Karen Savoca and Pete Heitzman burst with music the way a fresh orange bursts with juice. Playing conga and hand percussion, Karen takes a dab of soul, a pinch of rhythm and blues, and a dollop of world rhythms and mixes them all together into an utterly enchanting performance. Pete effortlessly produces a whole band’s worth of backup and sizzling breaks with just one guitar, a perfect complement to Karen’s vocal magic.
      Music has been Karen’s story from childhood on. In college she broke out of a “straight” music curriculum and developed her sound in various groups. At one club date in the early 80s, Pete Heitzman sat in; the two have been together since. Karen and Pete spent four years gigging and working in New York City, where they saved enough money for a studio back in Syracuse. Then came seven years of a great jazz ’n funk band propelled by Karen’s songs and vocals. The groove was so strong that the audiences became an extension of the band, in one big improvisation of sound and movement.
      From there, the duo split off. They kept the dynamic of the dance band and added the intimacy of Karen’s more reflective lyrics, which you can hear in the four albums they’ve released since 1988. Take it from someone lucky enough to have caught their last show at the me&thee — they are some incredible performers. If you like folk, funk, jazz, R&B, pop, and any genres in between, treat yourself to an evening with Karen Savoca and Pete Heitzman.