Grupo Yuri: News

The summer months have passed so quickly it's hard to believe that autumnal winds are blowing our way.

In May, Yuri performed at the Two River Theater in Red Bank for the musical comedy, A Murder A Mystery and a Marriage playing fiddle in the band.

Grupo Yuri performed mostly at Giamano's in Bradley Beach.
Grupo Y also performed in Westfield for The Sweet Sounds Of Downtown Jazz and Blues Festival in July. The audience was sizable and greatly appreciative of the music. The setting was sublime: a church with a view of the gargoyles and stained glass. Tres cool.

Some of the guys in the band had some interesting events individually: Al our drummer literally got run over by a deer in a parking lot. He called the police because the deer ran into a vide rental store and wreaked havoc before running out. The cops asked Al whether he provoked the deer. LOL.

Jim was heart broken rather than being the heart breaker that he is.

Beny attracted an umwelcome host into his life. The host was asked to leave. And did so.

Grupo Yuri is scheduled to perform at Trumpets in September. It's "the" place to perform one's "jazz."
Hope you readers will come out to suport us in this very venerable venue.
See you soon!

Grupo Yuri performed with pizzazz and panache in their debut concert as a headline act at the Burgdorff Cultural Center in Maplewood NJ on April 19, 2008.

The audience was thrilled and showed its appreciation for the music and the band with a standing ovation at the end of the performance.
What a show!

To continue the evening, Grupo Yuri members met with members of the audience at a local pub after striking the stage.

It was a night to remember in the annals of live music.

Long Live Grupo Yuri!

The Sweetest Sound Downtown

Grupo Yuri in Westfield

Concert Review by: Larry Marc-Aurele

Place: Westfield in Union County NJ


On August 7th 2007, I visited Sweet Sounds Downtown as I had on all other Tuesdays. Having seen, heard, and spoken with Yuri Turchyn (violinist) who performed 2 weeks earlier with a group called Arturo, I was looking forward to hearing Grupo Yuri. They did not disappoint. They performed near the train station parking lot on South Street. A sextet consisting of Yuri Turchyn on violin, Al Selert on drums and percussion, Stacy Grant on percussion, Jim Grant on bass, Ernie Fortunato on guitar, and Beny Ramos on congas and bongos, this group was easily the best I’d seen so far at the Westfield jazz festival. Their brand of jazz has a Caribbean flavor, with elements of salsa, funk and world beat.

First and foremost was group leader/front man Yuri Turchyn, master violinist and showman, working the audience, talking to the people, and playing his instrument to the max, and making it all look too easy. To his right was Stacy Grant with a small table full of percussion instruments he used to add colors to the music and rhythms. He used triangles, caxixi, tambourines, bells, afuche and even a small set of steel drums among many other percussive things too numerous to mention. Behind him was master drummer/percussionist Al Selert who played with tremendous drive and energy, fully supporting the music, and at the same time, adding extremely creative fills and colors of his own. With his already full kit he also used a cowbell set to his right and small hanging cymbals in front of him, with a set of timbales to his left. He used all of this to great advantage, helping the others to play at the top of their game. To his left was bassist Jim Grant who played a 7-string electric bass, something I’d never seen or even heard of before. His tremendous range and skill as a musician seemed to require such an instrument. He performed with amazing speed and power as did Ernie Fortunato, the guitarist. Ernie used a seemingly endless variety of beautiful chords and riffs, all played with smooth precision. Conga player Beny Ramos played seated behind 3 congas and a set of bongos, adding even more to the rhythm and the music, playing the bongos often while playing congas. In addition to rhythms such as tumbao, calypso and bolero, he often played a very nice one-handed finger roll on bongos to add to his dynamics.

Dynamics were a major part of this group’s expertise; one minute the music would be cooking and then brought down to a haunting whisper of one or more players, then the rest would come in and build the music. Each song—original—would take the listener on a journey full of surprises, super slick breaks, dramatic solos and endings, and precision teamwork all led by the great Yuri Turchyn, who quickly made friends with all in attendance, often walking and talking among the listeners. His electric violin was wireless, and at least once he walked over to people in their cars waiting at the train station traffic light and entertained them with his masterful playing and outgoing personality.

Grupo Yuri is a band definitely worth checking out.

Grupo Yuri will be performing in concert Saturday, April 19, 2002 at The Theater at The Burgdorff Cultural Center in Maplewood, NJ.

This will mark the band's debut as a singular entity that can bring audiences to their feet and wanting more. The concert will herald a new beginning for the NJ based sextet with this, their at long last debut as performers in their own rite.

Grupo Yuri has performed at such luminous venues as The NJ Performing Arts Center (NJPAC); The South Orange Performing Arts Center ( SOPAC); Trumpets Jazz Club in Montclair, NJ; has performed at Riverfest, Red Bank's premier Jazz and Blues Festival; Kean University's Little Theater and numerous clubs and festivals throughout their musical travels.

For reservations and information please call 908 241-1571. Tickets are $20.00 with General Admission seating. The Burgdorff Theater has seating for 125 people. Tickets are selling fast so please don't wait; don't hesitate. Come and enjoy the wonderful sound; the incredible performances by the instrumentalists and in addition, a few vocal oriented surprises to be in store. It's a wonderful life with music in it. Grupo Yuri has just the music for you!

