The Kazz Music Blog

Kazz is off to an awesome start heading into 2018.  We were just awarded The Knot’s “2018 Best of Weddings” Award.  This was only our second year advertising on their site and collecting reviews on their site, and we’re proud to say that we won this award both years, which is pretty amazing!  Add this […]

We were thrilled to announce a few weeks ago that we won The Knot’s “Best of Weddings” Award for 2017, and just last week, we got even more great news – that we won Wedding Wire’s 2017 Couples’ Choice Award!  This marks the 6th year in a row that we’ve won the award from Wedding […]

We just got some pretty awesome news! This year was our first year advertising on The Knot, and we’re super excited to announce that we just won their “Best of Weddings” award for 2017! It’s one of the premier awards in the industry, and I’m thrilled to add it to our long list of Couple’s […]

I’m very proud to announce that for the 5th consecutive year, we’ve been selected as winners of Wedding Wire’s Couple’s Choice Award!  The award is based on the number of reviews we receive, and also on the quality of those reviews.  The recipients of the award rank in the top 5% of bands throughout the […]

Check it out!  Our singer, Keith, was on Letterman recently singing backing vocals for Elvis Costello!  Keith is the singer in the middle of the 3 backing vocalists.  Also, our buddy, John, who periodically fills in for Keith if Keith isn’t available for an event, is the singer on the left.  Super exciting for stuff […]

Last week, we got the super exciting news that we won Wedding Wire’s 2015 Couple’s Choice Award, making us one of the highest rated Westchester Wedding Bands!  This award is based on not only the number of reviews that we get on Wedding Wire, but also the quality of the reviews as well.  Based on […]

Being a very busy Westchester Wedding Band, we’ve had very little down time lately as we’ve been performing non-stop at all kinds of amazing weddings!  We recently wrapped up a marathon of 14 weddings in 14 weeks, which kept us so busy that I haven’t had a chance to post anything in a long time. […]

As a Westchester Wedding Band, it’s always a treat for us to travel outside of the Westchester area to perform at weddings.  Last year, we played at a really fun wedding for Sophia and Michael at Colgate University.  They were kind enough to recommend us to their friends Emily and Bobby, who also got married […]

About a month ago, we had the opportunity to play for Literacy Partners’ Annual Gala Fundraiser at Cipriani’s in Midtown Manhattan – one of the nicest locations in NYC.  If you’re not familiar with the organization, check them out at www.literacypartners.org.  As a band that primarily performs at weddings, doing cool events like these, supporting […]

We occasionally like to feature some cool vendors or ideas for the Hudson Valley, so it’s now time to feature an awesome vacation rental in Kingston, NY.  Our pianist’s parents have an amazing log cabin available for rental in Kingston, NY.  If you’re getting married in the Hudson Valley, and you want to give your […]

Our band’s pianist, Andrea Shaut, recently launched a new website in support of all of the independent wedding ceremonies that she performs at.  So, if you’re looking for the best Hudson Valley wedding ceremony music, check out www.hvceremonymusic.com.  Andrea Shaut has performed wedding ceremony music at hundreds of weddings in the Hudson Valley, and the […]

This past December, we took a night to head out to Long Island’s EKO Productions to shoot a few new video clips of the band.  Check out our “Media” page to see some of the new clips.  We’ve added some Top 40 clips, as well as a bunch of swing / dinner / slow songs, […]

We’re very excited to announce that today we were awarded the Wedding Wire Couple’s Choice Award for 2014!  This further goes to show that the Kazz Music Orchestra has become one of the best Hudson Valley Wedding Bands and best Westchester Wedding Bands!  This award, which places us in the top 5% of bands around […]

“How much does your band cost?”  That’s the first question we hear over and over.  With a little bit of research, you’ll probably find that prices for NYC Wedding Bands or Hudson Valley Wedding Bands can range from as little as $2,500 to well over $10,000.  Are the $10,000 bands really THAT good?  Here’s some […]

On Friday, The Kazz Music Orchestra played at a wedding I’ve been really looking forward to all year – the wedding of Jenna and Bradley at The Liberty Warehouse in Brooklyn, NY.  There was lots to like about this wedding.  First off, Jenna is a huge Motown fan, so the mix of music for the […]

On September 14, 2013, we played for the wedding of Danielle and Montana – a truly fun party at the Stone Tavern Farm in Roxbury, NY – about 3.5 hours outside of NYC.  The venue is an amazing rustic barn situated on a farm pretty much in the middle of nowhere.  The setting couldn’t have […]

On Saturday, 8/31/2013, we had the pleasure of playing at Ryan and Sara’s wedding at Wave Hill in Riverdale.  This was our first time performing at Wave Hill, and it was an amazingly beautiful setting right on the Hudson River!  Sara and Ryan had an awesome day for their wedding.  Andrea provided solo piano for […]

We were recently contacted by Thumbtack.com about being featured in a spotlight interview, so after going through the interview process, the interview is now live on Thumbtack’s site, and we wanted to share the interview with everyone.  You’ll see us on the right hand side of the page.  Here’s the link to the site on […]

