MMC Band – the Marcus Mosely Chorale

Bill Sample - Keys

Bill has been a sought-after performer, musical director and teacher for many years.

His experience is varied: he played on the 2008 Grammy-winning Ratatouille soundtrack. He served as David Foster’s Music Director for many years, working with artists such as Bryan Adams, Celine Dion, Peter Cetera and Kenny Loggins to name a few.

You can find Bill on Facebook and on Twitter

Check out some of the Bill Sample Trio videos on YouTube

Buff Allen - Drums

Buff (drummer, percussionist, teacher) was born in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. He has had more than 40 years of professional playing experience in jazz, pop, theatre, recording studios, concert tours, television, and movies.

He worked in Toronto for eight years in the late '70s and early '80s with artists including Ed Bickert, Moe Koffman, Rob McConnell, Sam Noto, Eugene Amaro, Hagood Hardy, Kathryn Moses, Peter Appleyard, Phil Nimmons, Don Thompson, and visiting artists including Hank Jones, Teddy Wilson, Lenny Breau, Johnny Guenieri, Red Norvo, Johnny Hartman, and Maxine Sullivan.

Buff Allen has become a familiar figure on jazz festival bandstands around the world from Vancouver, Edmonton, and Montreal in Canada to Dublin, Brussels, Glasgow, and The Netherlands.

Since returning to Vancouver in 1984, he has played with leading artists including Diana Krall, Paul Horn, Pat Coleman, Oliver Gannon, Fraser MacPherson, Ron Johnston, Tommy Banks, and Hugh Fraser, as well as visiting artists Benny Wallace, Joanne Brackeen, Kenny Wheeler, Chuck Israels, Barry Harris, Mose Allison, Rob McConnell, and Guido Basso.

Awards

1987 – Laureate. CBC-Alcan Jazz Competition. Montreal International Jazz Festival
1989 – Juno Award Winner for ‘Best Jazz Album” (Hugh Fraser Quintet. Looking Up)
2003 – Juno Awards Nominee for ‘Best Vocal Jazz Album’ (Joani Taylor and Bob Murphy)

Rene Worst - Bass

Rene Worst has been a professional bassist since 1971. His virtuostic and supportive bass playing has been a Canadian treasure for many years on both acoustic and electric basses. He is as gifted on fretless as he is on acoustic - a rarity in the industry.

Rene was educated both in Canada and the US. Rene Worst is one of the founding members of the noted fusion band "Skywalk" and has anchored and produced six recordings with them. He is also a highly regarded Producer.

Born in Ifar, New Guinnea in 1954, he moved to Canada with his family in 1960, settling on the West Coast where he grew up and went to school. At an early age he showed an aptitude for music, in particular Jazz bass, and it wasn’t long before he was out establishing himself as a leading jazz bassist performing with the likes of Alice Stuart, Chet Baker, David Bowie, Poison, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Aerosmith, Dr. Hook, Skywalk, Rita MacNeil, Jennifer Scott, Ernestine Anderson, Mark Murphy, Freddie Hubbard, Joe Pass, Herb Ellis, Norm Foote, Rick Scott, Carolyn Arends, Ferron, Phoebe Snow, Beverly D'Angelo, John Handy, Paul Horn, Glass Tiger, Buddy Greco, Shari Ulrich, Martha Reeves, Sheena Easton, Ed Johnson, Joe Pass, Gene Bertoncini, Barney Kessel, Eddie Harris, Rene Rosnes, Jack Sheldon, Jessica Williams, Rachel Z, Tommy Banks, P.J. Perry, Larry Correll, Bud Shank, John Faddis, and Don Thompson.

David Sinclair - Guitar

Growing up in Vancouver, David was first was exposed to the world of professional music at the age of twelve. As a teenager, he was part of many bands and played locally regularly, moving from one playing situation to another, refining his guitar skills and performance.

At the expense of his academic courses at the University of British Columbia's School of Music (Canada), he would often spend hours in the music library listening to a wide variety of guitar music from delta blues, to Django and to classical. During that period he was also introduced to the recording studio namely, "Vancouver Recording" (with legendary Vancouver engineer/producer Robin Spurgin), one of the very few pro studios in town at the time, which he frequented for days at a time, observing sessions and doing everything and anything he could to gain "studio" experience.

By the age of 18, he was already a professional musician performing 5 to 6 nights a week in some of Vancouver’s notorious ‘East -end’ cabarets, and appeared regularly as a feature vocalist on CBC TV’s ‘Let’s Go’ and ‘Where it’s At’ series. He also performed as a solo acoustic artist at coffeehouses and toured B.C. as opening act for “The Poppy Family”. Over the next few years he released his first solo album, Take My Hand, and helped form the successful Vancouver group “Sunshyne” which included the late Bruce Fairbairn (producer for Aerosmith etc), Jim Vallance (songwriter with Bryan Adams and Ozzy Osborne) and jazz flautist/saxophonist Tom Keenleyside. Sinclair left “Sunshyne” after a few years to tour with a succession of major Canadian artists. Meanwhile, “Sunshyne” was transformed into “Prism”, and David played some guitar on their first 3 albums.

