Orlando's flagship instrument is the Tenor Lead Pan (Steel Drum). He plays everything from Bob Marley tunes to Calypso and Soca on his Steel Pan directly imported from Trinidad!

Orlando's very first instrument was the Clarinet. At the age of fifteen he learned to play the Saxophone, and the next year he picked up the Bass Guitar. He impressed many professional colleagues with his masterful Bass Guitar performances with Starpoint. Raised in a home with a piano he has played the keyboards all his life.

    Orlando is also an original vocalist, bass and sax player for the nationally acclaimed group, Starpoint, most known for the song "Object of My Desire", a top 25 pop hit on the Restless album. At a Madison Square Garden performance, he received a gold album (half million sales) for that LP. (Starpoint Videos on YouTube) Orlando also recorded on the multi-platinum debut LP of Grammy Award winning artist, Toni Braxton, and has performed in the company of several well known groups including Patti Labelle, Ashford&Simpson, Kool&the Gang, Natalie Cole, Luther Vandross, Morris Day of the Time, Blackstreet, and many more. Before performing solo, Orlando was the leader and lead vocalist for the popular Caribbean music group Mama Jama from 1987-1995.

OrlandoPhillips.com

Maryland Bassist/Composer Jay A. Turner spent his early years committed to classical guitar, establishing a strong foundation with a challenging repertoire. Since then he’s built a reputation as a go-to bassist for session work and touring in the U.S and Europe. He has released 7 full length solo albums and contributed to 100’s more.

www.JayATurner.net

danab.net

www.najeeofficial.com/bio/

CEO, PRS Guitars, Guitarist

Paul Reed Smith Guitars, also known as PRS Guitars, is an American guitar and amplifier manufacturer located in Stevensville, Maryland. The company was founded in 1985 in Annapolis, Maryland by Paul Reed Smith. Products manufactured by PRS include electric & acoustic guitars, basses, and amplifiers.

www.prsguitars.com

www.bryanewald.com

President of Audio Associates

Graduated from the University of Massachusetts as an Electronic Engineer. He went on to become a professional musician for seven years playing with Micheal Urbaniak, Jean Carn, Phyllis Hyman, Chuck Brown, The O’Jays and various other jazz and R&B groups.

Joe engineered many recording projects through the late 70’s. As a musician he worked with many new companies such as Mesa Boogie, PRS, MXR and Teac as an endorsee and clinician. He eventually transferred the knowledge he gained by working with some of the “true innovators” and started his rep firm in 1981.

He has been involved with many industry projects on the design level, worked on large scale audio projects with many industry notables and has a real working knowledge of all products Audio Associates represents.

He continues to find new opportunities for his manufacturers and his firm.

Musician. Teacher. Producer.

TonyFazioguitar.com

This is your Team Member description. Use this space to write a brief description of this person’s role and responsibilities, or add a short bio.

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Guthrie Matthews Method

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AngieMiller.com

MegMurray.com/

Jonathan Epley grew up playing guitar in the mountains of East Tennessee.  An initial interest in the instrument came from my uncle, well known Martin historian and luthier John Arnold.  There were many excellent guitarists in and out of John's shop.  At an early age I had the pleasure of meeting many great guitarists including Norman Blake and Doc Watson.  
​The unique opportunity of watching some of the world's greatest acoustic guitar players in the world in such an intimate atmosphere proved to be too much for me to resist, and I quickly picked up a guitar and started trying to emulate what I heard.

The early influences of my Bluegrass/Folk upbringing along with later influences of Jazz, Electric Slide Guitar, Blues, and Progressive Rock have all been important in developing my approach to music and the guitar. 
 

Angela Tomasa Bofill (May 2, 1954 – June 13, 2024) was an American singer, songwriter and composer of Cuban-Puerto Rican origins. A New York native, she began her professional career in the mid-1970s[2] and is most known for singles such as "This Time I'll Be Sweeter", "Angel of the Night", and "I Try". Her career spanned over four decades.