  This past Saturday, we played for an AWESOME wedding at The Belvedere Mansion, near Rhinebeck, NY that has a few really cool aspects to it.  First, Morgan and Katherine wanted to hear us live before booking our band – fairly common request.  So, they tried to catch us at one of our monthly showcases […]

Hey everyone! Come check out The Kazz Music Orchestra playing at Groove on Monday, 7/8.  We’ll be there from around 7:00ish up through 8:30 playing a mix of R&B hits for your listening pleasure!  If you’re considering us for a wedding or event, this is a great chance to see us live!  Hope to see […]

On June 29, we played a wonderful wedding at Montgomery Place in the Hudson Valley yesterday.  Mike and Rachel put together a very elegant event.  After worries of rain all week, the weather turned out beautiful – not a cloud in the sky!  The Kazz Music Orchestra provided sound support for the wedding ceremony, a […]

After almost 3 years of performing together, we’re very excited to now have this beautiful professional website to finally showcase the band!  Many thanks to Rodrigo Saiani (www.plau.com.br) and Gustavo Saiani (www.poe.ma) for the beautiful work!  If you’re looking for any kind of beautiful design work, contact these two guys.  If you’re looking for some […]

We’re nearing the halfway point of 2013, and The Kazz Music Orchestra has been really busy so far playing at a lot of Westchester Weddings, Hudson Valley Weddings, and really weddings all over the Tri-State Area. It’s been an incredibly fun year for us so far! A big part of what we do to make […]

The Kazz Music Orchestra will be playing at Groove in NYC on Monday, February 25.  We’re extremely excited to be playing at Groove, as it’s one of the top R&B clubs in all of NYC!  We’ll be playing from 7:00 – 8:30, and there is no cover charge.  Please come down to check us out, […]

Here’s a really awesome highlight video from Apt3 Media (www.apt3media.com) from a wedding that we played at back in May 2012. The Kazz Music Orchestra makes a few appearances throughout the video. One of the things I really love about Brad and Apt3 Media’s work is that it does such a great job of telling […]

We did it again!  The Kazz Music Orchestra was notified yesterday that we were selected as winners of the 2013 Wedding Wire Bride’s Choice Award!  After two full years as a band, we’ve succeeded in winning the award both years, which is a huge honor in the industry!  This helped to really launch our popularity […]

  The Kazz Music Orchestra was featured in a painting done by artist Anthony Galati during a wedding that we played at in November 2012 at The Madison Hotel in Morristown, NJ.  I know this is something that has started to become more popular at weddings, but we’ve never been at a wedding where this has taken place, […]

As one of the top Hudson Valley Wedding Bands, we’ve performed at many of the premier venues in the Hudson Valley.  On December 21, we had the privilege of performing for the first time ever at The Diamond Mills Hotel and Tavern for Kyle and Tiffany’s wedding.  It was a wonderful experience for us, and we’re […]

Our most recent wedding was a unique one.  We played at The Montauk House in Park Slope, Brooklyn.  The Montauk House is a beautiful building from the 1880s that was modeled after a palace in Venice, Italy.  So, it was pretty amazing on the inside! Most weddings feature a ceremony followed by a cocktail hour, […]

We had the pleasure of playing for Ray and Jennifer’s wedding last week Friday.  We provided our 8 piece band featuring Keith and Rhonda on vocals along with two horns and our rhythm section, and we also had Danny and Rawn play as a guitar/bass duo for their cocktail hour.  This was our first time […]

If you’re looking for catering for your wedding in the Hudson Valley, I just wanted to take a brief second to acknowledge my personal favorite:  New World Home Cooking.  Here’s what I like: The Food:  New World Home Cooking has long been one of my favorite restaurants in the Hudson Valley.  When we have guests in […]

We recently had the opportunity to work with Alken Photo Studios for Chris and Tricia’s wedding at The Waterside in North Bergen, NJ and they were nice enough to share some of their photos of the band with us (including the one posted here!).  Check out the album from the wedding by clicking HERE.  I […]

We occasionally try to take video clips of some of the weddings that we play for.  Here’s a little compilation of a few of the clips, which shows a lot of people having a lot of fun with us playing!  Hope you enjoy!!! [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NO0H6HSNlOw&feature=vmdshb]

We had the pleasure of playing for Chris and Tricia’s wedding at The Waterside in North Bergen, NJ recently.  This was our first time at The Waterside, and it was a wonderful event.  Chris and Tricia put together a beautiful wedding.  It featured our pianist, Andrea Shaut playing for the ceremony.  At Chris’ request, Andrea played Radiohead […]

While we are most commonly a Hudson Valley Wedding Band, this past weekend, The Kazz Music Orchestra traveled to play a wedding at the Skytop Lodge in Skytop, PA.  It was amazing!  Sarah and David put so much thought into every aspect of the wedding.  Their ceremony was very personalized.  We provided the music with […]

We owe a HUGE thanks to Dan and Alison for having us perform for their wedding at The Rhinecliff Hotel on August 26.  The hotel is a beautiful setting – very old and historic, and it sits right on the shore of the Hudson River!  It was a fairly small dance floor, but Alison and Dan, […]

