MICHAEL GREGORY: Towards The Sun

Michael Gregory

Towards The Sun

© 2002 Michael Gregory (783707639925)

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Neo Soul/R&B/Pop/Singer Songwriter/Guitarist- soulful, sexy, passionate singing, rich deep grooves,sensitive, poignant lyrics.

tracks

1 I Trust Everything About You
2 Open Up For Me
3 Cause I Love You Like That
4 If I Only Had a Minute
5 Think About This
6 Love's Parade
7 Let It Go
8 Shadows of Flames
9 Tears
10 Take Me Home
11 Message to Me
12 Don't You Ever Give Up On Yourself
13 Seldom Scene
14 Peace

notes

Michael Gregory is back! The massive guitar and vocal talent who has played and recorded with some of the most influential musicians of our time, including Mick Jagger, Carlos Santana, Walter Becker and Steve Winwood, has burst back onto the music scene with a brilliant new CD Towards the Sun.

Towards the Sun takes the listener on a beautiful and evocative emotional journey through the mind of a talented and spiritual artist.

Michael is a master songwriter and has the ability to sculpt into lyrical poetry a variety of human emotions that most people feel but are rarely able to express. Michael's alluring vocals with his unsurpassed guitar virtuosity blend into an entirely satisfying experience with the kind of musical depth that keeps you coming back to hear more.

Biography

Born Michael Gregory Jackson in New Haven, Connecticut, Michael began to play guitar at the age of seven. In his teens he often performed his own material during solo gigs and band appearances. Among Michaels early influences were Jimi Hendrix, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Son House, Led Zeppelin, Joni Mitchell and Igor Stravinsky. His father exposed him to Wes Montgomery, Mahalia Jackson, Les Paul, Mary Ford, and early George Benson, and Michael's musical destiny began to take shape.

Progressive improvised music composer and trumpeter, Wadada Leo Smith, influenced Gregory to look beyond the boundaries of rock, folk and mainstream jazz, and soon Michael was playing avant-garde music with Smith and such other notables as pianist Anthony Davis, saxophonists Julius Hemphill, David Murray and Oliver Lake. During this period, Gregory notes, "I learned that it was ok to try different things, to experiment. If I had a song that was going one way, it was all right to make it go in another direction or to add diverse elements. I've allowed myself to be free creatively and stylistically".

Gregory produced a series of stand out creative music recordings, including "Clarity, Circle, Triangle, Square", "Karmonic Suite", "Gifts" and "Heart and Center".

Rolling Stone magazine raved, "By the time (Gregory) was twenty-one he was already one of the most original jazz guitarists to emerge since the sixties." Michael's unique style and innovations have changed the face of jazz guitar and influenced many other very well known guitarists and musicians in many genres of music.

As had David Bowie and others before him, Michael changed his name in 1982, to Michael Gregory, to avoid confusion with another artist who shared his name. It was during this period that Michael's career began to take off. Living in New York, he soon became known as a master guitarist who could transcend musical genres with ease, who could also sing, write songs and produce recordings.Gregory worked with Mick Jagger, Steve Winwood, Walter Becker, Nona Hendryx, and in 1983, signed with Island records and recorded his first pop/rock album "Situation X" with master-producer and Chic guitarist, Nile Rogers and bassist Bernard Edwards. Singer, Al Jarreau, quickly picked up and recorded one of Michael's songs from the album, "No Ordinary Romance" for his "L is for Lover" (released 1986 Warner Brothers Records). Gregory went on to record and produce more crisp, pop recordings, including "What To Where" 1987 (BMG/RCA Records), "RED" (GOLDEN Records) 2000 and "Towards the Sun" (GOLDEN Records) 2003, however all of his music remains firmly rooted in progressive creative sensibilities and a fertile stylistic amalgam.Michael is a vibrant, politically involved, communally and spiritually active artist. He has initiated and participated in many events, to benefit food pantries, the homeless, victims of natural disasters, ongoing programs to aid inner-city youth and various other charitable efforts. He is actively concerned with spreading the word about the peak oil situation, the need for political changes here at home, ending poverty, energy conservation, organic farming, global warming and the urgency of moving towards alternative and renewable sources of energy.Michael continues to amaze audiences with his exceptional performances. He performs with fiery aplomb. He is fertile and relevant as an innovative jazz guitarist and as a potent singer/songwriter. He is currently composing, writing, producing, teaching, collaborating and touring (solo and with various ensembles).

Performed and/or Recorded With

Julius Hemphill, Mick Jagger, Oliver Lake, Will Calhoun, David Murray, Pheeroan aKLaff, Bernard Edwards, Jabali Billy Hart, Buster Williams, Wadada Leo Smith, Steve Winwood, Walter Becker, Kenwood Dennard, Anthony Davis, Jack Dejohnette, Anton Fig, Melle Mel, Omar Hakim, Jerome Harris, Eddie Henderson, David Sancious, Ntozake Shange, Louie Rozier, Marcus Miller, Willie Croes, Olu Dara, Kresten Osgood, Elisa Rego, Rasadon, Nile Rodgers, Raymond Jones, Gene Calvin Weston, John Tchichai, Jerry Marotta, Mark Helias, Jay Hoggard, Rodney Holmes, Jimmy Bralower, Nona Hendryx, Kevin Jones, Jessica Hagedorn, Ed Blackwell, Steve Thorton, Anthony Jackson, Gary Bartz, Tony Thompson, Sammy Figueroa, Kermit Driscoll, Ole Romer, Bernard Davis, Marty Ehrlich, Karl Berger, Ingrid Berger, Henry Threadgill, Baikida Carroll, Victor Lewis, Carlos Santana, Thulani Davis, Jeff Bova, Vernon Reid, Anthony Braxton and many others.

