Warren Wiegratz

Last updated

Warren Wiegratz is a saxophonist who has been named Reed/Brass Instrumentalist of the Year by the Wisconsin Area Music Industry Awards (WAMI) eleven times. Wiegratz is proficient on eight instruments and has been featured in the Saxophone Journal, The Leblanc Bell, and the Roland Users Group magazines. [1]

Wisconsin Area Music Industry (WAMI) is an American volunteer organization founded in 1980, and based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Its stated purpose is "to educate and recognize the achievements and accomplishments of individuals in the Wisconsin music industry." The organization is best known for its annual awards for Wisconsin musicians from various genres of music. It also hosts seminars and workshops on subjects related to music and the music industry, such as performing, recording and marketing.

Currently Wiegratz is the leader of the Milwaukee band, Streetlife. (Streetlife is currently the house band for the Milwaukee Bucks. [2] ) Wiegratz was a member of Sweetbottom, with Daryl Stuermer, in 1978 and 79. He formed the smooth jazz group Oceans, which recorded two nationally-released albums, Second Chance (Pro-Jazz) and Ridin' the Tide (Pro-Jazz). He has performed at major jazz festivals across the United States. Wiegratz has performed and recorded with countless renowned national and international artists, including Phil Collins, George Duke, Al Dimeola, Lenny White, The Temptations, Gladys Knight & the Pips, The Supremes, Steve Smith, Jaco Pastorius, Wayman Tisdale, Andy Kim, Lyle Mays, Spencer Brewer, Chris Spheeris, Michael Jones, and Sigmund Snopek III.

Milwaukee Bucks American professional basketball team

The Milwaukee Bucks are an American professional basketball team based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The Bucks compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member club of the league's Eastern Conference Central Division. The team was founded in 1968 as an expansion team, and play at the Fiserv Forum. Former U.S. Senator Herb Kohl was the long-time owner of the team, but on April 16, 2014, a group led by billionaire hedge fund managers Wes Edens and Marc Lasry agreed to purchase a majority interest in the team from Kohl, a sale which was approved by the owners of the NBA and its Board of Governors one month later on May 16. The team is managed by Jon Horst, the team's former director of basketball operations, who took over for John Hammond in May 2017.

Daryl Stuermer American guitarist

Daryl Mark Stuermer is an American musician, songwriter, and 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 ten solo albums, and tours with his Daryl Stuermer Band.

Smooth jazz is music that evolved from a blend of jazz fusion and easy listening pop music, featuring a polished pop feel with little to no jazz improvisation. The genre arose in the mid-1970s in the United States, but it was not named "smooth jazz" until the 1980s. Traditional jazz players and jazz purists did not embrace the popular style; Jazz Journal's "Sound Investment" column stated in November 1999 that it "would cover an extremely wide spectrum of jazz styles" while avoiding smooth jazz.

Related Research Articles

Chuck Mangione American jazz musician

Charles Frank Mangione is an American flugelhorn player, trumpeter and composer.

Jymie Merritt American bassist

Jymie Merritt is an American jazz double-bassist, electric-bass pioneer, band leader and composer.

Wisconsin was settled largely by European immigrants in the late 19th century. This immigration led to the popularization of galops, schottisches, waltzes, and, especially, polkas. Classical composers and conductors from Wisconsin include Hans Balatka, Hugo Kaun, Eugene Luening, Theodore Steinmetz and Sarge Boyd. Among Wisconsin's contributions to rock music were Les Paul, an electric guitar pioneer known as the "Wizard of Waukesha". The Steve Miller Band, with Milwaukee's Steve Miller, had three #1 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 from 1973 to 1982. The Chordettes from Sheboygan, Bon Iver from Eau Claire, and Garbage from Madison all had albums on the Billboard 200.

Missing Persons (band) band

Missing Persons is an American rock band. The band was founded in 1980 in Los Angeles by guitarist Warren Cuccurullo, vocalist Dale Bozzio, and drummer Terry Bozzio. They later added bassist Patrick O'Hearn and keyboardist Chuck Wild. Dale's quirky voice and heavy makeup made the band a favorite on MTV in the early 1980s.

Dave Douglas (trumpeter) American jazz trumpeter

Dave Douglas is a prolific trumpeter, composer, and educator from New York City known for the stylistic breadth of his work, the lyricism and wide-ranging curiosity of his music, and for keeping a diverse set of ensembles and projects active simultaneously.

Vernon Reid Guitarist, songwriter and composer

Vernon Alphonsus Reid is a British-born American guitarist and songwriter. Reid was the founder and primary songwriter of the rock band Living Colour, Reid was named No. 66 on Rolling Stone magazine's 2004 list of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time.

