Cory Wong | |
---|---|
Background information | |
Born | c. 1985 (age 38–39) Poughkeepsie, New York, U.S. |
Origin | Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S. |
Genres | |
Occupations |
|
Instrument(s) | Guitar, bass |
Discography | Cory Wong discography |
Years active | 2008–present |
Labels |
|
Member of | The Fearless Flyers |
Website | corywongmusic |
Cory J. Wong (born c. 1985) [lower-alpha 1] is an American guitarist, songwriter, and producer based in Minneapolis. He has released many works as a solo artist and in partnership with others. His background spans several genres including jazz, rock, and funk. He has performed with Vulfpeck, Dave Koz, Stay Human, The Fearless Flyers, Ben Rector, Dr. Mambo's Combo, Chris Thile, Dave Matthews Band, and Dirty Loops. He released several albums in 2020, including Live in Amsterdam, a collaboration with the Metropole Orkest, and Meditations, a new-age album with Jon Batiste. His recent works include two albums released in conjunction with his variety show.
Born in Poughkeepsie, New York, Wong was raised in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and is of mixed Chinese-American descent. [1] [2] Growing up, he was exposed to classic rock and jazz music by his father. He took piano lessons at age nine. He was fascinated by the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Primus and decided to play bass and start a band. He took guitar and bass lessons and started a punk rock band. His first instruments were a Fender Jazz Bass, a Gretsch guitar, and a Fender Stratocaster. He acquired a second Stratocaster during his senior year of high school, which remained his primary instrument until the release of his signature Fender Stratocaster in 2021. [3] [4] [5]
Wong attended the University of Minnesota and the McNally Smith College of Music. At age 20 he decided to pursue music professionally. He credits his music school environment and his mentors for putting him on the right track. In particular he credits Peruvian guitarist Andrés Prado and Prince's drummer Michael Bland for showing him the nuances and cohesion of performing in an ensemble. [3] [4] [6] [7] He names guitarists Dave Williams and Paul Jackson Jr. as early influences. [5]
In late 2000s and early 2010s, Wong focused on jazz music and performed in Minneapolis–Saint Paul jazz clubs. He released two records with jazz ensembles, Even Uneven in 2008 and Quartet/Quintet in 2012. [3] [8] He then performed in the Nashville music scene on a regular basis as a session musician and guitarist. He started touring with Ben Rector and worked with a variety of artists including Bryan White, Brandon Heath and Dave Barnes. [9] In 2013, for a six-month period he performed in the Minneapolis-based band Dr. Mambo's Combo with several veterans of the city's R&B-pop-funk music scene including members of Prince's band: Michael Bland and bassist Sonny T. He calls this period his learning curve in performing "vibrant funk soul" music. [3] [4]
In 2013, Wong met members of the Ann Arbor-based band Vulfpeck. [3] He performed a jam with the group which was later rerecorded and released as the track "Cory Wong" on The Beautiful Game. [10] [11] In 2016, he started recording and touring with the band. He has recorded on every Vulfpeck album since then and toured with the band. He said of his guitar sound with Vulfpeck: "part of my sound is kind of bringing rhythm guitar to the front". He is also a member of The Fearless Flyers, an instrumental quartet (with Vulfpeck's bass player Joe Dart, Snarky Puppy's guitarist Mark Lettieri, and drummer Nate Smith) and has released four EPs and an album with the group. [4] [8] [12]
In 2016, Wong released a six-track EP as a lead artist. In 2017, he released his debut solo album, Cory Wong and The Green Screen Band. [8] His second solo album The Optimist was released in 2018 and reached number 19 on the U.S. Jazz Albums chart. [7] [13] He released a third album Motivational Music for the Syncopated Soul in 2019. [5] The albums feature contributions by Phoebe Katis, Antwaun Stanley, Michael Bland, Sonny T., Ben Rector, Jon Batiste, Louis Cato, Nate Smith and others. [8] [14] In 2020, Wong released his fourth solo album, Elevator Music for an Elevated Mood, which he called a continuation of his third album. [15]
