Mads Tolling & The Mads Men, Playing the 60s

Mads Tolling & The Mads Men bring a fun and exciting program that is as nostalgic as it is contemporary, with re-imagined classic songs from 1960s television, film and radio. Mads takes us back to the 60s serving up fun-filled nostalgia, exciting arrangements of familiar tunes and fresh takes on jazz standards and the not-so-standard – pushing the boundaries of where a violin can go. The Mads Men will perform tunes from their critically acclaimed release, Playing the 60s, ranging from “A Taste of Honey” and “Meet the Flintstones” to “Good Vibrations” and “Georgia on my Mind.”

Internationally renowned violinist, composer and two-time Grammy Award-winner Mads Tolling is a former member of the Turtle Island Quartet and The Stanley Clarke Band. As a current member of Bob Weir & Wolf Bros/Wolfpack, Mads has appeared on three record releases and performed at over a hundred concerts. Mads leads his own group Mads Tolling & The Mads Men, celebrating the 1960s with his own distinctive style and innovative flair.

So how did a Danish classical violin student growing up in Copenhagen in the 1980s discover his passion for the 1960s? When Mads was fourteen, 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 1960s 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, Gary Brown on bass and Eric Garland on drums.