PRESS RELEASE

September 25, 2017
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Jazz violinist Mads Tolling and his Mads Men revisit the music of the 1960s at the Ogle Center October 19

The Ogle Center — Southern Indiana’s center for the performing and visual arts — will present two-time Grammy® winner, Mads Tolling and the Mads Men performing Music of the 1960s Mads Men Era on Thursday, October 19 at 7:30 p.m. in the Ogle Center on the IU Southeast campus, 4201 Grant Line Road in New Albany. Tickets are $30 in advance, $35 at the door, and $10 for all students at all times. Parking is free for vehicles parked in the Dogwood lot directly in front of the Ogle Center and the Hickory lot directly behing the Ogle Center. Tickets are available at the Ogle Center ticket office, by calling (812) 941-2525, or online at oglecenter.com.

Mads Tolling is celebrating the music of the '60s Mad Men Era (including “Mission: Impossible,” “The Pink Panther,” and “Georgia on my Mind”) with his own distinctive style and innovative flair. As a former nine-year member of both Turtle Island Quartet and bassist Stanley Clarke’s band, Mads has spent most of his professional life touring, having performed more than 1,000 concerts at many of the world's most prestigious music venues. Mads Tolling and The Mads Men is at once nostalgic and contemporary and, in true Mads Tolling fashion, pushes the boundaries of where a violin can go.

So how did a Danish classical violin student growing up in Copenhagen in the 80’s discover his passion for the 60s? When Mads was 14, his father gave him a Miles Davis cassette tape that changed his life. Mads was hooked. He found a sense of intimacy and freedom in the 60s sounds of Jazz, Soul and early R&B, which inspired him to explore the possibilities of how to get there with his violin. The result is an exhilarating and thrilling musical adventure.

Joining Mads on this journey are his “Mads Men”: World-class musicians Colin Hogan on piano and accordion, Sam Bevan on bass, and Eric Garland on drums.

As a former nine year member of both Turtle Island Quartet and bassist Stanley Clarke’s band, Mads Tolling has spent most his professional life touring internationally. Since 2007 Mads has lead his own group, Mads Tolling Quartet. “The Playmaker” released in the fall of 2009, features Stanley Clarke and jazz greats Russell Ferrante and Stefon Harris. A MTQ album: “Celebrating Jean-Luc Ponty – Live at Yoshi’s” was released in May, 2012. Mads’ latest album is called “Mads Tolling and The Mads Men – Playing the 60s,” which features classic songs from TV, film and radio in fresh jazzy versions with guest vocalists Kenny Washington and Spencer Day. Mads has been featured on NPR’s Morning Edition, and his recordings have received rave reviews in Downbeat Magazine, Strings Magazine, Washington Post and the San Francisco Chronicle. He has performed with Chick Corea, Ramsey Lewis, Kenny Barron and Paquito D’Rivera.

Mads grew up in Copenhagen, Denmark and moved to the U.S. at the age of 20 to pursue jazz studies. He studied under violinist Matt Glaser, and he graduated summa cum laude from Berklee College of Music in Boston in 2003. While still attending Berklee, the renowned jazz violinist Jean-Luc Ponty recommended Mads to join Stanley Clarke’s band. Since then, Mads performed more than one hundred concerts with Clarke worldwide, including the Newport Jazz Festival and the Hollywood Bowl and appears on Clarke’s album: “Toys of Men.”

“A wonderful new voice on the violin — very refreshing!”
—Chick Corea

“Mads has the amazing talent and skills that few young musicians can match. His music is both beautiful and refreshing exhibiting his superb mastery of the modern American Jazz music that is rarely seen among his peers.”
—Jean-Luc Ponty

“Mads Tolling is the most exciting musician I have come across in the past ten years.”
—Stanley Clarke