Wong has performed with Dave Koz, Metropole Orkest, Stay Human (the house band of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert ), and with Chris Thile's band on the radio program Live from Here . [16] He has toured in the United States and Europe in support of his solo albums, and with Vulfpeck. [17] [18] He released several albums in 2020, including a Grammy nominated new-age album titled Meditations with Jon Batiste. [19]
In 2020 to 2022, in the absence of touring over the course of coronavirus pandemic, Wong released multiple solo and collaborative albums including The Golden Hour with Dave Koz, Turbo with Dirty Loops, and Tailwinds with The Fearless Flyers. [20] [21] He started hosting [lower-alpha 2] a music podcast for Premier Guitar magazine and he produced a YouTube music-comedy-variety show. [22] [23] In 2023, he collaborated with Japanese artist Vaundy on a theme song for the anime television series Spy × Family . [24] He also collaborated with Huntertones on the track "Tunnel" on their album Motionation released in April 2024. [25]
In 2021, Wong premiered a YouTube variety show titled "Cory and the Wongnotes". The show featured a full ensemble band, original music, short comedy skits, and interviews on subjects such as gear, genre and rhythm. The band consisted of Wong (guitar), Sonny T. (bass), Kevin Gastonguay (keys), Nêgah Santos (percussion), Petar Janjic (drums), Eddie Barbash (sax), Kenni Holmen (sax, flute), Sam Greenfield (sax, clarinet), Steve Strand (trumpet), [lower-alpha 3] Jon Lampley (trumpet), Michael Nelson (trombone, horn arrangement). The show featured collaborators Cody Fry and Antwaun Stanley and culminated in the release of an 11-track album. [23]
The second season of the show premiered in April 2022 and included guests Larry Carlton, Mark Lettieri, Nate Smith, Victor Wooten, Sierra Hull, Béla Fleck, Chromeo, Big Wild, Billy Strings, Lindsay Ell and Joey Dosik. A 15-track album titled Power Station was released in conjunction with the show. [26] [27]
Wong's primary equipment includes the following, Guitar: Fender Highway One Stratocaster [lower-alpha 4] with Seymour Duncan Antiquity pickups, Amplifiers: Fender '65 Super Reverb reissue, Kemper Profiler, and Neural DSP Quad Cortex, [28] Strings: D'Addario NYXL (.010–.046), Accessories: Wampler Ego Compressor, Vertex Steel String Clean Drive, and Strymon Big Sky. [17] [18] He uses a variety of other instruments and accessories as well. [17] [18] He aims for a clean tone, and often records direct. [29] In 2020, Cory collaborated with Neural DSP to create Archetype: Cory Wong, a plugin with three amplifiers and several effects. [30] In 2021, the Fender company released Wong's signature model Stratocaster guitar. [31]
Solo
Cory Wong Quartet
The Fearless Flyers
with Jon Batiste
with Dave Koz
with Dirty Loops
| ||||||||||||||
Wins | 0 | |||||||||||||
Nominations | 1 |
Year | Nominated work | Award | Category | Result |
---|---|---|---|---|
2021 | Meditations with Jon Batiste | Grammy Award | Best New Age Album | Nominated |
Eric Johnson is an American guitarist, vocalist and composer. His 1990 album Ah Via Musicom was certified platinum by the RIAA, and the single "Cliffs of Dover" won the Grammy Award for Best Rock Instrumental Performance.
The Fender Stratocaster, colloquially known as the Strat, is a model of electric guitar designed between 1952 and 1954 by Leo Fender, Bill Carson, George Fullerton, and Freddie Tavares. The Fender Musical Instruments Corporation has continuously manufactured the Stratocaster since 1954. It is a double-cutaway guitar, with an extended top "horn" shape for balance. "Stratocaster" and "Strat" are trademark terms belonging to Fender. Guitars that duplicate the Stratocaster by other manufacturers are sometimes called S-Type or ST-type guitars. Many prominent rock musicians have been associated with the Stratocaster for use in studio recording and live performances, most notably Eric Clapton, Buddy Holly, David Gilmour, Mark Knopfler, Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughan, John Frusciante, Jeff Beck, George Harrison, and Tom Petty.
The Fender Musical Instruments Corporation is an American manufacturer and marketer of musical instruments and amplifiers. Fender produces acoustic guitars, bass amplifiers and public address equipment; however, it is best known for its solid-body electric guitars and bass guitars, particularly the Stratocaster, Telecaster, Jaguar, Jazzmaster, Precision Bass, and the Jazz Bass. The company was founded in Fullerton, California, by Clarence Leonidas "Leo" Fender in 1946. Andy Mooney has served as the chief executive officer (CEO) since June 2015.
