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Al Di Meola
Albert Laurence Di Meola (born July 22, 1954) is an American guitarist. Known for his work in jazz fusion and world music, his breakthrough came after joining Chick Corea's Return to Forever group in 1974. He launched, from 1976 afterwards, a successful and critically acclaimed solo career, noted for his technical mastery, complex compositions and explorations of Latin music. Highlights of his work are '' Elegant Gypsy'', his '' Friday Night in San Francisco'' collaboration and the ''World Sinfonia'' trilogy. An alumnus of Berklee College of Music and a Grammy Award winner, Di Meola's successful career includes high-profile collaborations such as Chick Corea, Stanley Clarke, Larry Coryell, Steve Winwood, Jaco Pastorius, Paco de Lucía, Bill Bruford, John McLaughlin, Jan Hammer, Jean-Luc Ponty, Steve Vai and others. Early life Born in Jersey City, New Jersey, into an Italian family with roots in Cerreto Sannita, a small town northeast of Benevento, Di Meola grew up in B ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Granada Theater (Dallas)
The Granada Theater is a theater in the Lower Greenville neighborhood of Dallas. The theater was built in 1946 as a movie house. In 1977, it was converted to a concert hall, only to revert to a movie theater soon afterwards. In 2004 it was again opened as a concert hall. Design The Art Deco design of the Granada reflects the decadence of the Golden Era. The exterior was designed for function with rounded corners, stepped forms and linear accents that echoed the industrialized, streamlined designs of modern machinery, like automobiles. The interior decor employs the influence of ancient cultures. The murals were designed by the artist(s) who also worked on Los Angeles’ famous Grauman's Chinese Theatre. The grand scale murals depict different genres of film with the ceiling feature depicting a mythological "film goddess" standing over a reel of film, which is fitting since the Greeks started theater. The sunburst crowning the goddess and the curved plaster moldings lining the si ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Chick Corea
Armando Anthony "Chick" Corea (June 12, 1941 – February 9, 2021) was an American jazz pianist, composer, bandleader and occasional percussionist. His compositions "Spain (instrumental), Spain", "500 Miles High", "La Fiesta", "Armando's Rhumba" and "Windows (composition), Windows" are widely considered jazz standards. As a member of Miles Davis's band in the late 1960s, he participated in the birth of jazz fusion. In the 1970s he formed Return to Forever. Along with McCoy Tyner, Herbie Hancock and Keith Jarrett, Corea is considered to have been one of the foremost pianists of the post-John Coltrane era. Corea continued to collaborate frequently while exploring different musical styles throughout the 1980s and 1990s. As of January 2025, he won 28 Grammy Awards and was nominated 72 times for the award. Early life and education Armando Corea was born in Chelsea, Massachusetts, on June 12, 1941, to parents Anna (née Zaccone) and Armando J. Corea. He was of Southern Italy, southern ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Jean-Luc Ponty
Jean-Luc Ponty (born 29 September 1942) is a French jazz and jazz fusion violinist and composer. He is considered a pioneer of jazz-rock, particularly for his use of the electric violin starting in the 1970s. He rose to prominence for his collaborations with popular musical artists Frank Zappa and Elton John. In addition to his solo work, he has performed with symphony orchestras in France, the United States, Canada, and Japan. Early life Ponty was born into a family of classical musicians in Avranches, France. His father taught violin, and his mother taught piano. At sixteen, he was admitted to the Conservatoire de Paris, Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris, graduating two years later with the institution's highest honor, Premier Prix (first prize). He was hired by the Orchestre Lamoureux in which he played for three years. While still a member of the orchestra in Paris, Ponty picked up a side job playing clarinet (which his father had taught him) for a coll ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Jan Hammer
