Santi Chacon

Antonio Forcione

2012-01-21T16:35:00.000-08:00

Hailed as the 'Jimi Hendrix of the acoustic guitar', award-winning Forcione is considered one of the most charismatic and inventive performers to come out of Europe in recent years. He breaks the mould of most conventional, popular guitar sounds be it in the field of jazz, Spanish, African, Brazilian or improvised music. International tours have brought high critical acclaim from as far as Australia and Hong Kong to Russia, the Caribbean, USA and all over Europe.

His 16 albums have variously hit the top of UK and international jazz charts and he has shared the stage worldwide with some of the world’s most accomplished musicians (see below), double-billing with artists such as John McLaughlin, John Schoffield and Antonio at Chiswick Bridge

Born in Italy in a small village along the Adriatic coast, Antonio first drew public attention at 13 when he toured with his own band throughout Italy as a guitarist, mandolinist and drummer. He got a diploma in art and sculpture from the Art Institute in Ancona, and studied music in Rome (as well as mime) before moving to London in 1983 in search of greater inspiration.

“A performer of world class status ... forceful and with an enviable technique, he takes the guitar to new levels of expression combining its melodic powers with dramatic percussive effects. Forcione boldly goes where no guitarist has gone before and the results are quite spectacular ... miss him at your peril”.

THE STAGE

Unable to speak English, he initially resorted to busking in the streets of London’s Covent Garden, and within 2 months he had won an award which led to a BBC television appearance before being whisked off to open for the pop group Barclay James Harvest on a major European tour for over a total of 300,000, people culminating in a concert at Wembley Arena. He never looked back.

He has performed in festivals and theatres from as far as Australia and Indonesia to the USA, Canada, Caribbean, Turkey, Lebanon and all over Europe, especially in France, Germany, Switzerland, Austria and the UK. His festival appearances include Womad, Glastonbury, Edinburgh, Melbourne, Koln, Verona, Granada, Hong Kong Arts Festival, Singapore Arts Festival and the Machoire d’Or in Montreux amongst others, as well as most major International Guitar festivals.

“Forcione plays unstringed parts of the guitar other players can’t hope to reach” (The Independent)

Antonio’s constantly innovative approach to life have also led him to explore the realm of music comedy performance resulting in invitations to perform at comedy festivals throughout the world. He has performed with other comedians such as Boothby Graffoe, Django Edwards, Stephen Frost, Tanderika and Ursus & Nadeschkin, acted as musical director and performer for the award winning trio Ole, and formed the duo ‘Acoustik Maniaks’ with guitarist Neil Stacey, as well as appearing in variety shows as a Solo comedy artist.

In 2001 he won the ‘Best Spirit of the Fringe Award’ at the Edinburgh Festival with a resulting tour of Australia, doing both straight music and music-comedy. "After 100 years of guitar playing is there anything left to do? Forcione proves that there is. Not content to be just a guitar genius, he injects his playing with physical comedy of unparalleled ferocity. This renowned musical performer has changed the way we look at the humble acoustic guitar".

(Three weeks)

Artistic, intense, and formidably inventive, Antonio is a performer of genuine distinction. Ever unpredictable, his is a celebration of the unexpected elements in life, a music of rare delicacy, humour and, not least, passion.

Imogen Heap

2012-01-17T13:36:00.000-08:00

Look up British singer/songwriter Imogen Heap on the online music forum Myspace.com and scroll down to the ‘Sounds Like’ box. Sounds Like No other – reads the pithy, but accurate description.

In fact, truer words have never been written about the hypnotic vex of songs on her stunning second solo album Speak For Yourself. From her earliest memories of improvising at the piano “it was the biggest toy that made the best and most noise” at home, hour after hour in the sleepy village just outside of London where she grew up to the electro-zen-like fugues she hears in her head when riding her bike through the streets of England’s most fabled city, the classically trained, techno geekess, Imogen has always preferred a left-of-kilter soundtrack of her own making to any by-the-book-coda of pop music.

The stirring current of songs flowing through Speak For Yourself ripple with an alluring intimacy rarely found in the electro-inspired genre. “That’s because, I like to believe I’m genre-less!” quips Imogen “I want for music to stimulate, excite and surprise me all over again” Whether it’s the punctuated sounds, and halting breath filled silences in songs such as the angelic “Hide And Seek,” or the bouncy “Goodnight And Go,” or the subtly drum-tinged “Headlock”, or the whispery “The Walk,” it’s clear Imogen is a slave to nothing but her own muse. Recorded in her East London studio – “I’ve had a not so secret love affair with making music on computers since I was a teenager. Wouldn’t it be great if in real life you could “delete” or “duplicate”, “save” or “recall”? Or speak in many voices and languages at the pull down of a program?” she says – Imogen utilized everything and anything at her disposal, from circuit bent children’s toys, to carpet roll inner tubes to the rumbling soothages of passing trains. “There are many moments during the course of making an album where things don’t go as planned - mostly gear misbehaving but gear can equally make some great sounds when it’s in a mood!” The silver lining to some of these situations became “Hide and Seek” and “Headlock”. Forced to use gear that was co-operating though perhaps needed a little dusting off!

An auteur in the truest sense of the word, even Imogen’s previous music persona as the female axis with the alt-fave duo Frou Frou (with producer and longtime collaborator Guy Sigsworth playing the man - producer of Madonna, among others) garnered her a drawer full of comparisons to strong-female-solo types. But Imogen’s knack for path-finding, revelatory soundscapes off the beaten path mirror her own zig-zag musical journey (she was a solo artist before joining Frou Frou only to fly solo again), as she’s now poised for acceptance with a growing contingency of U.S. music fans.

After turning down major record label deals the fearless artist even re-mortgaged her London flat to finance her declaration of independence, but not before making several futile rounds to various financial institutions seeking their possible support “I traipsed my way round every bank but I couldn’t get a loan,” she says. “I had £10,000 on my credit card and I couldn’t pay my bills. It seems banks and musicians don’t get along too famously!” but just before despair could stick in its claws, Heap’s luck changed. Clocking a “For Sale” sign outside her block of flats was, she says, like a little light bulb going on: “I couldn’t help wondering just how much I could sell my flat to myself for.”

The flat had almost doubled in price. With nothing to stop her now, Imogen took the cash out of the property and with money to burn purchased lots of sparkly new recording equipment on her 25th Birthday as a present to herself, She then set about making exquisitely personal and aptly titled Speak For Yourself in a burst of experimentation. As if that wasn’t enough Heap then set up Megaphonic Records to release her most treasured possession in the UK.

“It was quite liberating, actually,” she says. “Probably because I never had an opportunity to do a whole studio album at my own pace before-entirely on my own. So, at first, I was ignoring the piano, just having fun and playing with all my toys. But eventually I got back round to the piano, like on “The Moment I Said It.’ Every sound you hear (aside from the strings) stems from the piano, but still I’m chopping things up.” That kind of playfulness is a trademark of Imogen’s heaping (no pun intended). Her mystical/whimsical harmony leaning over diverging threads of sound and melody, all of it bottlenecking into riveting vignettes that pique the imagination.

Ultimately, it would be due to such enigmatic captures and an often downright sultry vocal presence (‘your music is touching to the max’ – blogs one online fan) combined with her intuitively tweaked musical arsenal - Piano/Vocoder/glitch-friendly samples, strings, harps, bells and drum machines - that would spark American record companies to come calling.

A serendipitous brush-up with the photogenic but angst-filled American TV soap, The O.C., furthered her mystique. The popular teen show, which has gathered an impressive musical resume in the past couple of years, (rumored to receive more than 400 music submissions per week) featured Imogen’s glorious “Hide And Seek,” on its Season 2 finale this past May (with “Goodnight And Go” being included on the soundtrack Music From The O.C. Mix 4), awakening a potential American fan base to the radiant atmospherics of Heap’s repertoire.

“I’m eternally grateful to The O.C. for braving such an off kilter song to feature in that spot. The response to that episode has been amazing,” says Imogen. “And I was ecstatic that suddenly, after putting so much of myself into this album and my transition to going solo again, I was going to be exposed to a whole new audience.”

The warm reception of the music savvy O.C. audience was indeed immediate. In less than a week “Hide And Seek” moved from virtual obscurity to # 32 on Billboard’s Hot 100 Download chart. Many more stateside fans started following her weekly blog on Imogenheap.com (affectionately referring to her as Immi) and set in motion a stream of requests for Imogen’s music from other TV shows – CSI and Six Feet Under among them - and movies (most recently on the Reese Witherspoon/Mark Ruffalo movie/soundtrack Just Like Heaven, for which Imogen contributed a cover rendition of the classic “Spooky” -once made famous by Dusty Springfield. And in 2004, Actor/Director Zach Braff personally selected the Frou Frou track, “Let Go,” to appear on the grammy winning soundtrack to his movie Garden State. “My music lends itself to soundtracks, I think, because it is so layered and orchestrated. They feel and sound right at home on the big screen.”

Ever since her mercurial 1998 debut, I Megaphone, and her 2002 Frou Frou collaboration with Sigsworth, the ethereal Details (Island Records), with its acclaimed cult single “Breathe In,” Imogen has catalogued her dreamscapes through music. “I can’t say I always wanted to be a rock star, but I’ve always expressed myself through music it’s the easiest and most enjoyable way to lose myself. When I’m composing the best way I can describe it is – when you know you’re really on to something – like when you’re traveling home on a familiar route and you start to daydream – then before you know it you find yourself at your front door searching for your keys and you’ve no idea how you got there, that’s what happens to me when I’m creating on a good day.”

Imogen is more than aware that time will be moving quite fast in the next several months. Touring is already scheduled (she’s past opened up for diverse artists such as Rufus Wainwright, Coldplay and Norah Jones) and ever increasing notoriety beckons as critics and music fans familiarize themselves with the highly regarded Speak For Yourself, released to much acclaim in England this past July. “I’m interested in how people will categorize the album. Let’s face it, everyone draws comparisons I do it myself.” When asked to have a go at it, Imogen laughs. “I don’t know….. more Donnie Darko than Dirty Dancing, more Absynth than apple juice, more ‘where no man has gone before’ than ‘down the pub’, more ‘crop circles in the carpet’ than ‘climb the highest mountain’. I hope more likely that you’ve never heard anything like it before!”

“The album hosts the broadest spectrum of songs I’ve ever done. Just when you think it’s going in one direction, it goes off down the road in another. I hope it sounds like I’ve had fun making it, because I did,” she pauses for a second. “Very free is how I’d describe it.”

“Wade in the sonic joy, Pleasure the wave and synchronize, Sway in the sonic joy” sings a cryptic Imogen. And no wonder. The girl just lives, breathes and loves making music!

Inspirational

2012-01-17T07:08:00.000-08:00

Thank you for your generosity!

