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Take Five With Mike Prigodich

By Mike Prigodich
June 25, 2011
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Meet Mike Prigodich:
Mike's jazz fusion compositions have begun attracting attention from many well-known national and local artists. Becoming a cancer patient in 2008 was the big wakeup call that got him to start writing lots of new music, form a band, start booking gigs, and pursue his dream of becoming a professional jazz musician, inspired by fellow cancer survivor Lance Armstrong. Mike raised over $10,000 on kickstarter.com in 2010 to fund his first studio album A Stitch In Time, featuring Damian Erskine, Reinhardt Melz, John Nastos, Brandon Woody, Rafael Trujillo, Patrick Lamb, Tim Jensen, and Paul Mazzio, produced by Emmy Award-winning David Mathew. This studio album and band is also being featured on the Oregon Public Broadcasting (OPB) Oregon Art Beat television show. Mike currently resides in Portland, Oregon and enjoys playing with some of the finest musicians in town who are up to the task of performing his extremely challenging but accessible compositions.

Instrument(s):
Piano, keyboards, bass

Teachers and/or influences?
Influences : Chick Corea, Don Grusin, Dave Grusin, Hiromi, Kerry Livgren, Michael Brecker.

I knew I wanted to be a musician when...
I heard Chuck Mangione and Dave Grusin on the radio.

Your sound and approach to music:
Original jazz fusion.

Your dream band:
I'm already playing with a dream band that includes Damian Erskine on bass and Reinhardt Melz on drums. I would love to work with Frank Gambale or Al Di Meola on guitar someday, as well as Bob Mintzer or Joshua Redman on sax, and Dave Weckl or Horacio "El Negro" Hernandez on drums.

Your favorite recording in your discography and why?
My debut album, A Stitch In Time; it's my first and only album so far.

The first Jazz album I bought was:
Dave Grusin, Out Of The Shadows.

What do you think is the most important thing you are contributing musically?
Interesting original compositions.

CDs you are listening to now:
Hiromi, Voice .

What is in the near future?
Promoting my newly released debut album, writing new music, and booking more gigs.

By Day:
I test software as a QA engineer.

Photo Credit
Courtesy of Mike Prigodich

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About Mike Prigodich

Instrument: Piano

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