Bradley Young Entertainment

A tropical wave breaks on the beaches of Chicago! For those with the taste for the exotic, Tropicale™ is the perfect compliment to a unique Chicago Wedding experience. Brazilian, Caribbean and Latin music presented with a festival of fun and excitement…Tropicaleplays to wildly enthusiastic audiences with its percussive rhythms, sparkling horns, steel drums, and incredible vocalists. From classic Latin and Brazilian composers, to hot Latin dance music, a touch of Jimmy Buffett and some rock & roll for the gringos, too. Tropicale™ is a fresh mix poured straight from musical director Marshall Vente’s blender!

Also, available with the Samba I Dance ensemble: hot, sexy dancers direct from Brazil complete with costumes from Carnival in Rio! Tropicale can offer music as a Chicago Wedding Band that most have only dreamed of…

“Folks have been raving for years about Marshall Vente’s particularly satisfying brand of Latin-American influenced jazz” – Arts Midwest

“Tropicale is one of Chicago’s finest Latin groups.” – Howard Reich, Chicago Tribune

“Marshall Vente loves a party!” – Fred Bouchard, Bossa Magazine

“Your orchestra was amazing and the tropical touch helped make the evening sizzle with excitement” – DuPage Children’s Museum Gala 2002

“Starting of the show were Marshall Vente and Tropicale from Chicago, who captivated the audience with their music. The momentum was never lost. Tropicale’s wild rhythms, fantastic solos on bongos,guitar, keyboards and drums alternated with top vocals and exciting Cuban dance performances.” – Daily Herald, St. Maarten, Netherlands Antilles

“Marshall Vente’s Tropicale was a cut above many of the Brazilian-oriented releases that came out in 1996.” – Alex Henderson, www.allmusic.com

“Tropicale stands out as the most eclectic of Marshall’s bands: in it Vente blithely incorporates jazz and world-music pop, focusing on the sounds of Brazil but making use of specifically Afro-Cuban rhythms as well.” – Neil Tesser, Critic’s Choice, Chicago Reader

“Vente is a Chicago institution: a fluent keyboardist and an imaginative composer arranger who specializes in Latin music.” – Critic’s Choice, Isthmus, Madison, WI

“If you want to know anything about Brazilian music, Marshall Vente is the right guy to contact.” – BOSSA Brazilian Jazz World Guide

“Tropical had an excellent performance as musical entertainers at the ‘Brazilian Night’ sponsored by General Electric during the Congress organized by the Radiological Society of North America in Chicago.” – Danilo Talankas, GM, GE Medical Systems, Brazil

Band Leader

Marshall Vente

Marshall Vente, an established Chicago based pianist/arranger, studied arranging in the 1980s with Gil Evans and David Matthews in NYC under two Jazz Apprentice grants from the National Endowment of the Arts. He has appeared at the Chicago Jazz Festival and many other regional festivals, on NPR’s Jazz Aliveand the American Jazz Festival’s nationwide New Year’s Eve broadcast. He has recorded ten albums, which showcase his compositions and arranging over diverse settings. In addition to four recordings with Project 9, Tropicale records his explosive acoustic/electronic group of the same name exploring the Brasilian, Caribbean and Latin trditions in jazz; Two is comprised of solo piano with Chicago vocalist Joanie Pallato; two other recordings, with steel pan master Neville York os St. Maarten, N.A., explores Caribbean influences on Sweet Salt and Jazz Flamboyant; and, on The Long and Short of Jazz, Eldee Young and Vente romp through blues and standards. Vente also hosts a weekly radio show in Chicago, Jazz Tropicale on WDCB 90.9 FM (”a jazz show with a few palm trees”) and produces an annual jazz festival each January in Chicago at the Jazz Showcase.