On August 25, we had the chance to perform for Mari and Andrew’s wedding at The Kaaterskill in Catskill, NY.  It was a beautiful wedding and a beautiful setting.  The reception was in a large old barn, where we provided the dance music!  The Kaaterskill has a lot of farm animals on the property, so […]

I posted previously about CJ and Stef’s wedding on August 4 at The Hermitage in Ho-Ho-Kus, NJ.  I also commented on how awesome their first dance was.  They choreographed it to the Alanis Morissette version of “Let’s Do It, Let’s Fall In Love”.  One of their guests took some video on their iPhone, and Stef was […]

On August 11, we played for Ben and Jane’s wedding at The Larchmont Yacht Club.  We knew we were in for quite a fun night when we had tons of people screaming for us even after we were only a few bars into our first tune!  People danced the whole night, and we had a […]

[wpvideo ZsYAiA6N]  On August 4, The Kazz Music Orchestra performed at The Hermitage for CJ and Stephanie’s wedding.  A lot of planning went into this wedding, and we had a great time performing!  CJ and Stephanie choreographed one of the best first dances I think I’ve seen yet – to the song “Let’s Do It, […]

Every bride and groom always wants to know, “What happens if someone in the band gets sick last minute before our wedding?”  The reality is that this can happen, along with a ton of other potential issues to us, or any band.  How we handle these situations is what makes us a truly professional band. The […]

On May 17th, The Kazz Music Orchestra’s very own male singer, Keith Fluitt, was featured on Saturday Night Live with Mick Jagger and Arcade Fire.  Check out the video on Hulu:  http://www.hulu.com/watch/363336 Keith is the second singer from the right in the choir at the start of the song.  The group sounded great!  Congratulations to […]

We worked with a wonderful and very talented videography team from Apt 3 Media back in May.  Brad and his team just completed their latest wedding promo reel, and The Kazz Music Orchestra shows up in it.  Check out their reel at:  http://vimeo.com/43652631.  If you’re looking for a videographer in the Tri-State area, I’d definitely […]

We performed for Ryan and Amy’s wedding at the Knickerbocker Country Club, and it was such a perfect event (with a packed dance floor as usual)!  Working with Ryan and Amy was wonderful, and their detailed planning definitely paid off, because it was a fantastic night, and we had a really good time! One of the […]

We had the pleasure of performing for Katie and Whit’s wedding at Woodbury Country Club on May 27, 2012.  Absolutely awesome couple to work with, and absolutely amazing evening! There were many highlights that made this wedding fun for us:  1) Katie and Whit had cutouts of their heads that were circulating at the wedding, […]

We owe a HUGE thanks to Julie and Matt for having us play at their wedding at Minerals Resort and Spa in Vernon, NJ on May 5!  Julie and Matt booked us about a year before their event, so after all of the planning, it was exciting to see everything come together and come out […]

The Kazz Music Orchestra played our first wedding of 2012 on April 28, at Full Moon Resort in Big Indian for Chris and Kim.  We had an awesome time.  It was a great group of people that LOVED to dance, which makes what we do a lot of fun!  We heard several comments that we […]

Once in a while, couples contact us telling us that they want to book both a DJ and a band for their wedding.  My first question is “Why would you need to do that?”  Even as a live musician, I’m not anti-DJ like many musicians are, but, I struggle with understanding why people would hire […]

One of the considerations in planning a wedding is whether or not to have the band perform your first dance together, or whether you should dance to a recording of your first dance song.  From a bandleader’s perspective, here are a few thoughts: If you’re going to take dance lessons and learn a routine for […]

On Saturday, February 12, we volunteered our time to do a special performance for the West Point Military Academy Glee Club, and had a magical night doing so! The 7 of us played for two hours, and the 70 Cadets danced non-stop, which made the performance a blast for us.  I’m proud to say that for […]

We are excited to announce that we are doing a special performance for the West Point Military Academy Glee Club on Saturday, February 11, 2012 at the Bear Mountain Inn in Bear Mountain, NY.  The Glee Club will be rehearsing all day on Saturday for upcoming performances through the semester, and when their rehearsals conclude, […]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0eOVbFMV1Vs

Weddings aren’t cheap.  I know.  I paid for my own wedding.  So, if you’re going to be relying on your venue to recommend vendors to you, wouldn’t you expect those vendors to be people that actually provide a high quality service at a value compared to other similar vendors?  With some venues that’s not necessarily the case.  […]

We are thrilled to announce that we were selected to receive the 2012 Bride’s Choice Award from Wedding Wire!  Click HERE to visit our page on Wedding Wire. According to Wedding Wire: “This means we are in the top 5% of Wedding Pros nationwide! The WeddingWire Bride’s Choice Awards recognizes the top local wedding professionals […]

by:  Joe Kaczorowski – Saxophonist / Director of The Kazz Music Orchestra – www.kazzmusic.com Click HERE to download this article as a PDF file. As someone who has been working with wedding bands both as a leader and a sideman since I moved to the New York City and Hudson Valley areas in 2001, I’ve had […]