Madlyn Phelan
Vocals
Singer Madlyn Phelan is experienced in multiple genres including blues, R&B, jazz, folk, and sacred music. A lifelong student of music, she had formal choral music training as an undergraduate at Washington University in Saint Louis, and has sung throughout her life in church and community choirs. The shows and venues where she has performed include Blues 2000, a local production of Carrie the Musical, SUNY New Paltz Diversity Week, Uncommon Grounds, Marbletown Fall Festival, and most recently 90 Miles Off Broadway’s Judy Garland Tribute. Past projects include the Dreadnots, Cold Sweat, Will and Madlyn and performances with Murali Coryell and John Simon and the Greater Ellenville Jazz Trio.
“I cannot imagine a life without music-listening, learning, making, and experiencing its cathartic and therapeutic blessing.”
Bill Beveridge
Keys and vocals
I Think Music in Itself is healing. Believe it.
Bill plays and studies a number of styles of music, including Jazz, Classical, Motown, Disco and Funk. He finds inspiration in all of them. Artists of considerable influence are: Johann Sebastian Bach, Bill Evans, Wynton Kelly, Tommy Flanagan and Herbie Hancock. For Bill, playing and studying piano is of paramount importance. It is his anchor Intellectually, emotionally and Spiritually. "I keep after it". Having been born into a musical familly, Bill has been playing for years. After graduating from SUNY New Paltz with a degree music, he joined the "Whippets", a Jazz Fusion ensemble. Locally, this group proved to be a popular and influential performing act. The "Whippets" were active from 1979-1985. A career as a public school band director followed. Bill has been busy performing with a variety of groups since his "Whippet" days. Currently he puts his talents to use with Soul City Groove.
Stephen Smith
Guitar and vocals
Stephen Smith was born in Brooklyn NY but raised in New London Connecticut and Upstate New York. He started playing piano and accordion, but eventually, he moved to acoustic guitar, and so began a life-long fascination with stringed instruments, primarily the guitar and bass with some forays into the banjo and oud. Stephen has played in many local bands in the Hudson Valley and Albany areas, including Eclipse (Funk and Disco), reggae bands such as The Transnationals, The Ravers, The Dreadnots, and The Bounce-back Band, as well as R&B, Rock, and Jazz bands. Stephen also performs solo and in a duo arrangement known as As-Is. Currently, Stephen is also acoustic guitarist and lead singer for the Bluegrass and Americana band Three Quarter North.
“I guess if there is such a thing as a “happy place” mine would have to be in front of an audience playing and singing music. It doesn’t really matter to me what kind of music either. If the people are digging it, I’m having a good time.”
Hank Heijink
Bass and vocals
Hank Heijink (pronounced Hey-ink) was born and raised in The Netherlands, where he started playing guitar at age 6. He gravitated to classical guitar and got a performance degree from the Brabant Conservatory. Along the way, he also drums, which first got him hooked on funk, but his focus stayed on classical music. After his guitar studies, he switched to lute and studied at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague. Since then, Hank has played all over the world with leading ensembles such as the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra, European Union Baroque Orchestra, Tenet Vocal Artists, the Mark Morris Dance Group and the Wooster Group, among many others. Eventually, Hank started missing playing funk, and picked up the bass guitar. Hank still performs on lute and theorbo, and enjoys bringing the bass lines to life of amazing musicians from 17th Century’s Claudio Monteverdi to Motown’s James Jamerson and beyond.
Glenn Hoagland
Drums
Glenn Hoagland is honored and delighted to join Soul City Groove. Glenn started on piano and trumpet, but has had a passion for drumming since his dad gave him his first snare drum at age seven. After performing in marching and stage bands in school, he studied privately with Berklee grad Geoff Chapman, and others. Glenn performed with NJ rock band Strange Enough, and in several Hudson Valley projects, including the funky blues, R&B and soul bands The Agents and Fat City. He is on the Board of Directors of Cross Cultural Connection (CCC), the nonprofit jazz education and performance organization founded by the late great tenor
saxophonist Ray Blue. Glenn has helped advance CCC’s mission for jazz education and performance, including raising grants to support musical performances, providing scholarship funds for aspiring young musicians to continue their post-secondary study, and bringing jazz to the people at CCC’s Riverfront Jazz Festival in Peekskill and other performances. Glenn also performs bebop with the Straight-Ahead Jazz Trio.
“Soul, Funk, and R&B aren’t just genres to me—they’re the heartbeat that turns every moment into danceable music.”