Lark & Spur guitarist Jeff Whitely didn't know accepting a tour managing position for the Brigham Young University big band Synthesis would get his band an invitation to play the Montreaux Jazz Festival next year.
"It was interesting how this all came about," Whitely told the Deseret News. "The Y.'s French department asked Lori and I to go on tour with Synthesis. But they didn't realize we knew Ray (Smith), who is the big band's musical director, and had already recorded an album with him last year. Things just lead to another, and one of our CDs was heard by one of the festival promoters. When we returned home, we received a fax asking us to play."Locally based Lark & Spur - comprising Whitely, flutist/saxophonist Smith, guitarist Chris Taylor, vocalist/mandolinist Lori Decker and bassist Evan Coombs - will be playing in France next July.
"We're not straight jazz," Whitely confessed. "But we do all types of music in our own way."
Lark & Spur plays mostly acoustic music and mixes everything from pop, Celtic, jazz, blues to Broadway.
The band has a huge history. And though Paris radio programmers, concert promoters and miles of nightclubs and dance halls know this unique ensemble, there is just a handful of Utahns who know about it.
"We played up at the Stein Eriksen Lodge during the snow seasons for two years," said Whitely. "And that was wonderful. We were treated well by the management and had a great time. But we were playing mostly for tourists. And it's hard to create a fan base that way."
Still, Lark & Spur has landed gigs at a Utah Symphony VIP reception when it welcomed Maureen McGovern, a Salt Palace convention and the La Caille restaurant at the mouth of Little Cottonwood Canyon.
But Europe seems to be the most accepting. And it should. Whitely and his brother traveled the continent playing as street musicians.
"We thought we'd be there for only a couple of months but ended up being there for eight," chuckled Whitely. "It was a wonderful experience. It tied into the old saying `taking your wares into the street.' And it was satisfying to see people slow down and eventually stop to hear us."
The street gigs eventually led to a paid tour of Switzerland.
"We also played school and at the American embassy in Bern," remembered Whitely. "Then we made the mistake of coming home."
After spending three years in Montreal, Canada, being a businessman and playing music on the side, Whitely began working for a French company and met Decker.
"I felt moderately successful as a guitarist," Whitely remembered. "But when I began playing for Lori, she would say things like, `Is that all?' and `That's all of it, just three chords?'
"I realized she was miles ahead of me," Whitely continued. "She would also bring out these jazz standards that I couldn't make out very well. So I took them home, and after hours of practice, I would piece them together."
"I was classically trained from the time I was 11, and did a lot of musical and community theater," Decker said. As for the mandolin, she began her formal training on the violin, which has essentially the same tunings.
"Mom taught me the basic violin," Decker explained. "I took up piano and voice and picked up the mandolin and taught myself how to play in college."
The two returned to Europe and did some street gigs and other shows across the continent.
"I didn't think I was going to sing in the streets of Europe," laughed Decker. "But I made the switch from classical quite easily."
They met the leader of the French communist party, who took them out for lunch and had them stay for dinner.
"We had no idea who he was," said Whitely. "But he loved our music and had a lot of power. And he landed us a spot on TV."
The two returned home and Whitely's cousin, Taylor, joined the duo, making it a trio.
As destiny would have it, the three musicians returned to Europe for another run.
"We were told many times if we would only stay we'd make it big," Decker said. "But we had jobs back here and had to return."
A few months later, bassist Greg Peterson (who was recently replaced by Coombs) was added to the lineup, as was Smith.
"All this time, I thought music was a frivolous thing," confessed Whitely. "I had this thought in my head that the manly thing to do was become a businessman, doctor or something like that. But the music was always there for me. In times of illness, depression. It was always there."
Lark & Spur has been together for more than 12 years and has more than 150 songs in its repertoire.
"We never thought 10 years ago, we'd have 2 CDs to our name," Decker said.
The band released a holiday album last year called "Season of Light" and late this last summer, it released "Under a Softening Sky." Though "Season" lay heavy on traditional Celtic and Irish music, "Sky" is mostly a jazz album.
Both albums are available at Media Play, Blockbuster Music and the BYU Bookstore.