Drowning in a Sea of Love (Band)

I Want You to Be My Love (Duo)

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Jim Quinby began playing piano at age five and was sick to death of the instrument by the time he was eighteen. He quit, learned Travis-picking on guitar, and played and sang in coffee Houses on Charles Street in Boston while he earned a Master’s Degree in English from Northeastern University.
 
In 1972 he moved to Ashland, Oregon and connected with local musician Craig Martin and his wife Beth, and they formed a band called Country Rain, with Jim playing rhythm guitar and singing. At some point the band became aware of his keyboard skills, and gradually he came back to his roots on the piano. Hearing the piano improvisations of Keith Jarrett sealed the deal.

From a musical family, Jim formed a band in the 1980s with his brother Bill and his sister Presila called PJQ, which lasted a few years. Since that time he has worked a season with the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and played for two shows with the Oregon Cabaret Theater. He has been playing solo piano at Alex’s Plaza Restaurant since 1987, and has been in duos with violinist Michael Bardossi, bassist and vocalist Jeff Addicott, and singer and percussionist Julia Roupp.
 
In December of 2005, he happened to hear Marcella singing with a band, and was impressed with her vocal style. He asked her to collaborate, and they began working as a duo in the summer of 2006. The following year they added Jeff Addicott to form a trio, and in January of 2009 added the final members to form the five-piece band called Smoky Red.  The rest is history, except for the part that hasn’t happened yet.



Marcella Rose Ruikisis a self-taught vocalist, a visual artist and a late-bloomer.  She grew up in a crazy artistic family, and was surrounded by music and art from her earliest days.  In 1993 she moved to San Francisco and sang with some excellent musicians there, in a trio called Red Meat & Blues, with a band led by Paul Dunn, and ultimately with Eric McFadden in his band “The Faraway Brothers” (which during her tenure was called “Marcella Rose and the Faraway Bros.”).

In 1997 she moved to Ashland, Oregon and concentrated on her visual art for a few years.  During this time she sat in for fun with the Rogue Suspects, which she still does occasionally.  In 2005 she became a member of a funk-jazz fusion band called Living On Dreams, which performed in local clubs and wineries.  She hosted and managed a singer’s jazz showcase at Dal and Renee Carver’s Avalon Bar & Grill in 2006 and 2007, helping local singers find a showcase for their talents.  In the fall of 2009 she collaborated with Michael Vannice  in Camelot Theater’s “Spotlight on Duke Ellington.” She began working with Jim Quinby in the spring of 2006.




Jeff Addicott grew up in Edmonton, Alberta, where he studied cello and piano in elementary school (all the while quietly yearning to play bass). He decided that “band” class was too square, and thus went musically dark through Junior High and High school. In his first year of college, Jeff resumed musical activity, picking up the electric bass. He dabbled with various freeform jams and cover bands, culminating in a triumphant senior year concert with the Punk band: Molten Menace. After a year of travel and another winter toiling with the wages of a Visual Arts diploma recipient and failing to assemble or join a decent thrash punk band, Jeff decided to pursue a formal education and enrolled in the Jazz program at the Mount Royal College Conservatory in Calgary. He graduated in 1996 then moved to the United States.

Since arriving in Ashland, Jeff has become one of the region’s busiest freelance musicians, working, subbing, and/or collaborating with numerous entities including: Horsefeathers, Larry Cavalier, Heart & Soul, The Jaywalkers, Jim Quinby, The Toyes, The Jump Daddies, Modern Prometheus, Good Bait, Beth Baker, Los Salseros, River City R&B, Billy Rock, Back Porch Swing, Journey’s End, Karen Lovely, Salsa Brava, the Robbie DaCosta Band, and Smoky Red. In addition to his busy music schedule, Jeff is also a full-time glassblower.


Brent Norton began playing guitar in high school with folk groups, and moved to electric guitar in college in bands with names like Treefrog Beer and Sunny Moon and the All Stars. Wanting to expand his musical horizons after playing up and down the Central California Coast, he attended the Berklee School of Music in Boston where he studied harmony, theory, and improvisation. He played the greater Boston area with musicians including a weight-lifting keyboard player who could make his pecs turn sommersaults. Returning to the West Coast, Brent performed in clubs in San Francisco for a while, then moved into the society-band circuit and played with some well-known musicians who worked with Bobby Hutcherson, Joy of Cooking, Cleo Laine, and the Pointer Sisters.

Moving to Ashland in 1995, Brent played with a few country bands, and with Continental Drift, the Fabulous Savoys, the Nowhere Men and the Rhythm Kings. He has performed in bands opening at the Britt Festival for Tower of Power and Emilio Delgado of Sesame Street fame. In the last few years, he has played with Annie Mac and the Karen Lovely Band. For the past two years he has been the guitarist and a vocalist with Smoky Red.




Drummer Mike Fitch has been a part of the Rogue Valley music scene since the 1960s. He has played in a wide range of rock, jazz, blues, Latin, reggae, and fusion bands. Some of these musical aggregations include: Wisdom Star, Continental Drift, Uncle Chester, Irene Farrera Tropical Band, Rhythm Kings, Y3K, BMW Trio, Rogue Suspects, Gayle Wilson, Karen Lovely, Montana Soul, Living On Dreams, Mambo Rico, Salsa Brava, and the Havana Club.
He has also performed in the Oregon Shakespeare Festival production of "Handler",  and with the OSF Green Show. Mike has shared the stage with jazz artists Eddie Harris, Herb Ellis, and Charley Byrd.