Jan Hammer () (born 17 April 1948) is a Czech-American musician, composer, and record producer. He rose to prominence while playing keyboards with the Mahavishnu Orchestra during the early 1970s, as well as with his film scores for television and film including "Miami Vice Theme" and "Crockett's Theme", from the 1980s television program ''Miami Vice''. He has continued to work as both a musical performer and producer. Hammer has collaborated with some of the era's most influential jazz and rock musicians such as John McLaughlin (musician), John McLaughlin, Jeff Beck, Billy Cobham, Al Di Meola, Mick Jagger, Carlos Santana, Stanley Clarke, Tommy Bolin, Neal Schon, Steve Lukather, John Abercrombie (guitarist), John Abercrombie and Elvin Jones. He has composed and produced at least 14 original motion picture soundtracks, the music for 90 episodes of ''Miami Vice'' and 20 episodes of the television series ''Chancer''. His compositions have won him two Grammy Awards. Biography Early ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
John McLaughlin (musician)
John McLaughlin (born 4 January 1942), also known as Mahavishnu, is an English guitarist, bandleader, and composer. A pioneer of jazz fusion, his music combines elements of jazz with rock, world music, Classical music, Western classical music, flamenco, and blues. After contributing to several key British groups of the early 1960s, McLaughlin made ''Extrapolation (album), Extrapolation'', his first album as a bandleader, in 1969. He then moved to the U.S., where he played with drummer Tony Williams (drummer), Tony Williams's group The Tony Williams Lifetime, Lifetime and then with Miles Davis on his 1969-72 electric jazz fusion albums ''In a Silent Way'', ''Bitches Brew'', ''Jack Johnson (album), Jack Johnson'', ''Live-Evil (Miles Davis album), Live-Evil'', and ''On the Corner''. His 1970s electric band, the Mahavishnu Orchestra, performed a technically virtuosic and complex style of music that fused electric jazz and rock with Indian influences. McLaughlin's solo on "Miles Bey ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Bill Bruford
William Scott Bruford (born 17 May 1949) is an English drummer and percussionist who first gained prominence as a founding member of the progressive rock band Yes. After leaving Yes in 1972, Bruford spent the rest of the 1970s recording and touring with King Crimson (1972–1974), Roy Harper (1975), and U.K. (1978), as well as touring with Genesis (1976). In 1978, he formed his own group, Bruford, which was active until 1980. During the 1980s, Bruford returned to King Crimson for three years (1981–1984), collaborated with several artists (including Patrick Moraz and David Torn), and formed his own electric jazz band Earthworks in 1986. He then played with his former Yes bandmates in Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe, which eventually led to a very brief second stint in Yes. Bruford played in King Crimson for his third and final tenure from 1994 to 1997, then continued with a new acoustic configuration of Earthworks. In 2009, Bruford announced his retirement from professional ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Paco De Lucía
Francisco Sánchez Gómez (; 21 December 194725 February 2014), known as Paco de Lucía (), was a Spanish virtuoso flamenco guitarist, composer, and record producer. A leading proponent of the new flamenco style, he was one of the first flamenco guitarists to branch into classical and jazz. Richard Chapman (musician), Richard Chapman and Eric Clapton, authors of ''Guitar: Music, History, Players'', describe de Lucía as a "titanic figure in the world of flamenco guitar", and Dennis Koster, author of ''Guitar Atlas, Flamenco'', has referred to de Lucía as "one of history's greatest guitarists". De Lucía was noted for his fast and fluent picados (fingerstyle runs). A master of contrast, he often juxtaposed picados and rasgueados (flamenco strumming) with more sensitive playing and was known for adding abstract chords and scale tones to his compositions with jazz influences. These innovations saw him play a key role in the development of traditional flamenco and the evolution of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Jaco Pastorius
John Francis Anthony Pastorius III, also known as Jaco Pastorius (; December 1, 1951 – September 21, 1987), was an American jazz bassist, composer, and producer. Widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential bassists of all time, Pastorius recorded albums as a solo artist, band leader, and as a member of the jazz fusion group Weather Report from 1976 to 1981. He also collaborated with numerous artists, including Herbie Hancock, Pat Metheny and Joni Mitchell. His bass style was influenced by funk and employed the use of Fretless bass guitar, fretless bass, lyrical solos, bass Chord (music), chords and innovative use of harmonics. As of 2017, he was the only one of seven bassists inducted into the ''DownBeat'' Jazz Hall of Fame to have been known for their work on the electric bass, and he has been lauded as among the best bassists of all time. Pastorius suffered from Addiction, drug addiction and mental health issues and, despite his widespread acclaim, over the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Steve Winwood
