{"id":149316,"date":"2026-03-02T00:10:30","date_gmt":"2026-03-02T00:10:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/149316\/"},"modified":"2026-03-02T00:10:30","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T00:10:30","slug":"the-cheyenne-man-who-sang-bass-for-the-manhattan-transfer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/149316\/","title":{"rendered":"The Cheyenne Man Who Sang Bass For The Manhattan Transfer"},"content":{"rendered":"

Before there was \u201cPitch Perfect\u201d or Pentatonix, there was The Manhattan Transfer.<\/p>\n

In August of 1981, The Manhattan Transfer\u2019s version of \u201cThe Boy From New York City\u201d hit\u00a0No.\u00a07 on Billboard\u2019s Hot 100, marking the beginning of a decades-long reign as the most popular and critically acclaimed vocal jazz band in the country, if not the world.<\/p>\n

Although Trist Curless was too young to appreciate the Grammy\u00a0Award-winning group\u2019s success at the time, The Manhattan Transfer would have an outsized influence on the young Cheyenne student. Curless would go on to join the quartet in 2014 as its bass singer, touring and recording albums until the group retired in 2023.<\/p>\n

Discovering Vocal Jazz<\/p>\n

As a student at Cheyenne Central High School in the late 1980s, Curless said it was rather miraculous that he even discovered vocal jazz.<\/p>\n

\u201cI grew up in Cheyenne, Wyoming, without the internet,\u201d Curless told Cowboy State Daily. \u201cI couldn’t just lock myself in my bedroom and pull up my computer and listen\u00a0to the entire history of jazz music and know what it’s about. I had to seek it out.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

But Curless said he was fortunate to have a music teacher who exposed the students to a variety of music genres and offered them the opportunity to experience vocal jazz themselves.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had a vocal jazz ensemble and a big band, and we would go to the Northwest Jazz Festival (in Powell) and the Greeley (Colorado) Jazz Festival,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd the occasional act would come to Denver that we\u2019d get down to, or over the hill in Laramie, if the road was open that night.\u201d<\/p>\n

Curless became hooked on the tight harmonies and stylings of vocal jazz, which influenced his decision to attend Northwest College in Powell following his high school graduation in 1989.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the main draws was the drummer up there named Ronnie Bedford,\u201d he said, referring to the college\u2019s percussion instructor, a renowned jazz drummer who spent decades performing around the world with the Benny Goodman Quintet and with jazz legend Benny Carter.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, I’m a singer, but I can have an hour of lessons just hanging out with Ronnie Bedford? Yes, please,\u201d said Curless. \u201cYou could hear all the stories from his years in New York and traveling the world, playing with all these – you just mention any artist and he’d talk for 20 minutes about the time he toured with them in \u201874 or whatever.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"JazzJazz vocal group The Manhattan Transfer became a household name in 1981 with the release of their hit \u201cBoy From New York City.\u201d Cheyenne\u2019s Trist Curless, far right, sang bass in the quartet for the last 10 years of their run. (Getty Images)\"JazzJazz vocal group The Manhattan Transfer became a household name in 1981 with the release of their hit \u201cBoy From New York City.\u201d Cheyenne\u2019s Trist Curless sang bass in the quartet for the last 10 years of their run. (Courtesy Trist Curless)\"JazzJazz vocal group The Manhattan Transfer became a household name in 1981 with the release of their hit \u201cBoy From New York City.\u201d Cheyenne\u2019s Trist Curless sang bass in the quartet for the last 10 years of their run. (Courtesy Trist Curless)\"JazzJazz vocal group The Manhattan Transfer became a household name in 1981 with the release of their hit \u201cBoy From New York City.\u201d Cheyenne\u2019s Trist Curless sang bass in the quartet for the last 10 years of their run. (Courtesy Trist Curless)Arrow leftArrow rightM-Pact<\/p>\n

After earning his\u00a0associate degree\u00a0at Northwest College, Curless transferred his education to the other institution in the region that stood out for its jazz program, the University of\u00a0Northern Colorado at Greeley. <\/p>\n

It was while attending college there that Curless began to lay the groundwork for a career in music, forming a vocal jazz group called Exact Change that would travel to Denver to perform whenever possible.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the mid to late 80s through the mid 2000s, maybe even 2010s, there was a club in downtown-ish Denver called Acappella’s,\u201d he said. \u201cWe were just trying things out and putting things together on our own and arranging these jazz influenced pop songs, because, \u2018Oh, hey, we can make money doing this fun thing we like.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Although many of the members of Exact Change moved on to other activities, three of them, including Curless, decided to take their act to Seattle, Washington, where there were more opportunities to perform their kind of music.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we landed there at the beginning of June 1995, we had no jobs, no places to live,\u201d he said. \u201cBut we had such vision and commitment that within a month, we had all those things. After a while, we found a fifth singer, and we’re like, this is what we’re doing.\u201d<\/p>\n

The group they named M-Pact would find success on the community concert circuit, playing in performing arts centers around the western U.S. The group moved to Los Angeles, where they juggled intermittent singing gigs with day jobs waiting tables or working at call centers. Curless found himself in demand running sound boards for other groups.<\/p>\n

