Dave Matthews Band (Full Set Every Night)

Rare indeed is the artist with the virtuosity to draw the unqualified respect of some of the most iconic legends in jazz and the ability to deliver a high-energy funk rock show capable of mesmerizing international rock stars. Troy "Trombone Shorty" Andrews is one such artist - and there is no one else like him.
Trombone Shorty is equally adept on trombone and trumpet and is a man to be reckoned with on both. A product of New Orleans' culturally rich Treme neighborhood, Trombone Shorty was a bandleader by the age of six.
While navigating New Orleans with his band in tow, he was also absorbing lessons from his older brother James, a dynamic musical performer known as "Satchmo of the Ghetto." By the time Trombone Shorty was twelve, he had a Ph.D. in the ways of the streets, which you can still hear in his music.
During a visit to a small New Orleans club, Bono and the Edge saw the 12-year-old trombone player. "We walked in and the place was jumping. There was this little funk band, but they were all playing brass instruments, which is something I'd never heard of or seen before," The Edge recalled. "We were just mesmerized by him. I ended up with Bono, after a few tequilas, dancing with a bunch of girls on the top of the bar. It was one of those sort of nights."
Now, at 23, Trombone Shorty has grown into a performer who commands the stage while emanating an elegance and class gleaned from his successful studies at the prestigious New Orleans Center for the Creative Arts. As a graduate, he joined the ranks of alums like Branford Marsalis, Harry Connick Jr., and Nicholas Payton. Another alum, Wynton Marsalis, said of him, "Troy possesses the rarest combination of talent, technical capability and down home soul. I'm his biggest fan."
Shorty has attracted many such legends to his high-profile fanbase, and the diverse and notable names he has performed and soloed with include Norah Jones at Jazzfest 2007, Diana Krall at Madison Square Garden in 2005, and chart-topping rapper Juvenile at VoodooFest 2008.
In 2009, New Orleans' premier music magazine, Offbeat, awarded Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue Best R&B/Funk Band for the second year in a row. Trombone Shorty himself picked up an award for Best Trumpet and he has been named Performer of The Year twice. His success - and his promise - has been recognized by the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival on one of the Fest's two annual official posters. He is the youngest artist to be featured on the poster by 18 years - the next youngest was Wynton Marsalis, who was featured at age 41.
The four years leading up to being tapped for the Jazzfest poster saw Trombone Shorty's profile grow virtually month-by-month. In 2005, he was tapped by Lenny Kravitz to be a featured member of his horn section for the 63-date Electric Church world tour that in North America supported Aerosmith's Rockin' the Joint tour.
In London in 2006, Trombone Shorty worked with producer Bob Ezrin and U2 at Abbey Road Studios. This association led to Trombone Shorty performing with U2 and Green Day during the New Orleans Superdome's post-Katrina re-opening spectacular during Monday Night Football. The show aired live on ESPN and was also broadcast internationally by Westwood One.
Also in 2006, Trombone Shorty made his acting debut on the NBC television series Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. Leading a group of New Orleans musicians, his haunting trumpet performance of the holiday classic "O Holy Night" drew such an enthusiastic response from viewers that NBC released the single for free download on the NBC.com home page.
Trombone Shorty has been profiled by Good Morning America and USA Today and was featured on "Whole Lotta Loving," a collaboration with Lenny Kravitz for the 2007 album Goin' Home: A Tribute to Fats Domino. When the 2008 NBA All-Star game was played in New Orleans, he was tapped to play on court during player introductions, along with Harry Connick Jr., Kermit Ruffins, and Branford Marsalis.
THE FUTURE IS SUPAFUNKROCK
The here and now finds Trombone Shorty a fully developed performer bursting into the international consciousness. It's always a challenge to find an appropriate label for artists who make something uniquely their own from a variety of influences. In the case of Trombone Shorty and Orleans Avenue, the band created its own tagline for its high-octane music: SupaFunkRock. The group's performances have been known to run for hours at an energy level that few others could sustain for a much shorter performance.
The seeds for Orleans Avenue were sown at New Orleans Center for the Creative Arts, and the group has since evolved into a six-piece touring phenomenon. With Mike Ballard on bass, Pete Murano on guitar, Joey Peebles on drums, Dwayne Williams on percussion and Dan Oestreicher on baritone sax, their performances transcend the boundaries of generation and classification. Trombone Shorty and Orleans Avenue have been drawing ever-growing crowds based largely on word of mouth excitement about their knockout shows, night after night. Making the most of limited time off, they are currently recording new songs that capture the band's rare combination of virtuosity and high-energy party intensity - the next accomplishment to watch for in the career of this unparalleled young artist.

