Results for "san francisco"

Ken Brown

Born: August 21

"I knew at an early age that I was destined to express myself with music. I've always longed to touch hearts and minds with the special depth and breadth possible only through the intimate sound of the guitar." A look at Ken's formative years confirms this. The son of a night club singer and dancer, he was exposed early on to the rhythms of latin jazz. The guitar was to become his vehicle for expression. In high school he formed his own rock group The Interns, and became known as a "hot guitar soloist." These rock and roll days saw him playing with many talented bay area artists such as Mickey Hart of the Grateful Dead, Dave Jenkins of Pablo Cruise, and Lydia Pense of Cold Blood, came over to sing a few tunes

E. Doctor Smith

Born: December 2, 1956

E. Doctor Smith, inventor of the Drummstick, began his musical journey as a teenager playing percussion in the District of Columbia Youth Orchestra and in Maryland’s Montgomery County Youth Orchestra. Inspired by the Miles Davis fusion bands of the mid-70s, he continued his studies with Paul Sears, drummer of the Muffins. His first group, Oranus Rey, featured guitarist Paul Bollenback, bassist Ed Howard, and saxophonist Tim Chambers. In 1980 Smith moved to New York where he met fellow Music Building tenants Madonna and her co-writer, Stephen Bray. With Bray, Smith performed in the Breakfast Club and The Same. The Same was produced by Brian Eno and featured keyboardist Carter Burwell, guitarist Chip Johannsen, singer Clodagh Simmons, bassist Stanley Adler, and the motto "Semper Mutants." Following Bray and Madonna to Los Angeles, Smith assisted on many of Madonna's biggest albums as well as other of Bray's projects including Nick Kamen, Gladys Knight, The Breakfast Club, Bryan Ferry, and Steel Pulse. In L.A. Doc’s sound engineering skills were honed in sessions working alongside Michael Verdick and Tony Shepperd. Back on the East Coast, Smith performed with the New England groups K2, Flash to Bangtime, and Feat of Clay using a Simmons kit he called the “Beast." Inspired by that of British drummer Bill Bruford, Smith’s 12-piece kit was the first embodiment of his love of digital drums. In 1995, as a member of the trio Between The Lines, and influenced by the work of Roy "Future Man" Wooten, Smith designed and built the Drummstick, a percussion controller consisting rather humbly of a 2x6 piece of wood with 16 finger-pads. Borne of a desire to walk on stage, plug in and play like a guitarist, while accessing his beloved and virtually infinite world of digital sounds, Smith’s Drummstick developed a life of its own. In 2000 Smith debuted his first CD of original music, The Drummstick, with his band of the same name, which featured core members Jack Wright on guitar, Neil Mezebish on horns, and Celia DuBose on bass. That year he also performed using the Drummstick with guitar legends including Bon Lozago of Gong, Tom Principato, Bill Kirchen, Paul Bollenback, as well as bansurist John Wubbenhorst, tabla master Sandip Burman, and the famed Howard Levy. Now living in San Francisco, Smith performed at the Edgetone New Music Summit of 2006 with horn player Eric Dahlman. In March 2007, Smith will release a new Drummstick 2 CD, a long-distance collaboration with the original Drummstick band and other musical friends (and the re-release of his first Drummstick CD) on Edgetone Records. Smith also produced and performed on an Edgetone release entitled Robert Anbian and UFQ: the Unidentified Flying Quartet. This timely and troubling work of jazz and poetry features poet Robert Anbian, saxophonist Charles Unger, keyboardist Sam Peoples, and bassist Mike Shea. Smith has collaborated with 7 string bass virtuoso Edo Castro and Seth Elgart for his upcoming release on Edgetone Records, "K2". His sixth album on the Edgetone Records label 1s entitled "Quantum ", and reunites Smith with his former Drummstick band mate, guitarist Jack Wright (Quantum Kids, Temporal Chaos Project), the Quantum Kids' bassist, Tom Shiben, and Smith's Feat of Clay co-founder, trumpeter Eric Dahlman. Quantum is Smith’s first album using the new Zendrum EXP, MIDI percussion controller, the first commercially sold EXP, designed by David Haney of the Zendrum Corporation. “FutureJazz” (Edgetone EDT4171) is Smith's latest work and his seventh album on the Edgetone Records label. FutureJazz unites Smith with guitarist Peter McKibben (Savant Garde) and features flautist, Laura Austin Wiley (Resonance). Smith continues his unique fusion approach with the Zendrum EXP, combined with McKibben’s inspired guitar looping mastery and Wiley’s thoughtful flute playing to create music swirling between the sublime, the beautiful, the incendiary. Inspired by the music of iconic jazz fusion pioneers like Return to Forever, progressive rock groups like King Crimson, Jethro Tull, Genesis, Tangerine Dream, and the 1970 classic tome “Future Shock” by author Alvin Toffler, Smith and McKibben’s compositions are borne out of an appreciation for the those musical masters, and the shock that accompanies the reality today’s musicians face in our rapidly changing, ever-evolving, digital age. Smith, McKibben and Wiley have not shied away from it. To the contrary, they have sought to embrace it by using some of the latest musical technology, instruments and signal processing to explore the boundaries of the analog and digital, musical frontiers. Smith currently performs with bansurist John Wubbenhorst's Facing East, and with keyboardist Steve McQuarry's "Echelon" electric quartet, featuring violinist Michele Walther and bassist Ted Burik. Doc's latest projects are with bansurist John Wubbenhorst and his group Facing East; "FutureJazz”, his seventh album on the Edgetone Records label with guitarist Peter McKibben, and flautist Laura Austin Wiley; Steve McQuarry's Electric Quartet featuring bassist Ted Burik and violinist Michele Walther of McQuarry's Resonance Jazz octet. Doc also performs regularly with the Laura Austin Wiley Electric Quintet with keyboardist Jim Lang, guitarist David McFarland and bassist Edo Castro Woodhouse. Doc recently completed a tour and album with bassist Jason Everett’s Deep Energy Orchestra, featuring Trey Gunn of King Crimson on Warr guitar, guitarist Fareed Haque of Billy Cobham’s Crosswinds band, Radhika Iyer on electric violin, Phil Hirschi of the Mahavishnu Orchestra on cello, Chaz Hastings on tabla, Rachel Nesvig on violin and Aleida Gehrels on viola. His newest effort is the Trio Electrique with bassist Edo Castro Woodhouse and violinist Michele Walther. In 2023 he will release his 9th album on the Edgetone Records label, "Ketu" featuring Seth Elgart, Claudia Paige and Peter McKibben, and a duo album with keyboardist Thollem McDonas.

