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Alternating Currents (album)
''Alternating Currents'' is the ninth album by jazz fusion group Spyro Gyra, released in 1985. At ''Billboard'' magazine, it reached No. 66 on the Top 200 Albums chart, No. 41 on the R&B Albums chart, and No. 3 on the Jazz Albums chart. Track listing # "Shakedown" (Jeremy Wall) – 4:22 # "Alternating Currents" (Jay Beckenstein) – 4:28 # "Taking the Plunge (for Jennifer)" (Beckenstein) – 4:48 # "Binky Dream No. 6" (Beckenstein, Fernández, Morales, Schuman, Stone, Velez) – 4:13 # "PG" (Beckenstein) – 4:15 # "Heartbeat" (Wall) – 4:48 # "Mardi Gras" (Dave Samuels) – 6:04 # "I Believe in You" (Tom Schuman) – 5:31 # "Sunflurry" (Schuman) – 5:01 Personnel * Jay Beckenstein – saxophones, Lyricon * Tom Schuman – keyboards * Julio Fernández – guitars * Kim Stone – bass guitar, double bass * Richie Morales – drums * Gerardo Velez – percussion * Dave Samuels – marimba, vibraphone Production * Jay Beckenstein – producer * Richard Calandra – produc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Spyro Gyra
Spyro Gyra is an American jazz fusion band that was formed in Buffalo, New York, in 1974. The band's music combines jazz, R&B, funk, and pop music. The band's name comes from ''Spirogyra'', a genus of green algae which founder Jay Beckenstein had learned about in college. History Early years Saxophonist Jay Beckenstein and keyboardist Jeremy Wall formed a band with jazz and rock musicians who were playing in the Buffalo bar and club circuit. In 1974, when a bar owner asked for the band's name, Beckenstein said, "spirogyra", a type of algae he had learned about in school. The bar owner wrote the name incorrectly, "Spyro Gyra", but it stuck. The founding members of the band were Beckenstein, Wall, bassist Jim Kurzdorfer, drummer Tom Walsh, and keyboardist Tom Schuman. In 1977, they released '' Spyro Gyra'' independently before making a deal with Amherst Records, which re-released the album with a different cover. It included "Shaker Song," which reached No. 90 on Billboard's H ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gerardo Velez
Gerardo "Jerry" Velez (born August 15, 1947) is an American musician. Best known for performing with American psychedelic rock musician Jimi Hendrix at Woodstock Festival in August 1969, Velez is a veteran percussionist and drummer, who has performed with many artists covering a number of different genres of music. He is also a common member of jazz fusion band Spyro Gyra. Life and career Velez began his musical career in The Bronx, New York. He notably joined Jimi Hendrix's band Gypsy Sun and Rainbows in July 1969, performed at the Woodstock Festival and at a small number of studio sessions, before Hendrix disbanded the group in favour of returning to the three-piece format of The Jimi Hendrix Experience. The band's performance at Woodstock was released on the live album ''Woodstock'' in 1994, followed by live album and video '' Live at Woodstock'' in 1999. For all Hendrix releases on which he appears, Velez was credited with the nickname Jerry. Since performing with Jimi Hendri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1985 Albums
The year 1985 was designated as the International Youth Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** The Internet's Domain Name System is created. ** Greenland withdraws from the European Economic Community as a result of a new agreement on fishing rights. * January 7 – Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency launches ''Sakigake'', Japan's first interplanetary spacecraft and the first deep space probe to be launched by any country other than the United States or the Soviet Union. * January 15 – Tancredo Neves is elected president of Brazil by the Congress, ending the 21-year military rule. * January 20 – Ronald Reagan is privately sworn in for a second term as President of the United States. * January 27 – The Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) is formed, in Tehran. * January 28 – The charity single record "We Are the World" is recorded by USA for Africa. February * February 4 – The border between Gibraltar and Spain reopen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeeding the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), to give the U.S. space development effort a distinctly civilian orientation, emphasizing peaceful applications in space science. NASA has since led most American space exploration, including Project Mercury, Project Gemini, the 1968-1972 Apollo Moon landing missions, the Skylab space station, and the Space Shuttle. NASA supports the International Space Station and oversees the development of the Orion spacecraft and the Space Launch System for the crewed lunar Artemis program, Commercial Crew spacecraft, and the planned Lunar Gateway space station. The agency is also responsible for the Launch Services Program, which provides oversight of launch operations and countdown management f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Masterdisk