Santi’s soulful music was just the sort of uplifting original inspirational piece I wanted for our ad. The music has layer upon layer of richness that added greatly to the mood we intended.

Thank you Santi!

Alina Frank,
Washington EFT Tappers

Chad Morris

2012-01-06T01:58:00.000-08:00

George Benson and Earl Klugh records were constantly piped through my modest home in Inglewood, California (1986). I was born Dec, 7 into a musical family originally from Memphis, Tennessee; a large majority of the family possessed a natural gift for music, singing, public speaking and preaching. The family saw my interest in music at the age of 2, while I sat figuring out nursery rhymes on a toy piano I had gotten for my birthday. My father Charles later purchased a small scale nylon guitar when I was 5. He hid it in the kitchen before I came home from school so I would casually notice it, then be in shock. Imprint memory.

Wes Montgomery and Jonathan Butler...Dad got new records, and even a cassette tape of a Joe Pass instructional. Dad also got "Bad Benson"--I was utterly shocked, amazed, in disbelief, flustered and frustrated anyone would ever be able to play this way. Me and Dad always looked up to George, drooled over his custom Ibanez GB series guitars until Dad was able to buy if for me later in life. Jazz guitar music became a constant in my household, and I was determined to learn how to play just as well as those guys. Those guys made me and Dad so happy, just by an extreme command of their instrument. I wished for that.

School was another place I loved to be, until 3:00pm when it was out--I didn't want to stick around like the other kids so I pleaded my parents to pick me up at 3:00pm sharp. Other kids hated jazz music...thought it was for old people. I didn't understand pop music...thought it was for cool people. I was far from feeling cool. Something about jazz made me feel warm. Tagging along with my father to business meetings in big commercial buildings in Century City or Downtown...the soundtrack in the car was 88.1 or 94.7, depending on the DJs, and we knew all of them and their respective tastes.

I loved holding on to stuff I had heard on the radio and keeping it on repeat in my brain. I kept songs in my head while waiting in the lobby of those buildings--they smelled like progress and money, ink, paper and grownups. A golden brown smell? I always thought. Jazz fit perfectly here for me, and anywhere else Dad and I went...briefcases, manilla folders, golf courses, the smell of ink, air conditioned banks, hard sole dress shoes on marble lobbies, libraries, cigars, and the mildewed archives at the county clerk's office. This was jazz to me...the pleasures of convenience, the smell of money, work, wealth and relaxation.

Later I realized how much my idea of jazz was embedded into my nature...how I spoke and interacted with other kids in highschool at Pacific Hills School in West Hollywood. Now I had friends who's parents were Daymon Wayans, Stacy Dash, Rod Stewart, John Witherspoon and other big time people you might see in a magazine at the kiosk we would visit for off campus lunch--Sport Compact Car magazines and french fries. In middle school I hated staying after school, in highschool I stayed as long as I could--working on Paganini Caprices in the music classroom.

I got signed to Abstrakt Reality Records for a compilation album and was the featured artist "Green Glaze" (2003-2004). I was in 11th grade, and electronic music soon became an extension of me..my self, and embodied all of the unorthodox, abstract ideas that couldn't be implemented safely into the genre of jazz music. Aphex Twin, Squarepusher, Venetian Snares and Wagon Christ / Luke Vibert were my favorite electronic music producers, and still are.

I finally came back to smooth jazz. This is the time where I wanted to go hard. I bought a violin, a soprano and alto sax and new acoustic guitars to prepare for my first album. I learned the basics of these instruments until I was comfortable enough to record with them. I released my first album, self titled (2005-2006). A DIY radio campaign landed it on WUMR 91.7 where it stayed on the top 10 countdown for 5 consecutive months. How fitting that the station that showed me the most support was located in my family's hometown? A brief stay at Morehouse college in Atlanta, GA prompted me to come back to California and dedicate all efforts to my music endeavors. Pftt..

The music industry is strange...like a drug business. I trudged around in the depths of this industry--continually scammed, music stolen, rights stripped, my career and purpose in life halted under a fat man's greed. I went to audio engineering school (RIT - Musicians' Institute) to allow myself to mix and master my own records to a professional standard (cutting away some middlemen). Working for Motown writer Mickey Stevenson during this time was a nice street light midway through this nasty tunnel. He said he told Smokey Robinson about my music. I soon met Stephen Metz and turned out he was affiliated with the great Robert Biles, my favorite recording engineer. We studied Robert's mixes at RIT and after graduating I re-met my etiquette teacher Jerry Christie, who happened to be Robert's assistant. Robert and I mixed one special song together, which I will release in time. Reedie Williams is a great jazz singer.

2010, Latin Soul! Cliff and Jason Gorov were so nice to take a chance with their prestigious name on a guy like me. Hey, they work with George and Kenny G. I promised that the record would be well received and they believed me and gave me a radio promotion deal. The lead out track "My Pleasure" was the #1 song added to internet and satellite radio for November 18. I even managed to reach 15th most added on Billboard. I was proud, because I was a new guy with my own label doing everything myself. My promotion time quickly ran out, and I ran out of money to continue it...soon in debt. Labels won't listen, and they don't even know how hungry the man is...the man knocking desperately at their door. I wish they knew.

Frustration led me to writing, and now I quietly blog about societal and cultural myths--keeping the music around for the purer hearts that understand it. My goal of commercializing my product must rest, and sit on the backburner until someone is smart enough to sign me (lol). Hip hop has become another passion of mine. It parallels the motif of minimalism I now experience...basic, blunt reactions to life, and the artistic gems unearthed from the most unassuming, stereotypically ignorant products of the inner city and ganglife. Hip hop is high art, despite its negatives--no matter how ignorant or shallow lyrics are, there is still depth present in the effect it can produce from its listeners.

I will continue to release great music and great writing until the world notices who I am.

Bjork

2012-01-02T21:45:00.001-08:00

Musician, singer, actress. Born Bjork Gudmundsdottir on November 21, 1965 in Reykjavik, Iceland. Having grown up in a highly musical household, Bjork released her first album of traditional Icelandic folk songs when she was only 11.

Throughout her teen years, Bjork sang for a series of anarchist punk bands. In 1986, Bjork and fellow Kukl members Einer Orn and Siggi Baldurson formed the pop group the Sugarcubes. Joined by new members Thor Eldon (with whom Bjork conceived a child in 1986), Magg Ornotfsdottir and Bragi Olafsson, Sugarcubes released their full-length debut, Life's Too Good, in 1988, winning a cult following in the U.K. and U.S. The final Sugarcubes album, 1992's It's It, was a collection of dance remixes of earlier material, a result of Bjork's fascination with the genre.

In 1993, Bjork released her first solo album, aptly named Debut, which sold nearly three million copies worldwide. The release featured two Top 20 singles, Human Behaviour and Big Time Sensuality. After relocating to London, Bjork released 1995's Post, which outsold her first album thanks to innovative collaborations with techno gurus Graham Massey, Howie B and Tricky.

In 2000, the diminutive Icelandic pop star appeared on the big screen in the critically acclaimed film by Danish director Lars von Trier, Dancer In The Dark. Though it was rumored that tension grew between the director and his star, who also scored the film, Bjork won the Best Actress prize at the Cannes Film Festival for her performance. Further acclaim arrived in early 2001, when Bjork and von Trier were nominated for a Best Song Academy Award for I've Seen It All. She made fashion history when she wore her infamous "swan dress" while performing the song at the 2001 Academy Award Ceremony.

Joe Satriani

2011-12-31T00:03:00.000-08:00

Storming onto the music scene nearly a decade ago, Joe Satriani has been widely recognized as the archetypal post-modern hero.

Since his emergence in 1986 with a self-released, self-titled debut album, Joe has become the most recognizable guitar voice of his time, earning his place alongside the great masters of rock guitar. As an instrumental artist in a pop-dominated field, Satriani's accomplishments are even more remarkable: He is perhaps the most successful rock instrumentalist in recent history, selling millions of records and consistently packing concert halls - yet always preserving a strong musical vision, as well as the respect of fellow musicians and forward-thinking music fans worldwide.

Satriani's gift is creating highly evolved instrumental music, using the structure of popular standard songs that allows listeners to latch onto tuneful melodies before being dazzled by his acclaimed musicianship. His hallmarks are a warm, bluesy tone and delicate phrasing, combined with the bursts of superhuman technical facility which upped the ante well beyond the standards set by generations of great rock musicians before him.

Satriani's latest disc, Crystal Planet - his first studio album for Epic Records - reunites the guitarist with G3 Live in Concert producer Mike Fraser, and finds the artist at a new peak of inspiration. From the pounding crunch and sizzling harmonics of "Up in the Sky," to the delicate strains of the solo closer "ZZ's Song," Crystal Planet ranks with Satriani's most adventurous and accessible discs.

Crystal Planet teams Satriani with bassist Stuart Hamm and drummer Jeff Campitelli, two longtime collaborators who lend rich support to the album's striking variety of tunes. Satriani unleashes his heralded sounds and techniques throughout the album, reaching apocalyptic extremes on the title track and "Time." Typically, his soloing never disappoints, and on such new pieces as "Trundumbalind" and "With Jupiter in Mind," he hits new heights of stun-guitar artistry. Tunes like the moody "A Piece of Liquid" conjure cooler, more subdued atmospheres which balance the record's intensity.

Elsewhere on the album, Satriani revisits the familiar sound that demanded the attention of millions of pop fans: "A Train of Angles" creates the joyous pop mood heard in such classic Satriani radio hits as "Summer Song." On new tunes like "Raspberry Jam Delta-V," the melodies escalate into passages so stunning, it's difficult to believe they were performed with just two hands on a single instrument.

Joe Satriani was born in Westbury, New York, and began playing guitar at age 14. By 1971, he was teaching guitar to others, one of his students being Steve Vai. In 1974, Joe studied with two modern jazz masters, guitarist Billy Bauer and pianist/composer Lennie Tristano; four years later, he moved to Berkeley, California, where he began a 10-year guitar teaching career with students including David Bryson (Counting Crows), Kirk Hammett (Metallica), Larry LaLonde (Primus), and Charlie Hunter, among others. In 1984, Joe released a self-titled five-song EP on his own Rubina label, and the following year completed his first full-length album Not Of This Earth, which was financed on a credit card and released in 1986 on Relativity Records.

In October 1987, Relativity released Satriani's second album Surfing With The Alien. The record became a global phenomenon, going platinum with sales of over a million copies in the U.S. alone and landing Satriani's face on the covers of such magazines as Guitar Player, Musician, Guitar World, and dozens of other international publications. Surfing With The Alien was a landmark release which showcased the guitarist's stunning array of composing, playing , and producing talents. Consequently and deservedly, it became the most successful instrumental rock record since Jeff Beck's Wired.