Amanda King

Born: May 10

Combining the best of jazz and cabaret by focusing on the words, the music, and the swing, Amanda King masterfully interprets the music she adores. Based in San Francisco and well known to audiences throughout California, she specializes in the glorious music of the 30s, 40s, and 50s. In 2007, her singing career was launched with her one woman show "It's About Damn Time" and has climbed steadily with critically acclaimed shows at some of the finest venues on both coasts. Amanda is a classic chanteuse who performs little known gems from the 1930’s and 40’s, as well as jazz standards and popular songs from the Great American Songbook

Terry Disley

Born: October 20, 1956

Terry Disley was born in London. He studied Piano and theory of music at the Salterton School of Music from the age of 9-18. He studied piano for 12 years studying classical repertoire, as well as jazz, composition, harmony and arranging for 10 years. In 1982 Terry and his group Macondo received the award for Best Jazz Musician’s of the year from the Greater London Arts Association. He started composing at age 11 and by 13 was writing for his own electric/acoustic chamber group. Terry has gone on to write for a multitude of ensembles. Including string quartets, electronic contemporary dance music, jazz big band, ambient new age music and contemporary pop songs. In 1997 he composed the music for the motion picture ‘Monument Avenue’, a Ted Demme film which premiered at the Sundance film festival. He also wrote 2 compositions for the Grammy Award nominated “Back on the Case” album by British new age jazz group Acoustic Alchemy, with whom he toured and recorded for six years

Ian Willson

Ian studied sax with jazz legend, Joe Henderson and has played in various bands since 1975, including Ed Kelly, Frank Martin, Bobby Freeman, Brenda Vaughn, Napata Mero, Gwen Majors, Stephanie Teel, the Toasters, Prime Time, Counterpoint, Pure Pleasure, Midnight Taxi, Shake, Little Sister, Silver Moon Orchestra, Lee Waterman Trio, Pride&Joy, and the Hollywood Swingers.

