Nick Menza
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Nick Menza
Nicholas Menza (July 23, 1964 – May 21, 2016) was an American musician best known as the drummer for thrash metal band Megadeth from 1989 to 1998. He recorded drums on four of Megadeth's albums: ''Rust in Peace'' (1990), ''Countdown to Extinction'' (1992), ''Youthanasia'' (1994), and ''Cryptic Writings'' (1997). Early life Menza was born in Munich, Germany, where his father, jazz musician Don Menza, had been stationed with the U.S. Army. He began playing drums at the age of two, at which age he performed at his first public concert when during the intermission someone sat him down on Jack DeJohnette's drums and he proceeded to play. Menza's influences stem from being nurtured around the tutelage of such notables as Buddy Rich, Steve Gadd, Nick Ceroli, Jeff Porcaro, and Louie Bellson. Beginning his professional musical career at the age of 18, drumming in the band Rhoads featuring singer Kelle Rhoads, brother of the late Randy Rhoads, Menza released his first record with Rh ...
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Rust In Peace
''Rust in Peace'' is the fourth studio album by American thrash metal band Megadeth, released on September 24, 1990 by Capitol Records. It was the first Megadeth album to feature lead guitarist Marty Friedman and drummer Nick Menza. The songs " Hangar 18" and " Holy Wars... The Punishment Due" were released as singles. A remixed and remastered version of the album featuring four bonus tracks was released in 2004. Since its release, ''Rust in Peace'' has often been named as one of the best thrash metal records of all time, by publications such as ''Decibel'' and ''Kerrang!'', and listed in the reference book '' 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die''. The album was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance at the 33rd Grammy Awards. At the 1991 Foundations Forum, the album received a Concrete Foundations Award for "Top Radio Album" and the single " Hangar 18" won "Top Radio Cut" award. Background and production In 1988, Megadeth appeared at the Monsters of Rock fe ...
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Youthanasia
''Youthanasia'' is the sixth studio album by American heavy metal band Megadeth, released on November 1, 1994, through Capitol Records. It is stylistically similar to their previous album, ''Countdown to Extinction'' (1992). The title is a play on words, implying that society is euthanizing its youth. The cover art features an elderly woman hanging babies by their feet on a seemingly endless clothes line, a direct reference to a line in the title track. ''Youthanasia'' received positive reviews upon its release. It was commercially successful, peaking at number 4 on the ''Billboard'' 200 chart, and in 1995 was certified platinum for shipping one million copies in the United States. A remixed and remastered edition featuring several bonus tracks and detailed liner notes was reissued on July 27, 2004. Background and recording Megadeth's previous studio release, ''Countdown to Extinction'', became the band's biggest commercial accomplishment, entering the ''Billboard'' 200 at num ...
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John Fogerty
John Cameron Fogerty (born May 28, 1945) is an American singer, songwriter and guitarist. Together with Doug Clifford, Stu Cook, and his brother Tom Fogerty Thomas Richard Fogerty (November 9, 1941 – September 6, 1990) was an American musician, best known as the rhythm guitarist for Creedence Clearwater Revival. He was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993. Biography ..., he founded the band Creedence Clearwater Revival (CCR), for which he was the lead singer, lead guitarist, and principal songwriter. CCR had nine top-10 singles and eight gold albums between 1968 and 1972, and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993. Since CCR parted ways in 1972, Fogerty has had a successful solo career, which continues. He was listed on ''Rolling Stone'' magazine's list of 100 Greatest Songwriters (at No. 40) and the list of 100 Greatest Singers (at No. 72). His songs include "Proud Mary", "Bad Moon Rising", "Fortunate Son", "Green River ( ...