Each subsequent Satriani release - including Flying In A Blue Dream, The Extremist, Time Machine and the recent Joe Satriani, which was produced by the legendary Glyn Johns - has drawn great commercial and critical attention. The same seems certain to be the case with Crystal Planet, and it's not just Joe's fans who have been moved by his unique tone and feel: Players from all walks of musical life have been attracted to Satriani's work.

After sitting in with Joe's band at New York's Bottom Line, Mick Jagger recruited Joe in 1988 as lead guitarist for the singer's very first tour apart from the Rolling Stones. Deep Purple tapped into Satriani's mastery when he assumed lead guitar position in the band for its 1994 tours of Europe and Japan. In 1996, the G3 Tour - featuring Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, and Eric Johnson - played 24 dates to some 90,000 fans across North America, a tour documented on the G3 Live In Concert album and home video (both Epic). In 1997, Joe united with jazz guitar great Pat Martino to record two tracks, "Ellipsis" and "Never and After," for Martino's acclaimed all-star collection All Sides Now (Blue Note); and enlisted in a second G3 summer tour, this one co-starring Steve Vai, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, and Robert Fripp.

With its cunning marriage of well-structured songs, challenging sonic surprises, moody moments and breathtaking guitar playing, Crystal Planet has all the marks of a great Joe Satriani disc. After a decade of ground breaking work, this is one musician still willing to push the edge of conventional rock beyond what's come before.

Enya

2011-12-22T23:19:00.000-08:00

Enya was born Eithne Ni Bhraonain in Co. Donegal, Ireland. Enya studied classical music at college and under private tuition. On leaving college she was asked by Producer Nicky Ryan to join her siblings in their family band. She did so for a short time, but found it too restrictive musically, and so in 1982 she joined Nicky Ryan and Roma Ryan in a creative and business partnership.

Enya's first commission was to write a score for Sir David Puttnam for his film "The Frog Prince". Then, the triumvirate secured the soundtrack to the BBC documentary series 'The Celts'. Enya was then signed up by Warner Music and all three by EMI Music Publishing. The first album of this contract was "Watermark" with the hit single "Orinoco Flow". This was followed by "Shepherd Moons" "The memory of trees" "Paint the sky with Stars" "A day without rain" which produced the single 'Only Time' "Amarantine" and for "Lord of the Rings; the fellowship of the Ring" the songs "Aniron" and "May it be". Enya, Nicky and Roma were nominated for a Golden Globe Award and for an Academy Award for the song "May it be" and have also merited many other nominations and awards, including the Ivor Novello for International Achievement.

The latest honours bestowed on Enya were two Honorary Degrees, the University of Galway honoured her with Doctor of Music and the University of Ulster honoured Enya with Doctor of Letters.

Yngwie Malmsteen

2011-12-22T22:46:00.000-08:00

Yngwie Malmsteen was born in Stockholm, Sweden, on June 30, 1963. The youngest child in a household that included his mother Rigmor, sister Ann Louise, and brother Bjorn, Yngwie originally had no interest in music. However, on September 18, 1970, Yngwie saw a TV special on the death of guitar iconoclast Jimi Hendrix. Seven-year-old Yngwie watched with awe as Hendrix blasted the audience with torrents of feedback and sacrificed his guitar in flames. The day Jimi Hendrix died, the guitar-playing Yngwie was born.

Applying his intense curiosity and tenacity to first an old Mosrite and then a cheap Stratocaster, Yngwie immersed himself in the music of such bands as Deep Purple and spent long hours practicing to learn their songs. His admiration for Ritchie Blackmore's classically influenced playing led him back to the source: Bach, Vivaldi, Beethoven, and Mozart. As Yngwie absorbed the classical structures of the masters, his prodigious style began to take shape. By age 10, he began to focus all his energies into music. His mother and sister, a talented flautist, recognized his unique musical gifts and gave him support and encouragement. His mastery of the instrument progressed rapidly. In his early teens, Yngwie saw a television performance of Russian violinist Gideon Kremer, who performed the highly difficult 24 Caprices of 19th century virtuoso violinist Niccolo Paganini. The effect was profound, and Yngwie understood at last how to combine his love of classical music with his burgeoning guitar skills and onstage charisma.

By age 15, Yngwie's trademark style had begun to emerge. He worked for a time as a luthier in a guitar repair shop, where he encountered a scalloped neck for the first time when a 17th century lute came into the shop. Intrigued, Yngwie scalloped the neck of an old guitar in similar fashion and was impressed enough with the results to try it on his better guitars. The scalloped fret board was somewhat more difficult to play than a normal neck, but his control over the strings was so improved that Yngwie immediately adopted it as a permanent alteration to his equipment.

About this time, Yngwie began playing in a number of bands built around his explosive guitar style, with long instrumental explorations. Around age 18, Yngwie and several friends recorded a demo set of three songs for Swedish CBS, but the cuts were never released. Frustrated, Yngwie began sending demo tapes to record companies and music contacts abroad. One such tape found its way into the hands of Guitar Player contributor and Shrapnel Music. Yngwie was invited to record with a new band Steeler--and the rest, as they say, is history.

From Steeler, Yngwie moved on to Alcatrazz, a Rainbow-style band, but it became clear that to fully develop his talents, Yngwie would have to go solo. Yngwie's first solo album, Rising Force (now considered the bible for neoclassical rock) made it to #60 on the Billboard charts, an impressive feat for a mostly instrumental guitar album with no commercial airplay. The album also gained Yngwie a Grammy nomination for best rock instrumental performance. He was voted Best New Talent in several readers’ polls, Best Rock Guitarist the year after, and Rising Force became Album of the Year. Rising Force blazed a trail on the concert circuit that established Yngwie as one of rock guitar's brightest new stars and added a new genre to the music lexicon: neoclassical rock.

With his place in guitar history firmly established, Yngwie's neo-classical compositions fueled the ears of fans and the ambitions of aspiring guitarists worldwide for over a decade with such powerhouse classic albums as Marching Out, Trilogy, Odyssey, Live in Leningrad / Trial By Fire (gold-selling concert video of Yngwie’s 1989 sold-out concerts in Moscow and Leningrad), Fire & Ice (which debuted in Japan at #1 and sold over 100,000 copies on the day of its release), The Seventh Sign, Magnum Opus, Inspiration (covering the music of Deep Purple, Rainbow, U.K., Kansas, Scorpions, Rush, and Jimi Hendrix), Facing the Animal, Alchemy, and Attack!!

In 1997, Yngwie proved that he was much more than a rock phenomenon. After months of intensive work, Yngwie produced his first completely classical work, Concerto Suite for Electric Guitar and Orchestra in Eb minor, Op. 1. This groundbreaking album was recorded in Prague with the prestigious Czech Philharmonic Orchestra and famed symphony conductor Yoel Levi. Several years later, in 2001,Yngwie found his first opportunity to perform the critically acclaimed Concerto Suite with the New Japan Philharmonic Orchestra in Tokyo. The DVD/CD/VHS package of this groundbreaking performance became Yngwie's first release of the year in January 2002.

In 2003, Yngwie joined the famous "G3" Tour in a lineup many guitar fans saw as the ultimate dream combination (Satriani, Vai, Malmsteen). The CD and DVD of the tour became instant classics and hot sellers throughout the year. Once the G3 tour ended, Yngwie took to the road again in support of his Attack album.

Taking most of 2004 to rest, recharge his creative batteries, and work in his studio at his leisure, Yngwie produced a highly acclaimed new album titled Unleash the Fury. Featuring some of his most impressive playing and songwriting in years, the album garnered rave reviews from fans and critics alike. Virtuosityone.com, a popular Internet hard rock music review site proclaimed, "Yngwie Malmsteen, the Neo-Classical king is back to Unleash the Fury with another bag of alchemy fuelled compositions... Overall Unleash the Fury is a welcome return to form from ... to deliver the goods." Reviewers on Amazon.com and CD Universe gave the new album 5-star ratings, with consumers proclaiming "Yngwie is the original, don't settle for cheap imitations!" and "it's a great year for shredders!"

In the summer of 2005, the Unleash the Fury World Tour kicked off in Ireland and headed across the globe, blazing new trails of glory. Malmsteen and his Rising Force lineup proved they were back with a vengeance by selling out the famed Hammersmith Apollo theatre in London and playing to rapt capacity crowds across the U.K., and garnering legions of new fans from Paris to Vienna to Madrid. Eager fans in the U.S. made the Unleash the Fury Tour a major event of the year.

By 2006, Yngwie’s career resurgence was in full gear. He attended the annual NAMM music-industry convention to promote his new strings endorsement with Dean Markley, then toured the U.S. a second time, then Asia, Australia, and Finland by the end of the year, igniting fans as never before. Yngwie explained it this way: “Staying in good shape has a tremendous amount to do with it; I'm reaping the benefits this year.” That year, Fender updated Yngwie Signature Malmsteen Model Strat, making small but important changes to the neck. “Fender rules the universe. They treat me so good, and I'm so honored and proud to be working with them.” Throughout 2007, Yngwie continued work on his next rock opus, and took a break in December to South America and Mexico, fulfilling the dreams of fans who hadn't seen him in their country in years.

2008 marked Yngwie’s 25th year in the U.S.! Yngwie signed several endorsements, with Austrian acoustics company AKG, makers of top-of-the-line microphones and acoustic equipment, and Boss/Roland. That same year, Yngwie learned he’d been chosen to be in the exclusive NAMM Oral History program. Begun in 2000, NAMM's Oral History Project documents through videotaped interviews some of the greatest contributors to the music products industry, including Herbie Hancock, Maynard Ferguson, Les Paul, blues legend B.B. King, and now, Yngwie Malmsteen.

Yngwie’s redesigned official website, www.yngwiemalmsteen.com, went online, along with his own merchandise site. Yngwie continued to work at a leisurely pace on his next album. Work also continued on Fender’s Malmsteen limited edition replica of the “Duck,” Yngwie’s prized and famed 1972 Strat. Fender Custom Shop experts flew to Miami to measure and photograph every aspect of the original instrument to ensure the replica’s authenticity down to the last detail. With a new lineup that included ex-Priest singer Tim “Ripper” Owens, Yngwie played concert dates in Germany, doing clinics for Fender, and then hitting the summer festival circuit in Europe, starting with Graspop in Belgium and ending up in Finland, and then on to clinics and concerts in the U.K.

2008 also saw an amazing testament to Yngwie’s resurgence on the rock music scene – he scored the cover of Guitar World’s “Kings of Shred” issue, appearing alone on the cover instead of sharing it with other musicians. About his newfound visibility, Yngwie said, “There are a lot of new, younger fans who are just discovering the joys of playing with speed, power, and articulation and they're coming to my shows and places like NAMM and guitar shows.” Throughout 2008, Yngwie scored other magazine covers, including All Access, Crusher Magazine, Fuzz, Guitar Player, Roadie Crew, and Vegas Rocks. But perhaps the biggest recognition of 2008 came in October, when Yngwie was inducted into Hollywood's Rock Walk of Fame on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood.

