Great musicians who love entertaining
The Preville big band features two lead vocalists, a five-piece sax section, three trombones, three trumpets and a five-piece rhythm section – including drums, keyboards, electric guitar, and bass.
Take a moment to meet our musicians.
Vocalists
Caroline Tétrault
Fronting the Preville Big Band since 1986, Caroline’s rich, powerful voice blends perfectly with our big band sound. parfaite pour le big band.Caroline is featured on three CDs... as lead vocal on Droit à La Liberté (track L'hymne à la paix) and backup-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. parfaite pour le big band.
Caroline sings your favourites 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
Pierre first joined the band in March 2005, as part of our Club Med Punta Cana week in the Dominican Republic. The ‘audition’ went well for all since he is still with us! As well as being a lead singer and guitarist, Pierre is an actor, adapter and musical director in the film and television dubbing industry. He has sung in over 70 movies and TV shows and can often be heard in radio and TV jingles.Pierre has sung with many bands but the Preville Big Band best reflects his favorite musical style!
Trombones
Tommy Green
Tommy founded the Preville Big Band in 1976 at the ripe old age of 33. He still leads it today. As a trombonist, he dreams he's Tommy Dorsey. (We all know better, of course.) Born in Cleveland, Tommy has a master’s degree in math (not music) from Berkeley (not Berklee).While at Berkeley 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, Tommy’s busy creating software for Carver Technologies in Montreal.
Robert (Billy) Gresko
Billy started his adult life seriously with a degree in electrical engineering and physics from McGill. While there, he played trombone in the McGill jazz band. He was soon playing da ‘bone more and more. In 1971 he played a series with the MSO and never looked back.The day of his 65th birthday Billy said “bye-bye” to Bell and devoted himself to music. Billy’s amazing chops and great ear make him a natural for our jazz combo for cocktails – before your big event.
Julie Harnois
Julie joined Preville as our full-time bass trombonist in 2015. She teaches trombone at Collège Marie-Victorin, and has worked with the l'Orchestre symphonique de Québec and Production Alain Trudel.In fall 2016 she will be traveling as guest trombonist in orchestras in Asia and elsewhere around the globe.
Julia Pyves
Julia had been with Preville since 1986 until 2016. Wow, 30 years! She continues as our Facebook page administrator promoting Preville, and still cleans our red shirts :)Julia recently joined Montreal's Pop-Tones to pursue her passion for singing.
Saxophones
Michael McNulty
Mike studied saxophone at CEGEP de Drummondville and at McGill University. He played in numerous jazz ensembles and big bands before joining Preville. Mike has performed at countless festivals and on numerous recordings. His playing has also been heard 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 sax, 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 flute and also plays tenor sax and djembe. Johanne likes all types of music including jazz, R&B, and rock & roll. Besides music, she started out as a research scientist but she went to HEC Montreal to train as a tax specialist and now runs her own business in that field.Allan Bruce
Lead tenor sax player Allan Bruce heralds from St-Lambert, and is one of the Preville’s original members going back to 1976. He started out playing clarinet for the band, but has subsequently graduated to Tenor Sax, which we are all really happy about. Allan has a degree in Chemistry from McGill but prefers beer. In addition to his music, Allan manages Brutopia — Montreal’s first and foremost brew pub on Crescent Street. He built it - literally from the ground up - with trumpeter Bruce MacNab.Marie-Josée Larocque
Another computer nerd, Marie-Josée spends her days with C.G.I. and nights playing music. We are not sure if she ever sleeps, but we do know she makes beautiful music.Hervé Amand
Like most of us in the band, Hervé leads a double life: A mild-mannered psychiatrist during the day and wild saxophonist evenings and weekends. After studying music at a conservatory in Belgium, Hervé played in a number of European big bands before coming to Canada. He plays (and owns) saxes of all shapes and sizes -from soprano to base. Most often he plays baritone sax with The Preville Big Band. No counseling required!Valérie Luc
Valérie came from Belgium with Hervé. She bring a fine tenor sax sound and a beautiful smile to Preville. Not intimidated living with a psychiatrist, Valérie teaches chemistry in CEGEP and knows all the riffs.Trumpets
Dany Lesage
An amazing lead trumpet player with Preville since 1996, Dany is an engineer by day with Gebo Cermex Packaging in Laval. He loves to entertain, and plays from time to time in an ohm-pa-pa biergarten band (yes, in lederhosen). In an earlier life, Dany was a successful Formula-1 race car driver. (Yes, it takes all kind to make a trumpet section!)Ken Milkman
“Dr. Ken” 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 share his magical music.Bill's tools include trombone, trumpet, tuba, piano, organ (pipe and Hammond), harpsichord, computer and last but not least pencil and paper. Bill has written numerous arrangements for Preville. 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. Yeah Bill!
Rhythm Section
Georges Simard (bass)
Maryse Leclerc (guitar)
Maryse has a strong musical formation. First, from her technical college degree in pop/jazz music at Collège Lionel-Groulx and then, from her BA at Université de Montréal. Working on the musical scene for almost 20 year exposed Mayse to a wide range of music: Top 40, Disco, Big Band, original music, jazz duet and trio, rock band and even as a member of the Claude Blanchard's farewell tour and Femmes du Monde show presented at Casino du Lac Leamy. She is a passionate, kind and patient person, which makes her an excellent musician, a great teacher and a dedicated mother of three.Steve Errington (piano)
At age 12, Stephan joined the Preville Big Band having already played classical piano. With us, he got bitten by the jazz bug. In 1998, he took a break to start the Bagg Street Klezmer Band with a few friends to a) learn a different style of music and b) raise a beautiful daughter. Now he’s back with Preville (as well) and hasn’t lost a bit of his style and spunk. Welcome back, Steve!Serge Hébert (drums)
Serge's father played the drums at 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." That gig turned out to be an orchestra directed by Robert Cousineau - where the average age of the musicians was about 55. Serge more than held his own and played with them for several years. We consider ourselves lucky to benefit from his energy and experience.
Daniel Bédard (drums)
Daniel Bédard started drumming when he was thirteen - first inspired by the punk-rock bands of the day. He then discovered John Bonham and Neil Peart who inspired him to push the limits of his drumming even further. He spent three years studying at the Cégep de Drummondville with Paul Brochu and Camil Bélisle. Daniel studied at the Université de Montréal where he got a jazz studies degree with Paul Brochu and Gilbert Fradette. He's now adding to his skills with John Riley in New York City.We’ve seen him on stage with several bands like Sharcüt, Pawa Up First, Paul Cargnello, Alexandre Désilets, Jérôme Charlebois, and others. Not the least of which is The Preville Big Band.