woodsy fauna-inflected bastion of seafood, at the true junction of the Ventura (134) and Glendale (2) freeways.

It might not seem at first glance to be a hot night spot, but for much of the past year the Rusty Pelican has been steadily gaining a reputation as a great place to hear live jazz on weekend nights, thanks to the superlative sounds of 2AZZ1 and the Body and Soul Band.

"It's the gig that, as a musician, you always hope to get," said Mary Durst, co-leader with her husband, Craig, of 2AZZ1 and the Body and Soul Band that fills the Friday night slot.

"There are no stipulations at all. We can play originals as well as our traditional and smooth jazz compilation of tunes, and we're getting a lot of regulars who come in every week to hear us, as well as new people all the time."

"It has been the best gig we've ever gotten," echoed guitarist Eric Byak, whose Brazilian-flavored combo provides the music Saturday nights.

"It's a great room, and it is a blessing when you consider what a lot of the other rooms in this area are like. The word of mouth has really been growing."

The Dursts, who also live in Burbank, are originally from small neighboring towns near Jackson, Mich., where they met briefly while young musicians. It wasn't until both came separately to Los Angeles in pursuit of musical careers that their paths entwined -- professionally and romantically.

They married in 1984 and have been performing together ever since, first as onKall, then as 2AZZ1. Craig plays saxophones while Mary sings, plays keyboards and does the composing and arranging for the band.

Their most recent CD, "ReaDy," came out a few months ago, and has been gaining airplay.

"Yes," Mary said, "it's been pretty wonderful so far."

Daily Bulletin: May 2001

COUPLE PLAY WITH PASSION
by Imani Tate Staff Writer

Music has been an integral part of Craig and Mary Durst's lives since childhood. Perhaps that's why the couple, professionally known as 2AZZ1, play with such passion.

"You've got to follow your gut," Craig Durst said.

"We do everything that touches us or others." Mary Durst added: "Our musical selections for different sets depend on the audience. We're not just playing for ourselves. It's a matter of giving people what they want without compromising the music."

Their style of jazz is fused with gospel, rhythm-and blues, world and urban musical influences.

Playboy Jazz Festival fans will get a chance Monday to see and hear what many Inland Valley music lovers already know: one is assured a dynamic set from the man who plays alto, tenor, baritone, and soprano saxophones and the lady with the flaming red hair and a commanding vocal and piano presence.

The Dursts, will be on the bill with popular saxophonist Ronnie Laws in Pasadena's Central Park. The Memorial Day weekend shows Saturday, Sunday and Monday are part of Playboy Jazz Festival's free community concerts to prime South land patrons for the paid June 16-17 shows at the Hollywood Bowl.

The enthusiasm the Dursts bring to their stage, nightclub and community concerts ultimately led to the Playboy gig. They didn't realize a loyal fan from Long Beach knew Billy Mitchell, the noted jazz pianist, composer and music educator who books the Playboy Jazz entertainment at Old Pasadena Summer Fest. That fan invited Mitchell to the Durst's show at the rusty Pelican.

"He asked us for our press kit after he heard us," Mary said, still excited months after that first contact. He said, 'Yeah, I heard of you guys, but wasn't sure what I was in for because I also heard you're pretty crazy. Send me your stuff.' Just like that."

Music is ingrained in Mary's gene pool while Craig, a skinny, accident-prone boy with no sports skills, sought out the saxophone as his route to achievement.

"Everyone in my family is musical," Mary said.

"My mom, Margaret Maybee, is a gospel pianist. Any hymn, any key, right now. Let's go. She's phenomenal.

My brother Paul, a drummer, is a professional recording engineer. My two other brothers, Mark and John,, are excellent pianists. My father, the Rev. Milan Maybee, is a United Brethren minister, but he isn't just a preacher. He's a baritone singer and an artist. He'd come up with all kinds of creative things, creating sets and doing magic in the pulpit."

Although his mother, Joyce Durst, played piano and organ in church, music wasn't an integral part of Craig's family.

Small, skinny and overly daring as a child his "adventures" made him and injuries perennial partners. He even blew up his right eye with a firecracker (an injury that despite two major surgeries left him legally blind in that eye).

"The saxophone saved my life," Craig confessed, laughing now about the nickname "Patches" that kids gave him because he was always covered with medical patches from his numerous mishaps.

He took up the sax at age 10. His competitive nature soon earned him first chair in school bands. by his senior year, he left his regular high school in Jackson, Mich., and took first chair as an honor music student at Interlochen High School.

He was so good, Mary Durst proudly boasted, he because the "poster boy" for the famous arts' boarding school with an international student body of some of the world's best young visual and performing artists. He served as a student spokesman for the school.

They were both born in Michigan - he in Jackson, she in Mason. Her family moved to Jackson when she was 11. She eventually met Craig but they weren't friends.

"She was a preachers kid." he said, chuckling. "No way."

"And he was a classical snob," she said about his early musical emphasis.

"I was singing gospel and harmonizing with my family. The first record I bought was Gladys Knight and the Pips. I also picked out Andre Crouch. He was strictly into classical then."

They met again years later in California. He'd come West because he wanted to become a musician. She came to escape the "absolute boredom of classical studies at a small Indiana College."

She called her brother Paul, already in Los Angeles, and begged him to send for her. He agreed, additionally advising her his band needed a lead vocalist. She auditioned over the phone for the band leader and nailed the job.

Craig was playing pit bands for plays at Citrus and Pasadena City colleges, Azusa Pacific University and Mt. SAC. He had also hooked up with jazz musicians Charlie Shoemake, Brandon Fields and Steve Wilkerson to learn bebop improvisation and shift into jazz.

The Midwesterners met again and began performing together.

"I was also playing piano at the church. Everybody used to joke about us getting married," Mary said. "He were just a good friend. Then, mmmmmmm. We dated for two years."

They had actually broken up because she wanted to marry and he bachelor hood. That is, until she started dating someone else.

"I sat on her doorstep for four hours, waiting for her to return from this date," he sheepishly admitted.

He asked her to marry him the next day. That was 16 years ago. They've been musical and married partners ever since. Entertainment Today: May 20, 2001

Entertainment Today: May 20, 2001

Sweet Summer Sounds:
Free Playboy Jazz Touches Down in Old Pasadena
by Paul Anderson

Over the last 23 years, the Playboy Jazz Festival has become synonymous with summer and good times. since its humble beginning as a pair of party-driven Hollywood Bowl concerts, the Festival is now a month-long affair, with free concerts taking place throughout Southern California. Through the years, the most popular event (with more than 100,000 fans in attendance, it even surpasses the Bowl concerts) has been Playboy Jazz at Old Pasadena SummerFest, three free days of music, food, family activities, games, rides and just about anything else under the sun you may want.

The line-up is always an eclectic mixture of established and new artists, and this year is no exception. Saturday's show is headed by Tolu, the Latin powerhouse band co-led by Justo Almario and Alex Acuna. Sunday, Steve Cole and Rudy Regalado lead a mix of players from around the world, and on Monday, sax legend Ronnie Laws closes out the festival with a family reunion that includes his sisters Eloise and Debra, his son Jaman and daughter Michelle.

For Craig and Mary Durst, the festival is a chance to have their band, 2AZZ1, celebrate the release of their debut CD in a big way. With an urban contemporary sound that is full of delicious grooves and tasty melodies, the Dursts aren't worried about playing early in the afternoon on Monday.

"It doesn't really matter who plays when, "says saxophonist Craig, who co-leads the quintet with his keyboardist/vocalist wife. "What matters is what the audience is like at the end of each performance. And we play on starting the day off with a bang."