Masterdisk is an American multimedia company in New York, located at 8 John Walsh Boulevard in Peekskill. They provide production services such as audio mastering, vinyl cutting and enhanced CD and DVD production. Their clients include such notable acts as Accept, Sting, Jay-Z, Kanye West, Spoon, Nirvana, Lou Reed, David Bowie, U2, Gorillaz, John Zorn, DMX, The Rolling Stones, Steely Dan, Bob Dylan, Metallica, Aerosmith and the Beatles. Masterdisk was founded in 1973 as a spin-off of the recording, editing and mastering arm of Mercury Records. Among the company's early mastering engineers were Gilbert Kong, who worked on early 1970s albums by such artists as Rod Stewart and Bachman–Turner Overdrive, and who also mastered singles, including "Ain't Understanding Mellow" by Jerry Butler and Brenda Lee Eager, and " The Night Chicago Died" by Paper Lace; and Phil Austin, who mastered most of the singles including Stewart's "Maggie May" and "You Wear It Well," "Beautiful Sun ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bob Ludwig
Robert C. Ludwig (born c. 1945) is an American mastering engineer. He has mastered recordings on all the major recording formats for all the major record labels, and on projects by more than 1,300 artists including Led Zeppelin, Lou Reed, Queen, Jimi Hendrix, Bryan Ferry, Paul McCartney, Nirvana, Bruce Springsteen and Daft Punk resulting in over 3,000 credits. He is the recipient of numerous Grammy and TEC Awards. Biography At the age of eight in South Salem, New York, Ludwig was so fascinated with his first tape recorder, that he used to make recordings of whatever was on the radio. Ludwig is a classical musician by training, having obtained his bachelor's and master's degrees from the Eastman School of Music of the University of Rochester in New York. He was also involved in the sound department at Eastman, as well as being principal trumpet of the Utica Symphony Orchestra. Inspired by Phil Ramone when he came to Eastman to teach a summer recording workshop, Ludwig end ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jeremy Wall
Jeremy Wall is a musician, and along with Jay Beckenstein, was a founding member of the jazz fusion band Spyro Gyra. He contributed to the group as a pianist, producer, and composer. He is currently an assistant professor in the Music Industry department at SUNY Oneonta. Background Wall formed Spyro Gyra in the mid-1970s with classmate Jay Beckenstein. Although each took time off to attend college, the band stayed intact. Wall attended Columbia University, then moved to Buffalo where Beckenstein was attending college. Wall then moved to California to attend California Institute of the Arts, graduating with a B.F.A. in Music Composition. He later received an M.M. in Studio Composition from Purchase College in 2001. He has recorded extensively as producer, keyboardist, composer and arranger in all genres of music and has released over 70 of his own compositions. Wall has also been nominated for several Grammys as a producer, pianist and composer. His composition “Shakedown” wa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vibraphone
The vibraphone is a percussion instrument in the metallophone family. It consists of tuned metal bars and is typically played by using mallets to strike the bars. A person who plays the vibraphone is called a ''vibraphonist,'' ''vibraharpist,'' or ''vibist''. The vibraphone resembles the steel marimba, which it superseded. One of the main differences between the vibraphone and other keyboard percussion instruments is that each bar suspends over a resonator tube containing a flat metal disc. These discs are attached together by a common axle and spin when the motor is turned on. This causes the instrument to produce its namesake tremolo or vibrato effect. The vibraphone also has a sustain pedal similar to a piano. When the pedal is up, the bars produce a muted sound; when the pedal is down, the bars sustain for several seconds or until again muted with the pedal. The vibraphone is commonly used in jazz music, in which it often plays a featured role, and was a defining element ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Marimba
