THE ACCOLADES

The Accolades were founded by Oscar Peterson Award winning guitarist Michael Shanahan and drummer Mark Athanasiadis, (in their first year of York University) under the name Shanahan and the Shananagans. The Accolades have built from being a blues rock band to becoming a highly potential Jazz funk fusion collective of up and coming players all across Ontario, and Toronto's University and college Jazz programs. With drummer, Mark Athanasiadis and bassist, Sandy Murphy the group evolved from being a trio, to becoming a four-piece band when singer Thomas Thurley joined the group in September of 2015. For that year the band focused on writing new material, and worked on their self-titled EP that was released in July of 2016. Since then the band has gone on to play and build a name for themselves around the local Toronto music scene. The Accolades feature a wide variety of players from UofT, York, and Humber music programs including, Stefan Haynes, Ben McCarroll-Butler, Vonne Aguda (FOMA), Nick marshal (Hogtown Sound, ART the Band), Andrew Gormley, Austin Jones (funny funk), and Kaelin Murphey (FOMA). The Accolades will be releasing new material in the upcoming months, including videos, music, and merchandise that will be seen and heard around the city. The Accolades are all dedicated musicians who are extremely passionate about their music and want to bring a new definition to Jazz Rock Funk Fusion.