Stephen Lawrence Winwood (born 12 May 1948) is an English musician and songwriter whose genres include blue-eyed soul, rhythm and blues, blues rock, and pop rock. Though primarily a guitarist, keyboard player, and vocalist prominent for his distinctive Soul music, soulful high tenor voice, Winwood plays other instruments proficiently, including drums, mandolin, bass, and saxophone. Winwood achieved fame during the 1960s and 1970s as an integral member of three successful bands: the Spencer Davis Group (1964–1967), Traffic (band), Traffic (1967–1969 and 1970–1974), and Blind Faith (1969). During the 1980s, his solo career flourished and he had a number of hit singles, including "While You See a Chance" (1980) from the album ''Arc of a Diver'' and "Valerie (Steve Winwood song), Valerie" (1982) from ''Talking Back to the Night'' ("Valerie" became a hit when it was re-released with a remix from Winwood's 1987 compilation album ''Chronicles (Steve Winwood album), Chronicles''). ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Larry Coryell
Larry Coryell (born Lorenz Albert Van DeLinder III; April 2, 1943 – February 19, 2017) was an American jazz guitarist, widely considered the "godfather of fusion". Alongside Gábor Szabó, he was a pioneer in melding jazz, country and rock music. Coryell was also a music teacher and a writer, penning a monthly column for ''Guitar Player'' magazine from 1977 to 1989. He collaborated with a number of other high-profile musicians, including John McLaughlin, Chick Corea, Miroslav Vitouš, Billy Cobham, Lenny White, Emily Remler, Al Di Meola, Paco de Lucía, Steve Morse and others. Early life Larry Coryell was born in Galveston, Texas, United States. He never knew his biological father, a musician. He was raised by his stepfather Gene, a chemical engineer, and his mother Cora, who encouraged him to learn piano when he was four years old. In Coryell's teens, he switched to guitar. After his family moved to Richland, Washington, he took lessons from a teacher who lent h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Stanley Clarke
Stanley Clarke (born June 30, 1951) is an American bassist, composer and founding member of Return to Forever, one of the first jazz fusion bands. Clarke gave the bass guitar a prominence it lacked in jazz-related music. He is the first jazz-fusion bassist to headline tours, sell out shows worldwide and have recordings reach gold status. Clarke is the recipient of five Grammy Awards, with 15 nominations, three as a solo artist, one with the Stanley Clarke Band, and one with Return to Forever. Clarke was selected to become a 2022 recipient of the National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Masters Fellowship. A Stanley Clarke electric bass is permanently on display at the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C. Music career Early years Clarke was born on June 30, 1951, in Philadelphia. His mother sang opera around the house, belonged to a church choir, and encouraged him to study music. He started on accordion, then tried violin. But he felt awkwa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Grammy Award
The Grammy Awards, stylized as GRAMMY, and often referred to as The Grammys, are awards presented by The Recording Academy of the United States to recognize outstanding achievements in music. They are regarded by many as the most prestigious and significant awards in the music industry in the United States, and thus the show is frequently called "music's biggest night". The trophy depicts a gilded gramophone, and the original idea was to call them the "Gramophone Awards". The Grammys are the first of the Big Three networks' major music awards held annually, and are considered one of the four major annual American entertainment awards with the Academy Awards (for films), the Emmy Awards (for television), and the Tony Awards (for theater). The first Grammy Awards ceremony was held on May 4, 1959, to honor the musical accomplishments of performers for the year 1958. After the 2011 ceremony, the Recording Academy overhauled many Grammy Award categories for 2012. The 67th Ann ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
