UpFront Band

UpFront is a versatile musical group and solo performers who specialize in professional, live music and entertainment for any special occasion and voted one of the best wedding bands on Thumbtack (thumbtack.com/or/portland/wedding-bands/). Our focus is on jazz (smooth, standard, and swing), Latin, ballroom dance and our own twist on classic rock-n-roll, oldies and pop songs for parties and classical music for wedding ceremonies. We will tailor our performance to your needs at reasonable rates. Chris Bidleman (piano, keyboards, and bass) and Steve Burpee (saxophones), the founders of the band, have been playing music together since junior high school and in 2002, formed UpFront. Chris and Steve are joined by Robert Schultz on drums and are often fused together with good friends Jason Hafer on bass and Larry Pindar on guitar. UpFront can provide different configurations of musicians -- a duo of piano and sax for small events or wedding ceremonies, a jazz trio for the company meetings or a larger combo that can get people out of their chairs and dancing to Big Band Swing, Latin, R&B, and classic rock and roll. UpFront has been featured on Portland's KINK.FM, a local music spotlight radio show. While we often focus on jazz, there are no single labels to describe the wide range of musical styles we can perform. We can play oldies and pop tunes from every decade. We love to play cultural favorites, seasonal standards, and even classical music. Our playlist currently has well over 500 songs, but we can play many, many more, and we love to take song requests from the audience. We can perform as a solo, duo, trio, or larger band to meet your needs and budget. We will travel within the states of Washington and Oregon but are based in the Portland, OR, and Vancouver, WA area. Please enjoy listening to our sample music online at our website. Your satisfaction is our first commitment. UpFront would love to be part of your special event and to personally tailor a performance to your specific needs at reasonable rates. We have performed at so many different events and love to change the style of music we play to fit the mood of the crowd and location of the event. We don't write music sets but will work with our clients to find the songs they want to hear and the joy we see when people recognize a song we are playing that perhaps they haven't heard in a long time and the smile it brings, that makes our job very satisfying. Please read our reviews and you will see that we can adapt well to nearly any situation or event that would benefit from a live music performance.