Mike Varney is an American musician, record producer, music publisher and impresario. He is the founder of the Shrapnel Label Group, which includes Shrapnel Records, Tone Center Records and Blues Bureau International. He also has a 50% stake in Magna Carta Records, a New York-based label. Amazon.com currently lists over 790 albums as being released by record labels founded or owned by Mike Varney. He is often credited with being the individual most responsible for popularizing the mid-1980s shred guitar boom, and has continuously specialized in producing highly acclaimed musicians within the genres of instrumental rock, hard rock, jazz, jazz fusion, blues, blues-rock, progressive metal and speed metal.

Little Blue Crunchy Things

Little Blue Crunchy Things was an American rock/jazz group from the Milwaukee, WI area. During their decade-long performance career, LBCT were a hit among audiences and the local press due to their unique mix of jazz, rock, blues, funk, and hip hop music.

Steve Rucker American drummer

Stephen "Steve" Rucker is an American musician and drummer who served as the 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 for the Queen of England. 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.

Liberty DeVitto American musician

Liberatori "Liberty" DeVitto is an American rock drummer. He is best known for his work as a drummer for New York singer-songwriter Billy Joel's recording and touring band and most recently as drummer for The Slim Kings, but he has also played with the NYC Hit Squad and has been a session drummer on recordings of other artists. He is credited as drummer on over 150 million records sold.

Gwilym Simcock is a British pianist and composer working in both jazz and classical music, and often blurring the boundaries of the two.

Ron Holloway American tenor saxophonist

Ronald Edward "Ron" Holloway is an American tenor saxophonist. He is listed in the Biographical Encyclopedia of Jazz where veteran jazz critic Ira Gitler described Holloway as a "Hard bear-down-hard-bopper who can blow authentic R&B and croon a ballad with warm, blue feeling."

Mervyn Warren American singer

Mervyn Edwin Warren is an American film composer, record producer, music conductor, music arranger, lyricist, songwriter, pianist, and vocalist. Warren is a five-time Grammy Award winner and a 10-time Grammy Award nominee. Warren has written the underscore and songs for many feature and television films and has written countless arrangements in a variety of musical styles for producers Quincy Jones, David Foster, Arif Mardin, and dozens of popular recording artists, including extensive work on Jones' Back on the Block,Q's Jook Joint, and Q: Soul Bossa Nostra.

Sean Jones (trumpeter) American musician

Sean Jones is an American trumpeter and composer featured on the 2007 Grammy Award-winning album Turned to Blue by Nancy Wilson. As a bandleader, Jones has released seven albums under the Mack Avenue Records label. He performs with his own groups both nationally and internationally. Jones often plays at music venues and jazz festivals such as the Monterey Jazz Festival, Detroit International Jazz Festival, the Vail Jazz Festival and Montreal International Jazz Festival.

Lynwood High School secondary school in Lynwood, California, USA

Lynwood High School is one of three high schools in Lynwood, California, USA. It is a part of the Lynwood Unified School District.

University of California Jazz Ensembles

The University of California Jazz Ensembles, also known as the UC Jazz Ensembles, UC Jazz, or UCJE, is the student jazz organization founded in 1967 on the University of California, Berkeley, campus. Founded in 1967, it comprises one or more big bands, numerous jazz combos, a vocal jazz ensemble, an alumni big band, and instructional classes. With a mission statement to foster a community for the performance, study, and promotion of jazz at U.C. Berkeley, its Wednesday Night big band provides free concerts every Thursday noon on Lower Sproul Plaza, its various units perform throughout the San Francisco Bay Area including area high schools, travel to collegiate jazz festivals, and perform overseas, and for many years it sponsored the annual Pacific Coast Jazz Festival. It also provides master classes by its instructors and clinics by prominent guest artists. It has nurtured numerous musicians who have become professional jazz musicians and educators. UC Jazz Ensembles is one of three groups, with the Cal (marching) Band and UC Choral Ensembles, forming Student Musical Activities (SMA), a department within Cal Performances on the U.C. Berkeley campus. Its members are primarily U.C. Berkeley undergraduate and graduate students, representing many academic disciplines.

Marcos J. Reyes Percussionist with the band War

Marcos Reyes ~ Marcos J. Reyes, born in 1960 in Bakersfield, California to parents from Chihuahua, Mexico, has been the Latin percussionist for WAR since 1998. At the age of severteen Marcos was turned on to the music of WAR, Santana, El Chicano, MALO, Latin Jazz and Salsa.

John M. Green is an Australian thriller writer, publisher and company director. He is a former executive director of an investment bank and was a partner of two law firms. Previously a director of publisher UNSW Press, he co-founded Pantera Press, which published his first novel Nowhere Man. Green has also written for publications such as The Australian Financial Review and The Australian. As a company director, he is Deputy Chairman of QBE Insurance and a Councillor of the National Library of Australia.

Sqeezer band

Sqeezer, also Squeezer, was a German Eurodance and Pop duo formed in 1995 by Jim Reeves. Sqeezer was originally fronted by Reeves and Yvonne Spath. The group has sold more than 1 million records worldwide. All singles were represented more than ten million times. They are best known for their charting singles "Blue Jeans", "Sweet Kisses" and "Without You".

References