OUR HOUSE BAND
Arny Granat Presents Irene Michaels & The Our House Band
Produced by Chicago co-founder of Jam Productions, Arny Granat – OUR HOUSE has been wowing Chicago audiences since its debut in March 2021 followed by several SOLD OUT performances at Le Piano in Rogers Park, Arcada Speakeasy in St Charles, the Fine Arts Building on Michigan Avenue, Davenport’s and the historic Jazz Showcase.
Granat saw a burning desire for LIVE MUSIC kindled by the restrictions of the pandemic and went on to form OUR HOUSE which embodies an eclectic group of talented musicians.
Irene Michaels, Lead Singer
Irene Michaels has always been a part of the entertainment industry. Her artistic interest began early at age 11 as a dancer, taking lessons then eventually touring with a young dance group. They worked in state fairs, private parties, and even the circus! Ultimately she landed a part in an Off-Broadway production of A Chorus Line.
Irene became one of the top ten models in Chicago. She was in several local magazines and won several beauty contests. She built the Showtime modeling agency from the ground up and kept it running flawlessly for over two decades. She became known as the “leader of fashion shows”.
Her career shifted from working in front of the camera to behind the camera as a producer, leading to the creation of two production companies that produced promotional events for corporations, hotels, and convention centers.
In the 1970s she appeared as a vocalist and played guitar at leading jazz restaurant clubs performing her own material.
As an actress, she appeared in television, film, theater, and most notably a recurring role in the popular daytime soap opera, General Hospital. Her film roles include Mickey One, Killer Klowns From Outer Space, Straight Talk, Cold Night Into Dawn, and River Made to Drown In. She appears as herself in the documentary, Live at Mister Kelly’s. Irene was also an Executive Producer of the docudrama, Betrayal: When the Government Took Over the Teamsters Union.
Irene is a singer, songwriter, musician, and plays the guitar. She is an active member of Chicago Cabaret Professionals and has performed as a vocalist in many venues including Winter’s Jazz Club, Davenport’s, Le Piano, Arcada Theatre, The Chicago Fine Arts Building, and Jazz Showcase. Her solo cabaret show debuted in NYC in 2022 with a tour planned! Irene is releasing two House Music singles on Trax Records, distributed by SONY, produced by Joe Smooth in the Fall of 2022!!
Jeremy Kahn, Musical Director
Born near Chicago, I am a proud holder of a B.M. (yuk!) from Boston’s New England Conservatory. I lived in New York City for twelve action-packed years, and now my family and I live near Chicago, in Oak Park, Illinois. Although I am mainly a jazz pianist, having played in jazz-type venues around the world, I also play on recordings that motivate you to consume your favorite products, and I also play in pit orchestras for some of your favorite theatrical extravaganzas.
I’ve played with Dizzy Gillespie, Max Roach, Joni Mitchell, Phil Woods, Teramasu Hino, Charlie Haden, Aretha Franklin, Barbara Cook, Alvin and the Chipmunks, and everyone in between.
Yvonne Gage, Singer/Song Stylist
Yvonne Gage is an American singer from Chicago, Illinois. Active since the late 1970s, she has done background vocals for artists prior to and after her own solo success.
As a session musician, she has provided vocals for many well-known artists, including Aretha Franklin, Stevie Wonder, Michael McDonald, The Doobie Brothers, Ministry, Celine Dion, Ashford & Simpson, Kem, Janelle Monáe, and Kindred the Family Soul.
Gage began singing in the church choir. At 14, She joined a local R&B band, The Soulettes, and sang with them for seven years. During this time, the band was renamed “First Love”, then simply “Love”, and released an album, Love at First Sight, under the independent Chicago International Music label in 1980.
However, Gage already had left the band at the time of release, to become a backing vocalist for Captain Sky. While touring with him, and beside acts such as Cameo, Stephanie Mills, Kleeer and Smokey Robinson, she met Don Burnside, Captain’s Sky producer at the time.
He produced her first solo single, “Garden of Eve”, in 1981 for Atlantic Records. The track managed to enter the Dance Club Songs chart, and rank at number 36.