Also in October, Yngwie released his new studio album, Perpetual Flame, on his own newly established label, Rising Force Records. The album also marked the debut of Yngwie's new singer, ex-Judas Priest front-man Tim "Ripper" Owens. To coincide with the festivities surrounding Yngwie’s first album in several years, the Fender Custom Shop unveiled the new Yngwie Malmsteen Tribute Series Stratocaster guitar, the reproduction of Malmsteen’s beloved “Duck” (also called the “Play Loud” guitar). Touring to support the new album began in earnest, with a full schedule of dates starting in the U.S., and the momentum of Perpetual Flame kept rolling right on into the new year.

Early in the 2009, Yngwie contributed three tracks to the video game Rock Band, for both Xbox and PlayStation. Still promoting Perpetual Flame, Yngwie and the band played a series of killer concerts in Japan with rock icons Deep Purple. By mid-summer, Yngwie astonished fans and critics alike by releasing an album completely off the beaten path for him, an entirely instrumental collection of ballads from Yngwie’s earlier works, performed on acoustic guitar with orchestral arrangements. To everyone’s surprise, Angels of Love (inspired by Yngwie’s wife April) hit the top of Amazon.com’s New Age music list.

Recognition of Yngwie’s place in music history continued to come in. In Time Magazine, Yngwie found himself included as one of the “10 Greatest Electric Guitar Players.” Near the end of the year, Yngwie and his management company decided to begin releasing rare archival concert footage. The first was Yngwie in Korea, shot during his 2001 War to End All Wars Tour, in Seoul, South Korea. And that, asserts Yngwie, is just the tip of the iceberg of things to come!

Steve Vai

2011-12-22T22:35:00.000-08:00

While many musicians fit easily into a single category, Steve Vai’s unique musical vision remains unclassifiable. After more than 20 years, Vai continues to use unbridled guitar virtuosity and soulful artistry to explore the spectrum of human emotion.

From his self-released solo debut “Flex-Able” (1984) to his most recent “Alive In An Ultra World” (2001, Epic), Vai creates a sound all his own by striking a balance between technical ability and poetic phrasing. “I make music to push my own buttons,” explains Vai. “I’ve always been driven by an addiction to create sounds that are unique – not better than what other people do, just different.”

That obsession with running down the voodoo in his head remains the guiding force behind Vai’s ongoing musical evolution and what he loves most about being a musician. “For me, the real gravy is when I hear a strange or beautiful sound in my head and then make it real in the world using the devices I have as a musician,” says Vai. “The things that have never been done before are what interest me most.”

His desire to break new ground led Vai to a special performance with the 100-piece Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra this summer in Japan. Together they performed a concerto for electric guitar called “Fire Strings” composed by distinguished Japanese composer and concert pianist Ichiro Nodaira. Learning the 20 minutes of raging, atonal electric guitar was the most demanding challenge of Vai’s career. “It’s almost impossible to play, and that’s why I did it,” says Vai. “I think a few other guitar players could play it, but I don’t know any who would because of the tremendous time and dedication the music required. It was certainly an honor to be a part of it.”

FANTASY & REALITY

Growing up on Led Zeppelin and progressive rock, Vai has always had a penchant for the conceptual side of rock. While many of his albums revolve around a specific thematic axis, Vai considers “Alive in an Ultra World” (2001, Epic) the high point of his conceptual efforts.

A contender for one of the most ambitious live albums ever recorded, Vai wrote, rehearsed and recorded the music for the two-disc set during a 32-country world tour. Each song is dedicated to a different country – Bulgaria, Spain and Romania to name a few – and reflects the flavor of each country’s indigenous music. Creating the album was equally exhausting and rewarding. “On paper the project looks insurmountable,” says Vai. “I wrote songs in the morning, rehearsed the new music at sound check with the band in the afternoon, played a two and a half hour show at night and then download the show from my mobile studio later that night. Somewhere in all that craziness, I found time to immerse myself in music from different countries.

“It was hell on me and the band making that record, but when I listen to the music now there are no words that can describe the joy I feel for having made that fantasy a reality.”

“Alive in an Ultra World” includes “Whispering a Prayer (Song for Ireland),” which earned Vai his sixth Grammy nomination to go along with his 1991 Grammy win for best rock instrumental performance for his version of Frank Zappa’s “Sofa” on the live Zappa tribute album, “Zappa’s Universe.” “Whispering a Prayer is probably the most beautiful pieces of music I’ve ever played in my life,” says Vai. “Every time I play it, I’m overcome by feelings of freedom and happiness.”

In contrast, Vai needed 20 years of patience to realize his idea for “The Seventh Song: Enchanting Guitar Melodies – Archives Vol. 1″ (2000, Epic). The album features the seventh song from every Vai solo album before 2000. “The seventh song on my records has always been the wistful, screaming guitar ballad. Those songs sounded a bit out of place on the original records, but when I put them all together it creates a beautiful, flowing musical experience.”

Without a doubt his biggest achievement in terms of sheer girth is “The Secret Jewel Box” (2001-Ongoing, Light Without Heat) – a 10-CD compilation documenting Vai’s career through a mix of rarities, outtakes and oddities. Each disc explores a different facet of Vai’s career including his soundtrack contributions, work with Frank Zappa, live and studio recordings with Alcatrazz, Japanese-only releases and an eclectic art piece that includes music interspersed with dialogue.

The collection of hard-to-find gems and unreleased music is a gold rush for fans. “The Secret Jewel Box is a way for me to gather in one place a lot of the hard to find things I’ve done in the past,” explains Vai. “I think hardcore fans will really enjoy the CD that features a band I was in before I recorded ‘Passion and Warfare’ called The Classified. That music truly is the missing link between my first and second albums.”

SUCCESS & INFLUENCE

Vai first stepped into the spotlight in 1980 as a guitarist in Frank Zappa’s band. But Vai’s indelible contribution to music came during his solo career, which includes combined sales of nearly six million albums. His debut – “Flex-Able” (1984, self-released) – set the stage for Vai’s most influential and best-selling album – “Passion and Warfare” (1990, Relativity). The album expanded the lexicon of rock guitar and ushered in an era of guitar virtuosos in the early ’90s. Ironically, two record labels dropped Vai while he recorded the breakthrough album.

“I didn’t know what people were going to think of that record, I just knew that I had to make it,” recalls Vai. “I locked myself in the studio, and the music that had been building up in my imagination for years all came rushing out. Honestly, I thought the record was going to sell about 10 copies. Instead it went gold in a week.”

Despite the album’s unqualified commercial and artistic success, it set Vai up for an inevitable backlash in the mid-’90s. “Guitar players in the ’80s were trying to outplay our influences – people like Jimmy Page, Brian May and Ritchie Blackmore. Some of us were good at it and some of us were just wankers; I’ve been accused of being both,” laughs Vai. “Eventually, that style of guitar playing hit a wall and that’s when grunge took over.”

Although his music was replaced on the charts by the Seattle sound, Vai became a major influence on the post-grunge era. Current guitar idols like James “Munky” Shaffer of Korn, Mike Eizinger of Incubus and Tom Morello of Audioslave all cite Vai as a major inspiration.

Not only did Vai’s music have a huge influence on contemporary hard rock, so did his guitar. In 1987, Vai helped guitar-maker Ibanez design the JEM, and then in 1989, the Universe 7-String guitar, which provided the low-end rumble many guitarists were craving.

Vai continues to work with Ibanez, and literally put himself into a recent collaboration dubbed the JEM VAI2K DNA guitar – a limited-edition release of the JEM. “Ibanez used my blood – a lot of my blood – in the guitar’s swirling paint job,” explains Vai. “Maybe a hundred years from now, when someone decides to clone me from the blood in the paint, my clone will finally figure out how get his music on the radio.”

In addition to his influence on musical inspiration and innovation, Vai began branching out into the business of music last year by launching his own record label – Favored Nations. The label struck Grammy gold in 2002 for best pop instrumental album for “No Substitutions” by Larry Carlton and Steve Lukather.

SPIRIT & CHARITY

Throughout his career, Vai’s creative impulses have been inspired by a deeply-held spiritual commitment to improving the world through his music and actions. “The most important thing in my life is trying to achieve some sort of spiritual balance because everything flows from that,” explains Vai. “When I’m looking back on my life when I’m 70, I want to be proud of the contributions I’ve made to society, not just in terms of music, but socially too. That’s what drives me these days.”

One of Vai’s earliest philanthropic endeavors was the Make a Noise Foundation, which he founded with Richard Pike in 1988. The organization continues to provide musical instruments and music education to young musicians who cannot afford them.

To fund the project, Vai regularly auctions off his music gear. “I set out to cultivate a rich musical awareness among young people because of the experience I had at the Berklee College of Music,” explains Vai. “The best music education I got was at the school’s listening library where they had every kind of music available. Being exposed to different kinds of music was a big contributor to my musical awakening. I started Make A Noise, in part, to help others have the same experience I had.”

Helping young musicians is a cause that hits close to home for Vai, who grew up in Carle Place, New York. When Vai was accepted to Berklee his father sold his life insurance policy to pay for the tuition. Vai graduated from Berklee in 1979 and in 2000 was awarded an honorary Doctor of Music degree from the esteemed college. “I was really lucky to have a family that was supportive of me going off to college to pursue music,” says Vai. “My dad especially was there for me—paying for guitar lessons and then driving me there no matter where or when. I owe my family a debt of gratitude for all they did.”

His most unlikely charity effort began a few years ago when Vai turned his beekeeping hobby into a way to raise money for Make a Noise. “I got into beekeeping by chance,” recalls Vai. “For some reason, a bunch of bees decided to live in the wall of my neighbor’s house. My neighbor wasn’t happy, but as a result my wife’s garden looked fantastic. When my family moved, I decided to plant fruit trees and found out honeybees were the best way to pollinate them so I got my first swarm. My family harvests the honey each year and we give some of it away at Christmas and auction the rest for charity.”

Playing the role of King Bee has become an unexpected source of relaxation for Vai. “Bees are fascinating creatures and taking care of them can be a Zen like experience if you let it be,” says Vai. “It’s one of the few times of the day that I really do something that’s entirely for me. I can forget about all the contractual obligations and just hang out with the bees.”

But it is Vai’s work with the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS) – the Grammy organization – that excites him the most. He served on the board of governors with NARAS for almost three years and was recently promoted to trustee.

The new position gives Vai an opportunity to expand his charity work and help more people. “For 25 years, I dedicated all my creativity to finding different ways to get from one note to the next using a whammy bar,” says Vai. “Now that I’m working with the academy, I’ve found a forum where I can channel some of my creativity into finding ways to give back.”

