Results for "Los Angeles"

Willie Jones III

Born: June 8, 1968

Born in Los Angeles, California on June 8, 1968, Jones' earliest exposure to music was through his father, Willie Jones II, an accomplished and notable jazz pianist, who offered guidance and inspiration to his gifted son. Dedicated to the further development of his skills, the younger Jones spent the next few years working diligently with acclaimed drummers and music instructors and began performing with distinguished musicians by the time he was in his teens. He completed his academic training after receiving a full scholarship to the California Institute of the Arts where he studied under the tutelage of the legendary Albert "Tootie" Heath

Larry Koonse

Biography Born into a musical family, Larry has been playing the guitar since he was seven years old. In his early years he studied with legendary guitar master Jimmy Wyble, and at the age of fifteen he recorded an album with his father, guitarist Dave Koonse, entitled Dave and Larry Koonse; father and son jazz guitars. In 1984, Larry was the first recipient of a Bachelor of Music in Jazz Studies at the University of Southern California. Immediately after graduating from USC Larry toured extensively for six years as a member of the John Dankworth quartet, traveling all across the globe and backing up Cleo Laine

Alex Acuña

Born: December 12, 1944

Born in Pativilca, Peru, 100 miles north of Lima, Alex Acuña was born into a musical family that inspired him and helped shape him as a musician. His father and five brothers were all musicians. Alex taught himself how to play the drums from the age of four. By the time Alex turned ten, he was already playing in local bands. As a teenager, he moved to Lima and became one of Peru's most accomplished session drummers, performing on many recording projects for artists, as well as film and television productions. In Lima, Alex also earned a glowing reputation for his live performances. So much so, that at the age of eighteen, Alex was chosen by the great Latin band leader, Perez Prado, to join his big band

Jeremy Weinglass

Born: January 1, 1978

Jeremy Weinglass began his musical studies at the age of seven at Nueva Learning Center on a Yehudi Menuhin Scholarship for piano. As an original member of the Ragazzi Peninsula Boys' Chorus, and while attending advanced piano and theory classes at the Conservatory of Music in San Francisco, Jeremy was exposed very early on to a wide spectrum of musical education. In junior high and high school he performed with jazz bands, accompanied school choirs, and was vocal and music director of several musical productions. During this time, Jeremy studied with the person he considers his most influential teacher, Thomas La Ratta, former Music Director at Notre Dame de Namur University. After high school, Jeremy attended Notre Dame for a year with a concentration in Piano Performance

Tom Luer

Tom Luer is a freelance saxophonist who resides in Los Angeles, CA, and is a Rico Reeds Performing Artist. His album "Project Popular" was released in 2011 to critical acclaim. Most recently, Tom appeared on Dave Slonaker’s Grammy nominated album “Intrada”. Additional recording credits include Grammy winning jazz vocalist Kurt Elling's "The Brill Building Project", the Mike Barone Big Band "Birdland", Cooper Phillip’s “Walk A Mile”, and Paul Tynan and Aaron Lington’s “Bicoastal Collective”. Recently, NPR used music from Tom's CD in a nationally broadcast promo. Tom recently performed on the NBC broadcast of “Sports Illustrated 50 Years of Beautiful” and on the “X-Factor” on Fox

Laura Pursell

Born: December 6

Laura Pursell is one of those singers/songwriters who fully utilizes her arsenal of personal experiences to inform her lyrics. She’s fearless when it comes to baring her all. And her current project, SOMEWHERE IN THIS ROOM, reflects this in that it is a very personal and candid aural exploration of romantic relationships ��" both good and otherwise. From the beginning, Laura’s voice ��" at turns wonderfully smooth or intense and emphatic ��" invites the listener into her personal interior landscape, another world where one is gently buoyed upon waves of peace and calm. Yet, she’s almost an accidental vocalist who didn’t begin to take her musical gifts seriously as a singer and lyricist until she moved to Los Angeles in 1991 after graduating from the University of Tennessee, in Knoxville where she majored in advertising

Alex Boneham

Born: July 16, 1987

Bassist Alex Boneham is one of the most in demand musicians of his generation, known for his versatility and relentless creative drive. Born and raised in Sydney, Australia, Alex has worked extensively worldwide with a wide array of artists from across the musical spectrum. After graduating from the Sydney Conservatorium with a bachelor’s degree in music in 2009, Alex spent several years performing, recording and touring in Australia and New Zealand with a who’s who of Australian artists and international touring acts including James Morrison, Mike Nock, Bernie McGann, Dale Barlow, James Muller, Greg Osby, George Garzone, Mike Moreno, Joel Frahm, Will Vinson, Sarah McKenzie, Jazzgroove Mothership Orchestra, and co-led group The Vampires. In 2014 Alex was accepted into the prestigious Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz Ensemble (now the Herbie Hancock Institute), a selective masters program where a group of musicians is hand-picked by a panel of living legends including Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Jimmy Heath, Kenny Burrell, James Newton and Herb Alpert

Liam Leahy

Born: April 15

Flautista and Band Leader for Sweat~Heat AfroCuban Jazz, Accompanist and Soloist for Blues, Jazz and Latin Jazz bands. Arranger and composer

Masa Tanaka

Born: January 1, 1961

Bass player Herbie Hancock

Steve Lukather

Born: October 21, 1957

Versatile musician, guitarist, vocalist, composer, producer and arranger Steve Lukather was born in Los Angeles on October 21 in 1957. Before his father bought him a guitar (a simple Kay acoustic) and a copy of Meet the Beatles at the age of seven, Luke started to play drums and keyboards. "I love keyboards, I write all my songs on keyboards except for the real obvious 'burn' tunes. I find it much easier, you have all these great synth sounds and you play a C chord and it's sounds like God, and you start thinking melodies as opposed to chops." (Lukather, 1986).

The guitar and the Beatles album changed the life of the young boy