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Blue Pacific (album)
''Blue Pacific'' is a smooth vocal jazz album by American singer-songwriter and musician Michael Franks, released in 1990 with Reprise. Background The album marked three notable returns for Franks. The first was a return to the Reprise label since he'd released ''The Art of Tea'' in 1976. Tommy LiPuma also returned as producer of three tracks after a ten-year absence, the last album they worked on being ''One Bad Habit'' in 1980. Other three tracks on the album were produced by Walter Becker of Steely Dan and the remaining four by Jeff Lorber. Commentators noted the stylistic return to the more laid back, Brazilian jazz inspired music of his earlier works, as opposed to the more electronic pop sound Franks had experimented with throughout the 1980s. Reception Writing for AllMusic, Stephen J. Matteo praised Franks' "return to form and his best album since 1979's ''Tiger in the Rain'' ", commenting that " e album marked a total rebirth for Franks." He described the album as " ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Michael Franks (musician)
Michael Franks (born September 18, 1944) is an American singer and songwriter, considered a leader of the quiet storm movement. He has recorded with a variety of well-known artists, such as Patti Austin, Art Garfunkel, Brenda Russell, Claus Ogerman, Joe Sample, and David Sanborn. His songs have been recorded by Gordon Haskell, Shirley Bassey, The Carpenters, Kurt Elling, Diana Krall, Patti LaBelle, Lyle Lovett, The Manhattan Transfer, Leo Sidran, Veronica Nunn, Carmen McRae, Ringo Starr and Natalie Cole. Biography Franks grew up in southern California with his father Thurman, his mother Vera, and two younger sisters. Although no one in his family was a musician, his parents loved swing music, and his early influences included Peggy Lee, Nat King Cole, Ira Gershwin, Irving Berlin, and Johnny Mercer. At age 14 Franks bought his first guitar, a Japanese Marco Polo for $29.95 with six private lessons included; those lessons were the only music education that he received. At Univ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bob Sheppard (musician)
Bob Sheppard is an American jazz musician who plays saxophone, clarinet, and flute. He has been a touring and studio musician for albums, film, and television and has released solo albums. He has worked with Billy Childs, Chick Corea, Leonard Cohen, Herbie Hancock, Freddie Hubbard, Steely Dan, Mike Stern, Randy Brecker, Michael Brecker, Scott Henderson, Lyle Mays, Peter Erskine, John Beasley, Bob Mintzer, and Joni Mitchell. He has taught at the Thorton School Of Music at the University of Southern California. Discography As leader * ''Tell-Tale Signs'' (Windham Hill, 1991) * ''Lava Jazz'', The Lounge Art Ensemble (Fuzzy Music, 1997) * ''In the Now'' (Sirocco Jazz, 2002) * ''Music for Moderns'', The Lounge Art Ensemble (Fuzzy Music, 2005) * ''From the Hip'' with David Kikoski, Dave Carpenter, Gary Novak (BFM Jazz, 2013) As sideman With Toshiko Akiyoshi-Lew Tabackin Big Band * ''From Toshiko with Love'' (Baystate, 1981) * ''European Memoirs'' (Baystate, 1982) With John Be ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vinnie Colaiuta
Vincent Peter Colaiuta (born February 5, 1956) is an American drummer who has worked as a session musician in many genres. He was inducted into the ''Modern Drummer'' Hall of Fame in 1996 and the ''Classic Drummer'' Hall of Fame in 2014. Colaiuta has won one Grammy Award and has been nominated twice. Since the late 1970s, he has recorded and toured with Frank Zappa, Joni Mitchell, and Sting, among many other appearances in the studio and in concert. Career Colaiuta was given his first drum kit when he was seven. He took to it naturally, with little instruction. When he was fourteen, the school band teacher gave him a book that taught him some of the basics. Buddy Rich was his favorite drummer until he heard the album ''Ego'' by Tony Williams, an event that changed his life. Colaiuta was also listening to organ groups, notably Jack McDuff, Jimmy McGriff and Don Patterson. While a student at Berklee College of Music, when jazz fusion was on the rise, he listened to and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Freddie Washington (bassist)
