…transporting listeners to the great music that sprang from the French cafés and the evocative sounds of Edith Piaf, Jacques Brel and Django Reinhardt. The band combines the singing of the French chanteuse, the musette accordion, gypsy-jazz guitar, upright bass and drums to deliver a moody, melancholy and magical night of music.

The group features lead singer Mimi Pirard who spent her youth in Paris, where she learned many of the band’s songs. Before SonoMusette, she and her brother Gabe led the popular North Bay world fusion band Dgiin. SonoMusette also showcases accordionist Robert Lunceford, who began playing the accordion at age seven. Prior to forming SonoMusette with Pirard, Lunceford performed with the French music trio, Un Deux Trois and French-Italian trio, La Guinguette.

Standup bassist and pianist Jan Martinelli has toured nationally with Holly Near and performed at jazz festivals from Monterey to Barbados and the Kennedy Center. Her soulful approach to the bass can be heard on more than 30 albums. While performing with a variety of Northern California bands, Isaac Vandeveer on guitar is fluent in free-form jazz to big band swing and covers. He is currently band director for the Rincon Valley Union School District in Santa Rosa. Drummer Richard Andrews has performed regularly in jazz groups abroad and in the Bay Area. His frequent trips to Paris have inspired a deep interest in French popular music of the early 20th century

SonoMusette’s reanimation of the Parisian era’s classic songs in a modern context is guaranteed to be a rare and unique treat at WCT.