Dynamic Les DeMerle Orchestras Featuring...

Ex-Lionel Hampton, Harry James, and Manhattan Transfer drummer Les DeMerle has found a home on Florida's Amelia Island. The producer of the Amelia Island Jazz Festival in 2001, DeMerle has been a fixture at the Lobby Lounge in the Ritz-Carlton Hotel, where he's performed with the Dynamic Les DeMerle Orchestra Featuring Bonnie Eisele since 1991. The group, which ranges from a jazz trio to a 17-piece ensemble, successfully blends romantic jazz ballads, Broadway tunes, and Top 40 pop. A native of New York, DeMerle was introduced to music at the age of ten by a roommate at the Eastern Military Academy on Long Island. Teaching himself to play drums, he quickly mastered the instrument. By the age of 16, he had secured a spot in Lionel Hampton's orchestra. Veering toward jazz fusion, DeMerle formed Sound 67 with trumpet player Randy Brecker in 1967. This group evolved into Transfusion, which featured Randy and Michael Brecker and guitarist/vocalist Steve Katz (later of Blood, Sweat & Tears). DeMerle spent most of the 1970s and '80s as a session player. He performed on Harry James' Grammy Award-winning 1982 album, and appeared in concert with Richie Cole, Wayne Newton, and bebop vocalist Eddie Jefferson. Since 1966, DeMerle has collaborated with Chicago-born vocalist Bonnie Eisele. A former voice student of Bernard Izzo of the Chicago Opera Company, Eisele studied singing at the University of Illinois in Champagne. After a brief period as a public school teacher, she worked with the Free Street Theater Company, with whom she toured Europe. Traveling to Brazil in 1976, she spent a year studying the country's singing and dancing traditions. Eight weeks after Eisele received a telephone call from DeMerle, inviting her to audition for his band, they were married. ~ Craig...