Results for "band/orchestra"

Benevento/Russo Duo

On the heels of their resounding ropeadope debut, “Best Reason to Buy the Sun,” the Benevento/Russo Duo continue to astound audiences and critics alike with their stellar interplay, defining hooks and immense sound. Marco Benevento (keys) and Joe Russo (drums) continue to defy expectations and categorization. The Duo hit the road in March of 2005 in support of BRTBTS and haven’t rested since. Upon returning from a short promotional tour in Japan, they have been ubiquitous on the touring circuit, launching their new album at a capacity crowd showcase at South by Southwest and then continuing through the summer with slots on the Sasquatch Music Festival and Bonnaroo, to name a few

Electropolis

Michael Ferrier
Electrosax

Michael Ferrier found his first fifteen minutes of fame after winning the 1974 Four Square (Playground Division) Championship. From there he descended into the shady world of vegetative alchemy, eventually coming up with the coveted formula for orange cabbage. Much of Michael's time in the intervening decade was unfortunately shaped by the well-publicized "bikini scandal," none more be said here of that. You know who you are. Music found Michael desperate and alone at the end of the seventies, living off orange cabbage residuals and sterno. Electropolis has saved his life.

Brian Roessler
Electrobass

Brian Roessler took his original inspiration from the fantastical world of insects

Gary Urwin

The Gary Urwin Jazz Orchestra is an eighteen-piece “big band” jazz group in Los Angeles that came into being in 1997, comprised of hand-picked players with whom leader Gary Urwin had been associated over the years as an arranger and trumpet player. Gary's role is to arrange or compose all the music we do, and to lead the band when we perform or record. With the active support of Business Manager and co-producer Pat Longo, we began work on our first CD ("Perspectives"), which debuted on Sea Breeze Records in 2000. Word of mouth spread quickly, and the band’s activities grew into enthusiastically-received live appearances, a follow-up Sea Breeze CD ("Living in the Moment") in 2003 reflecting the band’s development and growth, and a third CD currently in the works. The band is committed to using familiar tools in a fresh way to stretch the idiom, while always swinging and remaining true to the jazz roots of the music. The band has been referred to as “A veritable who’s who among the Los Angeles area’s most accomplished studio and big-band artists.” It enjoys the talents of well known Los Angeles jazz personalities Pete Christlieb, Wayne Bergeron, Bobby Shew, Kim Richmond, Charlie Loper, Alex Iles, Christian Jacob, Trey Henry, Ron King, Ralph Razze and many others.

David Berger

Born: March 30, 1949

Jazz composer, arranger and conductor David Berger is recognized internationally as a leading authority on the music of Duke Ellington and the Swing Era. Conductor and arranger for the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra from its inception in 1988 through 1994, Berger has transcribed more than 700 full scores of classic recordings including nearly 500 works by Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn. In 1996 Berger collaborated with choreographer Donald Byrd to create the Harlem Nutcracker, a full-length 2-hour dance piece that expands the Tchaikovsky/Ellington/Strayhorn score into an American classic. The 15-piece band assembled to play this show has stayed together and continues to play Mr

Zydeco A Go Go

ZYDECO-A-GO-GO, the Mid-Atlantic’s premier practitioners of Louisiana dance music, are bringing the zydeco party to the people. Their motto is: “Laissez Les Bon Temps Rouler!” or “Let The Good Times Roll!” Founded in 1992, the all-star group boasts colorful personnel with decades of experience: bandleader Pete Eshelman, on accordion, piano, and vocals, plays guitar with local legends PHILLY GUMBO, drums for New Orleans Mardi Gras street parade group THE WILD BUNCH BRASS BAND (a perennial favorite at Penn’s Landing’s JAMBALAYA JAM festival) and has played piano with such artists as BO DIDDLEY, SLEEPY LaBEEF, and New Orleans’ own CHARLES “HONEYBOY” OTIS

Zamla Mammaz Manna

Samla Mammas Manna was a Swedish progressive rock band often characterized by virtuosic musicianship, circus references and silly humour, similar in many ways to the song-writing style of Frank Zappa. They were one of the founding members of the Rock in Opposition (RIO) movement in the late 1970s. In 1979 they were Fred Frith's backing band on his solo album, Gravity (1980). Musically, they bore a resemblance to the Canterbury scene. The original line-up was Lars Hollmer (keyboards), Hasse Bruniusson (drums), Lars Krantz (bass) and Henrik Öberg (percussion). For Måltid, jazz fusion guitarist Coste Apetrea joined the group. They were on the fringe of the Swedish political "progg" movement, although their lyrics were humorous and not explicitly political

Yellowjackets

Active since: 1977

In 1977, Robben Ford assembled a group of veteran session musicians to record his album The Inside Story. The trio of musicians, which included keyboardist Russell Ferrante, bassist Jimmy Haslip and drummer Ricky Lawson, soon discovered a certain "chemistry" and musical affinity that led to their formation of Yellowjackets. The Inside Story being mainly instrumental, Robben Ford's record label wanted him to record another album that was more pop and vocal oriented. The group, known as the Robben Ford Group, preferred to pursue the instrumental route, and a "band within a band" was formed. This same group with Robben Ford on guitar recorded digital demos that were eventually accepted by Warner Brothers, and Yellowjackets was born

World Saxophone Quartet

World Saxophone Quartet - band/ensemble Originally consisting of saxophonists David Murray, Julius Hemphill, Oliver Lake and Hamiet Bluiett, the World Saxophone Quartet is one of the finest and most unusual small combos in jazz today. The Quartet began performing as a unit in 1976, inspired by Ed Jordan, head of Music at New Orleans Southern University. Jordan had heard the saxophonists in their individual groups, and hired them to do a show together. "We liked it, and started doing gigs at other colleges," remembers David Murray. Although three of the original members, Hemphill, Lake and Bluiett, knew each other from St.Louis, it was not until this event that they decided to create a group consisting only of four saxophones

Weather Report

Inception and formation

Joe Zawinul and Wayne Shorter first met and became friends in 1959 while they were playing in Maynard Ferguson’s Big Band. Zawinul went on to play with Cannonball Adderley’s group in the 1960s, while Shorter joined Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers and then, in 1964, Miles Davis’ second great quintet. During this decade, both men made names for themselves as being among the best composers in jazz.

Zawinul would later join Shorter in contributing to the initial fusion music recordings of Miles Davis, and both men were part of the studio groups, which recorded the key Davis albums In a Silent Way (1969) and Bitches Brew (1970). In consequence, Weather Report has often been seen as a spin-off from the Miles Davis bands of the late 1960s and early 1970s, although Zawinul was never part of Davis’s touring line-up. Weather Report was initially formed in order to explore a more impressionistic and individualistic music (or, as Zawinul put it, “away from all that eight bars shit and then you go to the bridge…”)

Vanguard Jazz Orchestra

The Vanguard Jazz Orchestra is the current title for a band that began life as the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Orchestra in 1966 and has performed continuously ever since. The story is familiar but bears repeating that in 1966 cornetist, composer, arranger, Thad Jones and drummer Mel Lewis founded a band in New York. Having settled in New York after leaving their respective touring jobs with Basie and Kenton, Thad and Mel along with many of their colleagues needed an outlet for their creative energies and relief from the tedium of the studio work. With a handful of arrangements they approached legendary club owner Max Gordon and were booked at the Village Vanguard for 3 Mondays in February