Greg Porée and his group of world renowned musicians mix it up in an eclectic blend of original Jazz and other world music.
Greg Porée – classical guitar
Jeff Colella – electric keyboards
Paul Cartwright – violin
Keith Jones – electric bass
Léo Costa – drums
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Greg Porée (Guitar) is an accomplished composer/guitarist. He has been fortunate enough to build his career in Los Angeles around music. He grew up in a multi-cultural environment and was exposed to diverse styles of music early on, ranging from Bach to Beatles, Jazz to R&B and from Villa-Lobos to Motown. He settled on the guitar at age 15 and immediately began applying all of what he heard to that instrument.
In 1969 he got his first break into the music business as musical director for Sonny and Cher. From that he worked with a diverse group of musicians ranging from Ray Charles and Aretha Franklin to Diana Ross and Sting. He can be heard on landmark albums from artists such as Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson, Stanley Turrentine, Randy Crawford, Albert King, Ahmad Jamal, Donald Byrd and Ozomatli. As a musical director his credits include The Supremes, Gladys Knight and the Pips and Joan Baez. Greg also produced groundbreaking solo albums in association with Sting for world music master Vinx and was the lead guitarist on the BBC hit show ‘Dancing with the Stars’ for eight years.
In the mid 1990’s he shifted his focus from studio work to composition and that has been his priority with the CD Inventions as a prime example of his style. His music revolves around the classical guitar and his live performing ensembles might also include percussion, violin, accordion, bass, vibraphone and keyboards. Greg since 2012 has also been involved with the California Jazz Foundation, a non-profit that assets musicians who have fallen on hard times.
Jeff Colella (Electric Keyboards) is one of LA’s busiest jazz pianists. Besides performing in concert as a solo artist and with his trio, he maintains a very active schedule as an accompanist, recording artist, arranger, clinician and teacher. The list of artists that Jeff has performed and recorded with over the years is extensive. Besides touring with the late, legendary Lou Rawls as his pianist and conductor for nearly sixteen years until his untimely passing, Jeff toured worldwide for seven years with the Jazz Tap Ensemble and served as Musical Director for another of our legendary singers, Jack Jones. He has worked with Diane Schuur, Gregory Hines, Savion Glover, Morgana King, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Sheila Jordan, and Antonia Bennett among many other notable performers.
Born and raised in Bakersfield, California, Paul Cartwright (Violin) grew up in a musical family. His mother, an adept multi wind instrumentalist, and his father, a versatile and much beloved guitarist in the Bakersfield music scene, owned a music store where Paul spent his childhood days. He began studying classical violin at the age of 7, but several years later a performance by Stéphane Grappelli which Paul attended with his parents opened up his mind to the possibilities of improvising and playing other styles of music on his instrument. Paul spent his late teens and early twenties studying jazz and classical violin performance at CSU Bakersfield and CSU Northridge under the tutelage of Dr. Doug Davis, Gary Pratt, David Aks, Mary Kim, and Arnold Belnik. Paul has since led a diverse career, touring and recording with a vast spectrum of artists, including Macy Gray, John McEuen, Kenny Loggins, Rissi Palmer, Everlast, Ozomatli, Dr. Dre, members of Oingo Boingo, Black Eyed Peas, Los Lobos and War. Paul has been featured as a soloist on a number of television shows, video games and films, including Battlestar Galactica, Big Love, Trauma, and Mad Men. Paul is an exemplar of a new generation of young, versatile string players who are equally at home on the rock stage or in the concert hall, able to navigate a multitude of musical situations with style and virtuosity. He is at the forefront of the electric string movement as well, and has for the last 10 years experimented with endless combinations of instruments, pickups, effects and amplifiers to build a varied and beautiful sonic palette which can be heard in many of his recordings, notably in his work with composer Bear McCreary and in his recordings with pop group Crosby Loggins and the Light. In addition to his accomplishments on the violin, Paul often fills the role of multi-instrumentalist during live performances, playing viola, mandolin, guitar, bass guitar, trombone, drums and percussion, and singing with a baritone-tenor range. Paul currently resides in Los Angeles, and is a member of several progressive string groups, including the Los Angeles String Collective, Quartetto Fantastico, Elevation Orchestra, and DaKah Hip Hop Orchestra.
Keith Jones (Electric Bass) knows the music world like he knows the frets on his six-string bass. Over the course of his 40-plus-year career, he’s seen the music industry from a multiplicity of different angles. He’s toured the world with Santana; Blood, Sweat & Tears; Wayne Shorter; Al Jarreau; Andy Narell; Jean-Luc Ponty and others. He’s recorded with the likes of Bob Marley, Kenny Loggins, Flora Purim and Airto Moreira, Bugs Henderson and Third World. His music can also be heard in movies like “How Stella Got Her Groove Back” and “Basic Instinct” as well as commercials for brands like Coca Cola and Jelly Belly Jelly Beans. And beyond that, he’s also a Grammy-nominated producer who’s recorded, mixed and mastered everything from alternative rock to reggae and Brazilian jazz.
During thundering rehearsals for Rio de Janeiro’s world famous carnival, eleven-year old Léo Costa (Drums) was thrown into the fray by his father and left to learn rhythm from the old-school master percussionists of the historic Salgueiro group. Not knowing quite what he started, Leo’s father signed his son up for drum lessons and subsequently put up with Leo’s sofa-drumming and hand-crafted drum sets for a year before going to São Paulo to buy him a proper drum kit. Léo Costa grew up playing in local bands and finding equal inspiration from discovering drum legends like Billy Cobham and Dennis Chambers, as well as listening to the ubiquitous and flawless samba of his hometown of Rio de Janeiro. When the time came to choose a course for his higher education, Leo opted for Boston’s Berklee College of Music in spite of being accepted at other universities in Brazil for psychology and engineering. In 2002 Leo graduated with a Professional Music Degree, which served as an umbrella for studies in performance, arranging, and music synthesis. The slant of music synthesis delivered powerful tools for Leo to think outside of drums and percussion by introducing him to production and programming within the modern realms of hip hop and drum n bass.
After graduating Léo Costa jumped into professional life in Boston and then headed out to the west coast, first Oakland and then Los Angeles, where he continues to live and work as a studio and live drummer. Léo Costa’s growing and impressive resume spans a wide range of notable and major recording artists like Grammy Award winners K.D. Lang and Keb Mo, Sophie B. Hawkins, Sergio Mendes, Los Lobos, The Wailers frontman Elan, Taio Cruz and film, game and TV credits including FOX’s Rio, ABC’s ‘Samantha Who’, ‘Killing Pablo’ (Christian Bale, Javier Bardem, Chris Pine), ‘Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood’ and BET’s ‘Lucky’. Léo Costa has also played for international recording artists such as Mexican pop star Gloria Trevi, Grammy nominated singer Diego Torres, Latin Idol winner Anais, as well as prominent Brazilian artists Pepeu Gomes, Baby Consuelo, Marcos Ariel, Weber Iago, Alexandre Pires, and revered local heroes Kátia Moraes and Brasil-Brazil. In 2005 Leo played the Latin Grammy Awards and in 2008 he played the Hollywood Music Awards and also appeared on numerous Univision and Telemundo performances. With dexterity ranging from funky, gritty grooves to the complex feel of samba, jazz, and literally everything in between, Leo Costa plays with an authentic, inspired, and soulful intelligence.
