Special EFX All-Stars featuring Chieli Minucci,
Eric Marienthal, Brian Bromberg,
Elliott Yamin, Lao Tizer, and Tony Lewis
Guitarist, composer, producer, and arranger Chieli Minucci is longtime leader of the Grammy-nominated jazz-fusion group SPECIAL EFX featuring Chieli Minucci, a major force on the jazz and world music scene for 40 years.
Chieli has just released 3 brand new projects – “Return to Budapest With Love”, the archived, 1990 live concert recording of Special EFX from their early days on tour in Europe, solo project, and mainly acoustic “Someone’s Singing”, as well as his 40th anniversary Special EFX CD, “Twenty Twenty 2” (both ChieliMusic). Chieli & Special EFX’s previous release saw title track, “Deep as the Night”, win Billboard Magazine’s 2018 top honors, best-song-of-the-year.
Besides writing and performing his own music, Chieli shares his guitar brilliance throughout the entertainment world. He has recorded and performed with many top artists, such as Celine Dion, Lou Reed, Lionel Richie, Jennifer Lopez, Jewel, Mark Anthony, Michael Bolton, Rupert Holmes, Eartha Kitt, Eddie Fisher, Anastasia, as well as jazz artists Kirk Whalum, Jeff Lorber, Norman Brown, Bernie Williams, Marion Meadows, Lao Tizer, Mindi Abair, Rick Braun, Gerald Veasley, Omar Hakim, and many others. Although renowned in the jazz and pop world, Chieli is also a gifted television and film composer. He has won 3 Emmy Awards and been nominated 10 times for his eclectic compositional work. His music can also be heard on the soundtracks of the films Bowfinger, Legally Blonde, Panic, and others. Chieli's original scoring work can be heard in live stage productions of Peter Pan, Dora the Explorer, Thomas the Tank Engine, and others.
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Saxophonist Eric Marienthal started his professional career in 1980 with famed New Orleans trumpeter Al Hirt. After returning to Los Angeles, Eric became a member of the Chick Corea Elektric Band. He recorded six albums with that band and two of them won Grammy Awards. Six of the songs that Marienthal has recorded have made it to the top 10 of the National Contemporary Jazz Radio Charts and two have made it to No. 1. His Oasis album hit the top 5 on the Billboard Contemporary Jazz Chart. Shortly after that, he was voted one of the year's "Favorite Alto Sax Players" in Jazziz magazine's Readers' Poll. Marienthal has also written instructional books, including Comprehensive Jazz Studies & Exercises, The Ultimate Jazz Play Along, and The Music of Eric Marienthal and instructional videos, including Play Sax From Day One, Modern Sax and Tricks of the Trade.
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Brian Bromberg is one of the few bassists to master the tapping technique made famous by guitarists Stanley Jordan & Eddie Van Halen, sometimes sounding like three bassists at once during his often-thunderous solos. He has long been know as one of the world’s most versatile acoustic and electric bassists, capable of playing practically any style, whether it be straight-ahead jazz, funk, rock fusion, or pop. By the time he was 19, he was part of the legendary Stan Getz group. Besides decades as a bandleader on his own, Bromberg has been a valuable sideman with many, including Horace Silver, Monty Alexander, Dizzy Gillespie, Lee Ritenour, Dave Grusin, many others. Continually stretching himself on bass, Bromberg has long been one of the premiere bassists on the contemporary jazz scene.
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Vocalist Elliott Yamin had no vocal training and was 90 percent deaf in his right ear, yet he vaulted to stardom after becoming a third-place finalist on American Idol. His debut album made it to #1 on the Billboard Charts. Yamin was featured in a nationwide American Idol tour performing live in front of half a million fans. Elliott launched his recording career following his appearance on American Idol as one of the top three finalists. His highly anticipated album, Elliott Yamin, debuted at Number 3 on the Billboard album chart and was the highest debuting album by an independent artist in Soundscan history. The self-titled disc achieved gold status in the U.S. and Japan, yielding the platinum hit, “Wait for You”. Hailed as one of the best male vocalists, Elliott would go on to release three more albums.
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Keyboardist Lao Tizer is one of today’s rising stars of the world-fusion genre. Tizer’s original music has spurred comparisons of a modern twist to the 1970s and early 1980s heyday of jazz fusion, when trailblazing ensembles like Return To Forever, Mahavishnu Orchestra and Weather Report set the aesthetic standard. Lao’s music has a multi-genre, multi-national appeal and his group, The Lao Tizer Band, has toured the USA and the world while being nominated “Jazz Group of the Year”! Their 2018 CD/DVD combo release, Songs From The Swinghouse has received acclaim across the industry while debuting near the top of the Billboard Jazz Album Chart!
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Tony Lewis is a drummer/songwriter from the Bronx, New York, who has been performing for 50 years. He’s known for his ability to play in varied styles such as jazz (Dizzy Gillespie), rock (Sting) and roll (Little Richard), soul (Sam Moore), and hip-hop (Rakim, MC Lyte).