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Paul van der Feen, born (1978-06-08) 8 June 1978 (age 34) in Middelburg, is a Dutch saxophonist.

Career[link]

Being from a musical family, Paul not unexpectedly displayed an extraordinary love for music from a young age. He grew up playing with his brothers Mark, Matthijs and Clemens. Together, they released 2 albums under "van der Feen Brothers".

Having switched from clarinet to altosax, Paul began his studying at age 16 at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam and concluded his education with Bob Mintzer in New York. During these years, Paul explored several musical styles like hiphop/funk, classical and world music but was drawn back into jazz by rediscovering Coltrane and Shorter. Subsequently he started writing for his Quartet - the Paul van der Feen Quartet.

In 2004, Paul was a prize winner at the world renowned White Foundation World Sax Competition in London [1], during which he played with Geri Allen, Rob Hurst and Eric Harland. Paul has encountered a host of jazz musicians since and was featured by the Jazz Orchestra of the Concertgebouw.

At present Paul is an often featured member of the Metropole Orchestra; which in turn is conducted by Vince Mendoza. In this role, he has played alongside John Scofield, Bob Brookmeyer, Maria Schneider and Terrence Blanchard, among others.

External links[link]

• Official site

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Larry Graham
Background information
Birth name	Larry Graham, Jr.
Born	(1946-08-14) August 14, 1946 (age 65) Beaumont, Texas, U.S.
Genres	Funk, soul
Occupations	Musician, songwriter, producer
Instruments	Bass, vocals, Keyboards
Years active	1959–present
Labels	Epic, Warner Bros., NPG, RhinoSphinx
Associated acts	Sly and the Family Stone, Prince, Graham Central Station, Drake
Website	www.larrygraham.com
Notable instruments
Fender Jazz Bass

Larry Graham, Jr. (born August 14, 1946, Beaumont, Texas) is an American bass guitar player, both with the popular and influential psychedelic soul/funk band Sly and the Family Stone, and as the founder and frontman of Graham Central Station. He is credited with the invention of the slapping technique, which radically expanded the tonal palette of the bass, although he himself refers to the technique as "Thumpin' and Pluckin'."^[1]

Biography[link]

Graham played bass in the highly successful and influential funk band Sly and the Family Stone from 1966 to 1972. It is said that he pioneered the art of slap-pop playing on the electric bass, in part to provide percussive and rhythmic elements in addition to the notes of the bass line when his mother's band lacked a drummer; the slap of the thumb being used to emulate a bass drum and the pop of the index or middle finger as a snare drum.^[1] This style has become archetypal of modern funk. Slap-pop playing couples a percussive thumb-slapping technique of the lower strings with an aggressive finger-snap of the higher strings, often in rhythmic alternation. The slap and pop technique incorporates a large ratio of muted or "dead" notes to normal notes, which adds to the rhythmic effect.

This "slap" bass style was later used by such artists as Les Claypool (of Primus), Bootsy Collins, Louis Johnson, Mark King, Flea, Tim Commerford (of Rage Against The Machine), Peter Hook, Victor Wooten, Jonas Hellborg, Kim Clarke of Defunkt, Marcus Miller, Stanley Clarke, John Norwood Fisher, P-Nut, Danny McCormack, Matt Noveskey, Dirk Lance, and Pino Palladino.

After Sly and the Family Stone, Graham formed his own band, Graham Central Station. The name is a pun on Grand Central Station, the train station located in the Manhattan borough of New York City. Graham Central Station had several hits in the 1970s, including "Hair".

In the mid-1970s, Larry Graham worked with Betty Davis, the second ex-wife of jazz legend Miles Davis. Betty Davis' band included members of the Tower of Power horns and the Pointer Sisters, and she recorded three albums to critical acclaim but limited commercial success.

In 1975, Graham became Jehovah's Witness.^[2] Eventually he was credited with converting Prince to the faith. In the early 1980s, Graham recorded five solo albums and had several solo hits on the R&B charts. His biggest hit was "One in a Million You", a crossover hit, which reached number nine on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1980.

He reformed Graham Central Station in the early 1990s and performed with the band for several years during which they released 2 live albums. One was recorded in Japan in 1992, and the other, recorded in London in 1996, had only 1000 copies printed and was exclusively sold at concerts.

In 1999, he recorded a solo album under the name Graham Central Station, GCS 2000. It was a collaboration between Larry Graham and Prince. While Graham wrote all the songs, except one co-written by Prince, the album was co-arranged and co-produced by Prince, and most of the instruments and vocals were recorded by both Graham and Prince. Graham also played bass on tours with Prince in 1997-2000. He appeared in Prince's 1998 VHS Beautiful Strange and 1999 DVD Rave Un2 the Year 2000.

