Gregg Rolie

Gregg Alan Rolie (born June 17, 1947, Seattle, Washington, United States) is an American singer, keyboardist and organist. Rolie served as lead singer of the bands Santana, Journey and Abraxas Pool – all of which he co-founded. He also helmed rock group The Storm, and currently performs with his Gregg Rolie Band. Rolie was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998, as a member of Santana.

Career

Prior to Santana, Rolie played with a group called William Penn and his Pals while attending Cubberley High School in Palo Alto, California, circa 1965. A year after graduating from high school in 1965, Rolie joined Carlos Santana and others to form the Santana Blues Band, which was later shortened simply to Santana. As a founding member of Santana, Rolie was part of the band's first wave of success, including an appearance at the Woodstock Music and Art Festival in 1969 and central roles in several hit albums. He is perhaps best known for being their original lead vocalist, with his voice appearing on well-known Santana songs such as "Black Magic Woman" (US #4), "Oye Como Va", "No One To Depend On" and "Evil Ways". He also became well known for his skill on the Hammond B3 organ, with solos on many of the aforementioned hits. However, persistent differences with Carlos Santana regarding the musical direction of the band led Rolie to leave at the end of 1971.

Singing

Singing is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of tonality, rhythm, the use of sustained tones and a variety of vocal techniques. A person who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung without accompaniment or with accompaniment by musical instruments. Singing is often done in a group of other musicians, such as in a choir of singers with different voice ranges, or in an ensemble with instrumentalists, such as a rock group or baroque ensemble. Singers may also perform as soloist with accompaniment from a piano (as in art song and in some jazz styles) or with a symphony orchestra or big band. There are a range of different singing styles, including art music styles such as opera and Chinese opera, religious music styles such as Gospel, traditional music styles, world music, jazz, blues and popular music styles such as pop and rock.

Singing can be formal or informal, arranged or improvised. It may be done for religious devotion, as a hobby, as a source of pleasure, comfort, or ritual, as part of music education, or as a profession. Excellence in singing requires time, dedication, instruction, and regular practice. If practice is done on a regular basis then the sounds can become more clear and strong. Professional singers usually build their careers around one specific musical genre, such as classical or rock, although there are singers with crossover success (singing in more than one genre). They typically take voice training provided by voice teachers or vocal coaches throughout their careers.

Vinnie Colaiuta

Vincent "Vinnie" Colaiuta (born February 5, 1956) is an American drummer based in Los Angeles. Originally from Republic, Pennsylvania, he began playing drums as a child and received his first full drum kit from his parents at the age of fourteen. He was inducted into the Modern Drummer Hall of Fame in 1996.

Career

After attending the Berklee College of Music in Boston for a year, Colaiuta had his first big break as a member of the Christopher Morris Band in 1976–77. In 1977, he relocated with the band to Los Angeles. After leaving the band, he played with lounge bands. His next break came in April 1978, after auditioning for Frank Zappa. The audition entailed performing "The Black Page". Colaiuta went on to work with Zappa as his principal drummer for studio and live performances. He played on the successful Zappa albums Tinsel Town Rebellion, Joe's Garage, and Shut Up 'n Play Yer Guitar. Joe's Garage was named one of the top-25 drumming performances of all time in a 1993 Modern Drummer article.

Dann Huff

Dann Huff (born November 15, 1960) is an American musician, session musician, singer-songwriter and producer. For his work as a producer in the Country music genre he has won several awards including the Musician of the Year award in 2001 and 2004 at the Country Music Association Awards and the Producer of the Year award in 2006 and 2009 at the Academy of Country Music. He is the father of singer/songwriter Ashlyne Huff.

Career

Huff began his career as part of the original Christian rock band White Heart in which he played with his brother David Huff, and later in the melodic hard rock band Giant. He has since then been active as a session guitarist and producer in both rock music and country music. In the 1980s Huff has played guitar on albums for Michael Jackson, Scritti Politti, Whitesnake, Roger Hodgson, Steven Curtis Chapman, Doro Pesch, George Benson,Whitney Houston's debut album Whitney Houston, Barbra Streisand,Kenny Rogers and more. Since the 1990s Huff has been working as a producer for various bands and artists some of which include Faith Hill, Megadeth, Rebecca St. James and Rascal Flatts.

Arthur Barrow

Arthur Barrow (born February 28, 1952, San Antonio, Texas) is a multi-instrumental musician, best known for his stint as a bass guitar player for Frank Zappa in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Early life

Barrow was born in San Antonio, Texas in 1952 and grew up in a part of town there called Alamo Heights. His father played piano and organ, as had his father, Arthur Barrow of Buffalo, New York, a strict piano teacher and organist. When he was 13, he washed neighborhood cars until he had saved enough money to buy his first electric guitar (an Alamo) and his first amplifier (a Kent). He learned how to play music by ear by copying surf guitar records like The Ventures, and later, Jimi Hendrix, and still later, Frank Zappa. He played in local bands through junior high and high school during the 1960s. He began to study classical organ in 1970.

While attending Alamo Heights High School, Arthur Barrow cut his musical teeth playing Lead Guitar with a rock band known as Wisdom, playing fraternity parties, high school dances, and small concerts in the San Antonio area. His fellow band members (Ian "Toby" French (singer), Raymond Tolbert (bass), Alfred Toerney (keyboards), and others) knew that Arthur was "marked for greatness" due to his outstanding talent and ability to quickly pick up songlines (source?).