The Bill Stokes Ensemble
A dynamic quartet, performing swing, standards, and latin jazz in the Adirondack and Lake Champlain region.
Biographical
Bill Stokes has worked as a professional musician for 30 years. He was a violinist with the Florida West Coast Symphony from 1976-2000. During this time he was also concertmaster of the Sarasota Pops for 3 years, played with the Vermont Symphony for their summer seasons 1986-1988, and maintained a busy free-lance schedule. He was hired by touring shows, and performed with such artists as Sammy Davis Jr., Judy Collins, Steve Allen, Marian McPartland, Ray Price, and George Shearing. He played in dozens of musicals; hundreds of performances. He also contracted ensembles for events, weddings, and other gigs of all kinds.
In 2000 Bill relocated to Keene, NY and devoted two years to the study of jazz guitar, with the phenomenal Joe Gitto. He received a grant from the New York Foundation for the Arts and the Arts Council of the Northern Adirondacks to attend the Vermont Jazz Center’s 2005 summer workshop, and now leads a quartet, playing swing, latin, and jazz standards. And, at the end of November, 2007, he started a new job as instrumental music teacher at Keene Central School (www.kcs.neric.org/) in Keene Valley, NY.
In her role as keyboard player, Karen Baker combines an extensive classical training with a deep commitment to jazz music.
At a young age, she began studying music at the Eastman School of Music. A graduate of the Crane School of Music, Karen has been playing and teaching music for 40 years. Her pursuit of jazz education since 1997 has taken her to Louisville, Kentucky, the Skidmore Jazz Institute and the Vermont Jazz Center. She played both piano and keyboard bass in the "52nd Street" jazz trio for 22 years. She is currently the leader of the Karen Baker Trio, also known as "Take Note".
Wayne Davison (bass, and saxophone) has been playing professionally for 20 years and has played with such artists and groups as Rich Little, The Temptations, The Four Tops, The Box Tops, Martha Reeves and The Vandellas, Natalie Cole, Rob McConnell, and the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra. He was a founding member of the Central New York Jazz Orchestra, a division of the Syracuse Symphony, and has worked with numerous jazz and rock groups throughout the state.
Although his mom has photos of him as a toddler playing a wooden snare one Christmas morn, Nick Gully’s formal instruction on drums and percussion started at nine years of age and he’s never let the rhythm out of his life since.
As the youngest in the Bill Stokes Ensemble he nevertheless has a broad background from Afro-Cuban drum & dance ensembles to Big Swing Bands and many music genres in between.
Nick has become one of the North Country’s most sought after kit players, since making the move 10 years ago from his native Troy, NY and the greater capital region of Albany. He now lives in Keene, NY with his wife Tammy Loewy, were they enjoy their passion for out-of-door activities with friends in kind.