He has appeared with Prince since then at various international venues.

Larry Graham and Graham Central Station performed internationally with a world tour in 2010 and the "Funk Around The World" international tour in 2011.

Graham is the uncle of Canadian rapper and actor Aubrey Graham (Drake). Graham is the father of Singer/producer/songwriter Darric Graham

Discography[link]

[edit] With Graham Central Station

• Graham Central Station (Warner Bros., 1974)
• Release Yourself (Warner Bros., 1974)
• Ain't No 'Bout-A-Doubt It (Warner Bros., 1975)
• Mirror (Warner Bros., 1976)
• Now Do U Wanta Dance (Warner Bros., 1977)
• My Radio Sure Sounds Good to Me (Warner Bros., 1978)
• Star Walk (Warner Bros., 1979)
• Live in Japan (1992)
• Live in London (1996)
• Back by Popular Demand (1998)
• The Best of Larry Graham and Graham Central Station, Vol. 1 (Warner Bros., 1996)

Solo albums[link]

All Warner Bros. releases.

• 1980: One in a Million You
• 1981: Just Be My Lady
• 1982: Sooner or Later
• 1983: Victory
• 1985: Fired Up

NPG Records release

• 1999: GCS2000 (as Graham Central Station)

Singles[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

• A bio from the Ultimate Band List
• "Release Yourself: From Sly Stone's roughhouse to the Artist's clubhouse, groundbreaking bassist Larry Graham finds new power in Minnesota" City Pages, July 21, 1999

Cody Chesnutt
Cody ChesnuTT at the 2011 Ilosaarirock festival.
Background information
Born	1968 (age 43–44)
Origin	Atlanta, Georgia
Genres	Rock and roll, R&B, soul
Occupations	Composer, musician
Associated acts	The Crosswalk

Cody Chesnutt performing at Martin Luther's Rebel Soul Fest in San Francisco, July 2008.

Cody Chesnutt (stylized as Cody ChesnuTT, born 1968^[1]) is an American R&B and neo soul musician from Atlanta, Georgia.

Biography[link]

Chesnutt's music blends elements of rock, funk, soul, hip hop, and blues. After relocating to Los Angelos, Chesnutt found work with Death Row records, writing and producing five songs for the male R&B group Six Feet Deep. Chesnutt and his former band, The Crosswalk, had a brief stint with Hollywood Records in which they were later booted from the label. The band subsequently broke up and Chesnutt released a double LP in 2002 entitled The Headphone Masterpiece, which was recorded on a 4-track cassette recorder in his bedroom recording studio, which he calls "The Sonic Promiseland".

His closest brush with mainstream success came in 2002, when the hip hop group The Roots remade a song from his album, "The Seed", for their album Phrenology, as "The Seed (2.0)". Chesnutt plays guitar and sings vocals on the track, and appears in its music video, which received heavy airplay on MTV and BET. At the height of his popularity, Chesnutt's backing band consisted of drummer Craig Waters, now with the band The Bellrays, and bassist Aaron Ebensperger. In October 2003, Cody Chesnutt was nominated for the prestigious Shortlist Music Prize, and performed in the ceremony for the prize at the Wiltern Theatre in California.

In 2006, Chesnutt appeared in the music documentary Dave Chappelle's Block Party, which was originally recorded in September 2004. The same year, he recorded the track "Boils" for the 4AD records album Plague Songs. On his Myspace announced an upcoming album titled The Live Release, which he has been performing around the world but is yet to be released. In 2007, he performed at the Pop Montreal music festival as one of the headliners.

In 2010 he released an EP called Black Skin No Value. Furthermore he stated in an interview that he will publish his second big album Landing On A Hundred in 2012.^[2]

Discography[link]

Albums[link]

• 2002: The Headphone Masterpiece
• 2006: The Live Release (unpublished)
• 2010: Black Skin No Value (EP)
• 2012: Landing On A Hundred^[3]

Singles[link]

• 2001: Look Good in Leather ("AXE Instinct"-Werbespot (2009))
• 2002: "The World Is Coming"^[4]
• 2002: "The Seed (2.0)" (featuring The Roots) (UK #33)
• 2006: "The Last Adam"
• 2008: "Afrobama"^[5]
• 2010: "Come Back Like Spring" ^[6]

Notes[link]

External links[link]

• Cody Chesnutt on Myspace