The marimba () is a musical instrument in the percussion family that consists of wooden bars that are struck by mallets. Below each bar is a resonator pipe that amplifies particular harmonics of its sound. Compared to the xylophone, the timbre of the marimba is warmer, deeper, more resonant, and more pure. It also tends to have a lower range than that of a xylophone. Typically, the bars of a marimba are arranged chromatically, like the keys of a piano. The marimba is a type of idiophone. Today, the marimba is used as a solo instrument, or in ensembles like orchestras, marching bands (typically as a part of the front ensemble), percussion ensembles, brass and concert bands, and other traditional ensembles. Etymology and terminology The term ''marimba'' refers to both the traditional version of this instrument and its modern form. Its first documented use in the English language dates back to 1704. The term is of Bantu origin, deriving from the prefix meaning 'many' and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dave Samuels
David Alan Samuels (October 9, 1948 – April 22, 2019) was an American vibraphone and marimba player who spent many years with the contemporary jazz group Spyro Gyra. His recordings and live performances during that period also reflect his prowess on the steelpan, a tuned percussion instrument of Trinidadian origin. Biography Samuels was born in Waukegan, Illinois, United States. At the age of six he started playing drums and piano. He learned vibes and marimba while a student at Boston University. He continued his studies at the Berklee College of Music, also in Boston, and studied with vibraphonist Gary Burton. He taught percussion at Berklee before moving to New York City in 1974. Soon he was recording and performing with Gerry Mulligan, Carla Bley, and Gerry Niewood. He played in a vibes/marimba duo with David Friedman, who had been his teacher at Boston, releasing albums under the name Double Image. In 1979 he began recording with Spyro Gyra, eventually becoming a memb ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Julio Fernández (musician)
Barbaro Julio Fernández (born August 29, 1954) is a Cuban-American guitarist and composer best known as the current and longtime guitarist for the jazz-fusion band Spyro Gyra. Fernández was born in Havana, Cuba, but grew up in Hoboken, New Jersey, where he started playing guitar at the age of nine. Fernández graduated from Hoboken High School in 1972 and attended Montclair State University as a music major. Before finding paid work as a musician, Fernández worked at various times as a clothing salesman, a messenger in a law firm, a newspaper delivery man and a labourer in a coat factory. In 1984, his friend Gerardo Velez, Fernández's collaborator on various projects and the percussionist for Spyro Gyra at that time, told him the band was looking for a new guitarist. Fernández auditioned and was hired the next day—an event he described as "one of the happiest days of my life." Except for a short hiatus at the end of that decade, Fernandez has continued in that position. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
BearTracks Studios
BearTracks Recording Studio was a recording studio complex in Suffern, New York, owned by Jay Beckenstein of Spyro Gyra and built in the early 1980s. Operating from 1982 at 926 Haverstraw Road in Suffern, the studio is no longer in business. It was announced that BearTracks would cease operation shortly after Spyro Gyra recorded their 2006 album '' Wrapped in a Dream''. A dark and faint photograph of the building that holds the studio can be seen on the tray card of Dream Theater's album, '' Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory''. The surrounding property was also the location for some of the band's videos associated with the album. Clients * Spyro Gyra * Goo Goo Dolls * Dream Theater Seth Regan* Jonatha Brooke * Gabriela Anders * FireHouse * Leon Parker * Phil Ramone * Nile Rodgers * Michael Barbiero * Barry Eastmond * Andy Johns * Elliot Scheiner * George Benson * Chris Botti * Julian Lennon * Mariah Carey * Wolfgang Haffner * Jason Miles * Bob James * Jennifer Kimbal ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