FUTURE & CHANGE

Discovering new challenges isn’t hard for Vai; it’s finding the time to do them that is the tricky part. One major aspiration high on his list is to record the quintessential solo guitar record while he still has the dexterity to pull it off. “I don’t feel like I’ve made a record that expresses my full potential on guitar,” explains Vai. “I’m fighting time on this project because I’m getting older and at some point I’m going to hit a wall physically. While I still have the chops to do it, I want to make my definitive guitar statement.”

Perhaps that album, Vai says, would signal the end to one chapter in his career and the start of a new one. While he has no plans to put down the guitar, Vai would like to pursue his childhood dream of becoming a composer. “I love the way music looks on paper. It looks like art to me,” says Vai. “When I first understood what music was, I wanted to be a composer. I’ve got stacks and stacks of scores that I’ve written that have never been recorded or performed. I’m really looking forward to exploring new territory.”

Andreas Varady

2011-12-09T22:52:00.001-08:00

Inspired by Django Reinhardt, Wes Montgomery and George Benson, thirteen-year-old Slovakian gypsy Andreas Varady has been playing the guitar since he was four years old...

Taught by his father, Bandi, he gained his first experiences as a musician from busking on the streets of Limerick and Cork, Ireland. He also attended jazz workshops in Limerick and Sligo, and later travelled to New York to study at Skidmore Jazz Institute, under scholarship from the combined Art Councils of Ireland. In 2009, at the age of twelve, Andreas reached a national audience on RTE's 'The Guitar' competition. Around the same time he wrote to Irish drumming star David Lyttle, introducing himself as a twelve-year-old jazz guitarist. Lyttle quickly began featuring him in his group, often alongside international players such as Andreas Oberg, Torsten Goods, Soweto Kinch, Terell Stafford and Michael Janisch. Andreas has also guested with guitar icons Louis Stewart and Tommy Emmanuel, toured duo with Martin Taylor, and made numerous appearances on BBC and RTE television and radio.

On Andreas' debut album, 'Questions', he co-leads with David Lyttle, and also features US bass star Michael Janisch and Bandi on rhythm guitar. Released on LYTE Records, and launched at the Cork Jazz Festival in October 2010, the CD includes two of Andreas' originals, a solo version of 'The Shadow of Your Smile' and Django Reinhardt's 'Festival 48'. Celebrating the release of 'Questions' and an exciting upcoming year of festival appearances in Ireland, the UK, France, Germany and the South Pacific, Andreas and his band recently appeared on RTE television's 'The Late Late Show', playing his composition 'A Day in New York'. On March 21st, he became the youngest musician to headline at London's legendary Ronnie Scott's, receiving two standing ovations and four-star reviews from The Times and Evening Standard. 'Questions' was selected by Guitarist Magazine as an album of the week, and Andreas' first cover feature, for Guitar Player Magazine, was distributed worldwide in April.

Eric Krasno

2011-12-07T10:09:00.001-08:00

Founding member and guitarist of beloved bands Soulive and Lettuce, Eric Krasno is taking his fifteen plus year career in a new direction with his first solo record, Reminisce (Royal Family Records).

Recorded in Brooklyn, NY and at Soulive drummer Alan Evan’s PlayOnBrother studios in Western Massachusetts, the album features longtime collaborators Adam Deitch (drums) and Nigel Hall (bass, keys and vocals), as well as Royal Family artists Neal Evans, Ryan Zoidis and Alan Evans.

Since forming Soulive in 1999, Krasno, organist Neal Evans, and drummer Alan Evans have toured the globe spanning small rock clubs to major festivals, in Africa, Japan, Russia, Brazil, and more. With releases on Velour Recordings, Blue Note, Stax and their own Royal Family Records, and a resume that includes opening spots for the Rolling Stones and Dave Matthews Band, it’s little wonder the group has developed a reputation as one of the most celebrated instrumental soul-funk trios in the world.

Known throughout jazz, funk, and hip-hop circles, Krasno has the opportunity to work with jazz icons Joshua Redman, Dr. Lonnie Smith and Chaka Khan as well as hip-hop visionaries 50-Cent, GZA and Talib Kweli. Now in his eleventh year performing with Soulive, the studio and record label owner, and sought after producer (Ledisi, Matisyahu, 50-Cent), has distilled years of musical experience and influence into a reverent homage to the greats: “Reminisce is a collection of tunes I recorded over the last few years,” says Krasno. “I called it Reminisce because I felt like the record represented many different eras and styles of music and guitar playing that influenced me growing up. From covers like “Manic Depression” to originals like “76”, the record is a nod to those greats that came before me while adding our flavor to the music”

Krasno will take the music of Reminisce on the road with his new band, Chapter 2, featuring Krasno on guitar and vocals, Nigel Hall on vocals and keys, Adam Deitch on drums, and Louis Cato on bass and vocals. With guest appearances from luminaries such as Derek Trucks, Questlove, Warren Haynes and George Porter Jr. of the Meters, Chapter 2 is a band to be seen and heard.

KRAZ steps into the mixtape game to present "The Funky President" where he mixes and remixes everything from James Brown (title track) and rare soul cuts to Jay Z and The Black Keys while throwing in exclusive original tracks from Fyre Dept and Lettuce to create an ultra funky soundtrack.

Founding member and guitarist of beloved bands Soulive and Lettuce, Eric Krasno aka KRAZ is taking his fifteen plus year career in a new direction with this viral DJ set. With over 10,000 plays and 1,500 full album downloads in under twenty-four hours (all with no publicity and nothing but word of mouth) KRAZ will be taking this dance party on the road.

Since forming Soulive in 1999, KRAZ has toured the globe spanning small rock clubs to major festivals, in Africa, Japan, Russia, Brazil, and more. With releases on Velour Recordings, Blue Note, Stax and their own Royal Family Records, and a resume that includes opening spots for the Rolling Stones and Dave Matthews Band, it’s little wonder that KRAZ has developed a reputation as one of the most celebrated soul-funk artists in the world.

Known throughout jazz, funk, and hip-hop circles, KRAZ has the opportunity to work with jazz icons Joshua Redman, Dr. Lonnie Smith and Chaka Khan as well as hip-hop visionaries 50-Cent, GZA and Talib Kweli. Now in his eleventh year performing with Soulive, the studio and record label owner, and sought after producer (Ledisi, Matisyahu, 50-Cent, WAX), has distilled years of musical experience and influence into a an undeniable party starting DJ set. Most recently, KRAZ produced Vieux Farka Touré's latest album with guest spots from Dave Matthews, Derek Trucks & John Scofield. He's currently working on his next solo release.

Magician Of Music

2011-12-06T12:18:00.001-08:00

On your site just add 'OLD SOUL' You are, so use it now and forever. You are not new to music. Your soul has played its' heart out so many times, so many places. You know you are the MAGICIAN OF MUSIC THE WORLD OVER....believe in you....accepts your gifts and move the world.

SALLY V.

Beastie Boys

2011-12-03T13:35:00.001-08:00

As the first white rap group of any importance, the Beastie Boys received the scorn of critics and strident hip-hop musicians, who accused them of cultural pirating, especially since they began as a hardcore punk group in 1981. But the Beasties weren't pirating -- they treated rap as part of a post-punk musical underground, where the do-it-yourself aesthetics of hip-hop and punk weren't that far apart. Of course, the exaggerated b-boy and frat-boy parodies of their unexpected hit debut album, Licensed to Ill, didn't help their cause. For much of the mid-'80s, the Beastie Boys were considered as macho clowns, and while their ambitious, Dust Brothers-produced second album, Paul's Boutique, dismissed that theory, it was ignored by both the public and the press at the time. In retrospect, it was one of the first albums to predict the genre-bending, self-referential pop kaleidoscope of '90s pop. The Beasties refined their eclectic approach with 1992's Check Your Head, where they played their own instruments. Check Your Head brought the Beasties back to the top of the charts, and within a few years, they were considered one of the most influential and ambitious groups of the '90s, cultivating a musical community not only through their music, but with their record label, Grand Royal, and their magazine of the same name.

It was remarkable turn of events for a group that demonstrated no significant musical talent on their first records. All three members of the Beastie Boys -- Mike D (born Mike Diamond, November 20, 1966), MCA (born Adam Yauch, August 5, 1965), and Ad-Rock (born Adam Horovitz, October 31, 1967) -- came from wealthy middle-class Jewish families in New York and had become involved in the city's punk underground when they were teenagers in the early '80s. Diamond and Yauch formed the Beastie Boys with drummer Kate Schellenbach and guitarist John Berry in 1981, and the group began playing underground clubs around New York. The following year, the Beasties released the 7" EP Pollywog Stew on the indie Rat Cage to little attention. That year, the band met Horovitz, who had formed the hardcore group the Young and the Useless. By early 1983, Schellenbach and Berry had left the group -- they would later join Luscious Jackson and Thwig, respectively -- and Horovitz had joined the Beasties. The revamped group released the rap record "Cookie Puss" as a 12" single later in 1983. Based on a prank phone call the group made to Carvel Ice Cream, the single became an underground hit in New York. By early 1984, however, they had abandoned punk and turned their attention to rap.

In 1984, the Beasties joined forces with producer Rick Rubin, a heavy metal and hip-hop fan who had recently founded Def Jam Records with fellow New York University student Russell Simmons. Def Jam officially signed the Beastie Boys in 1985, and that year they had a hit single from the soundtrack to Krush Groove with "She's on It," a rap track that sampled AC/DC's "Back in Black" and suggested the approach of the group's forthcoming debut album. The Beasties received their first significant national exposure later in 1985, when they opened for Madonna on her Virgin Tour. The trio taunted the audience with profanity and were generally poorly received. One other major tour, as the openers for Run-D.M.C.'s ill-fated Raisin' Hell trek, followed before Licensed to Ill was released late in 1986. An amalgam of street beats, metal riffs, b-boy jokes, and satire, Licensed to Ill was interpreted as a mindless, obnoxious party record by many critics and conservative action groups, but that didn't stop the album from becoming the fastest-selling debut in Columbia Records' history, moving over 750,000 copies in its first six weeks. Much of that success was due to the single "Fight for Your Right (To Party)," which became a massive crossover success. In fact, Licensed to Ill became the biggest-selling rap album of the '80s, which generated much criticism from certain hip-hop fans who believed that the Beasties were merely cultural pirates. On the other side of the coin, the group was being attacked from the right, who claimed their lyrics were violent and sexist and that their concerts -- which featured female audience members dancing in go-go cages and a giant inflatable penis, similar to what the Stones used in their mid-'70s concerts -- caused even more outrage. Throughout their 1987 tour, they were plagued with arrests and lawsuits, and were accused of inciting crime.

