Rippingtons

	Rippingtons The Rippingtons are an American contemporary jazz group, mainly relating to the genres smooth jazz, jazz fusion, jazz pop, and crossover jazz. Formed in 1985 by guitarist and band leader Russ Freeman (guitarist), Russ Freeman, their career has spanned more than three decades. With a revolving door of musicians, Freeman has been the only consistent member. They have inspired many other bands including "The Stolen Cat Club." Many of their songs have been played during The Weather Channel (United States), The Weather Channel's ''Local on the 8s'' forecast segments. The band's mascot is a grinning, sunglasses-wearing jazz cat which appears in the artwork of all the band's releases and on their official website. Current members Russ Freeman (guitarist), Russ Freeman — guitar, keyboards and programming Dave Karasony — drums Bill Heller — pianoRico Belled— bass Brandon Fields (musician), Brandon Fields — saxophone Past members have included bassists Kim Stone, 1990–200 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu]
	Russ Freeman (guitarist) Russ Freeman (born February 11, 1960) is a smooth jazz guitarist who is the founder and leader of The Rippingtons. Life and career Born in Nashville, Tennessee, Freeman started on guitar when he was ten years old. His first teacher was a session musician in Nashville who knew his father. He followed his teacher around Nashville studios and after six years worked in a variety of sessions as a professional guitarist. Two years later, he moved to Los Angeles, where he found work playing for commercials and with vocalists Englebert Humperdinck and Anne Murray. He cites George Benson and Larry Carlton as influences. For one year he attended the California Institute of the Arts. He recorded his first solo album, ''Nocturnal Playground''. In 1985, he founded the band The Rippingtons as an opportunity to record with a variety of musicians. The first version of the band included David Benoit, Brandon Fields, Kenny G, and Dave Koz. By 1993, The Rippingtons had solidified into a sextet ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu]
	GRP Records GRP® Records (Grusin-Rosen Productions) is a jazz record label founded by Dave Grusin and Larry Rosen (producer), Larry Rosen in 1978. Distributed by Verve Records, GRP® was originally known for its digital recordings that focuses on its jazz genre. History With Grusin and Rosen flourishing in their respective careers as a film composer, jazz musician, engineer and commercial music producer, a chance recording session for a commercial would set up what would become the seeds of their eventual partnership. Rosen had just recorded a musician named Jon Lucien in 1972 in which Lucien would sing and play for the engineer and fledging producer. Rosen was excited about the prospects of recording him and then contacted Grusin to do the musical arrangements for the potential album. The album ''Rashida'' for RCA Victor released in 1973 was Grusin and Rosen's first producing job and they followed up their first collaboration with Lucien with ''Song For My Lady'' for Columbia Records in 1 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu]
	Jeff Kashiwa Jeff Kashiwa (born 1963) is saxophonist with the jazz fusion band the Rippingtons and one of three with the Sax Pack, as well as having recorded several albums under his own name. Life and career Jeff Kashiwa was born in 1963 in Louisville, Kentucky but moved to Seattle, Washington as a young child. He credits the public school's music program for inspiring his interest in music, along with his father, who died in 1992, who was a fan of jazz music including Benny Goodman and Glenn Miller. While attending school, his father gave him an old silver clarinet but, when he later saw a row of saxophones at school, Kashiwa knew he had found the instrument for him. As a local gig musician working small jobs, Kashiwa wanted a more permanent position in a band and, after searching for some time without success, he approached bassist Steve Bailey of the Rippingtons, of whom he was a fan, and hired Bailey to play along with him. He eventually sought an audition for the Rippingtons, one of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu]
	Peak Records Peak Records is an American record label that was founded by The Rippingtons leader and guitarist Russ Freeman and Andi Howard in 1994. Peak is distributed by Bob Frank Entertainment. History 1994 Peak Records is co-founded by Russ Freeman and Andi Howard in GRP Records. 1997 Peak transferred to Windham Hill Records. 2000 Peak transferred to Concord Records. Peak's first recording was ''Time Slipping By'' from Mark Williamson in 1994, and ''Sahara'' by Russ Freeman and the Rippingtons. During the late 1990s, Peak became a fully self-sufficient independent label under Windham Hill/RCA, and the Rippingtons' released '' Black Diamond'' to commemorate the then 10-year anniversary of the group. When the label became part of Concord Records, Peak signed saxophonists Paul Taylor and Eric Marienthal, and Regina Belle to the label as well as vocalist Phil Perry. In 2001, Belle released '' This Is Regina!'', which went gold and earned a Grammy Award nomination for Best Traditiona ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR:* [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu]
	David Benoit (musician) David Bryan Benoit (born August 18, 1953) is an American jazz pianist, composer and producer, based in Los Angeles, California, United States. Benoit has charted over 25 albums since 1980, and has been nominated for three Grammy Awards. He is also music director for the Pacific Vision Youth Symphony (previously known as the Asia America Symphony Orchestra) and the Asia America Youth Orchestra. Furthermore, crediting Vince Guaraldi as an inspiration, Benoit has participated both as performer and music director for the later animated adaptations of the ''Peanuts'' comic strip, such as the feature film, ''The Peanuts Movie'', restoring Guaraldi's musical signature to the franchise. Early life David Bryan Benoit was born in Bakersfield, California, on August 18, 1953. He studied piano at age 13 with Marya Cressy Wright and continued his training with Abraham Fraser, who was the pianist for Arturo Toscanini. He attended Mira Costa High School. He focused on theory and composition ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu]
