What do you get when you take five award-winning voices and toss them into a blender with heaping helpings of tasty pop, high flying jazz, stylin' soul, blazing funk, awe-inspiring arrangements and best-selling CDs? Easy answer: "m-pact...mic and mouth masters...one of the best pop-jazz vocal ensembles in the world!" So says the San Francisco Chronicle about this Seattle-based quintet that's been touring, recording and sharing its expertise at vocal ensemble clinics since 1995.

To see and hear for yourself what NBC's Today Show called "among the best [vocal groups] in the country," head on over to New York's hottest new club, Crash Mansion, 199 Bowery, on Saturday, January 24 at 8 PM, when m-pact makes an eagerly anticipated return to The Big Apple after an absence of about two years. Their return was made possible through an invitation to perform at the prestigious International Association of Jazz Educators (IAJE) conference, being held here during the week of January 19.

m-pact was crowned Grand National Champions and Audience Favorites of the 1996 Harmony Sweepstakes and won a slew of other awards, including Billboard's Best Unsigned Band of 1999, Artist of the Year in the Pacific Northwest's SAMIES competition and Best Vocal Jazz Group of both 2002 and 2003 in the International A Cappella Community Awards. The group has been touring around the world, headlining at concert halls and music festivals in Japan, Singapore, Italy, Germany, North Africa, British Columbia and all across the United States. m-pact has also appeared with Sheryl Crow, Natalie Cole, Kenny G, the Woody Herman Orchestra, Rockapella, The Nylons, The Bobs and an enviable list of other stellar artists. Among their many celebrity fans, Ray Charles said m-pact was "ALL-RIGHT!!!"; Bobby McFerrin said, "LORD HAVE MERCY...Y'ALL IS BA-A-AD!!!"; Kenny Loggins praised them for their "...star quality"; and Bill Gates said they were just plain "GREAT!" NPR has also hailed m-pact for being "a vocal wall of sound," while a New York producer simply called them an "EARGASM!"

In addition to touring, m-pact has found time to produce three best-selling CDs. Their stunning Carol Commission, comprised of arrangements written especially for them by such illustrious arrangers as Take 6's Cedric Dent, Grammy winner Michele Weir, the legendary Randy Crenshaw,  Roger Treece and others, was nominated for an AIM (the "independent Grammy") Award for Best Seasonal Album. To keep their legions of fans happy, the group is preparing two new CDs for release: one, of their critically-acclaimed, original pop tunes; the other, a jazz favorites collection.

Sharing the bill at Crash Mansion will be New York Voices' own Peter Eldridge, himself a big fan of m-pact. For more information on the show, visit the club's web site at www.crashmansionnyc.com. And while you're surfing the web, check out m-pact.com for photos, sound clips and lots of cool information on the group.