Jazz Round Table #1
Description
Welcome to the first Episode! This week’s guests are guitarist Michael O’Neil, keyboardist Gregg Karukas, and saxophonist Michael Paulo!
In this episode we talk about the musicians’ practice/creative time, stories about people they’ve worked for, advice for the road, and more.
Michael O’Neill – Guitarist/Composer – Has toured with George Benson and Barbara Streisand for years. He’s worked with Al Jarreau, Stevie Wonder, Roberta Flack, Natalie Cole amongst many other greats! He is also a TV/Film composer. The first tune he performs is Funky Fiesta from his album Once in Brazil. He also performs a solo guitar piece.
Gregg Karukas is a Grammy Award winning musician. He was a founding member of The Rippingtons, and has played with Dori Caymmi and Larry Carlton and others. He tells us a story about his first recording session which was with the naturalist Ewell Gibbons!
Gregg talks about his upcoming solo piano album “Serenata.” Check out the preview Here!
The first song Gregg performs is The Girl in the Red Dress which is one of his biggest hits. He also does a solo piano improvisation which turns into a well known Milton Nascimento tune called Ponte de Areia
Michael Paulo – sax player and composer has played with Bobby Caldwell, Jeffrey Osborne, and Miles Davis among others. He tells a great story about recording a few tracks for Miles! We play a few clips from a recent Pay-Per-View live-stream broadcast he performed late last year.
The Song Michael talkes about in his Miles story is Give It Up from the album Rubber Band. Here it is on Apple Music
 Gregg Karukas – Keyboards | ||||||||
| Performed with: The Dave Hill Group 10/15/20, Socially Distant Jazz Round Table #3 1/21/21, Jazz Round Table #01 3/2/21, Dave Hill Group – 7/8/21 Bio – Grammy winning producer/keyboardist/composer Gregg Karukas (www.karukas.com) has many #1 hits from his 12 solo CDs that show his signature piano touch. A prolific, genre-crossing veteran of Smooth Jazz, Brazilian, and R&B/Pop, Gregg was a founding member of The Rippingtons in 1986 and has toured with Boney James, Dave Koz, Larry Carlton, Dori Caymmi, Ricardo Silveira, Sergio Mendes, Peter White, Rick Braun, Shelby Flint, Melissa Manchester, Alphonse Mouzon, Brenda Russell, Jeffrey Osborne and various Allstar groups in recent years. – Gregg won the Grammy in 2013 for producing, composing, playing all keyboards, arranging….and engineering the Best New Age Album (Echoes of Love). – helped launch Dave Koz Music Cruises in 2011 as Musical Director – Gregg’s group was the house band for It’s Garry Shandling’s Show on Showtime. – Gregg arranged and played the theme songs to Disney’s Ducktales and Chip and Dale’s Rescue Rangers; played keys on Rockwell’s Gold Album “Somebody’s Watching Me” Trivia: Gregg’s very first LP session at age 18 was for naturalist/author Euell Gibbons, improvising background Moog Synthesizer textures along with Tim Eyermann’s echoing woodwinds for Gibbons’ readings of the work of Henry David Thoreau, a collector’s item that can occasionally be found on eBay. World famous guitar maker, Paul Reed Smith of PRS Guitars and Gregg grew up together and jammed in Bowie, MD.; the same community that produced icons Eva Cassidy and Kathie Lee Gifford and Space Shuttle astronaut Ricky Arnold....MORE INFO! | ||||||||
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 Michael O’Neill – Guitar | ||||||||
| Performed with: Jazz Round Table #01 3/2/21, Michael O’Neil Trio 4/29/21 Bio – Michael O’Neill’s services as a guitarist and vocalist have been called upon at the highest levels of the music industry for over 30 years.Starting with his first tour of the U.S. and Europe on the Crusaders “Street Life” tour to his ongoing work with George Benson and Barbra Streisand,Michael has played on hundreds of recordings,worked on dozens of World tours,recorded 5 solo cd’s,made numerous television and video appearances,provided hundreds of titles for background music sources.Working with George Benson since 1981,Michael has appeared on “The Best of Benson Live”,George Benson and Al Jarreau cd “Givin it Up”,Benson’s “Absolute Live”and “Live in Montreux 1986″ dvd’s and served as an Associate Producer on Benson’s most recent cd,”Songs and Stories”.Michael has recently entered the arena of television composers as his music can be heard on ” The Real Housewives of Miami”,”The Real Husbands of Hollywood”,”Pregnant in Heels”,”Miss Advised”,”Million Dollar Listing”,”Brooklyn Big Style”,”Wicked Tuna”,Food Paradise” and a growing list of new productions.With his extensive and varied experiences at the top level of the music industry Michael has a huge pallette of styles and colors to draw from which result in a unique compositional voice. Artists Worked With: Barbra Streisand George Benson Stevie Wonder Al Jarreau Natalie Cole The Crusaders Rickie Lee Jones Aretha Franklin Michael McDonald Kenny Loggins John Legend Joe Sample Hubert Laws Ronnie Laws KD Lang John Anderson Dr John Earth Wind and Fire Vince Gill Brad Paisley Al Green Ruben Studdard Gato Barbieri Sadao Watanabe Jason Mraz Michael Buble Phil Perry Kirk Whalum Rick Braun Boney James Sheila E. Marcus Miller Chaka Khan Dave Koz Carl Anderson John Lee Hooker Earl Klugh Eddie Murphy Manhattan Transfer Randy Crawford Bobby Caldwell Buddy Guy Ivan Lins Tonhinho Horta Donny Osmond Jaime Cullum Nancy Wilson Kenny Lattimore Roberta Flack Patti Austin Robert Mitchum Richard Elliot Jonathan Butler Wayman Tisdale Gregg Karukas Freddie Ravel Arturo Sandoval The Fowler Brothers Heather Headley Wayne Brady Freda Payne Robert Randolph Sarah McLachlan Arthur Blythe...MORE INFO! | ||||||||
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