"Ready" Freddie Washington is an American session bassist who has played with artists such as Herbie Hancock, Michael Jackson, Al Jarreau, Aaron Neville, Lionel Richie, Anita Baker, B.B. King, Elton John, Patrice Rushen, Stevie Wonder and Whitney Houston, Donald Fagen, The Crusaders, George Benson, Deniece Williams, Johnny Mathis, Burt Bacharach, Kenny Loggins and Steely Dan. He is best known for his songwriting contribution to "Forget Me Nots" by Patrice Rushen, which heavily features his bass work and was later sampled by Will Smith for "Men in Black". During the 1990s, Washington and Rushen were part of a popular rhythm section known as "The Meeting". More recently, Washington has toured with Steely Dan. In 2005, Washington was a participant in Star Licks Productions Star Licks Productions (also known as StarLicks) was an instructional music publishing company conceived by Mark Freed and co-founded by Andrew Cross and Robert Decker. The company was at the forefront of cre ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Neil Stubenhaus
Neil Stubenhaus is an American bass guitarist. Career He started his musical training playing drums and switched to bass guitar at the age of 12. He studied at the Berklee College of Music where he graduated in 1975. After graduation, he was recommended by Steve Swallow and started teaching while playing in a band with another Berklee student Steve Smith (Vital Information, Journey). While at Berklee, Neil met session drummers Vinnie Colaiuta (who has worked with famous musicians such as Sting, & Frank Zappa) and John Robinson (who has also worked with superstars, including Barbra Streisand, Quincy Jones, Chaka Khan, Michael Jackson). In 1977 he joined Blood Sweat & Tears and recorded David Clayton-Thomas' first solo album. In 1978, he went on tour with Larry Carlton. That led him to move to the West Coast where, following recommendations from Carlton, he met Mike Post and other composers and started doing sessions. Since 1979, Stubenhaus performed on more than 600 albums (of wh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Patitucci
John Patitucci (born December 22, 1959) is an American jazz bassist and composer. Biography John James Patitucci was born in Brooklyn, New York. When he was 12, he bought his first bass and decided on his career. He listened to bass parts in R&B songs on the radio and on his grandfather's jazz records. He cites as influences Oscar Peterson's albums with Ray Brown and Wes Montgomery's with Ron Carter. For the development of rhythm, he points to the time he has spent with Danilo Pérez, a pianist from Panama. In the late 1970s he studied acoustic bass at San Francisco State University and Long Beach State University. He began his professional career when he moved to Los Angeles in 1980 and made connections with Henry Mancini, Dave Grusin, and Tom Scott. From the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s he was a member of three Chick Corea groups: the Elektric Band, the Akoustic Band, and the quartet. As a leader he formed a trio with Joey Calderazzo and Peter Erskine, and a quartet with Vi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Michael Thompson (guitarist)
Michael Thompson (born Michael Wood Thompson, February 11, 1954 in Port Washington, New York) is an American guitarist and songwriter. Thompson is known for his work as a session guitarist during the last 4 decades. He founded the rock group TRW in 2007. Early years Michael Thompson grew up in Port Washington, New York and attended Berklee College of Music for two years, studying with Pat Metheny before leaving to tour and record with a local R&B/funk group called The Ellis Hall Group. After four years with the group, Thompson moved to Los Angeles in the hopes of starting a career as a studio musician, almost immediately getting a touring gig with Joe Cocker. Money was tight and to support himself and his wife Gloria, Thompson supplemented gigs playing on songwriters' publishing demos and sporadic session work with a job as a cab driver until landing a year-long world tour with Cher. Following the tour, Thompson played guitar for the TV series '' Fame'', a gig he would hold ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paul Jackson Jr
Paul Milton Jackson Jr. (born December 30, 1959) is an American fusion/urban jazz composer, arranger, producer and guitarist. He was born and raised in Los Angeles. Jackson knew by the age of fifteen that he wanted to become a professional musician. He attended the University of Southern California, majoring in music. In addition to being a recording artist in his own right, Jackson is also a highly accomplished L.A. session player, with a career spanning multiple decades. He has supported artists ranging from Michael Jackson (no relation)Vogel, Joachim (1995). ''Masters of Rhythm Guitar'', p. 93. AMA Verlag. (on the albums ''Thriller'', '' Bad'', '' Dangerous'', ''HIStory'' and '' Blood on the Dance Floor: HIStory in the Mix'') to the Temptations, Whitney Houston, Alexander O'Neal, Five Star (on the album '' Silk and Steel''), Howard Hewett, Thomas Anders, Patti LaBelle and Luis Miguel, to rockers such as Chicago and Elton John, to jazz-oriented players such as George Duke ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Larry Carlton