David Stephen Koz is an American saxophonist, composer, record producer, and radio personality based in California.
Daryl Mark Stuermer is an American musician, songwriter, singer, and record producer best known for playing the guitar and bass for Genesis during live shows, and lead guitar for Phil Collins during most solo tours and albums. He has also released nine solo albums, and tours with his Daryl Stuermer Band.
Jimmy Herring is an American guitarist, known as the lead guitarist for the band Widespread Panic since 2006. He is a founding member of Aquarium Rescue Unit and Jazz Is Dead and has played with The Allman Brothers Band, Project Z, Derek Trucks Band, Phil Lesh and Friends, and The Dead.
Theodore Daniel Katzman is an American multi-instrumentalist, singer, songwriter, and producer based in Los Angeles. His musical style is a fusion of pop, jazz, funk and indie rock. He is a member of funk band Vulfpeck and has contributed to the works of several artists as songwriter and producer. Katzman has released four studio albums. His latest album Be the Wheel was released in March 2023.
Vulfpeck is an American funk band founded in 2011 in Ann Arbor, Michigan, by Jack Stratton, Theo Katzman, Woody Goss and Joe Dart. The band has released four extended plays, six studio albums and one live album through their own record label. The band gained recognition in 2014 for releasing Sleepify, a silent album that exposed a loophole in Spotify's royalty distribution and funded an admission-free tour. The band is one of the first to sell out Madison Square Garden without a manager or backing label, and released the recorded performance as a live album in 2019. The band's most recent album, Schvitz, was released in December 2022.
Eddie Barbash is an American saxophonist known for his work as a core member of Jon Batiste and Stay Human, and was part of the house band for Late Show with Stephen Colbert through 2016.
Cory Alexander Henry is an American jazz organist, pianist, gospel musician, and producer. A former member of Snarky Puppy, Henry launched his solo artist career in 2018 with Art of Love, his first independent release. In 2020, he released his sophomore full-length project called Something to Say which included the Marc E. Bassy-written track "No Guns". That same year he released Art of Love Live and Christmas with You, both under Culture Collective management and records.
Ira Nathaniel Smith, generally referred to as Nate Smith, is an American drummer, songwriter, producer, and three-time Grammy nominee.
Joey Dosik is an American singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist based in Los Angeles, California. His most recent album, The Nostalgiac, was released in 2023.
We Are is the sixth studio album by Jon Batiste. It was released on Verve Records on March 19, 2021. In April 2022, We Are won Album of the Year at the 64th Annual Grammy Awards; it earned Batiste nine nominations in total, with five wins.
The discography of American guitarist Cory Wong which consists of 19 studio albums, four collaboration albums, ten live albums, one EP, 45 singles, and over 60 other appearances.
This is the discography for American jazz saxophonist Dave Koz which consists of 19 studio albums, one collaboration album, four live albums, one compilation album, one video album, and 66 singles.
The Hornheads are a collective of brass and woodwind session musicians based in Minneapolis–Saint Paul. They have played on albums and tours for a wide variety of musical artists, most notably Prince, who originally hired the musicians and led to the group's founding.
Mark Lettieri is an American guitarist, composer and producer. He is a member of the jazz fusion band Snarky Puppy, funk band The Fearless Flyers, and also performs with his quartet, the Mark Lettieri Group. His background spans several genres including jazz, rock and funk. He has released seven solo albums. His 2021 album Deep: The Baritone Sessions Vol. 2 was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Instrumental Album.
The discography of American funk group Vulfpeck currently consists of six studio albums, one live album, four extended plays, seven compilation albums and one silent album. The band have released their music independently through their label Vulf Records since 2011.
Schvitz is the sixth studio album by the American funk band Vulfpeck, released on 30 December 2022 through their own label, Vulf Records. It is their first album to feature Cory Wong, Antwaun Stanley and Joey Dosik as prominent performers on all or most tracks. Announced in November 2022, the album was preceded by six singles.
one of the fun things that I do is part of my sound is kind of bringing rhythm guitar to the front in certain aspects