Wayne Sulc - Producer, Saxophone

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

The SaxMan!

"The SaxMan" Wayne Sulc is our featured perfomer and co produced the cd. Writing two of the songs, and arranging 12 of them. Wayne drove this project from inception to completion. Bringing the experience of 3 prior cd projects and years on the stage with local legends, Wayne's compulsion to present his intention was what made this project happen. Here's a taste of his back ground.

While many musicians can barely handle the demands of being in one band, Wayne Sulc (aka SaxMan) performs in four, with a new album "Heroes and Legends" release this year. At 18, Sulc started playing the saxophone in the D.C. area in a number of R&B and Top 40 bands. It was during this time that he met keyboardist Steve Long and percussionist Tim Cutrona. Perhaps because of the Friends different backgrounds, the band has gone through a number of reinventions, from funk and jazz to R&B and back to funk and jazz. "Mine is the old way of playing in bars and clubs. [Steve] is a bit more traditionally and classically trained," says Sulc. Now, more than 30 years later, Sulc and company have played with such musical artists as Muddy Waters, Sam & Dave, Eddie Money and Hootie and the Blowfish, and have been featured on local jazz station 105.9 FM. While the CD is modern Funk and Latin infused smooth jazz, it pays tribute to the musical heroes & legends of our past. On another note (and band), Sulc's love for salsa music goes back to his childhood in South and Central America (Panama), when he would sit outside the fences of bars and listen to the music coming from inside. But it was eight years ago, when Sulc met Pepe Rojas, that this salsa flame was rekindled and the two formed Esencia Tropical ("tropical essence").Read less...

Tommy Lepson - Vocals, Guitar

Tommy Lepson, The man with the pipes!

Tommy has contributed his voluminous voice and powerful B3 sound to expand our horizons and open up our audience.

Here is a piece of his back ground.


Tommy has appeared on shows with everyone from Chuck Berry, The Righteous Brothers, James Brown, Fabulous Thunderbirds, The Kinks, to Captain Beafheart, Little Feat, NRBQ, and also at the White House three times. Tommy has recorded and or performed with Danny Gatton, Nils Lofgren (E Street Band), Jeff ”Skunk” Baxter (Doobie Bros., Steely Dan) Duke Robillard, Kim Wilson, Tom Principato, The Nighthawks , Root Boy Slim and The Assassins (Jimmy Thackery). He has received numerous Washington Area Music awards, and in 2006 was inducted into the Wama Hall of Fame.This year. An evening with The Tommy Lepson , either live or on disc, is a musical journey that will rock you, move you with emotion, tickle your funny bone and make you shake your tail feather. So come on out and hear the voice that Little Feat’s Shawn Murphy calls ”one of the best”.

Urban Funk

A long detailed account. noting or pertaining to a long poetic composition, usually centered upon a hero, in which a series of great achievements or events is narrated in elevated style. A medieval Icelandic or Norse prose narrative of achievements and events in the history of a personage, family. A nonhistorical or unverifiable story handed down by tradition from earlier times and popularly accepted as historical. a person who, in the opinion of others, has heroic qualities or has performed a heroic act and is regarded as a model or ideal. A person noted for feats of courage or nobility of purpose, especially one who has risked or sacrificed his or her life: soldiers and nurses who were heroes in an unpopular war.

The story of this Epic is certainly a Saga. What began as a plan to record some of our favorite artist has developed into a vision of a life’s journey, adventure and chronicle that we want to share with you. The Legends of our youth were icons. Their music shaped our development and continues to influence our world. The Hero’s who perform on this project were carefully chosen, and they did so at a high level. These artist all, took valuable time from their daily endeavors to contribute to this grateful project and we are forever indebted.

Influenced at an impressionable age, we were seized by the icons of our time as they took root as some of the most influential artist of all time. Their ability to synthesize the elements that went before them and transpose it into yet newer genre’s of music is what sets them apart and made them part of one of the most dynamic periods of musical history we may ever know.

Sacrifice, diligence, perseverance, challenge, triumph, tragedy and success are the hallmarks of many literary representations, the events leading to the culmination of the publishing of this compilation included all.

Thanks to the support of all of those who have been touched by this process including our family, friends and colleagues who without, we would not have accomplished all that we have.
This project was formulated through a single-track recording process. The number of tracks created, edited, deleted, modified, automated, mixed, and mastered have become a blur over the period of several years, and are certainly in the hundreds. Our intent to select the musicians, instrumentation and arrangement was to pay homage and elaborate on the creativity of our teachers, guru’s and masters of an art form we love. The original material is a culmination of the experiences performing, recording and representing the pulse of the era’s in which we participated. The talent of the artist, engineers and technicians who assisted us was a team effort which while not unique in this type of exercise was certainly significant and beyond the scope of what we originally requested and made this production what it is. The stories shared by our partners were from the history books of musical legend. The road trips, performances and studio contributions with the leaders of our industry were truly a marvel and created a sense of awe as we toiled through session after session and kept us going. When we thought we were there, we were not and many times tracks created far in the past would shine like diamonds in the sun to become the final detail that exceeded our greatest expectation. Have I said enough, not likely, I know there is more…..

Steve Long - Keyboards

Steve Long

 

Keyboards

 

Steve Long, keyboardist with Urban Funk is a New England Conservatory trained musician who has also studied with the great big band leader, Bill Potts. Working in the Washington metropolitan area for the last 25 years, Steve has performed clubs, venues and stages with some of the most well known local bands and musicians. Composing in the funk fusion style, Steve penned many of Urban Funks tunes, and is the featured arranger on “Heroes And Legends”.

Mike Davis - Bassist

Mike Davis

 

Bassist

 

Bassist Mike Davis was raised outside of Chicago. His approach to bass was influenced initially by the gritty blues/rock oriented sounds of that area, which he brought out to Baltimore with him., Since relocating to Baltimore, Mike has been fortunate enough to play with some of the area’s best original-music bands, spanning the spectrum of metal, roots, R&B, and light jazz. Recording with these bands, Mike has appeared on more than a dozen releases, (Urban Funk, SaxMan & Friends, Naked Blue, Mutt, Common Bond, and others) some distributed internationally. Performances have featured numerous regional performances, tours of the entire East Coast and of Europe. These opportunities have included an opening spot for “Foreigner”, plus a featured spot on a national cable show. When not trying new approaches to music such as applying a fretless bass to metal music. Mike sometimes ventures out to sea to support ocean explorations conducted as part of his day gig.

Urban Funk: Heroes And Legends

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