Early life and education

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Angela Tomasa Bofill was born on May 2, 1954, in the Brooklyn area of New York City[3] to a Cuban father and a Puerto Rican mother.[4] Raised in The Bronx, Bofill grew up listening to Latin music and was also inspired by American performers. During Bofill's childhood, her weekends were taken up studying classical music and singing in New York City's All City Chorus, which featured the best singers from all of the high schools in the five boroughs.[5] She attended Hunter College High School, graduating in 1972.[6] Bofill later studied at the Manhattan School of Music, receiving a Bachelor of Music degree in 1976.[7]

Career

[edit]

Bofill began her professional career, singing during her teenage years. Bofill performed with Ricardo Marrero & the Group and Dance Theater of Harlem chorus before being introduced to Dave Grusin and Larry Rosen of the jazz label GRP Records by Dave Valentin, her friend and jazz flautist.[8] Grusin and Rosen signed Bofill and produced her first album, Angie, in 1978. Angie was well received both critically and commercially and included the chart single "This Time I'll Be Sweeter" (co-written by Gwen Guthrie and Haras Fyre), and Bofill's sprawling jazz composition, "Under the Moon and Over the Sky". Less than a year later, a second album, Angel of the Night was released and outperformed its predecessor. The album included the chart singles "What I Wouldn't Do (For the Love of You)" and the up-tempo title track, as well as the song "I Try", written by Bofill and covered by Will Downing in 1991. The reception of these albums positioned Bofill as one of the first Latina singers to find success in the R&B and jazz markets.[9]

Bofill performed a sold-out concert at Avery Fisher Hall as part of the Newport Jazz Festival on June 20, 1980.  Her musical director was Onaje Allen Gumbs, keyboards, Sammy Figueroa, percussion, a 9-piece band and guests including Steve Khan, guitar, Eddie Daniels, tenor sax and flute, and a 24-voice choir.[10]

Clive Davis, the head of Arista Records, showed interest in Bofill. Arista had a distribution deal with GRP. Bofill switched labels for her next album, Something About You (1981). Produced by Narada Michael Walden, the album was an attempt to move Bofill into mainstream R&B and pop music. It didn't perform as well as previous releases, despite the singles "Holdin' Out for Love" and the title track, which both reached the R&B Top 40.[11] The following year, Bofill and Walden reunited for Too Tough. The title song reached No. 5 on the R&B chart and spent four weeks at No. 2 on the Dance chart. A follow-up single, "Tonight I Give In", reached the Top 20.[12] Several months later, Bofill released her final collaboration with Walden, Teaser. The album failed to match the success of Too Tough but did produce one Top 20 R&B hit, "I'm On Your Side", which has been covered by several artists, most notably Jennifer Holliday, who had a Top 10 hit with it in 1991.[12]

Bofill recorded two more albums for Arista with the help of The System and George Duke before leaving the label in the mid-1980s. Following the birth of her daughter, she moved to Capitol Records and the producer Norman Connors for Intuition (1988), which produced her last significant chart success, a cover of Gino Vannelli's "I Just Wanna Stop", which reached No. 11 on the R&B chart. She recorded three more albums over the next eight years and provided backing vocals on albums for Diana Ross and Kirk Whalum and for Connors's Eternity (2000). She performed live (with a sizable audience internationally, particularly in Asia) and appeared in the stage plays God Don't Like Ugly and What a Man Wants, What a Man Needs. She also toured the U.S. and Europe in multi-artist jazz shows.[11]

Bofill returned to the stage, at the suggestion of Engel, for "The Angela Bofill Experience" after losing her ability to sing after her second stroke in 2007. In the show, Bofill recounted her life and career and was joined by Maysa Leak, Phil Perry, and Melba Moore, who performed her biggest hits and signature songs. In 2012, Bofill was profiled and interviewed for the TVOne documentary series, Unsung.[13][11]

In 2023, Bofill was inducted into the Women Songwriters Hall of Fame.[14]