Larry Eugene Carlton (born March 2, 1948) is an American guitarist who built his career as a studio musician in the 1970s and 1980s for acts such as Steely Dan and Joni Mitchell. He has participated in thousands of recording sessions, recorded on hundreds of albums in many genres, for television and movies, and on more than 100 gold records. He has been a member of the jazz fusion group the Crusaders, the smooth jazz band Fourplay, and has maintained a long solo career. Music career Session work Carlton was born in Torrance, California, United States, and at the age of six began guitar lessons. His interest in jazz came from hearing guitarist Joe Pass on the radio, after which he moved on to jazz guitarists Barney Kessel and Wes Montgomery, and blues guitarist B.B. King. He went to junior college and Long Beach State College while playing professionally at clubs in Los Angeles. During the 1970s, he found steady work as a studio musician on electric and acoustic guitar in a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Buzz Feiten
Howard "Buzz" Feiten (born November 4, 1948) is an American singer-songwriter, guitarist, session musician, and luthier. He is best known as a lead and rhythm guitarist and for having patented a tuning system for guitars and similar instruments. Feiten also manufactures and markets solid-body electric guitars. Early years Feiten grew up in Huntington Station and Centerport, New York, where he was known by schoolmates and friends as "Buzzy". The son of a musical mother, Pauline (a classical pianist), and an airline pilot, Howard Sr., Feiten received training in classical music as a child. His older sister Paula was a flautist and fashion model in the mid-1960s. A younger brother, Jon, was also involved in music and the arts. In youth, he studied several musical instruments, settling on the French horn. As a teenager, he played in all-county (Suffolk) and all-state (New York) youth orchestras on the instrument. Feiten first played Carnegie Hall in 1966 on French horn in American ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dean Parks
Weldon Dean Parks (born December 6, 1946) is an American session guitarist and record producer from Fort Worth, Texas. Albums Parks was member of the North Texas State One O'clock Lab Band before moving to Los Angeles to work with Sonny and Cher in 1970. In 1980, he was a founding member of the Christian Jazz Fusion band Koinonia. Parks is best known for his many contributions to albums by Steely Dan, Michael Jackson, and Bread. Notably, he played guitar on Steely Dan's '' Royal Scam'' track, " Haitian Divorce". Parks is also a long time collaborator on David Foster albums, such as ''Shadows'' by Gordon Lightfoot. Parks features on Cat Beach's albums ''Letting Go'' and ''Love Me Out Loud''. In 2008, Parks participated in the production of the album ''Psalngs'', the debut release of Canadian musician John Lefebvre. Dean Parks is very prominently featured on Viktor Krauss' album ''II'' (2007), where he plays a plethora of other stringed instruments in addition to electric and acou ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Larry Williams (jazz Musician)
Lawrence Lowell Williams is an American record producer, composer, arranger, and multi-instrumentalist. He is proficient on the keyboards, saxophone, flute, and clarinet. Williams began his musical career in the 1970s, and has since established himself as a prominent figure in the music industry. He regularly toured and recorded with Al Jarreau for over 3 decades and also was a musician on Michael Jackson's albums ''Off The Wall'', ''Thriller'', and ''Bad''. Early life Williams was born in Kansas City, Kansas and grew up in Overland Park. He began learning the clarinet at age 8, under the influence of his father who played the saxophone. Williams went on to study music at New Mexico State University and later transferred to Indiana University School of Music in 1969. While at university, Williams began playing with visiting orchestras, including those of Glen Campbell, Henry Mancini, and Johnny Mathis. While studying at Indiana University, he met Jerry Hey and Kim Hutchcrof ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