So Runs The World Away, the new album from renowned singer-songwriter Josh Ritter, will be released May 4 on Pytheas Recordings. This is the fifth full-length recording from Ritter, who has been widely heralded by critics and fans alike. Of the Idaho-native, Paste magazine declares, “Put simply, Ritter is the most gifted interpreter of Americana, as an arranger and a lyricist, working today.”

Recorded over 15 months at the Great North Sound Society in Maine, with additional recording at Brooklyn’s Saltlands Studio, So Runs The World Away continues Ritter’s longtime collaboration with producer and keyboard player Sam Kassirer. Additionally, the album features the return of Ritter’s core line-up of touring bandmates: Zack Hickman, Austin Nevins and Liam Hurley.

Of the record, Ritter says, “I think of the songs on So Runs the World Away like pictures painted in oil on large canvasses. It’s a record preoccupied with the extremes of scale, from infinitesimal particles to the nearly incomprehensible distances between the head of a pin and a nebula. Where the songs felt large to me, I wanted them to be huge, both musically and lyrically. I wanted them to feel like the steel hulls of massive ships sliding by deeply from below. Where they were small, I concentrated in on the smallest details that I could and we tried to make the music and the words work together. I love writing, and this was the most fulfilling record I’ve yet written.”

The genesis of From Good Homes dates back to a high school band, when childhood friends Todd Sheaffer, Brady Rymer, and Patrick Fitzsimmons came together in rural, Northwestern NJ to play some music. Originally called "Old Crow", and later evolving into "The Dogs", the core line-up remained. With the addition of Dan Myers in 1988, and Jamie Coan in 1990, the band From Good Homes was fully formed. (Incidentally, the band's name was born out of a brush with the law. They were playing a hometown show when the bar owner decided to close down early - before the band had gotten a chance to perform a song that they'd rehearsed all week ("IOU", by The Replacements). Disappointed, the band departed…but decided to return in the wee hours of the morning and break into the bar to perform the song (with amplifiers turned up to "10"). They were arrested and appeared in court, where the judge sentenced them to community service - since they seemed to be "from good homes".)

The band's upbeat approach, solid songwriting, and unique sound allowed them to quickly develop a dedicated following on the touring circuit. Bringing together rock, jazz, folk, celtic and jam-band influences under one umbrella, rooted in Todd Sheaffer's inspired songwriting, From Good Homes forged their own, instantly lovable music Their feel-good vibe prompted one critic to affectionately label the band's blend of influences as "Hick-Pop". They made fans want to kick on the dancin' shoes from day one. As the band members themselves have stated: "We wanted first and foremost to make a real and honest form of music that moved people (both their brains and their butts) and left them, over all, feeling good."

The early 90s saw the band touring regularly up and down the East Coast, soon expanding their circuit to Colorado and other regions. The fan base grew, and the gigs got bigger and bigger. During this period, FGH would frequently perform with other up-and-coming acts, including Hootie & The Blowfish, Dave Matthews Band, and Blues Traveller (all of whom opened shows for them at one point or another). 1994 was a breakthrough year for From Good Homes. In the summer, they released their indie debut - the appropriately titled "Hick-Pop Comin' At Ya" - on their own GRRRrrrr Records label. They also signed a major label deal with RCA Records, and began an annual tradition - a summer concert before thousands of eager hometown fans at Stanhope, NJ's Waterloo Village. With an enthusiastic and ever-growing fan base, and a record deal in place, the future looked bright for the group.

