Posted By: redthunderkmh on
Wednesday, April 9th, 2008, 1:24 pm
Grammy -Nominated Gil Parris recovers from violent assault with celebrity Strength.
Quick, music lovers. What do David Letterman musical director Paul Shaffer, New York Yankees outfielder Bernie Williams and trumpet legend Randy Brecker have in common? All are great pals of Gil Parris, one of the most acclaimed and versatile guitar masters of his generation who has won over audiences worldwide by never losing sight of his primary goal every time he hits the stage: entertaining his audience.
In January 2007, Parris invited these great musicians and Carolyn Kepcher to jam with him in an extraordinary concert event at Irvington Town Hall Theatre (just outside NYC) that celebrated the gifts of life, friendship and the joy of true honest-to-goodness live ensembling. Featuring crackling new renditions of many of the songs that have defined the guitarist’s rise in a multitude of genres (rock, pop, jazz, blues, etc.) over the past ten years, the show perfectly conveys the powerful emotional interaction between the super-charismatic Grammy Award nominee and his energized audience.
In defying and transcending all genres, Parris blazes the trail and creates one of his own. "I always think of the great instrumental artists I grew up listening to," he says, "like Sanborn and Michael Brecker and Bob James, and how they were able to fit their playing styles into so many settings yet always somehow have their own stamp that was identifiable in a few notes. That I worked my whole career for, finding a unique sound and tonal quality that rises above all types of music. For me, it all comes down to putting on a great show where I can expand upon the melodies I have written and recorded. My dad is a New York stage actor, and I grew up with the whole showbiz thing, as a child being around people like Danny Devito, Mickey Rooney and various character actors. So when I play live, that’s my chance to be the "actor with an instrument," totally committed to expressing myself through a wide variety of emotions as well as entertaining."
This kind of ambition started early, when Parris was in his first semester at Berklee School Of Music, attending on a prestigious Al Di Meola jazz master’s scholarship; he auditioned for a European tour of Jesus Christ Superstar, got the gig and never looked back. He officially launched his career after being discovered in 1990 by hard rock producer and impresario Mike Varney, who featured the young prodigy in his "Spotlight" column in Guitar Magazine. He immersed himself on the NYC session scene and began playing with the proverbial who’s who of contemporary pop and jazz: David Sanborn, Bob James, Will Lee, Eric Alexander, Bob Malach, David Clayton-Thomas, Toni Braxton, Chuck Rainey to name but a few.
Parris career was in burgeoning overdrive by 2001. He had released his solo debut to great acclaim and had recorded a follow-up; had been touring the U.S. with the legendary Rock band Blood, Sweat & Tears for over a year; and had just earned a Best Folk compilation CD Grammy nomination for his arrangement of "Pop Goes The Weasel" from the release "Public Domain." Then everything came crashing to a halt one fateful night while on the BS&T tour. Parris was relaxing out, having a drink in the hallway of a bar just outside of NYC when he was hit, without warning from behind and knocked unconscious. When he came to after this random violent act, his hand was broken in three places—a trauma that ground his burgeoning career to a temporary halt.
As Parris went through the process of rehabilitation leading up to reconstructive surgery in 2005, he did a lot of soul searching and was inspired by another one of his guitar idols, Larry Carlton, who came back from an even more serious violent attack on his life in the late 80s. "Going through all of this has made my playing more succinct, and I always want to get to the meat and potatoes of the music more quickly," he says. "I was a practice fanatic growing up and always emphasized physical technique, so I had to relearn a lot of things since the motor skills are so finely tuned. But in the end, doing this increased my musicality. Writing and recording my CD "Strength" was truly a cathartic and cleansing experience and I think I have come back stronger than ever."
Visit www.myspace.com/gilparris.com for samples of Gils amazing music.
Tags:
music, recovery, guitar, entertainment, grammy
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