While much of the Beasties' exaggeratedly obnoxious behavior started out as a joke, it became a self-parody by the end of 1987, so it wasn't a surprise that the group decided to revamp their sound and image during the next two years. During 1988, they became involved in a bitter lawsuit with Def Jam and Rick Rubin, who claimed he was responsible for the group's success and threatened to release outtakes as their second album. The group finally broke away by the end of the year and relocated to California, where they signed with Capitol Records. While in California, they met the production team the Dust Brothers, and they convinced the duo to use their prospective debut album as the basis for the Beasties' second album, Paul's Boutique. Densely layered with interweaving samples and pop culture references, the retro-funk-psychedelia of Paul's Boutique was entirely different than Licensed to Ill, and many observers weren't quite sure what to make of it. Several publications gave it rave reviews, but when it failed to produce a single bigger than the number 36 "Hey Ladies," it was quickly forgotten about.

Despite its poor commercial performance, Paul's Boutique gained a cult following, and its cut-and-paste sample techniques would later be hailed as visionary, especially after the Dust Brothers altered the approach for Beck's acclaimed 1996 album, Odelay. Still, the record was declared a disaster in the early '90s, but that didn't prevent the Beasties from building their own studio and founding their own record label, Grand Royal, for their next record, Check Your Head. Alternating between old-school hip-hop, raw amateurish funk, and hardcore punk, Check Your Head was a less accomplished than Paul's Boutique, yet it was just as diverse. Furthermore, the burgeoning cult around the Beasties made the album a surprise Top 10 hit upon its spring 1992 release. "Jimmy James," "Pass the Mic," and "So Whatcha Want" were bigger hits on college and alternative rock radio than they were on rap radio, and the group suddenly became hip again. Early in 1994, they collected their early punk recordings on the compilation Some Old Bullshit, which was followed in June by their fourth album, Ill Communication. Essentially an extension of Check Your Head, the record debuted at number one upon its release, and the singles "Sabotage" and "Sure Shot" helped send it to double-platinum status. During the summer of 1994, they co-headlined the fourth Lollapalooza festival with the Smashing Pumpkins. That same year, Grand Royal became a full-fledged record label as it released Luscious Jackson's acclaimed debut album, Natural Ingredients. The Beasties' Grand Royal magazine was also launched that year.

Over the next few years, the Beasties remained quiet as they concentrated on political causes and their record label. In 1996, they released the hardcore EP Aglio e Olio and the instrumental soul-jazz and funk collection The in Sound from Way Out! Also that year, Adam Yauch organized a two-day festival to raise awareness and money about Tibet's plight against the Chinese government; the festival went on to become an annual event. The Beastie Boys' long-awaited fifth LP, Hello Nasty, finally appeared during the summer of 1998, and became their third career chart-topper. A longer wait preceded release of their next album, To the 5 Boroughs, which appeared in mid-2004. In 2005, Capitol issued Solid Gold Hits, a 15-track survey of the Beasties' lengthy career. In 2006, the band released theatrically the concert film Awesome: I Fuckin' Shot That! The film was pieced together from footage shot by 50 DV and Hi-8 cameras that were distributed to fans with little more instruction than to keep shooting. The DVD version appeared in July of that year. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide

Howie Day

2011-12-03T12:58:00.001-08:00

Several years after releasing his commercial breakthrough album Stop All The World Now, singer and songwriter Howie Day breaks his silence with his long-awaited third studio album Sound the Alarm. The album is a stunning collection of the kind of emotionally resonant, melody-minded pop-rock gems that have earned Day a legion of devoted fans over the past 10 years. Sound the Alarm comes after more than a decade of touring, during which the Bangor, Maine, native self-released his 2000 debut Australia and became a full-time traveling musician. He became known for his powerful one-man shows, connecting with audiences through his charm, humor, the strength of his songwriting, and a warm tenor voice that “soars into fluttering, high registers, but also grates with real, pleading grit,” as one critic put it.

After selling nearly 50,000 copies of Australia on his own, Day, then 21, signed to Epic Records. Epic re-issued the album, which went on to sell 300,000 copies. In 2003, Day released his major-label debut, Stop All The World Now, and hit the road to support it. The constant touring paid off big-time: Stop was certified gold in the U.S. and spawned two Top 10 radio hits: “She Says” and the platinum smash hit “Collide.” “Collide” became inescapable; it was featured in scores of TV shows, including Grey’s Anatomy and Scrubs, as well as in a variety of films. The track became Epic Records’ first platinum single, eventually selling 1.5 million downloads. But despite all of this success, Day’s demanding touring and promotional schedule took a heavy toll.

“I was just physically and mentally burnt out,” Day says. “I toured for five years straight before Stop All The World Now came out, then for three years non-stop after it was released. Around the same time the album was becoming successful, my family was struck with tragedy. It was a period of clearly defined extremes, which plays with your head a bit.” Day decided to take some time off, during which he sorted through his emotions by writing songs, many of which have made their way onto Sound the Alarm.“The new album very obviously echoes my own life, in all of its highs and lows, but not all of it is explicitly autobiographical,” Day says. “Some of the songs draw inspiration from people and places I've observed, and then bits of my own experiences find their way in. People often ask me what certain songs are about, and it’s like, Well, I don’t know, it’s a story that just happened subconsciously. I didn't resist it or fight it. In a simple way, the album is a post-coming-of age story about that dream-like period of your early 20s, when you’re trying to figure out how grown up you actually want to be. But in the process of all of that moving around during the recording, the album became a diary of those experiences as well.”The sound of the album beautifully underscores its emotionally complex spirit. Bold, textured arrangements — flush with acoustic and electric guitars, keyboards, strings, and samples — capture a range of moods from upbeat and playful (first single “Be There,” “Undressed”) to introspective (“40 Hours,” “Everyone Loves To Love a Lie”) to atmospheric (“So Stung,” “Counting On Me”) to downright heartbreaking (“Sound the Alarm,” “No Longer What You Require”). “Initially, I wrote a bunch of pretty sad songs about loss and relationships gone wrong, and then realized I didn’t want to put out an entirely depressing album because that’s no longer where I’m at,” Day says. “So I deliberately threw a few in the mix that were a bit more light and up-tempo, like ‘Weightless’ and ‘Undressed,’ I think if there are too many similar songs on an album all in a row, they lose their identity because there's no contrast."

But even Sound the Alarm’s heaviest songs build lyrically and musically toward uplifting conclusions. “Be There,” which addresses the struggle to remain in a relationship, ends with the optimistic urge to give it a go, while the title track, a song about deep loss, concludes with the hopeful refrain: “I know we’ll make it right / We’ll be all right…”To get the range of sounds and moods he was looking for, Day recorded in a variety of locations, including Los Angeles, New York, London, Minneapolis, and Bloomington, Indiana, between the spring of 2006 and fall of 2008. “I wanted to bring a sense of different places thematically and emotionally from one track to the next, and physically moving everyone around during the tracking process accomplished that,” Day explains. He also collaborated with several musicians and producers, including Martin Terefe (Jason Mraz, KT Tunstall), Mike Denneen (Aimee Mann, Fountains of Wayne), Mike Flynn (The Fray, Augustana), and Better Than Ezra frontman Kevin Griffin — each one of them an expert in pulling superlative performances out of the artists they work with.

Sound the Alarm retains and builds on the appeal of its predecessor, showcasing an artist who has dealt with a lot in his past and is focused on moving forward. “This new album represents the end of one era and the start of another,” Day says. “It’s about tipping your hat to the past, living in the here and now, and looking optimistically toward the future."

A Journey

2011-11-29T18:25:00.001-08:00

I first became acquainted with Santi on a well-known social networking site. After hearing a sampling of his incredibly beautiful music- I then subscribed to it ! Listening to his music soon became a most delightful, regular habit -of what otherwise may have been a far more mundane day! I have to say his beautiful work called, " In The Mood," can transport you to your own special place-of where you most want to be, to then put your own particular spin on whatever you were dreaming of- to express that, "mood!" Then, I would have to say his song, " Restless," is a close second, for it takes you on a journey, a lovely ride that vibrates with your own senses. What makes Santi's music stand out, is it's ability to pull you into the vibe, where you can become part of each soulful note. It simply does not get better than that ! His music is undeniably unique- and world's apart from most, and therefore hard to truly define!

A huge fan !

Blessings to all,

Cecilia Corne

Feel The Groove

2011-11-28T15:20:00.001-08:00

Santi, I love your style and your flow. Your music inspires me. I love your sounds and can feel the energy and the groove of your music, Pat Metheny would be proud to hear your sound. Keep the groove alive my brother!

Gregory Goodloe
Hip Jazz Records
www.GregoryGoodloe.com

Keiko Matsui

2011-11-14T07:23:00.001-08:00

In Japan, it is said that if children begin music lessons on June 6 following their fifth birthday, they will keep studying for a long time. Pianist Keiko Matsui was taken to her first piano lesson on that very day when she was five and she hasn’t looked back since.

Keiko Matsui is an icon of contemporary jazz. With over 1.2 million units sold in the U.S. alone and packed concert halls, she is one of the most recognized artists in the genre. Her elegant piano melodies and gentle jazz grooves have enormous appeal and never disappoint her loyal fanbase which she has cultivated with over a dozen albums and stunning live shows.

WALLS OF AKENDORA, Matsui’s latest recording of all new material, showcases her signature sophisticated jazz style on ten tunes that range from the classically-inspired to bold and brassy. “Akendora,” she explains, “is a fictional place of my own device! It is a place that I go to to find peace and to spend contemplative moments.” The ‘walls’ of the title do not refer to any barriers around this haven, but rather milestones. “It’s like marking your child’s height on the wall. It’s about seeing where you have been and where you can go,” she explains.

Matsui has taken her music to extraordinary places since that fateful day of her first piano lesson. By the time she was in junior high school, she began composing and developing a taste for jazz, drawing inspiration from a variety of classical and contemporary composers ranging from Chopin, Mozart, and Rachmaninov to Chick Corea, Keith Jarrett, and Stevie Wonder. At the age of 17, Matsui was chosen to record for the Foundation, and that same year, she composed her first film score.

Matsui commenced her solo recording career with 1987’s A DROP OF WATER. The album established Matsui as a talent of note. Her subsequent albums, including (UNDER NORTHERN LIGHTS 1989), NO BORDERS (1990), NIGHT WALTZ (1991), CHERRY BLOSSOM (1992), DOLL (1994), SAPPHIRE (1995), and DREAM WALK (1996) further cemented her reputation and increased her popularity. No stranger to the upper reaches of the contemporary jazz album and airplay charts, Matsui was named Top Indie Contemporary Jazz Artist Of The Year by Billboard magazine in 1996.

1998 saw the release of Matsui’s album FULL MOON AND THE SHRINE, which was accompanied by an acclaimed PBS-TV special entitled Keiko Matsui: Light Above The Trees. The special reflected the multicultural nature of Matsui’s life and music and was filmed, in part, at Japan’s breathtakingly beautiful 1,300-year-old Itsukushima Shrine and during a high-energy concert in San Francisco. The special earned Matsui a National Smooth Jazz Award for Best Long-Form Video Achievement in 2000. She was also honored as the Best Female Artist that year and again in 2001. Her album DEEP BLUE was recognized by the top Contemporary Jazz Chart of Billboard magazine at consecutive two weeks in August of 2001. In August 2001, Keiko’s album DEEP BLUE, spent two weeks at the top of the Contemporary Jazz Chart of Billboard Magazine.