\u201cRunning bands is still difficult and requires a specific set of skills,\u201d he said. \u201cBut how do you do that guy who’s spitting into the microphone, and make it sound like a drum set? You know it, or you don’t know it. So I started doing sound engineering. Eventually I get called from the guys in Straight No Chaser, and I toured with them as their front of house engineer for about three years.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AfterAfter earning his\u00a0associate degree\u00a0at Northwest College, Curless transferred his education to the other institution in the region that stood out for its jazz program, the University of\u00a0Northern Colorado at Greeley. It was while attending college there that Trist Curless began to lay the groundwork for a career in music, forming a vocal jazz group called Exact Change that would travel to Denver to perform whenever possible.\u00a0 (Courtesy Trist Curless)\"AfterAfter earning his\u00a0associate degree\u00a0at Northwest College, Curless transferred his education to the other institution in the region that stood out for its jazz program, the University of\u00a0Northern Colorado at Greeley. It was while attending college there that Trist Curless began to lay the groundwork for a career in music, forming a vocal jazz group called Exact Change that would travel to Denver to perform whenever possible.\u00a0 (Courtesy Trist Curless)Arrow leftArrow rightThe Manhattan Transfer<\/p>\n

It was while he was on tour with the popular\u00a0a capella\u00a0group Straight No Chaser that Curless first sang with The Manhattan Transfer, substituting for their bass singer.<\/p>\n

\u201cRight after a show, I got a phone call from Cheryl Bentyne of (The Manhattan Transfer) asking if I could sub in for them,\u201d he said. \u201cNot an offer, \u2018Your name came up, and we might need someone to sub in probably sometime next month. Our fearless leader, Tim (Hauser), the bass singer, is out with a back surgery, and so we kind of need somebody, just seeing if you’re available.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Curless filled in with the iconic group for the rest of 2013, and in early 2014 was brought on to do sound for another iconic vocal group, Pentatonix.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In September of that year, though, Hauser had a medical episode while on tour in upstate New York \u2014 at the same time, and in the same part of the country, in which Curless was touring with Pentatonix.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Call it coincidence, call it serendipity, call it divine intervention, but Curless had been training someone else to run the very specific sound engineering for Pentatonix when the call came, and he was able to finish out the tour with The Transfer.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI did the rest of that year,\u201d said Curless. \u201cI did the few Pentatonix things that there were, and now I was off and running with The Transfer. So I stopped mixing them, and I was just doing The Transfer until they retired in \u201823.\u201d<\/p>\n

From world tours to studio albums, Curless\u2019\u00a010\u00a0years with The Manhattan Transfer allowed him to perform the songs that he had been listening to since his high school years – but this time, on stage with the people who made those songs iconic.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThey had about 10 to 12 songs that we kind of needed to do six or seven of them every night,\u201d he said. \u201cWe’d occasionally get someone mad if we didn’t do \u2018Boy from New York City,\u2019 and we would do \u2018Operator\u2019 and \u2018Birdland\u2019 and \u2018Trickle, Trickle.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

However, because of the depth of the band\u2019s repertoire, and their global appeal, there were times when Curless had to learn a song in a day or less.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to Spain, literally boarding the plane to go to Spain for a show that night, and Janis (Siegel) tells me about a song I don’t feel like I ever even heard before, that’s the biggest song of theirs ever in Spain,\u201d he said. \u201cSo I listened, and I was like, \u2018Oh, this is kind of fun. I kind of wish we did this one more often.\u2019 We did the concert, came out for the encore, the intro starts, and the thousands of people lose their minds. I just heard it on the plane that day, and an entire culture just was singing along.\u201d<\/p>\n

Curless said there was so much to learn that he rarely got to relish in the experience of being on stage with some of his music heroes. But he recalled one show where the magnitude of the situation hit him.<\/p>\n

\u201cI always loved \u2018Choo Choo Ch\u2019Boogie,\u2019 which was from the \u2018A League of Their Own\u2019 movie, and it was always one of my favorites pre-Transfer,\u201d Curless said. \u201cAnd one night, middle of the show, for whatever reason, it starts, and just before we go to sing, I almost just lose it, like it hits me. I’m singing with this group, this song that I’ve loved. My brain finally could be in the moment of doing it, rather than like, \u2018Oh man, how does this one start? Do I have a solo? I don’t want to mess up an entrance.\u2019 But I’m like, choking up as I’m starting to sing.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Retirement<\/p>\n

Since The Manhattan Transfer retired in 2023, Curless has continued to be based out of Los Angeles, doing sound engineering and some performing – including back at his alma mater, the University of Northern Colorado.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen The Transfer was on its way to being done, I get a text from the Jazz Studies director at UNC, and he’s like, \u2018Hey, I’m thinking of putting together a Lambert, Hendricks and Ross (classic vocal jazz trio) tribute,\u2019\u201d said Curless. \u201cHe’s like, \u2018Who would you get to sing with you?\u2019 And it was so fun, and it was so good, and it was so much work that we were all like, \u2018Okay, we need to do this more often.\u2019\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Curless said when he began this journey in 1995, he didn\u2019t dream of one day becoming a member of the most well-known vocal jazz band in the world – that detail was just the icing on the cake.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’m not in high school looking at the \u2018Vocalese\u2019 album, thinking, \u2018One day I’m going to sing in this group,\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cI did say, \u2018One day I’m going to do something like this – jazz, pop, close harmony, music of my own, tour the world, record.\u2019 I did all of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wendy Corr can be reached at wendy@cowboystatedaily.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Before there was \u201cPitch Perfect\u201d or Pentatonix, there was The Manhattan Transfer. In August of 1981, The Manhattan…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":149317,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[75,84,83,9,24,63],"class_list":["post-149316","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manhattan","tag-manhattan","tag-manhattan-headlines","tag-manhattan-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149316","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=149316"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149316\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/149317"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=149316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=149316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=149316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}