Member of: A.S.C.A.P., American Composers Forum, U.S.T.A., Moveon.ORG, Democrats.com, Save Darfur Coalition, Democracy for America, Defenders of Wildlife, ONE.ORG, Product RED, MomsRising.org, I.R.C., League of Conservation Voters, Public Citizen.org (http://action.citizen.org)True Majority (http://www.truemajority.org/oreos), Sierra Club, Amnesty International

Check out some recent MG guitar tracks at http://www.myspace.com/zhoskymusic
Recordings (selected)

"TOWARDS THE SUN" - GOLDEN Records
"RED"- GOLDEN Records
"THE WAY WE USED TO DO" - Tiptoe, Mesa/Bluemoon /Enja Records
"WHAT TO WHERE" - RCA/BMG Records
"SITUATION-X" - Island Records
"COWBOYS, CARTOONS AND ASSORTED CANDY" - Enja Records
"HEART AND CENTER" - Arista Records
"GIFTS" - Arista Records
"KARMONIC SUITE" - IAI Records
"CLARITY, CIRCLE, TRIANGLE and SQUARE"

Selected Projects that Michael has played on, produced or both.

With Oliver Lake, Michael plays Guitars, Vocals, Harmonica, Percussion and Flutes. "Shine", "Life Dance Of Is", "Holding Together", "Zaki", (re-issued 2007 on Hat Hut Records, www.hathut.com) "Wild Flower Loft Jazz Sessions
With Anthony Braxton, "Wild Flower Loft Jazz Sessions" Guitar, Electric Mandolin

With Nona Hendryx, "The Heat" Guitar Solos

With Pheeroan aKlaff, "Fits Like A Glove" Producer, Vocalist, Guitar Solos

with Amina Claudine Myers, "Amina" Producer

With The Equalites, "Choice Of Worlds" Producer, Vocalist, Guitar Solos, Keyboards

With Clyde Criner, "Behind The Sun" Producer, Percussion

With The Coyote Sisters, "Women And Other Visions" Guitars

With Louis Guarino Jr. "Spiritual Awakenings" Producer, www.enchantedvibrations.net

With Viva Monroe "Rock' N' Roll Party" Producer, Guitar

With Leah Randazzo "At The Root" Producer, Percussion

With Seth Glier "Sojourn" Producer, Guitar, Percussion

With Pulitzer Prize winner poet Paul Muldoon's band RACKETT "Resistance" Producer

With Stephen Allen "Sixteen Elephants: Music to Poems by Paul Muldoon" Guitar Solos

Video/Concert (Selected)

Appeared on MTV, PBS and other video networks,
"Can't Carry You" from "Situation-X" on Island Records.
"Adventures in Success" w/Will Powers and Meatloaf for Island Records.Cabarets and theater performances with Ntozake Shange, Jessica Hagedorn, and Thulani Davis-Jarmon
(Joseph Papp's Shakespeare Public Theater) NYC
Appeared in "Moving Beyond the Madness" curated by playwright, George Wolfe (New York Public Theater).
Various venues USA, Canada, Japan, Europe,
too numerous to list


Reviews (Selected)

"Michael Gregory's high tenor voice calls to mind Smokey Robinson, Sting or Ben Harper as it flows with his guitar riffs...He doesn't back away from the difficult and sometimes raw themes connected with love and loss. Lays bare the sinews of human emotion. Gregory's honesty and hypnotic sound mixes are unabashedly mellow."
--The Advocate

"A highly distinctive and beautiful CD of originals...his own unique style that synthesizes jazz, pop and soul...filled with romantic longing and smoldering passion...he creates a new musical genre that could be called New Age R&B."
--Music Revue

"One of the most lyrical musicians working today...singularly personal and arresting and one of contemporary music's few genuine poets... Gregory's daring, darting vocal is so serene yet intense that one is hard-put naming a contemporary vocalist of similar grace and power."
--Down Beat

"Take Bowie's sophistication, add Prince's flamboyance, and mix with plenty of originality. Michael Gregory writes crisp, vibrant songs, and sings them like it's a matter of life and death."
--Trouser Press

"Gregory's voice recalls vintage Prince, Curtis Mayfield and Aaron Neville...There's little doubt that Gregory remains a stringman supreme."
--Sunday Republican

"At a certain point Gregory comes spinning out of an emotional wringer, and takes a beautifully berserk guitar solo. The dynamics are unbeatably exhilarating."
--Record

"Gregory has that rare combination of virtuosity and versatility, able to play the guitar whiz...then slip easily into hugely commercial cuts. Michael Gregory is, quite simply, the business."
--Q

"By the time he was twenty-one he was already one of the most original jazz guitarist to emerge since the Sixties."
--Rolling Stone

"Gregory may be a songwriter first - but he's a songwriter with a guitar in his hand !"
--Guitar Player

"The songs...realize Michael Gregory's own theoretical musings about the fertile musical possibilities created when applying blues and jazz sensibilities to rock."
--Spin

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  • AMAZING!!!!!!!
    author: Seth Glier

    Michael Gregory has one of the purest voices that I've ever heard. He reminds me of Sting one moment them Joni Mitchell the next. The sound is all his own. His songs tell vibrant stories.

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