Deborah Lawson (Vocalist)

Deborah’s love of music started with piano and voice lessons at the age of four. She began singing professionally in the early 1970's, first performing blues and acoustic rock & roll, then moving into the jazz realm. Inspired by the soulfulness of Aretha Franklin and the creative talents of jazz greats like Sarah Vaughn and Billie Holiday, it was when she heard the contemporary jazz interpretations of vocalist Sheila Jordan that she knew she had to sing jazz. She loves à capella singing and has performed in that style solo, as a duo and with the quartet Will & The Won’ts in the 1980's. She has previously been the vocalist for Ground Level (jazz and reggae) and the Hightman-Crozier Jazz Quartet. She attended the Florida State University School of Music, and has appeared in numerous live TV and radio performances for WFSU Broadcasting. The Deborah Lawson Group had its beginnings in 1994 when Stan and Deborah began work as a duo. She is also a vocalist, along with her daughter, Abigail, for Tallahassee’s own big band, Tallahassee Swing.

Stanton Rosenthal (Keyboards, Guitars, Vocals, Bass, Ukelele and Percussion)

Stan was born to a musical family. His father is a retired school band director and professional musician and his mother (also retired) was a church organist. Stan began his musical career on soprano ukelele, piano and then trombone. While in highschool he bought a guitar in Mexico for $15.00 and taught himself how to play both classical guitar and the blues. Since then he has played in a variety of bands in many styles including classical, dixieland, blues, rock and his favorite -- jazz. Stan began playing with Deborah (his neighbor) in 1994, arranging and accompanying her on guitar, piano and backup vocals. His creative arranging is evidenced in most of the group’s music, including unique jazz arrangements of contemporary tunes like Black Sabbath’s Iron Man.

Richard Bertram (Bass, Tenor Saxophone, Vocals)

Richard began playing clarinet and saxophone in high school. He joined his first professional group at the age of 17 (too young to legally play in bars, but no one ever asked). In college he took up the bass guitar and played in several rock & roll bands in Tallahassee. After finishing college he moved to Washington, DC and joined a rhythm & blues band, playing tenor saxophone. He moved from Washington to Erie, PA, where he played saxophone and clarinet in the Erie Playhouse pit orchestra, performing in over 20 shows. Since returning to Tallahassee in 1999,
Richard has focused on jazz and blues. He now plays with three groups, the Deborah Lawson Group, Quanta, and the TCC Jazz Band. Last year he played on an album with Hal Shows, called Native Dancer (reviewed in Entertainment Weekly).

Michael Blizzard (Flute, Keyboard, Bass)

Michael took private instruction in piano and performed publicly in first and second grade, taking a few more lessons later on during elementary school days. In middle school he played trumpet and baritone horn in the school band and piano in the school orchestra, performing on occasions then as well. High school found him learning some rudiments of both guitar and flute playing on his own. In college, he took all the courses in music theory he could find and also studied music composition, voice, ethnomusicology, electronic music and music history for a term. Occasionally, he jammed with friends on-stage or in “living-room” bands and even managed to play a few other miscellaneous instruments and take a piano lesson or two. He continued to teach himself harmony and improvisation along the way, as an interest in jazz music developed. He joined the band with Stan, David and Deborah in 1999.

Pam Ryan

Pam Ryan has served as Professor of Viola at the Florida State University College of Music since 1989. She was the winner of the 1983 Aspen Music Festival Young Artist Concerto Competition and since has recorded new music for the Col Legno and Canadian Broadcasting Company labels and was praised by the American Record Guide for “superb technique and musicianship.” She has performed as faculty artist for summer festivals at Aspen, Yellow Barn, Schlern /Italy, Green Mountain, Idyllwild and Bowdoin.  Pam has served on the National Board of the American Viola Society and she has given a masterclass and presentations by invitation at the American String Teachers Association National Conferences in 2008, 2009, and 2010.  In addition to performing with the Deborah Lawson Group, Pam is principal viola with the Tallahassee Symphony and performs on the rebab having studied with Balinese masters in Bali.  She credits her jazz chops to instruction from jazz cellist David Baker and Stan Rosenthal, DLG member and her boyfriend.  Her most difficult jazz challenge was to learn to improvise more than whole notes.  Pam has a grown son Aziz who performs music in Atlanta.  Check her out on You Tube:  "The Capricious Composer Virtuoso Violists" and "Seven Symmetries to Save Time."

Michael Bakan

Michael Bakan is Professor of Ethnomusicology and head of the Ethnomusicology/World Music program at Florida State University (FSU). He is the author of World Music: Traditions and Transformations (McGraw-Hill, 2007), which has been adopted as a textbook at more than a hundred universities and colleges nationwide and internationally, and also of the book Music of Death and New Creation (University of Chicago Press, 1999), which was recognized by The Times of London as one of the two "most significant publications on Balinese music in almost half a century." His many other publications span topics as wide-ranging as Indonesian gamelan music, world percussion, early jazz history, multicultural music education, and the ethnomusicology of autism. He directs both Sekaa Gong Hanuman Agung, the Balinese gamelan ensemble of FSU, and the Music-Play Project, an interdisciplinary research and applied program for children on the autism spectrum and their families. He is active as a composer and arranger and has performed as a percussionist with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic Green Umbrella Players, Tito Puente, Phil Nimmons, and the championship gamelan beleganjur groups of Tatasan Kaja and Kintamani in Bali, Indonesia. Bakan has been an invited speaker/clinician at numerous institutions, including Harvard, Yale, and Indiana universities and the Berklee College of Music in Boston. He currently plays with the Deborah Lawson Group and with Carlos & Carlos in Tallahassee, where he resides with his wife, Megan, their two children, a dog, a rabbit, a cat, and a bunch of ants and butterflies.

David Copps (Drummer - 2000 through 2009)

David’s interest in drumming began with the British Invasion of the 1960’s. He drove his family to near insanity when playing along to recordings by the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. During his high school years, David began playing with his brother, guitarist Jon Copps. Their musical partnership has endured for more than 30 years through numerous rock, rhythm and blues, and blues bands. Their most recent collaboration is with the Sir Charles Trio, featuring Florida blues legend Charles Atkins. David’s initiation into jazz drumming began when he joined the Deborah Lawson Group in 2000. With the diverse musical styles covered by the group, David’s repertoire of rhythms has grown to include swing, jazz waltz and bosa nova.