NovaZanz

After years of playing bass in rock, blues and country bands, Maria "Pete" Durgan learned how to play chords on bass. This was exciting! She started writing songs. They were jazz songs. She started playing them at open mics and people liked them. People liked her voice. She searched far and wide for other musicians to play them with her. Then she met . . . .

John Cropp, a fabulous guitarist. Wes Montgomery and Django Reinhardt are his heroes and it’s evident in his playing. He played with the Nostalgia Brothers, a Washington DC area group headed by Mike Wilkinson. He also formed a jazz trio and freelanced as a guitar player. Recently, he joined a band in which Pete was playing bass. Pete taught John a few of her songs and it worked nicely.

John and Pete often play as a duo, but whenever possible, they invite top notch drummers to play with them, including Ron Goad, Kirby Yarbrough, Chris Keever, and others