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Bruce Hornsby Trio

About this Artist

BRUCE HORNSBY struck RIAA gold - and triple platinum! - with his debut album, The Way It Is, recorded with his band, the Range. His debut generated three Top 20 hits, including its No. 1 title track, and earned Hornsby and the Range the Best New Artist Grammy for 1986. Hornsby took home his second Grammy in 1989 for Best Bluegrass Recording for "Valley Road" (from the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band's Will the Circle Be Unbroken, Volume II) and his third Grammy in 1993 for Best Pop Instrumental for "Barcelona Mona" (created with Branford Marsalis for the Barcelona Olympics). His eight albums - The Way It Is (1986), Scenes from the Southside (1988), A Night on the Town (1990), Harbor Lights (1993), Hot House (1995), 1998's double CD Spirit Trail, his double live collection Here Come the Noisemakers (2000), and Big Swing Face (2002) - have sold more than 10 million copies worldwide. Ricky Skaggs & Bruce Hornsby was released this year, and Camp Meeting, his trio album with Christian McBride and Jack DeJohnette, was scheduled for release this month.

One of pop music's most in-demand sidemen, Hornsby has played on more than 100 records, with artists ranging from Bob Dylan, Don Henley, and the Grateful Dead to Bob Seger, Bonnie Raitt, Bella Fleck, and Willie Nelson, among many others. His songs have been performed and/or recorded by a variety of artists, including Nelson, Henley, Tupac Shakur, Dylan, Chaka Khan, Robbie Robertson, Huey Lewis, Sara Evans, and Leon Russell.

Hornsby became a part-time member of the Grateful Dead and, from September 1990 to March 1992, performed with the group on more than 100 concerts in America and Europe. "I've always liked the group of fans that we've drawn from the Grateful Dead time, because those fans are often adventurous music listeners," Hornsby admits. "To be creative, spontaneous in the moment and make music in the present tense, that's what we're all about live."

For almost two decades, CHRISTIAN MCBRIDE has been widely recognized as one of the most original American musicians to emerge from the jazz scene. A Grammy-winning virtuoso of the acoustic and electric bass, he is recognized as an accomplished composer and arranger whose collaborations as a bassist read like a "who's who" of quintessential artists of our time. Over the past 17 years, McBride has been featured on more than 200 recordings, and composed nearly 40 musical works along with dozens of arrangements.

McBride succeeded jazz vocalist Dianne Reeves in 2006 as the Carolyn and Bill Powers Creative Chair for Jazz for the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association. Working with the organization year-round, McBride oversees jazz programming at Walt Disney Concert Hall and the Hollywood Bowl, building upon the Philharmonic's presence in the musical community as a leading presenter of jazz.

In 1991, legendary bassist Ray Brown invited McBride to join him and John Clayton in the trio SuperBass. After being hailed "Hot Jazz Artist" of 1992 by Rolling Stone, McBride continued to prove it as a member of guitarist Pat Metheny's "Special Quartet," which included drum master Billy Higgins and saxophonist Joshua Redman. After recording and touring with Redman the following year, McBride signed to Verve Records in the summer of 1994, recording his first CD as a leader, Getting' To It, followed by Number Two Express (1996), the soul-jazz fusion project A Family Affair (1998), and the critically acclaimed SCI-FI (2000). The following year, he dipped into hip hop with a side project dubbed The Philadelphia Experiment, a "jam band"-inspired CD that reunited McBride with his high school friend, drummer Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson (leader of The Roots) and featured keyboardist Uri Caine and guitarist Pat Martino. In 2003, McBride released an album on Warner Bros. Records titled Vertical Vision, a blazing recording that introduced the current incarnation of the Christian McBride Band. The Christian McBride Band released Live at Tonic on Rope-a-Dope Records in 2006.

JACK DEJOHNETTE is widely regarded as one of jazz music's greatest drummers. Music appreciation flourished in DeJohnette's family. He studied classical piano from age four until 14 before beginning to play drums with his high school concert band and taking private piano lessons at the Chicago Conservatory of Music. DeJohnette credits his uncle, Roy I. Wood Sr., who was one of the most popular jazz DJs in the South Side of Chicago, later vice president of the National Network of Black Broadcasters, as the person who initially inspired him to pursue music.

Some of the great talents DeJohnette has worked with are John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Ornette Coleman, Sonny Rollins, Sun Ra, Jackie McLean, Thelonious Monk, Bill Evans, Stan Getz, Keith Jarrett, Chet Baker, George Benson, Stanley Turrentine, Ron Carter, Lee Morgan, Charles Lloyd, Herbie Hancock, Dave Holland, Joe Henderson, Freddie Hubbard, Abbey Lincoln, Betty Carter, and Eddie Harris, who is responsible for convincing DeJohnette to stick with drums because he heard DeJohnette's natural talent.

In 1968 he recorded his first album as a leader, on the Milestone label, called The DeJohnette Complex, where DeJohnette played melodica along with his mentor Roy Haynes on drums. In the early '70s he recorded Have You Heard in Japan and two albums for Prestige, called Sorcery and Cosmic Chicken. DeJohnette began to record as a leader for ECM, with each of his successive groups Directions, New Directions, and Special Edition making important contributions to the evolution of jazz. DeJohnette has recorded as a leader on Columbia, Landmark, MCA/GRP, and Toshiba/EMI/Blue Note, but the bulk of his recordings are on the ECM label. DeJohnette released Saudades in 2006 on ECM, his tribute to the late, great drum master Tony Williams. The album, led by DeJohnette, features John Scofield and Larry Goldings, and earned a 2007 Grammy nomination for Best Jazz Instrumental album. The group, known as "Trio Beyond," will tour North America in summer of 2007.

08/07