2001 brought about a period of reflection for Matsui and a strong desire to create music that would help heal a world in turmoil. She began to contemplate, “Why am I creating music, and as a musician, what can we do?” Matsui also reflected on the futures of children growing up in a world devastated by violence and hatred. The result was THE RING — an album intended to communicate a message of peace, compassion, and humanity to listeners around the world. Her technical and compositional virtuosity that has become her hallmark, along with the symphonic grandeur of her sound, paired beautifully in this stirring and emotional album.

On 2004’s WILDFLOWER, Matsui once again used music as a platform for inspiring good. The album’s title track benefits the United Nations World Food Programme’s efforts in Africa. WFP is the world’s largest humanitarian agency which, in 2002, fed 72 million people in 82 countries including most of the world’s refugees and internally displaced people. “I decided I wanted to support the WFP after learning about the tremendous problems in Africa and how humanitarian assistance can change people’s lives for the better,” Matsui said. “So much help is needed there, particularly for the children who have been orphaned or abandoned because of war and AIDS.”

Earl Klugh

2011-10-29T07:44:00.000-07:00

In a recording career of over three decades, master guitarist EARL KLUGH has been lauded first as a prodigy and groundbreaker, then a defining figure, and ultimately, as one of the true statesmen of contemporary jazz. With 2008’s THE SPICE OF LIFE, Klugh earns his 12th career Grammy® Nomination - his second nomination and release on the independent Koch label. As follow up to his 2005 masterpiece, Naked Guitar, Klugh succeeds in creating a statement every bit as compelling.

After breaking a six-year recording hiatus with the universally-hailed solo album of 2005, Klugh steps back from Naked Guitar’s intimate focus on the unaccompanied guitar to capture the biggest picture possible, and an equally personal one: THE SPICE OF LIFE is a far-reaching account of all his music, marking Klugh’s return to full-scale album production after a nine-year break, with a special guest appearance by flautist Hubert Laws, and with the arrangements of two legendary orchestrators, Don Sebesky and Eddie Horst. It effortlessly segues from jazz to Latin to pop modes through a compositional approach that recalls his Grammy® Award-winning work with Bob James (One on One), spiced with all the lyric flourishes that established Klugh’s distinctive signature all those years ago.

Not surprisingly, the adult-aimed radio stations that have followed Klugh’s music through 23 Top Ten Billboard Jazz Chart albums (five of them No. 1), and 12 Grammy® nominations, have rushed to embrace THE SPICE OF LIFE, with the first focus track Driftin’immediately gathering most-added honors in the format upon its release – a loyalty that bespeaks the sustained personal stature, high standards, and restless creative passion of this guitarist’s career. Driftin’spent 12 consecutive weeks as #1 on the Radio and Records Smooth Jazz Indicator chart and ranked #1 overall in 2008 on this chart. Driftin’ is also an iTunes Bestselling Jazz Song of 2008, and is one of Billboard’s Hot Smooth Jazz Songs of 2008. Furthermore, THE SPICE OF LIFEis a Billboard and iTunes Bestselling Jazz Album for 2008, and it continues to receive critical acclaim across the country.

Norman Brown

2011-10-29T07:36:00.000-07:00

GRAMMY® Award winner Norman Brown is on close intimate terms with his audience. For almost two decades, it has been an engaging, mutually rewarding relationship, with the multitalented guitarist, composer and singer offering tasty sonic tidbits of classic R&B and contemporary jazz and his fans melting into satisfied aural bliss with every succulent, jazz inflected note. It‟s a veritable “love fest” – and Brown keeps the good vibes going on his long- awaited new release, Sending My Love, arriving this June on Peak Records. “I‟m a loving guy -- I hear that a lot. I started reading my emails and the fans were sending me so much love that I wanted to send them love back,” explains the artist, who wrote nine of the ten tunes on this offering. “The CD is about pure love, love in all its many aspects: a personal relationship and a general love for the planet and for people. We should be kind to each other,” he adds.

Brown intensifies the flavors in an already much-beloved recipe of sound, with ten tracks that flow easily from steamy R&B to guitar lashed flights of instrumental fantasy, all the while keeping things right in the pocket. From the first track – the easy breezy, horn-laden smooth jazz single “Come Go With Me” – to the sexy groove of the R&B single “I‟m Pouring My Heart Out” to the gentle acoustic guitar melody of “One Last Goodbye,” Brown shows off the stylistic diversity that has gained him a loyal following. He does so by utilizing some of the tried and true musicians, songwriters, and producers he‟s worked with in the past: longtime collaborator Herman Jackson, bassist Alex Al, drummer Teddy Campbell, rhythm guitarist Jubu, and percussionist Kevin Ricard. He also reached out to R&B production camp Tha Bizness and R&B songwriters Melvin Moore III (who happens to be his godson) and Floyd E. Bentley III from his Kansas City hometown for the hop vocal tunes “I‟m Pouring My Heart Out” and “One Last Goodbye.”

Even his daughter Rochella Brown, a student at the prestigious Berklee College of Music, and her songwriting partners arranged a new version of the Kenny Loggins classic “Celebrate Me Home” (which was co-written by Bob James). Rochella sings with Brown on the beloved gem, which also features a choral contributing from GRAMMY® winning ensemble Sounds Of Blackness. Brown adds that, with a daughter serving in Iraq, he dedicated the song to our troops. “I‟m dedicating that to my second oldest daughter, Kesha, a West Point graduate who is a first lieutenant, fighting in Iraq,” he said. “I think about all the families of these troops and the troops themselves, and „Celebrate Me Home‟ hits it on the head -- we all want to see them come home safely.”

Brown flirts with Latin rhythms on the sexy “Play Time,” and shares a haunting melody on the instrumental “Special Moments,” which Brown says is one of his favorites from the set. Longtime fans will enjoy the showcase of his guitar prowess on the slow groove “Here‟s My Number,” while others will recognize the signature Brown touch on “Coming Back (Return of the Man.)”

Born in Shreveport, Louisiana, and raised in Kansas City, Kansas, Brown first picked up a guitar at the age of 8. Inspired by Jimi Hendrix‟s mind-bending rock sounds, Brown soon discovered his father's favorite artist, Wes Montgomery, and found his stylistic holy grail. After high school, Brown moved to Los Angeles to pursue his musical career, attending the Musicians Institute where he also taught for a time. While playing with his own group in local clubs, and drawing comparisons to George Benson, Brown was discovered and signed to the MoJazz label, a division of Motown. He delivered his 1992 debut, Just Between Us, and followed with the gold- certified After The Storm and 1996's Better Days Ahead.

With critical acclaim and sales behind him, the talented musician made the leap to Warner Bros. and released Celebration, which first teamed him with producer Paul Brown. The 2003 follow-up, Just Chillin', earned Brown much-deserved recognition with a GRAMMY® Award in the best pop instrumental category. That project was followed by his 2005 release West Coast Coolin', where Brown tested out his skills as a vocalist, a move that was welcomed by the urban AC radio market. In addition, his 2005 compilation The Very Best Of Norman Brown was one of the best- selling smooth jazz albums of that year.

Brown made the leap to the Peak Records label in 2007 for his smash CD Stay With Me, which yielded the R&B vocal hit “Stay With Me” and the smooth instrumental favorites “Let‟s Take A Ride” and “Pop‟s Cool Groove.” With the brand new Sending My Love, Brown is building on the musical foundation he laid with Stay With Me, which landed at Number One on the Billboard Contemporary Jazz Albums chart.

In addition to success as a musician and producer, Brown has launched a successful career as a broadcaster. In January of 2007, he brought his engaging personality to Broadcast Architecture‟s Smooth Jazz Network as an on-air personality, hosting this own weekend radio show. But performing is his first love. For yet another year, Brown will share his onstage fire with the launch of the 2010 version of the annual Norman Brown's Summer Storm tour. With a string of dates stretching from May to September, Brown will share the magic of Sending My Love as well as his many beloved hits.

“ On this album I wanted to really feature what people liked about me -- great guitar playing, very lyrical melodies,” Brown explains of his intentions for Sending My Love. “I wanted to make the songs easily digestible, not too complicated, with easy grooves that you don‟t have to think too much about. You can put this record on, have a glass of wine with someone you love, or just socialize with friends. It‟s a feel-good thing, and I want to uplift people‟s spirits and make them feel good.”

Pat Metheny

2011-10-18T16:23:00.000-07:00

Pat Metheny was born in Kansas City on August 12, 1954 into a musical family. Starting on trumpet at the age of 8, Metheny switched to guitar at age 12. By the age of 15, he was working regularly with the best jazz musicians in Kansas City, receiving valuable on-the-bandstand experience at an unusually young age. Metheny first burst onto the international jazz scene in 1974. Over the course of his three-year stint with vibraphone great Gary Burton, the young Missouri native already displayed his soon-to-become trademarked playing style, which blended the loose and flexible articulation customarily reserved for horn players with an advanced rhythmic and harmonic sensibility - a way of playing and improvising that was modern in conception but grounded deeply in the jazz tradition of melody, swing, and the blues. With the release of his first album, Bright Size Life (1975), he reinvented the traditional "jazz guitar" sound for a new generation of players. Throughout his career, Pat Metheny has continued to re-define the genre by utilizing new technology and constantly working to evolve the improvisational and sonic potential of his instrument.

Metheny's versatility is almost nearly without peer on any instrument. Over the years, he has performed with artists as diverse as Steve Reich to Ornette Coleman to Herbie Hancock to Jim Hall to Milton Nascimento to David Bowie. He has been part of a writing team with keyboardist Lyle Mays for more than twenty years - an association that has been compared to the Lennon/McCartney and Ellington/Strayhorn partnerships by critics and listeners alike. Metheny's body of work includes compositions for solo guitar, small ensembles, electric and acoustic instruments, large orchestras, and ballet pieces, with settings ranging from modern jazz to rock to classical.

As well as being an accomplished musician, Metheny has also participated in the academic arena as a music educator. At 18, he was the youngest teacher ever at the University of Miami. At 19, he became the youngest teacher ever at the Berklee College of Music, where he also received an honorary doctorate more than twenty years later (1996). He has also taught music workshops all over the world, from the Dutch Royal Conservatory to the Thelonius Monk Institute of Jazz to clinics in Asia and South America. He has also been a true musical pioneer in the realm of electronic music, and was one of the very first jazz musicians to treat the synthesizer as a serious musical instrument. Years before the invention of MIDI technology, Metheny was using the Synclavier as a composing tool. He also been instrumental in the development of several new kinds of guitars such as the soprano acoustic guitar, the 42-string Pikasso guitar, Ibanez's PM-100 jazz guitar, and a variety of other custom instruments.

