Results for "Roland Guerin"

Roland Guerin

Born: November 15, 1968

With a new band and a new project entitled PROG:FUNK, New Orleans based singer-songwriter-bassist Roland Guerin is starting a new musical chapter. Drawing from a wide spectrum of genres, including American folk, blues, zydeco, rock and jazz, Guerin creates a singular style at the heart of which are stories told through multi-layered melodies, rhythms and expressive lyrics in the range of Steely Dan, Sting and Peter Gabriel. 

Raised in a musical family – his father was a great lover of jazz and classical music, his mother, a blues and zydeco bass player – Guerin began playing bass at the age of 11. Throughout his formative years, Guerin was strongly influenced by pop, rock and R&B music of the 70’s and 80’s. Bands and artists such as Cameo, Dazz Band, Rush, the Brothers Johnson, Gerry Rafferty, America, and Booker T & The MG’s seeded his love for great songs and inspired him to write music of his own. 
  
While studying Marketing at Southern University in Baton Rouge, Guerin joined legendary jazz educator Alvin Batiste’s Band, The Jazztronauts. Having inherited much of Batiste’s musical innovations and concepts, Guerin developed ways to bring his own musical voice to life. The jazz genre became his avenue toward success. Over the course of his career, Guerin toured and performed with legendary musicians, such as George Benson, Jimmy Scott, Frank Morgan, Vernel Fournier, Gerry Mulligan, Allen Toussaint, Dr. John, John Scofield, Mark Whitfield, Ellis Marsalis, Marcus Roberts, and Paul Gilbert. He also participated in the recording of numerous albums, including the Blind Boys of Alabama’s Grammy Award winning album Down in New Orleans, Marcus Roberts’s Grammy Award nominated recording of George Gershwin’s classic Rhapsody in Blue, and Allen Toussaint’s album Connected. 
  
As a member of the Marcus Roberts Trio from 1994 to 2009, Guerin performed at the head of symphony orchestras across the world, among which the Berlin Philharmonic, the Boston Symphony, the Chicago Symphony, and Seiji Ozawa’s New Japan Philharmonic. From his collaboration with Ozawa and Roberts, Guerin developed a deeper understanding and appreciation of orchestration and arrangement, both of which carry great importance in his own musical composition. 
  
In 1998, Guerin released his first album, The Winds of the New Land, featuring Peter Martin on piano, Nicholas Payton on trumpet, Donald Edwards on drums, and Mark Whitfield on guitar. The record was acclaimed for its innovative style of composition and arrangement. JazzReview called it "a literal piece of art", while the New Orleans Magazine named Guerin a Contemporary Jazz All-Star. He followed up with an album from the Roland Guerin Sextet, Live at the Blue Note, released by Half Note Records, and Grass Roots on Louisiana Red Hot Records. Guerin performs with his own band at major venues and festivals worldwide, such as the Blue Note in Tokyo and the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. 
  
Guerin joined the Allen Toussaint Band in 2008, touring and performing with Toussaint until his passing in 2015. Soon thereafter, Guerin joined the band of legendary Dr. John, becoming his last Musical Director. During his time with Toussaint and Dr. John, Guerin found his way back to his musical roots. Integrating American folk melodies, blues, zydeco, African rhythms, and rock with jazz soloing and orchestral arrangements, Guerin creates an entirely new and singular musical experience.

PROG:FUNK

By Roland Guerin

Label: Louisiana Red Hot Records
Released: 2024
Track listing: I Propose, Crunch Time, Bridge to Open Waters

Blues & Hues New Orleans

By Clifford Lamb

Label: Webberworks Entertainment Group
Released: 2021
Track listing: Curtain Time; Clench; Voodoo With Hoodoo; Mardi Gras; Unrequited Love; Blues & Hues New Orleans; Final Curtain

Whisper of a Shadow

By Yohan Giaume

Label: Life Celebration Project
Released: 2021
Track listing: Le Poète Mourant; Mascarade; Lisette; Cold Facts; The Promise of Dawn; Bamboula Dreams Part 1; Bamboula Dreams Part 2; Lez African E La; Life Circle Part 1; The Passage; Life Circle Part 2; Le Poete Mourant poem (Bonus track).

Clifford Lamb: Blues & Hues New Orleans

by Kyle Simpler
July 24, 2021

There are quite a few cities in the world that have an important musical legacy, and in many cases, the city's musical history might be one of the first things people associate with it. Take New Orleans. Commonly known as the birthplace of jazz, it's hard to imagine New Orleans without conjuring up brass bands, jazz ...

Pianist Clifford Lamb's 'Blues & Hues - New Orleans' Features Nicholas Payton, Herlin Riley, Donald Harrison, Roland Guerin & More!

May 21, 2021

Following the success of his previous live, two track recording, Blues & Hues, jny: San Francisco pianist Clifford Lamb again teams up with producer Jeff Weber to pursue their concept of the jazz “mashup”—the process in which a Lamb composition is stirred into an existing jazz work to offer a new perspective on history and culture. ...

Detroit Jazz Festival: Detroit, MI September 2-5, 2011

by Matt Marshall
September 12, 2011

32nd Annual Detroit Jazz FestivalDetroit, MISeptember 2-5, 2011 In its 32nd year, the Detroit Jazz Festival decided to drop “International" from its name, only to turn around and proclaim “We Bring You the World." An interesting distinction, but the festival's scope was covered, nonetheless. The celebration brought to Detroit not only artists and ...

Strike Up the (Unsung) Bands

by Jack Bowers
December 5, 2009

The big band era is known for producing a number of enormously successful ensembles whose leaders were household names: Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Jimmie Lunceford, Fletcher Henderson, then on through Glenn Miller, Benny Goodman, the brothers Jimmy Dorsey and Tommy Dorsey, Charlie Barnet, Artie Shaw, Harry James, Cab Calloway, Lionel Hampton, Dizzy Gillespie and, ...

Wessell Anderson: Warm It Up, Warmdaddy!

by Terrell Kent Holmes
October 14, 2009

Alto saxophonist Wessell Anderson is a traditionalist who clearly enjoys upending tradition. On Warm It Up, Warmdaddy! several of the songs rework the harmonic structures of some cherished standards and their titles are the work of someone who embraces the classics without taking them too seriously. The mischief begins with “What Is Dat ...

Allen Toussaint Quartet at the Earshot Jazz Festival

September 23, 2009

An unforgettable evening with a true New Orleans legend. A Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee as a singer, pianist, producer, and composer, Allen Toussaint presents his quartet of Renard Poche (guitar), Roland Guerin (bass), and Herman LeBeaux (drums). Sunday, October 18 at The Triple Door, 7:00PM & 9:30PM $26. For 9:30 PM, must be ...