Standards & Substandards

A Standards & Substandards show has something for everyone! With the essential ingredients of a jazz quartet (vocals, piano, bass, drums) you’ll hear standards from the early 20th century, followed by a current pop composition with our own spin, adding a swing rhythm and a walking bass line so that “new” and “old” all blend together!

About Standards & Substandards:

Standards & Substandards is the easygoing quartet made up of Caryn Crowley (vocals/diva), Tim Herzog (bass), Adam Johnston (piano), and Ian Marshall (drums). The band has its roots in jazz traditions and branches reaching out to everything else. So, it’s even odds whether our next song in the set will be composed by the Gershwin brothers or a cover of Dua Lipa. We love playing whimsical re-creations, interesting blends of genres, classic jazz standards, or ironic twists on simple tunes. We’ll just as happily perform an upbeat jazz standard as a bluesy torch song, and we’ll also blur traditions of funk, pop, rock, and blues as the spirit moves us. Basically, we just like playing music as we reimagine it; and we love playing anywhere from a stage at the amphitheater to a backyard party to Tim’s basement.

Our name is a play on our musical stylings, starting with jazz “standards” and a question we had long ago about what to call all of the other music we arrange. But it’s also a fun nod to our day jobs as teachers, grading papers and helping students meet those learning standards, each of us in a different setting. (It’s fun to guess who the band director is among us, alongside scientists and a history teacher.)

For more information about the band, our recordings, future gigs, booking, etc., find us at https://substandards.band, follow us on social media, and play us on your favorite streaming service.