Ben Stivers | |
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Born | Indiana, United States | May 23, 1968
Genres | Jazz, soul, Americana, blues rock, latino |
Occupation(s) | Musician, record producer, music director |
Instrument(s) | Keyboards, piano, drums, organ, percussion |
Years active | 1986–present |
Website | benstiversmusic |
Ben Stivers is an American musician. Stivers records, tours, and collaborates with artists across multiple genres, including jazz, blues, rock, pop, Latin pop, and jazz fusion. In June 2019 Ben joined Lyle Lovett and His Large Band on their US tour, playing piano and keyboards.
Stivers was born in Indiana but his family moved to Las Vegas when he was four to pursue musical careers. His father was the bandleader at UNLV and his mother was a professional violin player. Stivers was a devoted classical piano student and earned recognition as a finalist in the prestigious Arnold Bullock National Piano Competition at age 16. While attending Chaparral High School (Paradise, Nevada), he took an interest in jazz fusion bands such as the Yellowjackets and Weather Report that drew him to synthesizers and groove.
Stivers moved to Miami in 1986 to pursue a degree in Studio Music and Jazz at the University of Miami Frost School of Music under Vince Maggio. [1]
In Miami he worked with numerous high-profile artists such as Gloria Estefan, Ricky Martin, [2] Chayanne, Exposé, Jon Secada, Julio Iglesias, Emilio Estefan, Dan Warner, Matchbox 20 [3] and many others.
A highlight of his Miami years was his collaboration with the Gibb family. He has toured and collaborated with Barry Gibb [4] since the early 90s and he played piano and keyboards with the Bee Gees. He played on the Bee Gees records This Is Where I Came In and One Night Only (Bee Gees album).
Stivers moved to Spain in the late 90s to pursue a full-time jazz residency project in Mallorca.
In 2001 Stivers moved to New York City, where he played with musicians such as Teddy Kumpel, Kenny Rampton, Rez Abbasi, Donny McCaslin, Groove Collective and many others. He subsequently founded the Ben Stivers Organ Trio.
In addition to his jazz piano and organ work, Stivers collaborates with many singer/songwriters, dance studios, producers and performers. Some of his collaborations include Scott Sharrard, Tony Scherr, James Maddock, Dana Fuchs, Erik Blicker, Jason Darling, Kate Chaston, Christine Courtin and others.
In 2019 Ben joined Lyle Lovett and His Large Band on their US tour. In 2017-2018, Stivers was a member of the Chris Botti Band. Other tours include the Barry Gibb Mythology Tour, Rez Abbasi, Gregg Allman Band, [5] [6] and others.
The Bee Gees were a musical group formed in 1958 by brothers Barry, Robin, and Maurice Gibb. The trio were especially successful in popular music in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and later as prominent performers in the disco music era in the mid- to late 1970s. The group sang recognisable three-part tight harmonies: Robin's clear vibrato lead vocals were a hallmark of their earlier hits, while Barry's R&B falsetto became their signature sound during the mid- to late 1970s and 1980s. The group wrote all their own original material, as well as writing and producing several major hits for other artists, and are regarded as one of the most important and influential acts in pop-music history. They have been referred to in the media as The Disco Kings, Britain's First Family of Harmony, and The Kings of Dance Music.
Robin Hugh Gibb was a British musician, singer and songwriter. He gained worldwide fame as a member of the Bee Gees pop group with elder brother Barry and fraternal twin brother Maurice. Robin Gibb also had his own successful solo career. Their youngest brother Andy was also a singer.
Maurice Ernest Gibb was a British musician. He achieved worldwide fame as a member of the pop group Bee Gees. Although his elder brother Barry Gibb and fraternal twin brother Robin Gibb were the group's main lead singers, most of their albums included at least one or two songs featuring Maurice's lead vocals, including "Lay It on Me", "Country Woman" and "On Time". The Bee Gees were one of the most successful pop-rock groups of all time.
Sir Barry Alan Crompton Gibb is a British musician, singer, songwriter and record producer. He rose to worldwide fame as a member of the Bee Gees, one of the most commercially successful groups in the history of popular music. With his younger brothers, fraternal twins Robin and Maurice Gibb, he formed a musical partnership beginning in 1955. He has lived in Britain, Australia, and the United States, holding dual UK–US citizenship, the latter since 2009.
This Is Where I Came In is the twenty-second and final studio album by the pop group the Bee Gees. It was released on 24 April 2001 by Polydor in the UK and Universal in the US, less than two years before Maurice Gibb died from a cardiac arrest before surgery to repair a twisted intestine.
