"Boss Day Music Marathon" w/ The YeahTones, Miles Francis, Frege, Man Named Pearl

Since releasing their debut album "American Hymn" in February 2014 with Brooklyn recording studio and music collective Mama Coco's Funky Kitchen, Toot Sweet has expanded from a duo of accordion/vocals and upright bass to a rotating "cabaret pop" ensemble under the direction of Mary Spencer Knapp (lead vocals, accordion and piano). Synthesizing her classical vocal and piano training with her love of jazz standards, French chanson, Kurt Weill and 60s rock/pop, Knapp creates a form that is at once playful, dark, light, and a touch literary. Echoes of this project can be traced to Knapp's senior thesis performance while at Bard College, in which she arranged, and composed for an 8-piece ensemble staged in a wood-paneled grand hall that she had transformed into an atmospheric cabaret. Crooning her favorite Kurt Weill songs in German and French, Knapp was really creating the milieu in which her formidable talents shine; collaborative, eclectic, and performance-oriented.

Toot Sweet came into being just one year ago when college friends Mary Spencer Knapp and Benji Marx reinvigorated their love of jazz/rock/pop genres. For a few months they polished their chops playing classic covers in beer gardens and bookstores and come summertime were ready to expand their sound to include Jesse Maynard on drums. Around that time Knapp began to steer herself more into songwriting and subsequently began tracking her debut record with Oliver Ignatius in fall 2013. The result: an 11-track record featuring the talents of a well-accomplished musician and orchestrator. From Blondie to Beirut to Broadway, Toot Sweet has it all: it's a progressive expression of a vaudeville vibe, dressed up in a modern musical costume, and delivered flawlessly with funky finesse.