Five Play

The quintet known as Five Play emerged as an offshoot from the larger Diva Jazz Orchestra, with its moniker chosen because Fourplay had already been claimed by another act. Sherrie Maricle, a drummer hailing from Buffalo, New York, established both ensembles and drew influence from the Blue Note recordings of the 1960s when forming a group dedicated to mainstream jazz and hard bop. In the closing years of the 1990s, Maricle assembled this smaller unit with assistance from Stanley Kay, who managed Diva, modeling it after the subsidiary groups historically led by figures such as Bob Crosby, Cab Calloway, Benny Goodman, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, and Buddy Rich. The initial members comprised Maricle alongside saxophonists Karolina Strassmayer and Laura Dreyer, the latter originating from San Francisco, as well as pianist Lorraine Desmarais and bassist Nicki Parrott. This roster reflected a global makeup, with Strassmayer arriving from Austria, Desmarais from Montreal in Canada, and Parrott emigrating from Australia to join Diva and subsequently Five Play. Their first album, titled On the Brink, appeared in 1998 and featured a mix of standards alongside original compositions by fellow musicians and selections rooted in bop. For the follow-up release, Five Play...Plus, Maricle brought in pianist Tomoko Ohno and bassist Noriko Ueda, both from Japan, while incorporating saxophonist and clarinetist Anat Cohen, who was born in Israel, along with trumpeters Jami Dauber of Chicago and Barbara Laronga from New York, keeping Strassmayer in place. In 2006 the group issued A Jazzy Way, serving as the accompanying ensemble for Portuguese singer Maria Anadon, though Strassmayer, Dauber, and Laronga were no longer part of the lineup. Following Cohen's departure to pursue individual projects and Strassmayer's shift toward Latin jazz ensembles, Dauber stayed on, and Janelle Reichman, a saxophonist based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, joined after connecting through University of Michigan affiliations with pianist Ellen Rowe, who teaches there and performs with Diva. This configuration yielded the 2008 album What the World Needs Now, marking the fourth project on the Arbors label for the ensemble.