The group was formed on Long Island in 1968 from the ashes of local rivals the Del-Satins (a vocal quartet including Maestro, Fred Ferrara, Mike Gregorio and Les Cauchi) and the Rhythm Method (musical director Tom Sullivan, guitarist Jim Macioce, organist Carolyn Woods, bassist Jim Rosica, trumpeter Shelly Davis, saxophonist Joe Ruvio and drummer Artie Cantanzarita). The '60s pop outfit Brooklyn Bridge was led by Johnny Maestro, the former frontman of the Crests. They constantly perform for visiting corporate conventions and destination planners doing everything from singing people off and on tour busses, to opening meetings and getting corporate executives out of their seats to the Motown sound or an Elvis tune. The group traveled to London as ambassadors for Southern Comfort recently.
The group performs as a trio, quartet, and occasionally a quintet with alternate vocalists Joseph Maize and/or Avist Martin. The group has been singing a cappella since the Summer of 1994. The members consist of Jerome Alexander, Arzia Harris, Barth Phillips, and Reginald Ringo. Then during the next scene, Ashley Judd takes a brief stroll in Jackson Square in search of her treacherous husband's whereabouts and passes in front of the group as they continue singing Amazing Grace for a few bars. The group also appeared in the Paramount Motion Picture "Double Jeopardy" as the "Jackson Square Singers." The cameo comes up about mid-movie, when Ashley Judd's character reaches New Orleans by plane and "Amazing Grace" can be heard in the background. Quiet storm remained popular from the late '70s into the early '90s, when mainstream R&B took on a harder-edged hip-hop influence as a result, quiet storm found virtually no new practitioners.This group sings a cappella doo-wop on the streets of New Orleans, Louisiana in the French Quarter for hundreds of thousands of tourists per year. Some artists concentrated near-exclusively on the style, but most recorded more uptempo tracks in addition to the ballads that fit the requirements of the radio format. However, there was also an urbane sophistication and subdued soulfulness that marked quiet storm as unmistakably rooted in R&B. In a way, quiet storm was R&B's answer to soft rock and adult contemporary - while it was primarily intended for black audiences, quiet storm had the same understated dynamics, relaxed tempos and rhythms, and romantic sentiment. Quiet Storm also drew inspiration from Marvin Gaye's lush Let's Get It On LP, the orchestrations of Philly soul, and the gentle, ultra-smooth recordings of Al Green. The album eventually gave its name to a style and radio format that aimed to create very similar moods. In 1975, Smokey Robinson released a smooth, sensuous solo LP of romantic adult soul titled A Quiet Storm.