What a night! The place was jam packed. The music and comraderie mixed into a fine cocktail.
Patrons and musicians jammed in a sonic wave of unity. Very ultima!

Carmen the Goat was a big hit at the penultimate performance at The Dancing Goat. Grupo Yuri hosted the music of the night. Revelry was openly displayed by all attendees from the band to the audience.

The place was filled to capacity as Grupo Yuri's music bathed the audience with a mixture of celebration and sadness; the former for the great sounds emanating off the stage and the latter for the eventual demise of yet another great venue for music. The Dancing Goat was closing its doors and gone with it will be another great place lost for freedom of artistic expression.

Goodbye till next time.
And be still by bleeting heart!

Giamano's patrons in Bradley Beach, NJ welcomed Grupo Yuri with thunderous applause during the three set night.
The place was jammed with enthusiasts from the earlier years when GY performed at the Jersey shore and with newly annointed fans.

It was such a great night that Grupo Yuri will be back to Giamano's in Feb., March and April. Check the GY website calendar for dates.

Amor Vincit Omnia. Love conquers all. Add to that
Amor et musica vincit omnia.
Love and music conquer all.

Grupo Yuri performed at the Goat with passion and energy on their original compositions and on their recent interpretive infusion of material by Herbie Hancock, Grover Washington, Chick Corea and Horace Silver. The enthusiastic audience supported the band with incredible approval after each number. The Goat was the place to be that night.

Grupo Yuri has been invited to play on a monthly basis by Denise Stennett owner of the bistro.

On another note, kudos to our guest premier drummer Peter Watts who performed with GY on a rendition of Horace Silver's "Song For My Father."

It was a magical carpet ride for all.

A big thanks to Pat Cruz and Margaret Shaw of Teatro Si for MC-ing the evening, for helping set up the Goat for the guests and for being the gatekeepers.

It was a Night Supreme at Trumpets on 9/9/07.
Small yet intimate was the audience. The response to the show, the music and the entertainment was beyond the normal parameters of a metered response. It was ecstasy.

The band performed with the greatest of musicianship. The roar of the crowd and the revved up performances by all the band members made it a night to remember.

The Chester NJ Black River Music Festival was a resounding success for the organizers, the attendees and the performing bands. There were electrifying performances from all participants: a wonderful mosaic of styles and attitudes.

Grupo Yuri performed early in the day but the crowd was ample as was the sunshine and ambient temperatures.

Cooperation was the key to a succesful event: Ernie Fortunato and Al Selert, both members of GY, were helpful in setting up the sound stage where GY performed. They went beyond the call of duty. Kudos to both of you.

GY's performance was solid, tight and exciting. Only thirty minutes per band was alotted and all made good use of their spots.

The organizers of the festival did an outstanding job of coordinating and organizing everything. They communicated well with the performers and all parties associated with the festival. What a great day for all.

Grupo Yuri's concert at the Arts Factory in Bayonne was an Ab-Fab evening. We played an hour set of tight and flowing music. All the players were on a nirvanic journey in the outer reaches of the nebulae in the universe. We were one with ourselves and the audience. A transcendental event.

The Tango presentations and the lessons that followed and the Milonga were a hit with the attendees.

Pat Cruz and Margaret Shaw of Teatro Si did a splendiferous job of producing this highly successful evening of Music and Dance. Passion was the essence of the night!

Grupo Yuri performed under the stars in Westfield August 7...then again it may have been overcast but the evening was dry at least til we finished playing. Under the Banyan Tree we played...really a gigantic pine with cones all over the ground. We subtitled the group's name as the Rolling Cones.

Playing downhill with gravity's force pulling ever so mightily, Grupo Yuri performed a two hour show for a sizable and appreciative audience. It was an evening of challenging circumstances but the music prevailed over all.

We'd like to thank all the people that came that evening to our show and judging from all the positive comments we received after the performance, it was nice to find so many new fans.

The band played with reckless abandon; the audience responded accordingly. A great night of entertainment and music.

We'd like to thank Denise
for her hospitality.

A big hug to Margaret Shaw for minding the gate.
Thanks Pat Cruz for your Emcee talents.

It was a great turnout at Cafe Arabica in Morristown on February 23rd. Arturo and Megan Glynn opened the show with their renditions of the Great American Songbook. Joining them were Yuri on violin and Ernie Fortunato on guitar.

The segue from Arturo to Grupo Yuri was Samba De Orfeu on which the members of GY joined in quite seamlessly.

The crowd was enthusiastic to both acts. Grupo Yuri's sets consisted of original material throughout the evening in contrast to the standards performed by Arturo and the magnificent vocal of Megan. It was a great night for the musicians and for the audience.

Let's do this again. The variety was incredible. The musicianship superb and the response sublime.

With the new year, the collective members of Grupo Yuri would like to welcome our new guitarist Ernie Fortunato into the band. What a player!

We have two gigs coming up on our schedule so check them out. We need your support.

I have been fortunate to be associated with the guitarist Arturo and gigging with him and his cohorts: vocalists Megan Glynn and Allison Kalaher and cornetist Rich Gradone.
I will be posting my non-Grupo gigs on the schedule also.

Lots of music in store so don't hesitate to attend any of the scheduled performances. Or even all of them.

Yuri