"Open Up The Sky", From Good Homes' major label debut on RCA Records, was released in April, 1995 and the band embarked on a year-long national tour, opening arena dates for Dave Matthews Band, Ratdog, and others, while also headlining many club dates. Two of the band's songs were included in the 1997 Twentieth Century Fox release "Picture Perfect", (featuring Jennifer Aniston & Kevin Bacon). "Open Up The Sky" was followed up with the release of a live EP ("Live At Waterloo") in 1997, and the self-titled "From Good Homes" (1998). In 1998, From Good Homes received an achievement award from Billboard and Irving Plaza for the most consecutive sold-out performances ever (12) at this respected NYC venue.

Parting ways with RCA at the end of 1998, From Good Homes commenced work on a new album during the winter of 1998/1999, but the band decided to call it quits before the project could be fully completed. On August 7, 1999, From Good Homes performed a farewell concert at Waterloo Village - where they had performed to frenzied crowds every summer since 1994. Some 5,000 people turned up to see the band off in style, as FGH worked its way through 3 hours of classic material. The show was professionally recorded for posterity, and in 2002 From Good Homes teamed up with Washington DC-based indie label BOS Music to release "Take Enough Home" - a single-disc version of the show. The album captures the best cuts from the final show, highlighting special songs from throughout the band's illustrious career. The disc also included a bonus - a previously unreleased studio track ("Into The Light").

After disbanding in 1999, the band went on to embark on individual projects. Todd Sheaffer formed the bluegrass-influenced Railroad Earth, which has released 5 records and continues to sell out shows throughout North America. Brady Rymer started releasing children's music and his 2008 release "Here Comes Brady Rymer and the Little Band that Could" was nominated for a Grammy Award in the Best Musical Album for Children category. Drummer Patrick Fitzsimmons has had a very successful run as a singer/songwriter, releasing 5 records independently and touring regularly in the northeast. Saxophonist Dan Myers runs a production company, Dirt Floor Studio, and has worked on records with Adam Green, Sam Champion, as well as with Rymer and Fitzsimmons. Multi-instrumentalist Jamie Coan continues to write, perform and record and is currently the fiddle and dobro player for The Red Top Ramblers in the Charleston, SC area. And, all the while, the FGH fan base has remained intact, refusing to acknowledge the demise of their favorite group…

On October 1, 2009, the members of From Good Homes announced that the band would reunite for their first public performances in over 10 years. The shows, which took place on December 18th & 19th, 2009 at the Wellmont Theatre in Montclair, NJ were a huge success, selling out the 2 nights with many friends and fans reconnecting with each other and the music they had missed over the years.

A modern day pop artist and musical revolutionary, piano iconoclast ELEW is making a substantial impression on the music world with a thunderous new style of playing: an inspired melding of ragtime, rock and pop that he calls Rockjazz.

ELEW has toured the world, recorded, and performed continuously with Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, Elvin Jones, Roy Hargrove, and Cassandra Wilson, among others. He won the 1999 Thelonious Monk International Piano Competition, his mesmerizing piano theatrics even then hinting at the new musical paradigm he would one day create.

Now, in the jazz tradition of interpreting popular tunes of the day, much like Art Tatum and John Coltrane, ELEW has turned to rock, combining a guitarist’s approach to the piano with an explosively physical style of playing that would be at home in any arena. An imposing force even before he stands (not sits) behind the piano, ELEW is known for playing his instrument like an athlete plays a sport—going inside the instrument, testing the limits of his body, pushing through the pain and exhaustion….but never stopping.

As he continues to gain notoriety with his blistering renditions of infectious rock and pop anthems Coldplay, The Killers, Nirvana, and more, he has broken free of the rigidly defined boundaries of the traditional jazz world and ultimately given birth to something wholly original. His relentless innovation and disregard for the musical status quo has shocked and angered the jazz world even as it has attracted the rapt attention and following of mainstream political, artistic, and cultural leaders from across the globe—including Donna Karan, Sting and Eric Schmidt of Google, among others—as well as netting the musician a historic performance at the White House itself.

ELEW’s debut album—ELEW Rockjazz Volume 1—is now available for digital purchase on CD Baby at www.cdbaby.com/elew.