Larry Graham

Larry Graham, Jr. (born August 14, 1946) 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′".

Life and career

Born in Beaumont, Texas, to successful musicians, 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. 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.

Central station

Central station is a common name for a railway station, for example Central railway station (London) and Melbourne Central. As well as being used for centrally located stations (such as the former Croydon Central station), "Central" often appears in names of stations that were once served by railway companies which used Central as part of their name—for example Leicester Central railway station was owned by the Great Central Railway, and Grand Central Station in New York City was part of the New York Central Railroad.

When translating foreign texts into English, "Central station" sometimes replaces the name of stations in the non-English speaking world where the literal meaning of the station's name is central station or main station. An example of the latter is the Danish word hovedbanegård. Travel and rail sources such as Rough Guides,Thomas Cook European Timetable and Deutsche Bahn's passenger information generally use the native name; whilst some websites and English publications of some national railway operators use "central station" or "central railway station" instead.

Graham Central Station

HIDDEN ERROR: Usage of "Influences" is not recognized

Graham Central Station was an American funk band named after founder Larry Graham (formerly of Sly & the Family Stone). The name is a pun on New York City's Grand Central Terminal, often colloquially called Grand Central Station.

Origins

The band's origins date from when Santana guitarist Neal Schon formed the band Azteca along with Larry Graham (bass guitar) and Gregg Errico (drums), both from Sly & the Family Stone, and Pete Sears (keyboards), from Hot Tuna and Jefferson Starship. Santana bass guitar player Tom Rutley would move into the bass spot with Azteca. That band, like Santana with heavy Latin influences, would eventually morph into Graham Central Station, while Schon would form Journey. The invention of electric slap bass is attributed by many (including Victor Wooten and Bootsy Collins) to Graham, which influenced many musical genres, such as funk, R&B and disco.

Highlights

Graham Central Station's biggest hit was "Your Love", which charted at number 9 in 1975. The group also integrated gospel music into their repertoire, and played with the dichotomy between the funk/rock star image and the "sanctified" gospel group image. Some of their recordings feature the Tower of Power horn section.

Graham

Graham and Graeme may refer to:

People

Places

Antarctica

Canada

United States

Localities

Counties

Townships

Main article Graham Township (disambiguation).

Other uses

Just Be

Just Be is the second studio album by Dutch DJ Tiësto. It was released on 6 April 2004 in the Netherlands and 15 May 2004 in the United States (see 2004 in music). The album features BT, Kirsty Hawkshaw, and Aqualung on vocals. There is also a remake of Samuel Barber's "Adagio for Strings". The album's singles were "Love Comes Again", "Traffic", "Just Be" (the title track), and "Adagio for Strings". The track "Sweet Misery" was originally written for Evanescence but it did not meet the deadline for the release of their album.

Style

The album begins with "Forever Today" which is composed of soft sounds of strings which includes a strong bassline later in the song. Its second track, featuring BT, is the second single from the album "Love Comes Again". The song uses Latin percussion sounds which are followed by BT's vocals. The third track is the uplifting "Traffic". Then he introduces his first work with Joanne Lloyd, titled "Sweet Misery", it is a chill out track with dark vocals and flowing synth lines, it is an unexpected break from the usually expected sounds of Tiësto. He continues by performing the title track of his previous album compilation Nyana.