Jackie Ryan

Jackie teamed with GRAMMY Award winner John Clayton to deliver her chart- topping CD "Listen Here" - a tour de force through a myriad of jazz idioms — from blues and gospel flavored jazz gems, to luscious love songs, a soaring Spanish ballad, a Gershwin classic, pulsating samba rhythms, an original with lyrics penned by GRAMMY/Oscar/Emmy Award winners — all culminating with the title track: a stunning duet with 3-time GRAMMY nominee Gerald Clayton.

"Those who hear her are the fortunate ones," writes Howard Mandel - president, Jazz Journalists Association; "An astonishing contralto voice," (DOWNBEAT), thrilling audiences across the globe with her powerful 3 & 1/2 octave range and her magnetic stage presence - and amassing, along the way, an impressive array of records (three back-to-back #1 CDs on JazzWeek's nationwide chart) and glowing reviews.

Her previous outing - a double CD, "DOOZY" - featured Cyrus Chestnut, Eric Alexander, Jeremy Pelt, Carl Allen, Ray Drummond and Romero Lubambo, garnered universal praise (4-Stars from both DOWNBEAT and AMG), and held the #1 position nationwide on JazzWeek's industry-standard chart for a record-breaking 7 solid weeks

DA5

Active since: February 15, 2006

Tippo

Active since: October 31

Tippo is an electro-acoustic industrial jazz ensemble formed by David B. Leikam in late 2006 after graduating from Wadada Leo Smith's Music Performer / Composer MFA degree program at CalArts. Tippo played their debut performance on 13.06.2007 at KZSU 90.1FM followed by a double billing performance at the 2007 CalArts Northern California Alumni Showcase at the Cowell Theatre, Fort Mason Center in San Francisco, California, USA on June 16th and 17th, 2007. David B. Leikam had played with these musicians in various other formations before the creation of Tippo; with Areni Agbabian on piano / voice since late 2004 with their duet audio project Agbabian / Leikam, with Zachary Morris on drums(et) with various improvisational music performance since 2005 at CalArts including the post-CalArts formation of the San Francisco Bay Area based band, 'z_bug' in late 2006

Deborah Winters

Born: September 15, 1966

A lifelong resident of the San Francisco Bay Area, Deborah Winters' childhood was immersed in music and dance. Heavily influenced by her father, who pursued the drums as a young man, and by her mother, who was a professional ballet dancer for the Oakland Metropolitan Ballet Company, Deborah developed a passion for music, dance and the theatre at a very early age. Big Band sounds rang through the household where Deborah and her father listened to the likes of Ella Fitzgerald, Duke Ellington, Stan Kenton and Woody Herman, to name a few. During her adolescent years, while moving around the country with her family, Deborah commenced her study of voice and the guitar

John Calloway

John began performing Afro-Latin and jazz music as a teenager in San Francisco's Mission district, a spawning ground for many top West Coast performers of Latin music, such as Karl Perrazo, Rebeca Mauleon and John Santos. Originally a percussionist, John quickly branched out into woodwinds, trombone and piano, eventually focusing on the flute. He also began arranging music at a young age, having studied with Mark Levine. John resided in New York during the 1980s performing with Manny Oquendo's Libre, Charanga 76, Oscar Hernandez and Jerry and Andy Gonzalez. John also earned a Bachelors degree in music from the City College of New York. In the San Francisco Bay Area, John has built a solid foundation as a musician, arranger-composer and educator