Skerik

Skerik (born Eric Walton) is an American saxophonist from Seattle, Washington. Performing on the tenor and baritone saxophone, often with electronics and loops, Skerik is a pioneer in a playing style that has been dubbed saxophonics. He is a founding member of Critters Buggin, Garage a Trois, Tuatara, and Skerik's Syncopated Taint Septet. He is also an original member of both Les Claypool's Fancy Band and Frog Brigade and has toured with and played with numerous others in a variety of genres. Skerik also worked with Grunge band Mad Season.

History

Skerik began playing saxophone in the fifth grade in the Mercer Island public school system. His father's love of jazz was an early inspiration. He played saxophone, keyboards and drums in a rock band called Uncle Jam at Mercer Island High School. He has cited The Rolling Stones and Pink Floyd as bands from that time period who brought saxophone into rock music well. In the 1980s he travelled to London, Paris and the South Pacific working day jobs and playing in a variety of bands. His friendship with Leif Totusek introduced him to South African music and Zaire soukous bands in London where he first began playing music full time.

Adam Deitch

Adam David Deitch is an American record producer and drummer based in New York City. He is the drummer for the bands Lettuce (band) and Break Science and has worked in the hip hop, funk, electro, pop, and jazz genres, and has collaborated with rapper Wax and soul/jazz singer Ledisi. He was nominated for the 2010 Grammy Award for Best R&B Album for writing and producing two songs on Ledisi's album Turn Me Loose as part of the Fyre Dept. production team. Deitch co-founded Royal Family Records and has worked with guitarist John Scofield and rapper 50 Cent.

Discography

As producer and drummer

As producer

Skerik's Syncopated Taint Septet

Skerik's Syncopated Taint Septet (also known as SST7) is a jazz ensemble formed in Seattle, Washington, in 2002.

Music

Although uniquely merging jazz and funk, the music of Skerik's Syncopated Taint Septet can also include "New Orleans flavors", solid grooves, swing and hip hop, combined into something both appealing and undefinable. Their music has been self-described by Skerik as "...punk-jazz. Maybe a punk-jazz version of the Thelonious Monk Octet."

A theme in the music is a recognition that traditional jazz having reached a zenith in the early 1960s cannot be contained in reverence. The Syncopated Taint Septet is a synthesis of traditional music with current and experimental music forms. The project displays a band member equality with "leads being shared by everyone."

History

Their first album, Skerik's Syncopated Taint Septet, was recorded live at the Owl and Thistle in Seattle and was released in 2003. It was reviewed as occasionally loud, yet also having a "spirited [and] immediate musicianship." Although popularly associated with jam band music, an improvisational distinction can be made regarding the large musical vocabulary displayed by the band in the recording.

John Medeski

Anthony John Medeski (born June 28, 1965) is an American jazz keyboards player and composer. Medeski is a veteran of New York's 1990s avant-garde jazz scene and is known popularly as a member of Medeski Martin & Wood. He plays the acoustic piano and an eclectic array of keyboards, including the Hammond B3 organ, melodica, mellotron, clavinet, ARP String Ensemble, Wurlitzer electric piano, Moog Voyager Synthesizer, Wurlitzer 7300 Combo Organ, Vox Continental Baroque organ, and Yamaha CS-1 Synthesizer (a "kids' toy"), among others. When playing acoustic piano, Medeski usually plays the Steinway piano and is listed as a Steinway Artist.

Biography

Medeski was born in Louisville, Kentucky, and grew up in Florida. After studying piano as a child (starting when he was five years old), he began as a teenager to perform with musicians such as Mark Murphy and Jaco Pastorius. He attended Pine Crest School. In 1983, after graduating from high school, he began studying piano at the New England Conservatory in Boston, where he performed as a sideman with Dewey Redman, Billy Higgins, Bob Mintzer, Alan Dawson and Mr. Jellybelly. Medeski attributes his early interest in playing improvised music and jazz to listening to Oscar Peterson.