|
Dreams Beyond Control
''Dreams Beyond Control'' is the seventeenth album by the American jazz group Spyro Gyra, released in 1993 by GRP Records. The group supported the album with a North American tour. The album peaked in the top 5 on ''Billboards Top Contemporary Jazz Albums chart. Production The album was produced by Jay Beckenstein. Alex Ligertwood sang on ''Dreams Beyond Control''; it was the first time a Spyro Gyra album contained vocals in English. The Tower of Power Horns played on the album. The group experimented with the songs on tour before recording them. ""Waltz for Isabel" is a tribute to Beckenstein's third daughter. Critical reception The ''Chicago Tribune'' deemed the album "a rather leaden excursion into R&B-flavored pop-fusion." The ''Boston Herald'' concluded that "beneath this somewhat tougher exterior beats the same faint musical heart, full of sweet melodies, perky rhythms and chatty solos—but every bit as empty of risk and guts as ever." Track listing # "Walk the Walk" ( ... [...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] |
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] |
Greg Adams (musician)
Greg Adams is an American trumpet/flugelhorn player and music arranger, probably best known for his work with the band Tower of Power. Adams grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area, and while attending Westmoor High School in Daly City he had already established a reputation as a musical prodigy. He had made plans to attend the Berklee School of Music in Boston, but instead accepted an invitation to join Tower of Power for their first album, ''East Bay Grease'' (1970). He remained with the band for 25 years and was responsible for many of their distinctive horn arrangements, including "What Is Hip?" (1973) which earned him a Grammy Award nomination. In 1995 Adams recorded his first solo album, ''Hidden Agenda'' (Epic), which reached #1 on the U.S. smooth jazz charts. His subsequent albums include ''Midnight Morning'' (Ripa, Blue Note) (2002), ''Firefly'' (215) (2004), and ''Cool To The Touch'' (Ripa) (2006). Adams has recorded with and/or arranged for other artists, including Chic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Blood, Sweat & Tears
Blood, Sweat & Tears (also known as "BS&T") is a jazz rock music group founded in New York City in 1967, noted for a combination of brass with rock instrumentation. In addition to original music, the group has performed popular songs by Laura Nyro, James Taylor, Carole King, the Band, the Rolling Stones, Billie Holiday and many others. The group has also adapted music from Erik Satie, Thelonious Monk and Sergei Prokofiev into their arrangements. BS&T has gone through numerous iterations with varying personnel and has encompassed a wide range of musical styles. Their sound has merged rock, pop and R&B/soul music with big band jazz. The group's self-titled second album spent seven weeks atop the U.S. charts, spun off three Top 5 hit singles, and won the Grammy Award for Album of the Year in 1970. Their follow-up album, ''Blood, Sweat & Tears 3'', also reached number one in the U.S. The group was inspired by the "brass-rock" of the Buckinghams and their producer, James William ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Emilio Castillo
Emilio Castillo (born September 24, 1950) is an American saxophone player and composer, best known as the founder of the band Tower of Power. Background In 1965, Emilio Castillo took to music after he and his brother Jack were caught stealing by his father who told him he could stay in his room until he thought of something to 'Keep him off the street'. Castillo and his brother chose music. Emilio chose saxophone and Jack chose drums. He took lessons in saxophone, piano, and guitar, and also took lessons in music theory from one-time Dave Brubeck bass player Norman Bates (musician), Norman Bates. His first musical endeavor was in Extension Five which later became The Gotham City Crime Fighters due to the Batman craze at the time. He played both organ and sax. The group also consisted of his brother Jack on drums, Jody Lopez on guitar Frank “Rocco’ Houghton on bass (later going by the name of Rocco Prestia, Francis Rocco Prestia), and Dave Genthner on vocals. In March, 1966 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vaneese Thomas
Vaneese Yseult Thomas (born August 24, 1952) is an American R&B, jazz and soul blues singer, best known for her 1987 US ''Billboard'' R&B chart hit single, "Let's Talk It Over". In addition, in more recent times, she has supplied backing vocals on a long list of other musicians' work. Thomas has appeared at the Montreux Jazz Festival, and at the 2006 Pleasantville Music Festival. At the 36th Blues Music Awards, she was nominated in two categories; firstly for the 'Soul Blues Album' award for her 2013 album, ''Blues for My Father'', and also as the 'Soul Blues Female Artist'. Life and career Born in Memphis, Tennessee, United States, she is the youngest child of Rufus Thomas; her brother Marvell and sister Carla are also musicians. Vaneese Thomas enjoyed some success in the late 1980s, with her solo releases being made on the Geffen Records label. Her self-titled debut album spawned a couple of Top 20 US R&B hit singles in "Let's Talk It Over", which featured a saxophone solo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Will Lee (bassist)
