blair

along with Bryan Hinton , I formed and have maintained "Beatlesque" : Florida's premier musical tribute to The Beatles, for the last 8 years. performing to standing room only crowds since it's inception, Beatlesque has proven time and time again to re-energize both of us with the power of this timeless repertoire and unbelievable crowd response. 9 years ago if someone had told me that I was going to be performing in (let alone forming) a Beatle band, I would have mightily scoffed. HA, I would have said!! no more. I'm a believer. Beatle fans rule. you all are awesome and thanks for enriching my life so greatly.
all you need is love indeed.
My latest project is a musical tribute to the 1980's new wave musical movement called amplifier . amp performs music culled from the repertoire's of Elvis Costello & The Attractions, The Pretenders, Devo, Human League, Berlin, The dB's, Gary Numan, Eurythmics, Big Country, Modern English, The Cure, Kim Wilde, Rockpile, Peter Schilling, The Psychedelic Furs, Talking Heads, The Clash, The Ramones, XTC, The Buggles, Lene Lovich, Martha & The Muffins, The Call, Joe Jackson, The Fixx, Squeeze, The Police, Split Enz ... well, you get the idea! We also throw in some tunes from the 70's from artists like Roxy Music, David Bowie, T Rex, and some contemporary music from Franz Ferdinand, Coldplay, Raconteurs, Ting Tings , Santogold, Ladytron, etc. as well.
It's a lot of fun, high energy & very entertaining! The band is currently on hiatus while rehearsing our new guitarist ... stay tuned for all the sticky details ...
::Personnel::
M: keyboards, sax, guitars & vocals.
Blaize Cacciola: six string electro-plectronics, bass & vocals.
the brain: bass, keyboards, guitars & vocals.
bømb: drums, programming, keyboards & vocals.
GET TO KNOW AMPLIFIER ON MYSPACE ::CLICK HERE::
I formed and play drums with south florida's rocksoul jazzfunk brothers number one: "The Affiliates" .
Comprised of the best musicians in the area and some great relocated muso's, The Affiliates create a live experience of music of depth and distinction. playing a repertoire ranging from Booker T and the MGs to Zony Mash to Snoop Dogg to Weather Report and everything in between, The A's deliver an exciting & authentic performance that is definately a "must see" show. from "Pick Up The Pieces" to "Milestones" this band brings it to the stage with verve, passion, wit and aplomb. The band is currently on hiatus.
I also formed and/or perform with other area acts such as "Ready Steady Go" : dedicated to all 60's Mod musical things, and other groups such as recording artists The Mack Preston Band (http://www.myspace.com/mackpreston), featuring featuring New Orleans' native son and guitarist extraordinaire: Marcel Anton (channeling guitar vibes on the par of Hendrix, Beck, Page & Scofield), as well as Miami's famous "Rockerfellas" .
I have also played with Bernie Worrell, Sun Machine (RCA rec. artists), The Blame (AST rec. artists), The Geoffrey Stoner Band (Store rec. artists), Omnibus (Virtue rec. artists), Grady Champion (Shenechie rec. artist), Wayne Cochran, as well as jazz recording legends such as Butch Cornell (CTI rec. artist), Johnny Lytell, Eddie McFaddan, Don Patterson, Cedric Lawson, Joe Farrell, and William "Blue" Mitchell, among others.
I utilize three acoustic kits and one electronic kit right now. a vintage gretsch kit, that I purchased a long time ago. this was my fifth kit bought from, as luck would have it, johnny cash's drummer. whether he was or wasn't mr. cash's stickman matters not. they have "that great gretsch sound." in addition to this lovely kit's aged wood snare drum, I also have a vintage gretsch steel snare drum (both snares are "round badge" editions) that is as fat and warm as a metal snare can be. I really love this drum set.
another kit is a vanity puchase. acoustic drums manufactured by ddrums with very cool red hardware on black wrap. the bass drum is a serious cannon (22" x 20".) the tuning lugs, though sturdy, could hold their tunings better if I had my preference. the jury is out on this set ... I will have to use them for a while and see how they hold up and age. they are kinda pretty though.
my third kit is a pacific/dw kit. pretty basic rock kit set up. the drums are cool, some of the hardware is cool, but there were problems in that area. the drums are bit too resonant for my taste (bell like) unless I choke the life out of the head. well ... that's not gonna' happen, so I deal. most sound engineers like these drums and they record very well. I recently modified the 16" floor tom into a bass drum using the trick drums 1618 bass drum conversion kit (UK). Couple that with a nice rim for the front head and it has surprisingly punchy kick. I swapped out the heads for aquarian super kick II batter & resonant heads to cut down on the inherant resonance and add some thud. pretty cool ... especially for jazz gigs.

all my kits are set up in the same configuration: snare drum, one tenor tom, mounted on the bass drum, two floor toms and the kick. sometimes I utilize a side snare as well.
my cymbal array changes from gig to gig, space to space, band to band. I mostly utilize combinations of the paiste, zildjian, sabian and wuhan brands. anywhere from an 8"splash to a vintage 22" dark ride. usually 14" zildjian new beat HH cymbals.
I have recently added the SIMMONS SD9K electronic kit ... mainly for use with amplifier as well as for added flexibility/tonalities for other performances.
I also write bit of me own music as well ... cough ... sniff ...shuffle. I put a few up there, you decide what you think of it. I'd love to get your feedback on the stuff.
thanks!
some other sites where you can find me:
| ..bandmix.com | ..jamwave.com | .. bellsouth.net | ..garageband.com |blairking.com |
| brickfish.com | ..
____________________________________________________________ ____________