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Funk
Funk is a music genre that originated in African American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African Americans in the mid-20th century. It de-emphasizes melody and chord progressions and focuses on a strong rhythmic groove of a bassline played by an electric bassist and a drum part played by a percussionist, often at slower tempos than other popular music. Funk typically consists of a complex percussive groove with rhythm instruments playing interlocking grooves that create a "hypnotic" and "danceable" feel. Funk uses the same richly colored extended chords found in bebop jazz, such as minor chords with added sevenths and elevenths, or dominant seventh chords with altered ninths and thirteenths. Funk originated in the mid-1960s, with James Brown's development of a signature groove that emphasized the downbeat—with a heavy emphasis on the first bea ...
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Gospel Music
Gospel music is a traditional genre of Christian music, and a cornerstone of Christian media. The creation, performance, significance, and even the definition of gospel music varies according to culture and social context. Gospel music is composed and performed for many purposes, including aesthetic pleasure, religious or ceremonial purposes, and as an entertainment product for the marketplace. Gospel music is characterized by dominant vocals and strong use of harmony with Christian lyrics. Gospel music can be traced to the early 17th century. Hymns and sacred songs were often repeated in a call and response fashion, heavily influenced by ancestral African music. Most of the churches relied on hand-clapping and foot-stomping as rhythmic accompaniment. Most of the singing was done a cappella.Jackson, Joyce Marie. "The changing nature of gospel music: A southern case study." ''African American Review'' 29.2 (1995): 185. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. October 5, 2010. The ...
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Contemporary R&B
Contemporary R&B (or simply R&B) is a popular music genre that combines rhythm and blues with elements of pop, soul, funk, hip hop, and electronic music. The genre features a distinctive record production style, drum machine-backed rhythms, pitch corrected vocals, and a smooth, lush style of vocal arrangement. Electronic influences are becoming an increasing trend and the use of hip hop or dance-inspired beats are typical, although the roughness and grit inherent in hip hop may be reduced and smoothed out. Contemporary R&B vocalists often use melisma, and since the mid-1980s, R&B rhythms have been combined with elements of hip hop culture and music and pop culture and pop music. Pre-history According to Geoffrey Himes speaking in 1989, the progressive soul movement of the early 1970s "expanded the musical and lyrical boundaries of &Bin ways that haven't been equaled since". This movement was led by soul singer-songwriter/producers such as Curtis Mayfield, Marvin Gaye, ...
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Warrior (band)
Warrior is an American heavy metal band from Los Angeles, formed in 1982. Best known for their 1985 debut album, '' Fighting for the Earth'', the band has released a total of four studio albums. Guitarist and co-founder Joe Floyd is the only Warrior member to appear on every album. Floyd is also a notable engineer and producer and has worked with Bruce Dickinson, Halford, Earl Slick, Tribe of Gypsies, Rob Rock, downset, Godhead, Jake E. Lee, Ratt, Riot, Malice, Odin, World War III, Helstar, and Steel Prophet, among others. In addition, Floyd is the CEO of ElectroPhonic Innovations, a guitar company. History As was the case with contemporaries Ratt and Rough Cutt, the group's core – guitarists Joe Floyd and Tommy Asakawa, bassist Rick Bennett and vocalist Parramore McCarty – was made up of San Diego, California transplants in search of fame and fortune. Prior to Warrior, McCarty had fronted the band Phenomenon, active during 1977–78, which also featured future Ratt ...
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Randy Rhoads
Randall William Rhoads (December 6, 1956 – March 19, 1982) was an American guitarist. He was the co-founder and original guitarist of the heavy metal band Quiet Riot, and the guitarist and co-songwriter for Ozzy Osbourne's first two solo albums ''Blizzard of Ozz'' (1980) and '' Diary of a Madman'' (1981). Rhoads was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2021. Originally educated in classical guitar, Rhoads combined these early influences with heavy metal, helping to form a subgenre later known as neoclassical metal. With Quiet Riot, he adopted a black-and-white polka-dot theme which became an emblem for the group. He reached his peak as the guitarist for Ozzy Osbourne's solo career, performing on tracks including "Crazy Train" and "Mr. Crowley" on the ''Blizzard of Ozz'' album. "Crazy Train" features one of the most well-known heavy metal guitar riffs. He died in a plane crash while on tour with Osbourne in Florida in 1982. Despite his short career, Rhoads is regar ...