Will Lee is an American bassist known for his work on the ''Late Show with David Letterman'' as part of the CBS Orchestra and before that " The World's Most Dangerous Band" when Letterman hosted the NBC " Late Night" show. Lee has recorded and toured with many artists. He appeared on the Mark & Clark Band's hit record '' Worn Down Piano''. He performs with his Beatles tribute band, The Fab Faux, which he co-founded in 1998. Career Beginnings in music Lee was greatly influenced to pursue music because of his parents. His father, William Franklin Lee III played piano, trumpet and the upright bass professionally. Lee's mother Lois sang with big bands. Lee took up drums after seeing the Beatles on ''The Ed Sullivan Show'', and by the time he was 12 had formed his first band in Miami. The band members each earned $9 a night playing the popular surfing tunes characteristic of the 60s. With the great numbers of drummers in Miami, Lee shifted to bass, an instrument that offered mo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cyro Baptista
Cyro Baptista (born December 23, 1950) is a Brazilian percussionist in jazz and world music. He creates many of the percussion instruments he plays. Career Born in São Paulo, Brazil, Baptista arrived in the U.S. in 1980 with a scholarship to Creative Music Studio in Woodstock, New York. During the 1980s, he worked on films with John Zorn and appeared on Zorn's albums in the 1990s. Also in the '90s, he appeared on albums by Marisa Monte, Holly Cole, and Cassandra Wilson. In 1997 he released his first solo album, ''Vira Loucos'', with cover versions of music by Heitor Villa-Lobos. The album was recorded with Marc Ribot and Nana Vasconcelos and released by Avant, a label owned by Zorn. He was a member of Zorn's band Dreamers. He recorded with pianist Herbie Hancock on his album ''Possibilities''. He recorded and performed worldwide with Hancock's Grammy award-winning ''Gershwin's World''. He toured with Yo-Yo Ma's Brazil Project and appeared on the ''Obrigado Brazil'', which ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Marc Quiñones
Marc Quiñones is a percussionist, a longtime player in salsa music, a former member of the Southern rock group The Allman Brothers Band (1991–2014) and the Gregg Allman Band. He is of Puerto Rican ancestry. Born in The Bronx, New York, he began playing drums and congas at the age of three and was playing professionally at the age of nine.Doerschuk, Robert L. (2009)Marc Quiñones: The Other Allman Brother", ''DRUM!'', July 28, 2009, retrieved 2011-07-02 In his youth he played timbales with Latin music stars such as Tito Puente and co-founded a group named Los Rumberitos. At the age of 17 he joined the salsa music band of Rafael de Jesús.Álava, Silvio H. (2007) ''Spanish Harlem's Musical Legacy: 1930–1980'', Arcadia Publishing, , p. 83 Quiñones spent the next five years in salsa master Willie Colón's band, playing every percussion instrument at one time or another. His ability to sight-read music led to his becoming musical director of the band for the last two years ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Harmonica
The harmonica, also known as a French harp or mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used worldwide in many musical genres, notably in blues, American folk music, classical music, jazz, country, and rock. The many types of harmonica include diatonic, chromatic, tremolo, octave, orchestral, and bass versions. A harmonica is played by using the mouth (lips and tongue) to direct air into or out of one (or more) holes along a mouthpiece. Behind each hole is a chamber containing at least one reed. The most common is the diatonic Richter-tuned with ten air passages and twenty reeds, often called the blues harp. A harmonica reed is a flat, elongated spring typically made of brass, stainless steel, or bronze, which is secured at one end over a slot that serves as an airway. When the free end is made to vibrate by the player's air, it alternately blocks and unblocks the airway to produce sound. Reeds are tuned to individual pitches. Tuning may involve changing a reed’s length ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Howard Levy
Howard Levy (born July 31, 1951) is an American multi-instrumentalist. A keyboardist and virtuoso harmonica player, Levy "has been realistically presented as one of the most important and radical harmonica innovators of the twentieth century." In 1988, Levy was a founding member of Béla Fleck and the Flecktones, with whom he won a 1997 Grammy Award for Best Pop Instrumental Performance for the song "The Sinister Minister". He also won a Grammy for Best Instrumental Composition in 2012 for "Life in Eleven", a song written with Béla Fleck for the Flecktones' album ''Rocket Science'' (2011). He has worked with Arab-fusion musician Rabih Abou-Khalil, Latin jazz saxophonist Paquito D'Rivera, Donald Fagen, and Paul Simon. Music career Levy was born in Brooklyn, New York, and attended the Manhattan School of Music, where he studied piano and pipe organ. For two years, he went to Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, and participated in the jazz band. He is the Harmon ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Percussion Mallet
A percussion mallet or beater is an object used to strike or beat a percussion instrument in order to produce its sound. The term beater is slightly more general. A mallet is normally held in the hand while a beater may be foot or mechanically operated, for example in a bass drum pedal. The term drum stick is less general still, but still applied to a wide range of beaters. Some mallets, such as a triangle beater, are normally used only with a specific instrument, while others are used on many different instruments. Often, mallets of differing material and hardness are used to create different timbres on the same types of instrument (e.g. using either wooden or yarn mallets on a xylophone). Some mallets, such as vibraphone mallets, are normally just called mallets, others have more specialized names including: * Drum sticks, of many types, some used with a wide variety of instruments,. * Rutes, used with many instruments. * Brushes, used particularly with snare drum but also w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
