Hi. I'm John Paquette, and I'm a baritone.
I have directed Boston Jazz Voices since
January of 2000. Before directing the group, I sang with it since
1987.
In 1985, I joined a Boston-area barbershop
chorus. I'd sometimes goof around by adding, to the chords we sang, extra
notes which didn't exist in the barbershop style -- I just
couldn't help myself. After a year or two with the group, a fellow barbershop singer
gladly introduced me to a chorus which met once every several months to
sing arrangements written by Gene Puerling, who had been a member of
the Hi-Lo's, the greatest jazz-harmony men's quartet ever. These arrangements, however, weren't from
the Hi-Lo's. They were written for The Singers Unlimited, another Gene
Puerling group. The Singers Unlimited specialized in using studio techniques to create a large,
lush, complex choral sound with only four singers.
This new chorus was singing the arrangements without amplification,
and without any studio tricks. I was hooked. There was
no other place I could go to sing such sophisticated harmonies. With these
arrangements I was never tempted to add notes, because all the hip notes were
already there. Rather than continue to be a rebel in the barbershop world, I
stepped over to the dark side, where sixth chords, ninth chords, six-nine chords,
eleventh and thirteenth chords abounded. The chorus voted to call itself The New England Close Harmony
Ensemble (my suggestion at the time was "Ear Candy", but I
didn't prevail).
Over the years, the repertoire of the group has come to include works by other arrangers, but the emphasis on jazz harmony hasn't changed.
In 2002, after many years as The New England Close Harmony Ensemble (N.E.C.H.E. for short -- unfortunately pronounced "Nee-chee", rather than a more French-sounding "Nesh"), we adopted our current name: Boston Jazz Voices.
As Boston Jazz Voices, we now perform more often than ever. Come and listen to us sometime!
You can contact me at director@bostonjazzvoices.com.