One Night Only is a live album and DVD/Blu-ray by the Bee Gees. It features the group's concert at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas in 1997 and includes many of their greatest hits.
Mr. Natural is the Bee Gees' twelfth album, released in May 1974. It was the first Bee Gees release produced by Arif Mardin, who was partially responsible for launching the group's later major success with the follow-up album Main Course. The album's rhythm and blues, soul, funk and hard rock sounds initiated the group's reinvention as a disco and blue-eyed soul act, which would solidify on subsequent albums. However, Barry Gibb has said that the album was "whiter" than Main Course. The cover photograph was taken at 334 West 4th Street, Greenwich Village, New York City by Frank Moscati, which is today known as The Corner Bistro tavern.
Stephen "Steve" Rucker is an American musician and drummer who served as a drummer with many artists. His biggest and well known act was the Bee Gees. With the Bee Gees band, he appeared on The Tonight Show, Late Night with David Letterman, Oprah Winfrey, The Rosie O'Donnell Show, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction and a Royal Variety Performance. Rucker appears on the Bee Gees' One Night Only recording and DVD. He is currently the Drumset Studies director of the University of Miami's Frost School of Music.
Children of the World is a 1976 album by the Bee Gees. The first single, "You Should Be Dancing", went to No. 1 in the US and Canada, and was a top ten hit in numerous other territories. It was the group's fourteenth album. The album was re-issued on CD by Reprise Records and Rhino Records in 2006. This was the first record featuring the Gibb-Galuten-Richardson production team which would have many successful collaborations in the following years.
To Whom It May Concern is the tenth album by the Bee Gees. Released in October 1972, it is the follow-up to, and continues the melancholic and personal sound of its predecessor, Trafalgar. The album was recognised as "a farewell to the old Bee Gees" as the album marked the end of an era for the group in several ways: it was their last album to be recorded solely at IBC Studios, in London, their last with conductor and arranger Bill Shepherd, who had guided them since 1967, and their last under their first contract with Robert Stigwood. Some of the songs were old ones finished or rewritten for the occasion.
E.S.P. is the seventeenth studio album by the British group the Bee Gees. Released in 1987, it was the band's first studio album in six years, and their first release under their new contract with Warner Bros. It marked the first time in twelve years the band had worked with producer Arif Mardin, and was their first album to be recorded digitally. The album sold well in Europe, reaching No. 5 in the UK, No. 2 in Norway and Austria, and No. 1 in Germany and Switzerland, though it failed to chart higher than No. 96 in the US.
Dreams is a compilation album by the Allman Brothers Band. Packaged as a box set of four CDs or six LPs, it was released on June 20, 1989.
Alan Kendall is an English musician and was the lead guitarist for the Bee Gees, in an unofficial capacity from 1971 until 1980, and again from 1987 until 2001.
Stephen Thadeus Crompton Gibb is a British-American guitarist. He has been a member of numerous hard rock and metal bands including 58, Black Label Society, Crowbar, Kingdom of Sorrow, The Underbellys, SkilletHead, and Saigon Kick. He is the son of Barry Gibb and is currently playing guitar as part of his father's band.
"Spirits (Having Flown)" is a song by the Bee Gees which was originally released on the 1979 album Spirits Having Flown. Though not issued as a single in conjunction with the parent album, it was released in the UK to promote the compilation Bee Gees Greatest, which was released in December 1979. Its B-side was a 1975 song "Wind of Change" from the group's Main Course.
Rez Abbasi is a Pakistan-born American jazz guitarist, composer, and record producer based in New York City.
The Mythology Tour is the first solo tour by British rock musician and singer-songwriter Barry Gibb formerly of the Bee Gees. It took its name from the Bee Gees' box set of the same name.
The Peach Music Festival is a music festival started by the Allman Brothers Band and Live Nation Entertainment that has been held annually since 2012 at the Pavilion at Montage Mountain and Montage Mountain Ski Resort in Scranton, Pennsylvania. One exception was in 2020.
Scott Sharrard is an American musical artist widely known as the lead guitarist and musical director of the Gregg Allman Band. A prolific songwriter and talented singer, he has also released several soul-influenced albums of his own including three with his first band, The Chesterfields, followed by three solo albums and, most recently, the eponymous release by his current band, Scott Sharrard & the Brickyard Band, in 2013. In 2020, Sharrard was announced as a new member of Little Feat following the death of Paul Barrere.