Sokoband, formerly known as Soko, is a

jazz fusion Jazz fusion (also known as fusion and progressive jazz) is a music genre that developed in the late 1960s when musicians combined jazz harmony and jazz improvisation, improvisation with rock music, funk, and rhythm and blues. Electric guitars, ...

duo, featuring

pianist A pianist ( , ) is an individual musician who plays the piano. Since most forms of Western music can make use of the piano, pianists have a wide repertoire and a wide variety of styles to choose from, among them traditional classical music, ja ...

Michael Sokolowski and

bassist A bassist (also known as a bass player or bass guitarist) is a musician who plays a Bass (instrument), bass instrument such as a double bass (upright bass, contrabass, wood bass), bass guitar (electric bass, acoustic bass), synthbass, keyboar ...

Houston Ross. The group formed as a trio in

Charlottesville, Virginia Charlottesville, colloquially known as C'ville, is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia. It is the county seat of Albemarle County, which surrounds the city, though the two are separate legal entities. It is named after Queen Ch ...

in 1991, with Sokolowski, Ross, and

drummer A drummer is a percussionist who creates music using drum The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel-Sachs classification system, it is a membranophone. Drums consist of at least one mem ...

John Gilmore John Gilmore may refer to: * John Gilmore (activist) (born 1955), co-founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Cygnus Solutions * John Gilmore (musician) (1931–1995), American jazz saxophonist * John Gilmore (representative) (1780–1845), ...

. The group performed live for several years, then released their first

studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

, '' In November Sunlight'', in 1996. The album received notably high record sales for an instrumental album, mainly due to its guest appearance by members of the

Dave Matthews Band Dave Matthews Band (also known by the initials DMB) is an American rock band formed in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 1991. The band's founding members were singer-songwriter and guitarist Dave Matthews, bassist Stefan Lessard, drummer and bac ...

— Dave Matthews,

LeRoi Moore LeRoi Holloway Moore (September 7, 1961 – August 19, 2008) was an American saxophonist. He was a founding member of the Dave Matthews Band. Moore often arranged music for songs written by Dave Matthews. Moore also co-wrote many of the band's ...

, and

Tim Reynolds Tim Reynolds (born 15 December 1957) is an American guitarist and multi-instrumentalist known as both a solo artist and as a lead guitarist for the Dave Matthews Band. AllMusic critic MacKenzie Wilson has called Reynolds "an under-rated master". ...

. In 1997, Gilmore left the group, however Sokolowski and Ross remained close and continued performing together. The duo began working on their second album, ''

Two 2 (two) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number following 1 and preceding 3. It is the smallest and only even prime number. Because it forms the basis of a duality, it has religious and spiritual significance in many cultur ...

'', in 2000, which featured writing, arranging, and singing contributions by Ross, whereas the previous album primarily contributions strictly from Sokolowski. The album took almost five years to complete, and was not released until 2005, however the album featured many more guest performers than the previous album, including former band member John Gilmore. Due to confusion with other bands of the same name, Soko was renamed to "Sokoband" in 2010. On March 9, 2010, Sokoband released a self-titled album, ''Sokoband,'' which contains all eight tracks from '' In November Sunlight'', as well as two additional tracks, entitled "And Yet Your Smile" and "Nightfall." The band was not happy with the musical execution or production of the 1996 release, and wanted to present more definitive realizations of the compositions. Drummer on the project is

Nir Z NIR or Nir may refer to: Science and technology * Near-infrared, a region within the infrared part of the electromagnetic radiation spectrum * Near-infrared spectroscopy, a spectroscopic method that uses the near-infrared region (from 780 nm to 25 ...

. Dave Matthews,

, and

appear again, along with

Steve Kimock Steve Kimock (born October 5, 1955) is an American rock guitarist. He was a member of San Francisco Bay Area bands Zero and KVHW. His tone and some of his playing approach has been compared to Jerry Garcia, who was a friend of his, and he has ...

(guitars), Mike Colley (guitars), David Cast (saxophones), John Zias (guitars), David Darling (cello), and others.

Discography

*'' In November Sunlight'' (1996) *''

'' (2000) *'' Sokoband'' (2010)

References

External links

Sokoband website
American jazz ensembles Jazz fusion ensembles {{US-jazz-band-stub