Mads Tolling & The Mads Men feat. Kenny Washington

Internationally renowned violinist, composer, and two-time Grammy Award-Winner MADS TOLLING is celebrating the music of the 60s Mad Men Era with his own distinctive style and innovative flair.

The show debuted to much fanfare at the Historic El Campanil Theatre. It is a fun and exciting program that is at once nostalgic as well as contemporary, and includes Academy Award-winning Movie Themes, popular TV classics, and Top 10 Hit recordings. Repertoire ranges from “Mission Impossible”, “The Pink Panther” and “Meet the Flintstones” to “Georgia on My Mind” and the Love Theme from “Romeo and Juliet.”
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, with Mads guiding us to places we didn’t know a violin could go.

Joining Mads on this journey are his “Mads Men”: World-class musicians Colin Hogan on piano & accordion, Sam Bevan on bass, and Eric Garland on drums.
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Kenny Washington
"The thing is, Washington slays 'em wherever he performs. Standing not quite five-foot-two, he's an oversize talent who can scat with the harmonic daring and rhythmic command of a bebop saxophonist, croon with the simmering soul of Donny Hathaway, and interpret standards with such intelligence and emotional commitment it's like Rodgers and Hart wrote "I Didn't Know What Time It Was" with him in mind." -- Andrew Gilbert, eastbayexpress.com

Recently dubbed “the Superman of the Bay Area jazz scene” by the San Francisco Chronicle, Kenny Washington is a jazz virtuoso who thrills audiences with his soulful interpretations, seemingly limitless range, and rapid-fire scatting. Ravi Coltrane has declared Kenny his favorite male vocalist, and Mark Murphy said in a Jazz Times interview that Kenny was the only contemporary male vocalist carrying on the tradition.