	Gregg Karukas Gregg Karukas (born 1956) is a smooth jazz pianist from Maryland who first gained notice in Washington, D.C., then moved to Los Angeles in 1983. He backed Melissa Manchester before he co-founded the Rippingtons in 1985. He experimented with drums, guitar, trumpet, and keyboards as a child, but it was not until his teens that he pursued music professionally as a pianist, having played with the Bowie High School Starliners big band. When he was sixteen, he owned one of the first Minimoog synthesizers. Karukas spent five years with Tim Eyermann in the band East Coast Offering. After moving to Los Angeles, he worked with Shelby Flint, David Benoit, Richard Elliot, Grant Geissman, Dave Koz, Ronnie Laws, and Melissa Manchester. He was a member of the Rippingtons when they recorded their first album, ''Moonlighting'', in November 1985. He has worked as a sideman with Larry Carlton, Jeffrey Osborne, George Duke, Rick Braun, Brenda Russell, Craig Chaquico, Boney James, and Peter Whi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu]
	Steve Bailey Steve Bailey is an American bassist. He is the chair of the bass department at Berklee College of Music. Career Bailey began playing bass guitar at age 12 and started playing fretless bass after he ran over his fretted Stuart Spector with his car. He started playing double bass after hearing Stanley Clarke playing with Return to Forever. He has been a faculty member at Coastal Carolina University and the University of North Carolina Wilmington. He was also a faculty member at Hollywood's BIT for 10 years. He is a co-founder of Victor Wooten's Bass/Nature Camp, which helps to teach bassists of all ranges. Thebassvault.com is also a joint project with Bailey and Wooten. He is an avid tennis player and surfer. Bailey has worked with Ernestine Anderson, Bass Extremes, David Benoit, Tab Benoit, Michel Camilo, Larry Carlton, Paquito D'Rivera, Chris Duarte, Bryan Duncan, Brandon Fields, Dave Liebman, Dizzy Gillespie, Scott Henderson, Carol Kaye, Kitaro, T Lavitz, James Moody, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu]
	Nelson Rangell Nelson Rangell (born March 26, 1960) is an American smooth jazz musician and composer from Castle Rock, Colorado. Although he is known for his work with the tenor, alto, and soprano saxophone, his primary instrument is the piccolo, which he began playing at the age of 15. He has at times worked with Jimmy Haslip and Russ Ferrante. Career Although Rangell's parents weren't musicians,Bentley, Mary. (2005). uoting Nelson Rangell– "Neither of my parents are musicians, although both of them...were very aesthetic people" his siblings have careers in music. His brother Andrew is a concert pianist and his brother Bobby is a woodwind player in Europe. His sister Paula is a singer. Rangell first played flute at the age of 15. Within six months he was studying both jazz and classical music at the Interlochen Arts Academy, a camp for gifted music students. He attended the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. As a student he won Best Jazz and Best Pop/Rock Instrumental Soloist i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu]
	Brandon Fields (musician) Brandon Fields (born 1958) is a saxophonist, flutist, and clarinetist from Indiana.Brandon Fields biography by Scott Yanow, discography and album reviews, credits & releases at AllMusic He has recorded with Alex Acuña , David Benoit, Stanley Clarke , [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu]
	Mark Portmann Mark Portmann is a musician, songwriter, and record producer who has worked with Celine Dion and Josh Groban. Portman began to learn classical piano as a child, but beginning at Coconut Creek High School he turned to pop music and jazz. He went to the Eastman School of Music on a scholarship, studying composition, and attended the University of Miami. In 1988, he became a keyboardist in the jazz group The Rippingtons and left the group four years later. In 1997, he released a solo album on Zebra Records titled ''No Truer Words''. Songs co-produced by Portmann were nominated for ASCAP The American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) () is an American not-for-profit performance-rights organization (PRO) that collectively licenses the public performance rights of its members' musical works to venues, broadca ... Latin Music Awards in 2003 and 2010. References External linksOfficial website Living people University of Miami alumni American jazz keyboa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu]
	Eric Marienthal Eric Marienthal (born December 19, 1957) is a Grammy Award-nominated Los Angeles-based contemporary saxophonist best known for his work in the jazz, jazz fusion, smooth jazz, and pop genres. Early life Eric Marienthal was born on December 19, 1957 in Sacramento, California to Robert Marienthal, an insurance salesman, but moved to San Mateo when he was two years old. He has credited his enthusiasm for music on being taught music while in school, and picked up the saxophone in the fourth grade after he thought it looked "pretty cool". Marienthal has also mentioned his father was a fan of music, particularly 1940s and 1950s such as Boots Randolph, Nat King Cole and Frank Sinatra. He initially wanted to pick up the trumpet but a teacher discouraged him because of his braces. As Marienthal progressed, his father bought him a $400 Selmer saxophone and enrolled him in Corona Del Mar High School. Throughout his education, Marienthal also learned to play guitar (in grade school), flute, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu]
	Paul Taylor (saxophonist) Paul Taylor (born 1960) is an American smooth jazz alto and soprano saxophonist who has released twelve albums since his debut ''On the Horn'' in 1995. He is a graduate of University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV), where he attended with a full music scholarship. He is signed to Peak Records. Although originally from Denver, Colorado, he is based in Las Vegas, Nevada. He has worked extensively with Keiko Matsui and played as a special guest with the Rippingtons for a short time in 1999 and 2000, after Jeff Kashiwa left the group and before Eric Marienthal joined them. He collaborated with many R&B vocalists such as LaToya London, Regina Belle, Maxi Priest, Peabo Bryson and Terry Dexter Terry Dexter is an Americans, American contemporary R&B singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and actress. Early life Dexter was born in Detroit, Detroit, Michigan. She has a twin sister, and she describes her ethnicity simply as miscege .... His reedy tone and warm, bright sound frame d ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu]