Band Bio
Moxie brings you the best in Big Band Swing, 50′s, 60′s, Beach, Motown, 70′s, 80′s, all the way up to the latest Dance Music!
Richard Tatgenhorst
Drums, Lead Vocals, Percussion, DJ, Master of Ceremonies
Rich has been playing drums and singing since 1967. A native of Cincinnati and a graduate of Otterbein College in Theater Performance, Rich had the leads in all his high school and college musicals but came back to his drums performing in nightclubs all over the country until 1986. He came to Atlanta in 1984 with a band and joined the Axtell Productions team in 1986. MOXIE was formed the very next year and since then history has been made. MOXIE performed for Atlanta’s biggest wedding reception (Ted Turner and Jane Fonda), the Buffalo Bill’s Super Bowl party, the UPS 1996 Olympic parties, and the most important event in history . . . Yours! Rich’s life has been performing either in great musical groups or on stage, but his biggest honor is being a husband and a dad to his three precious children.
Terry Emery
Keyboards
Terry started on saxophone at age ten and taught himself keyboards at fourteen. He played in bands through high school, after which he spent three years at a house job playing blues with a locally famous blues artist. There he had the privilege of playing for visitors BB King and Count Basie, as well as Duke Ellington and his lovely wife, who sat right in front of him. He then joined the band Detroit, Mitch Ryder’s band after the Detroit Wheels. During his time with Detroit, he met guitarist Steve Gaines, with whom he moved to Oklahoma to start a band. There, working on a recording deal, he was asked to join Lynard Skynard. While in Jacksonville, Florida, with Lynard, he met 38 SPECIAL and recorded several albums with them. Following this, he moved to Nashville and spent one year playing piano in the demo studio of Tree Publishing, the largest publisher of country music in the world. Terry then moved to Atlanta and played with various bands, performing several jobs for Jimmy Carter, such as his seventieth birthday party. Terry has played keyboards with MOXIE since 1997.
Tony Hill
Guitar / Lead and Background Vocals
Tony is the latest addition to Moxie. He comes to us after a 17 year run with Trammell The Super Band. He is known around Atlanta as the “Funky White-Boy” guitarist whose eclectic style came of age during the heyday of the classic rock guitar heroes of the 70′s.He attributes his diverse singing and playing approach to growing up in the melting-pot culture of an army-brat living overseas. After years of touring with several groups such as The Resistance, Radar, Trammell, and Rockola, he has settled in Atlanta to pursue songwriting andrecording. However, he still loves the thrill and magic of live performing and brings to Moxie a seasoned and energetic presence that spells F-U-N!!!!
Chris Ortiz
Bass Guitar
Chris born in Flowery Branch, GA and has lived in Georgia most of his life. Having grown up in the deep south, Chris was exposed to an amazing variety of music…from country to blues, pop to classical & rock. But it was when he heard “Meet the Beatles” for the first time that he became “bitten by the music bug” at age 5. It wasn’t until he was 13 yrs old that he began to pick up the bass at the urging of his brother, who saw he had a knack for the instrument. While he developed his talent on the instrument, he was still being recruited as Lead Vocalist with various high school bands. And this experience eventually paid off with Chris, at 23, going on a USO tour in 1982 which took him through Canada, Europe, and Greenland. He traveled the world and loved it, but knew that playing bass and singing was his true calling. Upon returning, he never sang “up front” again, focusing on playing bass and singing.
His first full-time bass job was with a moderately successful band, Night Flight in 1984. It is here where he began to develop the tight rhythmical quality that is a part of his trademark today. But his rhythm skills were mastered while playing with Funkadelic drummer, Ben Powers.
Eventually, the musicians of Night Flight (Chris included) decided to go out on their own as a band and created the group, Lifeline in 1986. The band did a wide variety of music, mostly working the “Buckhead Scene” and from that, culminated in jobs where they backed up such acts as Little Anthony, Billy Preston, The Drifters, Chuck Levell (Allman Bros, Rolling Stones)…playing in venues such as the Fox Theatre and The Omni. This also led them into playing quite the number of “one-nighters”. The band’s trademark was their incredible mixed vocals attracting many local musicians out to see the band.
After Lifeline, Chris began experimented with other music later trying his hand at blues with the band, Atlanta Heat. Later on, he recorded originals with the former group, the Results and showcased their originals at Jerry Lewis’s in Memphis in 1993. He continued playing in a variety of bands but also honing his skills at acoustic guitar. Wanting to move in a completely different direction, he co-founded a power trio called Jack Wylde, in 1997. It was very rewarding, both personally and professionally. The band lasted 4 years and worked constantly in the Atlanta music scene.
In Moxie Chris is the back bone to the hard driving rhythm, including DJ on drums, that keep guests on the dance floor yelling for more!
DJ Burel
Drums
DJ has been involved with music his entire life. His first professional “gig” was with the legendary Lena Horne. After winning numerous awards in high school and participating in varied ensembles with The Toledo Symphony and Toledo Youth Symphony Orchestras, DJ furthered his study of music, in college. DJ attended The University of Cincinnati, College Conservatory of Music, where he received a bachelor’s in music education.
Shortly after Ms. Horne performed with R&B Diva Shirley Murdock. The early days provided a sound foundation and appreciation for all types and styles of music. Whether on tour with The Glenn Miller Orchestra, jazz guitar great Wilbert Longmire, bringing the funk with Bootsy Collins or holding the groove with TVT recording artist RAM-Z, DJ is always “in the pocket.” Other musical performances include Kenny Lattimore, Jamie Foxx, Melba Moore, MA$E, The Original TAMS, Regina Murff, Katarina Mia, Kathleen Bertran, Andrae Crouch, The Legendary Mississippi Mass Choir, Louie Bellson, CedKeyz, St.James and James Temple C.O.G.I.C. Mass, Combined and Radio Choir(s), Rev. Charles Nesbitt and The PBC Mass Choir, Robby Bright, and trumpeter, Mike Wade.( Jazziz Magazines (1997) pick as one of the countries top ten unsigned brass players). DJ’s stage performances are not only limited to concerts. He has been involved in many musicals and stage productions. From set drummer to a pit player, flexibility and consistency are two of his greatest assets. Those assets where further developed as a member of Disney’s All-American College Band in ‘91.
DJ’s recording career is again, broad and varied. He can be found on recordings with Pharez Whitted (Mo Jazz), The CCM Wind Ensemble (Ranwood) and currently, DJ is working with many Gospel and R&B artists who’s projects are scheduled for release in 2007-2008.
Moxie is thrilled to have DJs expertise and versatility in the band!
Kristin Markiton
Lead Vocals
Kristin is the latest addition to Moxie. She is an extremely versatile singer/songwriter/performer who was raised in the small town of Deer Park, Washington where she spent her days and nights listening to “top 40” radio and trying to make her voice do everything she heard. She began performing in musical theater productions in high school and studied voice classically in college. After having moved to Atlanta from Taos, NM in 1995 where she enjoyed a wild winter as a “ski-bum”, she performed in several professional musical theater productions and also sang a season with The Atlanta Opera Chorus.
In the spring of 2001 a musical experiment began with published author Walter Sorrells which eventually gave them enough original material to get bookings in Atlanta area clubs and to begin recording an album with Kristian Bush (who would subsequently form the country supergroup, Sugarland) at the helm as producer.
In the fall of 2004 Kristin joined forces with dual slide-guitarists Mark Johnson & Tom Gray (who wrote Cyndi Lauper’s hit “Money Changes Everything”) of the Atlanta based blues-rock band Delta Moon. This proved to be a very rewarding 17 month collaboration which included extensive touring in the Eastern United States, a 2 week tour of the UK and the release of Markiton’s only recording with Delta Moon, entitled Howlin’.
Kristin’s debut solo record, Wandering Moon was released to a standing-room-only crowd at Eddie’s Attic in Decatur, GA in early spring 2006 and features some of Atlanta’s very best musical talent.
Kristin resides in Atlanta, Georgia with her husband and son where she continues to write, record & perform her original music. She also loves singing those same top 40 hits from her childhood and “getting the party started” with Moxie. http://www.kristinmarkiton.com
Nick Longo
Saxophone, Lead Vocals
Nick has been performing with MOXIE since 1995. He holds a degree in Jazz Studies from Georgia State University and has been playing professionally for the past 20 years. He works consistently, playing all genres of music, and has worked on stage and recorded with such well-knowns as Greg Allman, Al Cooper, Charlie Daniels, Lynard Skynard, Don Henley, Francine Reed, and The Coasters. In addition, Nick has worked with jazz greats Nick Erignola and Randy Brecker. You can hear his work on commercials for Delta Airline, Kroger, Eureka, Hud Homes, BellSouth, as well as on the CBS program “Nightman” and the Cartoon Network.