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Louie Bellson
Louie Bellson (born Luigi Paulino Alfredo Francesco Antonio Balassoni, July 6, 1924 – February 14, 2009), often seen in sources as Louis Bellson, although he himself preferred the spelling Louie, was an American jazz drummer. He was a composer, arranger, bandleader, and jazz educator, and is credited with pioneering the use of two bass drums.National Endowment for the Arts biography of Louis Bellson
, January 1994; accessed January 2009.
Bellson performed in most of the major capitals around the world. Bellson and his wife, actress and singer Pearl Bailey (married from 1952 until Bailey's death in 1990), had the second highest number of appearances at the

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Jeff Porcaro
Jeffrey Thomas Porcaro (; April 1, 1954 – August 5, 1992) was an American drummer, songwriter, and record producer. He is best known for his work with the rock band Toto but is one of the most recorded session musicians in history, working on hundreds of albums and thousands of sessions. While already an established studio player in the 1970s, he came to prominence in the United States as the drummer on the Steely Dan album ''Katy Lied''. AllMusic has characterized him as "arguably the most highly regarded studio drummer in rock from the mid-'70s to the early '90s" and says that "it is no exaggeration to say that the sound of mainstream pop/rock drumming in the 1980s was, to a large extent, the sound of Jeff Porcaro." He was posthumously inducted into the ''Modern Drummer'' Hall of Fame in 1993. Early life Jeffrey Thomas Porcaro was born on April 1, 1954, in Hartford, Connecticut, the eldest son of Los Angeles session percussionist Joe Porcaro (1930–2020) and his wife, Eil ...
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Nick Ceroli
Nicholas Mathew Ceroli (December 22, 1939 – August 11, 1985) was an American jazz drummer. Biography Ceroli was born in Niles, Ohio, United States. He did a tour of Central and South America in 1963 with Ray Anthony, and that same year recorded with Jack Teagarden and played with Gerald Wilson at the Monterey Jazz Festival. In 1965, he played with Stan Kenton, then spent from 1965 until 1969 playing in Herb Alpert's group, the Tijuana Brass. He moved to Hollywood and became a prolific studio musician, working with Pete Jolly (c. 1969), Zoot Sims (1976, 1984), Richie Kamuca (1977), Warne Marsh (1977–78), Ross Tompkins (1977), Bill Berry (1978), Dave Frishberg (1978), Pete Christlieb (1978), Bob Florence (1979–81), and Milt Jackson (1981). Ceroli died of a heart attack at his home in Studio City, California at the age of 45. Discography With Herb Alpert * ''The Brass Are Comin (A&M, 1969) * ''Christmas Album'' (A&M, 1968) * ''Beat Of The Brass'' (A&M 1968) * ''Herb ...
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Steve Gadd
Stephen Kendall Gadd (born April 9, 1945) is an American drummer, percussionist, and session musician. Gadd is one of the best-known and highly regarded session and studio drummers in the industry, recognized by his induction into the ''Modern Drummer'' Hall of Fame in 1984. Gadd's performances on Paul Simon's "50 Ways to Leave Your Lover" and "Late in the Evening" and Steely Dan's "Aja (song), Aja" are examples of his style. He has worked with other popular musicians from many genres including Simon & Garfunkel, Paul McCartney, James Taylor, Harry Chapin, Joe Cocker, Bonnie Raitt, Grover Washington Jr., Michael Brecker, Chick Corea, Lee Ritenour, Paul Desmond, Kate Bush, Chet Baker, Al Di Meola, Chuck Mangione, Kenny Loggins, Eric Clapton, Pino Daniele, Michel Petrucciani, and Toshiki Kadomatsu. Early life Gadd grew up in Irondequoit, New York. He started playing the drums at a very early age. At age 11, he entered the Mickey Mouse National Talent Round Up contest and was one of ...
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