Born in Brooklyn, Richie Cannata later moved with his parents to Garden City South, where he blossomed as a tenor sax musician. He played in school bands and with fellow local musicians, perfecting his trade on the local music scene as a live performer and studio musician. One day in 1975 when Cannata was in […]
Read MoreLiberty DeVitto played in Billy Joel’s band for 30 years and can be heard on some of Joel’s best-known hits such as “Only the Good Die Young” and “Just the Way You Are.” Over the course of his career, DeVitto has played with Paul McCartney, Stevie Nicks, Mick Jagger, Roger Daltrey, Ronnie Spector, Karen Carpenter, […]
Read MorePeppi Marchello was born in Brooklyn and moved to Long Island with his family when he was young. He joined a band doing Beatle covers in 1965 and soon became front man. Within a year, he dropped out of school and brought his younger brother into the fold to share the stage on guitar. Originally […]
Read MorePaul Stanley was born Stanley Harvey Eisen in Queens in 1952. Through a mutual friend of musician Gene Simmons, Stanley joined Simmons’ band Wicked Lester in the early 1970s. The band recorded an album in 1971 but disbanded when they couldn’t get the group a proper deal. Due to contractual obligations, Stanley and Simmons could […]
Read MoreDouglas Alan Stegmeyer was born in 1951 in Flushing. He grew up in a musical family—his father was an accomplished musician, his mother a contemporary singer and piano player. Stegmeyer took up bass guitar at the age of 14, and when he graduated from Syosset High School, he joined the band Topper with friends Russell […]
Read MoreIn 1979, guitarist/vocalist Brian Setzer, a Massapequa native, along with friends Lee Rocker (born Leon Drucker) and Slim Jim Phantom (born James McDonnell), formed the Stray Cats. The group’s style was based on the sounds of the mighty Sun Records artists of the 1950s—Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Johnny Cash—with a nod to the […]
Read MoreAfter more than 20 years, Steve Vai continues to use unbridled guitar virtuosity and soulful artistry to explore the spectrum of human emotion. From his self-released solo debut album Flex-Able (1984) to his most recent, Modern Primitive (2016), Vai strikes a balance between technical ability and poetic phrasing—Vai’s most influential and best-selling album, Passion and […]
Read MoreIn 1965, Long Island’s Vanilla Fudge began as a blue-eyed soul cover band called the Electric Pigeons (later shortened to “The Pigeons”). Organist Mark Stein, bassist Tim Bogert, drummer Joey Brennan, and guitarist Vince Martell built a following gigging extensively up and down the East Coast and earned extra cash providing in-concert backing for girl […]
Read MoreBorn in Forest Hills, Leslie West was sparked with the desire to play guitar when he saw Elvis Presley’s notorious appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show in the mid-1950s. After learning three chords, he played “Heartbreak Hotel” in a seventh-grade talent show and, with the proceeds from his bar mitzvah, bought his first electric guitar. […]
Read MoreFounded in 1975 in New Orleans, Zebra is a three-man band that consists of Randy Jackson, who is lead vocalist, songwriter, and lead guitarist (his guitar playing and vocal stylings are reminiscent of Led Zepelin’s Page/Plant); Guy Gelso, who plays drums/percussion and does backing vocals; and Felix Hanemann, who ties it all together on bass, […]
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