Glen Velez is a four-time Grammy winning American percussionist, vocalist, and composer, specializing in frame drums from around the world. He is largely responsible for the increasing popularity of frame drums in the United States and around the world. Velez is married to Loire.
Martha Veléz is an American singer and actress of Puerto Rican descent.
Eugene Friesen is an American cellist and composer.
Mike Hamilton is an American guitarist, singer-songwriter and session musician.
The Animals' Christmas is the sixth solo studio album and the first Christmas album by vocalist Art Garfunkel, and is a collaborative album with Amy Grant, released in October 1986 by Columbia Records. The album was written by Jimmy Webb and features vocals by Garfunkel, Grant, and Wimbledon King's College Choir. The Animals' Christmas tells the story of the Nativity of Jesus from the perspective of the animals present. The album received positive reviews, with one writer calling it "one of the best Christmas albums of the '80s." The album failed to chart.
Missa Gaia/Earth Mass is an album released by Paul Winter in 1982 for Living Music. He co-wrote the mass with Paul Halley, Jim Scott, Oscar Castro-Neves, and Kim Oler. The title stems from two languages, Latin and Greek. The Earth Mass was one of the first contributions made by Paul Winter when he and his Paul Winter Consort became the artists in residence at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City. The mass includes the usual text, such as the Kyrie and the Agnus Dei, and also other text, hymns, and instrumental pieces. The mass is an environmental liturgy of contemporary music. It features the instrumentation of the Paul Winter Consort along with a choir, vocal soloists, and the calls of wolves, whales, and many other animals that are woven into the pieces, sometimes used as the melody: The "Kyrie" is derived from the call of a wolf, the "Sanctus" from the songs of humpback whales. Man literally learns how to sing from animals. Missa Gaia is a mass that is equally ecumenical as it is ecological. It involves all voices of the earth. Musically the ecumenical character is underlined by a web of various musical traditions and styles: from Gregorian chant of the Middle Ages through Protestant hymns, Romantic organ music, African instruments, Latin American rhythms, elements of Gospel song to contemporary rock ballad. The name "Missa Gaia" refers to the "Gaia hypothesis" of scientists James Lovelock and Lynn Margulis which states "that the entire range of living matter on Earth, from whales to viruses, and from oaks to algae, could be regarded as constituting a single living entity, capable of manipulating the Earths's atmosphere to suit its overall needs and endowed with faculties and power far beyond its constituent parts". Since it was first written, the mass is performed annually at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine at The Feast of St. Francis which is the blessing of the animals. The first complete performance in Europe was presented by the GospelChor Saarbrücken (Germany) in 1995 under the direction of Wilhelm Otto Deutsch.
Canyon is an album released in 1985 by Paul Winter, featuring his Paul Winter Consort. It was recorded in a small side canyon located in the Grand Canyon, which the members of the Consort nicknamed Bach's canyon, due to its 7-second reverberation, which made a perfect place to record music. The original idea of playing music in the canyon began when Winter played his saxophone while standing on the edge of the canyon, and felt that the long echoes coming back from the canyon almost seemed like the Earth was responding back to him.
Wintersong is an album released in 1986 by Paul Winter, featuring the Paul Winter Consort. The album is a collection of lesser known folk melodies from North America and Europe, arranged in a mixed style of jazz and classical, and played with Brazilian rhythms.
Whales Alive is a 1987 album of improvisational duets and sometimes trios between Paul Winter, Paul Halley, and recordings of humpback whales. Winter and Halley also collaborate with Leonard Nimoy, who reads poems and prose from various writers, including D. H. Lawrence and Roger Payne. The audio recordings made of the whales for this recording were used in the Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home movie, featuring the whales nicknamed "George and Gracie".
Earthbeat is a landmark album by saxophonist Paul Winter. Recorded and released in 1987, the album was a joint project between the Paul Winter Consort and the Dmitri Pokrovsky Ensemble from Russia, then the Soviet Union.
Earth: Voices of a Planet is an album released by Paul Winter in 1990. The album was a commissioned for the 20th anniversary of Earth Day, and was premiered in Times Square by the Paul Winter Consort and special guests. The album is a tribute to the Earth, and features at least one instrument or voice from every continent. The album also features animal calls woven into the music. In particular, recordings of elephant basso-rumbles are used. These sounds, created by elephants, are below 20 Hz, and therefore too low for the human ear to detect on its own, and their existence was unknown until shortly before the album was created.
Solstice Live! is a live album released by Paul Winter in 1993. The album is a recording of a performance of Paul Winter's annual Winter Solstice Celebration, which takes place in the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City. The concert is a contemporary celebration of the longest night of the year, and the return of the sun. It features contemporary symbols for various parts of the celebration created by Winter. These symbols are both an artistic visual representation of something as well as a musical instrument played on during the performance. These symbols include the Sun Gong, a giant gong that is hit with yellow and red light, and risen 100 feet to the top of the cathedral ceiling, along with its player. Another is the Solstice Tree, a large sculpture of an evergreen tree, upon which is hung various cymbals, bells, chimes and gongs. The performance always features the Paul Winter Consort, and special guest musicians that Paul Winter has met or collaborated with, making it a celebration of the world's people and their music.
Prayer for the Wild Things is an album released by Paul Winter in 1994. The album was commissioned to accompany a painting by artist Bev Doolittle, which is also titled Prayer For The Wild Things. A portion of this painting is seen on the album cover.
Silver Solstice is a live album by Paul Winter Consort and friends, including organist Dorothy Papadakos, released in 2005 through the record label Living Music. In 2006, the album earned the group a Grammy Award for Best New Age Album.
Crestone is an album by Paul Winter Consort, released in 2007 through the record label Living Music. The album is named after the community of Crestone, Colorado. The album was recorded in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, the Great Sand Dunes, and the San Luis Valley of southern Colorado, all of which are located near Crestone. In 2008, the album earned the group a Grammy Award for Best New Age Album.
Miho: Journey to the Mountain is an album by Paul Winter Consort, released in 2010 through the record label Living Music. The album was commissioned by the Miho Museum in Shiga, Japan to be a musical celebration of the museum. The museum is a unique piece of architecture, built on the top of a mountain, and partially tunneling into it, giving the experience of the museum being part of the Earth. The album was recorded in the corridors of the museum, which are naturally reverberant. In 2011, the album earned the group a Grammy Award for Best New Age Album.
Spanish Angel is a live album by Paul Winter Consort, released in 1993 through the record label Living Music. In 1994, the album earned the group a Grammy Award for Best New Age Album.
Celtic Solstice is an album by Paul Winter, released in 1999 through the record label Living Music. In 2000, the album earned him a Grammy Award for Best New Age Album.
P.J. Morton is an American musician, singer, songwriter and record producer. Since 2012, he has been the keyboardist for the pop band Maroon 5. Morton originally joined the band as a touring member in 2010 and became an official member in 2012 after Jesse Carmichael went on indefinite hiatus.
Dorothy Jean Papadakos is an American concert organist, composer, lyricist, playwright, and author. She is the former organist at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City (1990–2003), the first female organist to hold that post. She was also organist for the Paul Winter Consort at the cathedral's Easter and Christmas services and performed with the ensemble on their Grammy Award-winning album Silver Solstice, released in 2005.