Burnside also introduced her to then playing new wave band Ministry. Gage took part in their With Sympathy tour, appearing alongside Madness, The Police and Culture Club. After finishing touring, she recorded a commercial for Ultra-Curl, before going back to studio.
Gage continues to record new material and make appearances.
Bob Davis, Guitarist/Composer
I attended the Berklee College of Music in Boston, where I studied arranging and composition and instrumental performance. After leaving Berklee, I studied privately with the famous Charles Banacos in Boston who also taught guitarists Mike Stern, John Scofield, Pat Matheney, Mick Goodrich, and many other excellent musicians of all instruments. I relocated to New York City where I played and toured with John Waite (of Polydor Records and Missing You fame) and Patty Smythe (on CBS Records). I had my own guitar column as Promotions Director at Guitar World Magazine. While in NYC, I took Les Paul, a mentor and dear friend, out of retirement and did feature stories on him and set him up with a steady Fat Tuesday’s gig.
In 1984, in partnership with Felicia Collins of the David Letterman Band fame, I started working for Nile Rodgers Productions as part of the production team working on fifteen major records, including artists such as David Bowie, Diana Ross, Duran Duran, Al Jarreau, Jeff Beck, the Thompson Twins, Grace Jones, and Sister Sledge. While working with Nile Rodgers, I became the Associate Publisher of Musician Magazine where my responsibilities included hiring staff, choosing cover artist and cover art, and acquiring major advertising.
After moving back to Chicago in 1990, I formed my own band (“Cooly Cool”) with Ari Brown and Daryll Jones. While playing with Jones, I met Robert Irving, III, another heavyweight, and, in 1992, started playing with him in his electric music adventures, including the Miles Davis tribute gigs. Two major record deals were born in 2006, and one in 2011, with my new band, Lake Effect, under the genre of contemporary jazz. Most recently I wrote music for my dear friend Jeff Golub, who passed in 2014, and re-arranged a record for Hall & Oates. I am still writing music for myself as well as for other major artists. I perform as “The Bob Davis Trio”, freelance with other musicians, and have been offering private guitar lessons for the past 20 years.
Today I teach under the direction of Robert Irving III’s School of Jazz Music at the Chicago Academy of Music (CAM) with a team of world-class artists and instructors at the University of Chicago branch (www.chicagoacademyofmusic.org). My newest musical endeavor is with the new band put together by Glenn Burris, whose latest CD, produced by Robert Irving III, will be released after the first of the new year.
Sonny Luca, Singer/Guitarist
Sonny Luca is a Chicago based singer-songwriter & multi-instrumentalist. His sound is a fusion of Laurel Canyon folk-pop. alt-rock and soul. And his off-of-center lyrics are haunting melodies which evoke an intimate and moving experience.
Studio Pastorale was founded by Sonny Luca and C.M. Sutton in 2019 and is where Luca wrote, produced and recorded his debut EP.
Michael Austin, Bodhran
Michael Austin comes from a family with a music performance tradition that reaches back three generations to his bandleading great-grandfather, a personal friend of John Phillip Sousa. Austin’s grandparents met as members of a Gibson string band, and his father co-founded the Joliet American Legion Band, the most celebrated concert and marching band of its kind in the nation. It was from his father that he took his first drum lessons at age 5. Today he is a faculty member of Chicago’s Old Town School of Folk Music, where he teaches bodhran, the Irish traditional drum. He has been a featured performer at several major music festivals, including the Ennis Traditional Music Festival in County Clare, Ireland; Celtic Fest Chicago; Taste of Chicago and Milwaukee Irish Fest.
He has recorded and performed in venues large and small—from cozy pubs to Chicago’s Orchestra Hall at Symphony Center—with some of the world’s most renowned Irish musicians, including Liz Carroll, Laurence Nugent, Maurice Lennon (Stockton’s Wing), Deirdre Scanlan (Solas), John Williams (Solas), Jimmy Keane (Green Fields of America, Bohola), Dennis Cahill (Hayes & Cahill), Kathleen Keane (Gaelic Storm), Liz Knowles (Riverdance), and Carlos Nunez, affectionately known as “the 7th Chieftain.”
