Information
Tommy Green
514-952-0419

Trombones

Tommy Green

Tommy founded the band in 1976 at the ripe old age of 33, and still manages it today. As a trombonist he dreams he's Tommy Dorsey. (We all know better, of course.)

Born in Cleveland, Tommy has a masters degree in math (not music) from Berkeley (not Berklee). While he was there he played in and designed stunts for the 120 piece Cal Band. His wife Julia also plays trombone with the Preville Big Band.

When he’s not making music, Tom’s busy creating software for Carver Technologies in Montreal.

Julia Pyves

In her professional life Julia works for a Montreal investment dealer. When she is not working or swinging on the trapeze, she finds time to play trombone and visit her grandson. Julia heralds from Montreal West, and has been with Preville since 1986.

Singers

Caroline Tétrault

Singing with the Preville Big Band since 1986, Caroline has the voice of an angel that blends perfectly with the big band sound.

Caroline "appears" on three CDs... as lead vocal on Droit à La Liberté (track L'hymne à la paix) and back-vocalist on De Lutte en Turlutte 1 et 2. In addition, she has often appeared with small jazz groups at clubs and restaurants in Montreal, including  L'île de France, Société Café (Vogue Hotel), Le Lux, Bistro 4, Le P'tit Bar, CÉGEP Maisonneuve, Café Timénés, Crocodile, Café Anubis, L'air du Temps, Barb-Y.

Caroline sings in English, French, Spanish, and Portuguese, which she learned with the band on our tour to Brazil in 1996. During the day she teaches at l’École Le Plateau.

Pierre Bédard

Easy on the sun, Pierre! This talented singer, working on the professional music scene since 1984, joined Preville in spring 2005. We heard him in the Dominican Republic and just couldn't let him go.

Pierre is best known for his studio work on jingles and back vocals for different artists, and since 1990, singing on the French versions of Disney's animated movies — more than 30 of them and counting!

Spending far too much time cloistered in the recording studio, Pierre can't say no to a chance to perform live on stage. Rock, jazz, blues… he weaves through the musical styles with grace and aplomb. And though he may not look like Bobby Darin, he sounds just like him in Mack The Knife.

Saxophones

Daniel St-Onge

As well as being a great alto saxophonist, Daniel also plays the trombone, the piano, and anything else he can get his hands on. He is also our house arranger. In real life he is an engineer and consultant in I.T. management.

Michel McNulty

Mike studied saxophone at CEGEP de Drummondville and at McGill University, and played in a numerous jazz ensembles and big bands before joining Preville.

Mike has performed in many festivals and on numerous recordings, as well as on Radio-Canada, CBC, and Télé-Québec: Jazz sur le vif, C'est bien meilleur le matin (host René Homier-Roy), Les Choix de Sophie (host Sophie Durocher), Un p'tit air de samedi soir (host Chantal Jolis), and City Beat (on CBC).

As well as playing the saxophone, Mike dabbles at the keyboard and synthesizer, and sings with other bands. In his other life, Michel obtained his law degree from the University of Sherbrooke, and works as a notary in St-Jean Sur Richelieu.

 Johanne Cousineau

Johanne studied alto saxophone and jazz at Concordia University in Montreal. She doubles on soprano sax and flute and also plays the piano. In her other life, she is a Senior Research Scientist at a biotech company in Montreal. (Impressive, eh?)

 Allan Bruce

Lead tenor sax Allan heralds from St-Lambert, and is one of the band originals from 1976. Then he started playing clarinet for the band, but has subsequently graduated to Tenor Sax, which he is much better on. Allan has a degree in Chemistry from McGill.

In addition to music, Allan manages Brutopia — Montreal’s first and foremost brew pub on Crescent Street that he built, literally from the ground up, with trumpeter Bruce MacNab.

 Frank Kantorik

Frank came to Canada from Czechoslovakia in 1980 and joined the band to play baritone sax shortly thereafter. He claims that there is no such thing as a bad Czech. Maybe he was preparing his return to the motherland (he fiercely denies it!), because he worked (now retired) as an airplane mechanic for Air Canada in Dorval.

Trumpets

Dr. Ken

Ken Milkman handles most of the "blowing" (improvised solos) in Preville’s trumpet section. Imported from New York City in 1971, Ken was playing jazz in clubs from the age of 14. (We wonder if his mom knew.)

Subsequently Ken decided to "go straight" and began teaching mathematics at places like Columbia University, Brooklyn College, and Concordia. He currently teaches philosophy at Dawson College. Despite what he might tell you, Dr. Ken is no relation to Dr. Ruth.

Bill Riley

Early years full of home, school and community music making, an Ivy league degree in Anthropology, a European apprenticeship in organ building, and plenty of private lessons have helped Bill in his quest to share the magic of music.

Bill's tools include trombone, trumpet, tuba, piano, organ (pipe and Hammond), harpsichord, computer, pencil and paper.

One of Bill's orchestral arrangements (with partner Bob Hardy, calling themselves La Plume moderne) recently won a prize from EMM-Media. See Masterworks for a New Era at www.numusic.org. Congratulations, Bill!

Nic DiLauro

The DiLauro musical dynasty is famous in Montreal. In addition to Nicola’s involvement with the musical arts, he is a commercial artist by day with his belle, Michèle. For a sample of their creative talent see our ad in “Let’s Get Married”.

Rhythm Section

Georges Simard

Georges joined the Preville Big Band in 1990 (or so) in his last years of high school. He left us a few years to do serious things, like finding a “real” job, getting married, fathering a couple of kids, etc. etc. But drawn to the big band like a moth to the flame, Georges is back in style. Welcome back!

Maryse Leclerc

From this picture you'd swear that Maryse is far too young and innocent to play rock and jazz guitar. But close your eyes and listen, and there will be no doubt about what this gal can do. Maryse grew up in Terrebonne, studied guitar at Université de Montréal, and is now back in Terrebonne to liven up the town.

Serge Hébert

Serge's father played the drums in height of the swing era (1945-1948), giving it up to raise a family. But blood is thick, and Serge inherited the desire and the talent. He used to bang on (and bang up) his mother's pie plates. We understand that her tourtières had a very strange shape.

At the age of 12, after several months of private lessons, Serge's drum teacher asked Serge to replace him at a "gig". The orchestra was directed by Robert Cousineau, and the average age of the musicians was about 55. But Serge held his own and played with them for several years after. We consider ourselves lucky to benefit from his youthful experience.

(What do you call someone who likes to hang around with musicians?
Answer: a drummer.)

Jacques-André Giroux

Born very young, Jacques-André learned to play piano before he learned to speak.

At the age of five, Jacques-André entered the Conservatoire de Musique de Québec, where he studied classical piano. At 13 he began studying popular music, as well as harmony and arranging, with Frank Mella and Michel Perrault.

Jacques-André has played virtually everywhere. From 1970 to 1986, he directed the orchestra at the Théâtre des Variétés (vaudeville) with Gilles Latulipe. In the 1980's he was a regular at Radio Canada with Vedette en Direct. He has also accompanied classical singer Helmut Lotti and pop singer Fernand Gignac, Ginette Reno, Diane Dufresne, and Michel Louvain.

Alumni

Many musicians got their start in the Preville Big Band and then moved on — to other bands and other careers. Click the button above to go to our "links" page to find some of them.