Jazz with rhythms and melodies from every corner of the world: Turkey, Brazil, Ireland, Sesame Street, and your backyard.

14 MP3 Songs
JAZZ: World Fusion, FOLK: Folk-Jazz

Show all album songs: late bloomer. Songs


Details:
featuring:
Skye Steele, violin
Harel Shachal, alto sax and turkish clarinet
Ben Cassorla, guitars
Mike Savino, acoustic and electric bass
Satoshi Takeishi, drumset
John Hadfield, percussion (cajon, frame drums, tabla, kanjira, dumbek, bucket of water, trash can, gongs, hooves...)


THE SKYE STEELE QUINTET

After cutting his teeth with 10 years in New York City's Jazz scene, studying Turkish, Brazilian and Arabic improvisational fiddling styles, traveling abroad frequently to study, record, and perform with top musicians from all over the world, Skye focuses these diverse influences through the lens of Jazz into a remarkably individual approach to the violin and a seamless group sound built upon the long-standing collaborative relationships between Skye and all the group members.


SKYE'S OFFICIAL BIOGRAPHY:
Skye Steele began studying violin when he was three years old. He grew up in California and gained early performing experience playing string quartets with his sister and two brothers, coached by their mother. As a teenager, Skye discovered the music of John Coltrane, Charlie Parker, Duke Ellington, and Stuff Smith and started trying to understand their sounds. After moving to New York at the age of 17 and surviving as a subway busker for a year, Skye enrolled in the prestigious "New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music," receiving his B.F.A. in Jazz Performance in 2002. While there he had the opportunity to study with many legends of Modern Jazz such as Reggie Workman, Junior Mance, Andrew Cyrille, George Garzone, and Jamie Haddad. At the New School, Skye also worked closely with some of the top string players in Jazz-- of particular influence were Rob Thomas and Mat Maneri. At the New School, Skye also found time to indulge his passion for the written word and completed at B.A. in Fiction Writing also in 2002.

More recently Skye has traveled to Turkey and twice to Brazil to investigate their respective violin traditions, studying, colaborating, performing and and recording with local artists. Skye is active throughout New York's vibrant world-music scene performing on Western and Arabic violin, Kemani (turkish fiddle) and Rabeca (Brazilian fiddle). In addition to his long list of regular collaborators--The Nation Beat, Anistar, Vampire Suit, the EthnoEccentric String Trio, Howard Fishman, M-LAB, the Manhattan Ragtime Orchestra, and Vince Giordano's Nighthawks-- Skye has recorded with Cyro Baptista, Rufus Wainwright (on the soundtrack to Scorcese's "The Aviator"), and performed with Frank London, Duncan Sheik, Alessandra Belloni, Souren Baronian, Matt Darriau, Andrew D'Angelo, Jenny Scheinman, Laura Cantrell, Butch Morris, Mat Maneri, Daniel Carter, Lukas Ligeti, Forro For All, MaracatuNY, Raquy and the Cavemen, Abu Gara, the Big Apple Circus, and the Bindlestiff Family Circus.


Skye has appeared in Concert Halls and Festivals throughout the US as well as in Brazil, Europe, and the Middle East, and is a sought-after Clinician and Master-teacher specializing in Jazz and World Styles on the Violin, having worked with students and Syracuse University, University of Florida, San Diego Civic Youth Orchestra, and many others. Skye has also taught over 1000 children to play the violin in the New York City Public Schools as a Faculty Member of the Third Street Music School's MILES program for the past five years.



WHAT THE PRESS IS SAYING:

"Steele makes his instrument sing joyously"
--Frank Rubolino, Cadence Magazine


"the most fantastic violinist... the type of musician who made the violin transcend beyond all the classical music stereotypes into an ephemeral, personal space."
--Christopher Lehault, FreeNYC.net


"Amazing"
--All About Jazz NY


"There seems to be little limit to what Skye Steele can do"
--Ernest Bartheldes, The New York Press


"Violin virtuoso Skye Steele... seems to be well on his way to becoming the next Jean-Luc Ponty"
--Jeff Nau, 944 Magazine


"Skye Steele is a genuine prodigy"
--Butch Thompson, Jazz Critic/Historian