As well as becoming a top-call studio player, doing a myriad of jingles, TV shows, films and records, he started working with arranger/composer/studio musician Bob Buckley, with whom he would form the bands ‘Straight Lines’ and ‘Body Electric’. “Straight Lines” climbed the radio charts with Roanne, Heads are gonna roll, Letting Go (Juno nominee-best songwriters, top 10 across Canada, Billboard pick), to name a few. Body Electric’s “Do You Think They Can Tell” was given an “Outstanding Airplay” award in 1984. As well as their own shows, these bands toured with top National and International artists such as Corey Hart, Joan Armatrading, Loverboy, and Parachute Club, to name a few.

From 1992 to 1995, David toured with k.d. lang, and joined Sarah McLachlan's band from 1993 to 2003, touring extensively in North America, Europe, and Japan and appearing (with both artists) on shows including Jay Leno, David Letterman, Conan O'Brien, Arsenio Hall, Saturday Night Live, Larry Sanders, Good Morning America, Rosie O'Donnell, MTV Unplugged, VH1 Storytellers, The Grammy Awards Show, and the Juno Awards.

As a studio guitarist, he has worked with many Canadian artists including Sarah McLachlan, Michael Buble, Daniel Powter, Bachman Turner Overdrive, Bryan Adams, Amy Sky, Rita MacNeil, Paul Janz, Valdy, Susan Jacks, Terry Jacks, Barry Greenfield, Prism, Irish Rovers, Matthew Lien, Gary Fjellgaard and many more. He has played on and composed music for many TV series and films, appeared on numerous occasions with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra and a variety of musical theatre productions.

Bill Runge - Sax

Bill has been a successful performer, composer, arranger, and orchestrator for over 30 years. A multi-instrumentalist, he has performed and recorded on saxophones, flutes, clarinets, electric and string bass, piano and other keyboards, guitar, pennywhistle, and accordion.

In 1990 his quintet, “The Creatures of Habit” won the Grand Prix at the CBC-Alcan Jazz Competition in Montreal and he has worked on several Juno Award winning projects such as Jim Byrnes’ CD, “That River”.

As a leader, Bill has produced four recordings: “Creatures of Habit-Live in Montreal”-1990, for Justin Time Records, “B3”-1994, for Roadhouse Records, “Acid Test”-2002, for Maximum Jazz, and “A Tribute To The South American Masters”-2006, also for Maximum Jazz.
Bill’s saxophone style amalgamates the influences of John Coltrane, Wayne Shorter, Michael Brecker, and Steve Grossman with his own compositional approach… a modern player, firmly rooted in jazz tradition.

Composers influencing his writing style include Astor Piazolla, Chick Corea, Frederick Delius, Arvo Part, Egberto Gismonti, Bela Bartok, and Josef Zawinul.

Bill is an in demand studio musician has recorded with such acts as K-OS, INXS, Powder Blues, Traci Ullman, The Hard Rubber Orchestra, Swollen Members, Tower of Power horns, Long John Baldry, Shari Ulrich, The Vancouver Ensemble of Jazz Improvisation (VEJI), Amos Garrett, The Paperboys, Lowell Fulson, Jackyll, and many more.

Bill has performed live shows at Jazz, Folk and Blues Festivals in Canada, Europe, the U.K., and the U.S. with such artists as The Funk Bros., Colin James, and Natalie Cole, Michael Buble, Taj Mahal, John Lee Hooker, Bo Didley, Sheena Easton, Roger Daltry, John Hammond Jr., Ben E. King, Bob Hope, Robert Cray, Marilyn Crispell, Don Thompson, Kenny Wheeler, Jimmy Witherspoon, Dave Holland, Slide Hampton, Jeff Healey, Michael Burgess, Strippers Union and dozens more.

As a composer he has done several film scores including for the cult favorite, “Babette’s Feet”; received commissions from such artists as Viveza, The Hard Rubber Orchestra, Babayaga, and Winter Harp; done scores for TV shows such as SuperKids (CBC), Code Green (CBC), and done arrangements or orchestrations for such shows as The Chris Isaak Show (Showtime), and Beggar’s and Choosers (Showtime).

Bill has also performed on many Film and TV scores such as Ed, Edd, and Eddy (cartoon), Cadillac Girls (feature film), and Highlander (TV), and Life On A Mattress (feature film for Disney). Computer Game Soundtracks include MotorCity Online for Electronic Arts, and Simpsons Interactive for Radical. Theatre credits include Godspell, a rock musical; Tapestry, a revue of the music of Carol King; and Redrock Diner.

Bill Sample - Keys