Beyond the realm of Irish traditional music, he has performed with a diverse array of ensembles, from the Chicago Children’s Choir to indie rocker Ike Reilly. A founding member of the Irish traditional band The Boils, Austin is a two-time finalist in the senior bodhran competition of Ireland’s Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann, and a former adjudicator of the Midwest Fleadh Cheoil. In addition to playing music, he is a freelance writer who has contributed to Esquire, GQ, Outside and several other publications, including a book collaboration (Back to the Family) with Oprah Winfrey’s personal chef Art Smith. His weekly wine column, “The Pour Man,” appeared in the Chicago Tribune and was syndicated nationally. He lives in Chicago.
Richard Patterson, Bassist
Richard Patterson, a Chicago native, started playing bass in neighborhood bands and school jazz bands around Chicago. His first bass teacher was the late Doc Jones where he started learning music theory and how to read music. An alumnus of Fenger High School, Richard studied at the American Conservatory of Music, the University of Illinois at Chicago, and graduated from Vandercook College of Music as a string bass major with a degree in music education. He started teaching as a band and orchestra director in the East Chicago Indiana School system for four years before deciding to play bass full time in an up-and-coming local band called “Insight”. Richard has taught music masterclasses at Roosevelt College in Chicago and in Nairobi, Kenya with David Sanborn. He was on the panel for the Columbia College’s “Bass Symposium” master class. He was on the faculty at Prairie State College’s music department where he taught music and music production. Richard is a member of the Illinois State Board of Education.
As a professional musician, he has performed, recorded, and toured the world as bassist with such artists as Miles Davis, David Sanborn, Michael McDonald, Boz Scaggs, Joe Sample, Roberta Flack, Stevie Wonder, Herbie Hancock, Ramsey Lewis, Kirk Whalum, Natalie Cole, Luther Vandross, Brian Culbertson to name a few.
He has recently toured as musical director/bassist for Boz Scaggs, Michael McDonald, and David Sanborn.
James Perkins, Horns
James Perkins is one of Chicago’s elite saxophone & woodwind artists who has also significantly contributed his talents globally for the last 50+ years as a professional player, writer, and recording artist in every musical capacity, genre, and venue imaginable. Being somewhat an industry secret, James has not enjoyed the public successes shared by many of his colleagues and contemporaries but is highly regarded as one of the most skilled and knowledgeable saxophonist to have been produced by the Chicago music scene. Having performed with top artists in just about everything involving music as a powerful live performer, he’s also enjoyed the title of a ‘solid 1st call’ session player for studio work and has been featured on thousands of recordings, albums, and jingles/industrials as well as hundreds of theater productions in both musical and acting performance roles. James has led several incarnations of his own group (The James Perkins Ensemble) as well as performed as a standing member of several acclaimed groups in Chicago and nationally. He was also a U.S. Navy Band performer during his 14 years of Naval Service which led to him receiving a Letter of Commendation from the Commanding Flag Officer of Naval Station Great Lakes.
James’s credits are extensive and therefore will be listing only a select few of the artist(s) with whom he has recorded, toured with, and/or been a member of the band or organization, performed with, Lucy Lawless (ZENA, Warrior Princess), Albert King, Bobby Lyle, Grand Staff, The Irene Michaels Band, the Musicians Network Mecca, Timeless Gifts, Von and George Freeman, James Mack, Dr. Billy Taylor, the Winans, The Mighty Dells, The Chi-Lites, The Temptations, Ashford & Simpson, Anita Baker, Onaje Alan Gumbs, Michael Wolf (Arsenio), DJ Quik, Bobby Brown, Jon B, Colin Hey, Ringo Starr, Nancy Wilson, Aretha Franklin, James Mack, The Chicago Cats, Daryl Tookes, Teresa Griffin, Lou Rawls, The Four Tops, Ramsey Lewis, The Brian Perry Orchestra, Kristy Black, John Patitucci, The Chicago Symphony Orchestra, The Imperials, Charmaine Neville, Buddy Guy, Junior Wells, Dawn Lewis, Malachi Favors, Malachi Thompson, The Dells, and Gladys Knight – just to name a few.