It is one thing to attain popularity as a musician, but it is another to receive the kind of acclaim Metheny has garnered from critics and peers. Over the years, Metheny has won countless polls as "Best Jazz Guitarist" and awards, including three gold records for (Still Life) Talking, Letter from Home, and Secret Story. He has also won 18 Grammy Awards spread out over a variety of different categories including Best Rock Instrumental, Best Contemporary Jazz Recording, Best Jazz Instrumental Solo, Best Instrumental Composition. The Pat Metheny Group won an unprecedented seven consecutive Grammies for seven consecutive albums. Metheny has spent most of his life on tour, averaging between 120-240 shows a year since 1974. At the time of this writing, he continues to be one of the brightest stars of the jazz community, dedicating time to both his own projects and those of emerging artists and established veterans alike, helping them to reach their audience as well as realizing their own artistic visions.

A Guitar Lesson From Pat Metheny

Restless

2011-10-07T15:39:00.000-07:00

I find that I am a restless soul. I suppose all of us may feel a little detoured from our journey. Be comforted in knowing you are on your way...just a little more to learn.

I hope this song speaks and encourages your soul.

best wishes,

Not Since Earl Klugh's...

2011-09-28T14:43:00.000-07:00

Alas! An amazing artist, Santi Chacon, has emerged to offer us sounds of contemporary jazz guitar that soothes our minds and touches our souls. Not since Earl Klugh's, "Heart Strings" have we found an artist whose music can stand the test of time. A definite must for your music library. A natural choice for movie soundtracks, too.

Angela Thomas
Affinity Entertainment Productions

George Benson

2011-09-25T17:42:00.000-07:00

At various points along the four-decade continuum of George Benson’s career, he has been heralded as a jazz guitarist of unparalleled chops, a vocalist with great emotional range and sophistication or a combination of both. However, he regards himself as an entertainer in the broadest sense of the word – a singer of songs, a spinner of tales. That’s the essence, Songs and Stories.

“It’s a very simple equation,” the National Endowment of the Arts Jazz Master says of the longevity of his career and the ten Grammy Awards that have punctuated it along the way. “In the end, it’s about the songs and the stories. That’s what keeps the music fresh for me. That’s what keeps me coming back. If you come up with a great melody and put the right lyrics to it, I’m immediately excited.”

That excitement is evident in his new release, Songs and Stories, due August 25, 2009, on Concord Records / Monster Music. The album is a collection of tunes penned by some of the most prolific and enduring songwriters of the last half-century, including James Taylor, Smokey Robinson, Lamont Dozier, Bill Withers, Donny Hathaway and several others. Some were written specifically for this new recording, while others were hand-picked by Benson for their ability to convey simple but universal truths about the human experience.

Songs and Stories was produced by Concord exec VP of A&R John Burk and renowned bassist / composer Marcus Miller. Benson, Miller, keyboardist Greg Phillinganes, guitarist Jubu and drummer John Robinson make up the core unit for the project. They were joined by special guests: guitarists Lee Ritenour, Steve Lukather, Wah Wah Watson and Norman Brown, vocalists Lalah Hathaway and Patti Austin, keyboardist David Paich, saxophonists Tom Scott and Gerald Albright along with several others. “Brother, with that team, you can do just about anything,” said Benson. “We recorded in the studio for three days straight, and everything we touched had something on it that made us all glad we were there. It was just the right mix of people and material. Once we realized that, the challenges disappeared. It just became an exercise in great joy. We were happy to jump on it, we knew we were going to get something special, and that’s what we got.” The combined talents of these writers and musicians make for a series of unforgettable tales, and Benson himself is the narrator who weaves it all together.

And yet, for all of the high-caliber musicians on hand, the most important guests are the songwriters, says Miller. “Smokey Robinson doesn’t perform on this record, but he’s still a guest,” he says. “Lamont Dozier is a guest. Bill Withers and James Taylor are guests. If you take great songs from writers like these, and you put them in the hands of George Benson and a great band, you’d better just get out of the way and let things happen, because the result is going to be something great.”

For Benson, a great song has the capacity to actually alter reality – not just for the listener but for the performer as well. “When I play a song like Christopher Cross’ ‘Sailing,’ which you hear at the very end of Songs and Stories, it actually puts me out on the ocean,” he says. “And I’d like to think the song can do the same for the people who hear it. That’s why people like Frank Sinatra or Nat King Cole were so successful. When they started singing, they would actually take you to another place. And for a few moments, at least, you could actually feel the atmosphere of that place and that story all around you. Nobody did it better than those guys, but that’s a little of what I try to do – not just on this record but on all of my records. I try to take the listener to another place.”

While he may hold the likes of Sinatra and Nat Cole in a category all their own, Benson himself is at the center of a unique musical story that stretches all the way back to his early childhood. At age eight, he was already singing and playing the ukulele in local nightclubs in his native Pittsburgh. By his teenage years, he had switched from ukulele to guitar, and he had stopped singing for the most part to focus more on his instrumental work. His musical sensibilities shifted toward jazz, due to his exposure to records by Wes Montgomery, Charlie Christian and Charlie Parker.

By the early ’60s, Benson had joined organist Jack McDuff’s band – a gig that was educational but short-lived. He left to form his own band and launch his solo career with the 1964 album, The New Boss Guitar (a nod to Montgomery’s album, Boss Guitar, released just a year earlier). The album caught the attention of legendary Columbia Records talent scout John Hammond, who signed him to the label. Benson recorded two solo albums for Columbia and played session dates for numerous other artists, including Miles Davis’ 1968 opus, Miles in the Sky.

He left Columbia in the late ’60s and recorded on a number of labels for the next several years. All the while, he’d been looking for a way to redevelop his vocals and make them part of his overall repertoire, but most of the producers and record execs at the time dismissed the idea, which became a source of growing frustration. But producer Tommy LiPuma saw the idea differently, and the result was Breezin’, the 1976 blockbuster album that marked the beginning of a long association with Warner Brothers. The first jazz record to achieve platinum sales, Breezin’ yielded a number of hits, including the instrumental title track, the soulful update of Leon Russell’s “This Masquerade” and the lively “Give Me The Night.”

Throughout the remainder of the ’70s and into the ’80s, Benson and LiPuma crafted a string of great records that collectively cemented the guitarist’s global reputation. In the mid-’90s, Benson followed LiPuma to the GRP label, where the two basically picked up where they’d left off at Warners. High points from the period include That’s Right (1996) and Standing Together (1998).

Since the start of the millennium, Benson has shown no signs of slowing down. Some of his more notable offerings of the past decade include Absolute Benson (2000), the sexy and soulful Irreplaceable (2004), and Givin’ It Up (2006), a duet recording with Al Jarreau that scored two Grammy Awards and marked his Concord Records / Monster Music debut.

Songs and Stories, the followup to Givin’ It Up, is an equally satisfying affair. The set opens with a Latin-flavored cover of James Taylor’s “Don’t Let Me Be Lonely Tonight,” one of two tracks on the album recorded in Sao Paulo, Brazil, with a team of Brazilian session players. “James Taylor is a great songwriter, and a great performer too,” says Benson. “Not many people are brave enough to cover his songs because he does them so well himself, and with such simplicity. It’s hard to beat that combination, but I tried my hand at it while I was down there, and it came off so well that I decided to put it on the record.”

The first songwriter Benson contacted when he began assembling material for this project was Rod Temperton, author of his biggest hit “Give Me The Night”. Temperton, whose credits include much of Michael Jackson’s seminal album “Thriller” among many other classics, contributed the spectacular tune “Family Reunion”. Further into the sequence, Benson is joined by vocalist Lalah Hathaway on “A Telephone Call Away,” a heartfelt duet written by Bill Withers, who came out of retirement to write it specifically for this album. “Every song Bill Withers touches seems to appeal to a huge audience,” says Benson. “He understands the inner workings of people’s hearts and minds, and it comes through in his songwriting.”

“Nuthin’ But a Party,” a guitar duet with Norman Brown, is everything the title suggests. The song was written by a crew of funk purveyors from the ’80s that includes brothers Roger and Larry Troutman (of Zapp fame) along with Marlon McClain and Robert Harris (of the Dazz Band). “This song is more about the dueling guitars than anything else,” says Benson, although Brown does sing a few supporting lines throughout the track. “I was surprised at how well Norman handled his vocal parts in the song. His guitar playing is superb, which didn’t surprise me at all, because he’s a fabulous musician. But he also has good vocal range, which did surprise me.”

“One Like You,” written by Smokey Robinson, lays it on the line with a no-holds-barred declaration of love that features guest guitar work by Lee Ritenour. “I’ve known Smokey since we were teenagers,” says Benson. “Just look at his body of work. He writes nothing but magnificent songs – simple but universal ideas that everyone can relate to, colorful stuff with great harmonies. This song is consistent with that track record.”

Songs and Stories closes with the aforementioned cover of “Sailing,” the 1980 pop smash by Christopher Cross. On this second track from the Brazil sessions, Benson conjures rich layers of atmosphere with the help of acoustic guitarists Toninho Horta and Marcelo Lima, along with Noel Lee on wind chimes. “To be honest, I had no particular feeling for the song when I first heard it years ago,” Benson admits, “but when I actually played it; I began to understand the thinking that went into it. I understood why people liked it so much. It carries more weight than I originally realized, and it conveys an idea that’s very simple but heartfelt.”

More than forty years after Benson cut his first recordings, could the songs ever become repetitive? Could the stories get old? “If they did, I would be the first to know,” he says, “because I get bored quickly. If that ever happens, I’ll find something else to do. But it has yet to happen, and it never will. Music is too incredible of an experience for me. There’s always someone new coming along with a fresh idea that turns the music inside out and changes the way we listen and think. There’s always someone out there – someone we’ve never even heard of yet – with a new song and a new story.”

Concord Records is proud to once again partner with Monster Music® on presenting the newest George Benson album Songs and Stories on High Definition Surround™ Sound SuperDisc™. The Monster® version, also available August 25th, is a specially priced two-disc package that consists of Songs and Stories on compact disc mixed in traditional stereo and a bonus DVD, containing Monster’s High Definition Stereo and Surround mixes. In addition, the bonus DVD features behind-the-scenes video footage of the making of the record including an in-depth interview with George Benson. With its innovative High Definition Surround technology Monster Music is revolutionizing the listening experience. Mastered in the highest resolution possible, HDS SuperDiscs are specially engineered to capture the true harmonic depth and tonal richness of the music. THX certified HDS SuperDiscs deliver the music through a 5.1 speaker system just the way the artist heard it in the studio when it was recorded, the way they intended you to hear it.

In Da Mood

2011-09-05T23:32:00.000-07:00