Bruce Randall Hornsby is an American singer-songwriter and pianist. Bruce draws from folk rock, jazz, bluegrass, folk, Southern rock, country rock, jam band, rock, heartland rock, and blues rock musical traditions.
Levitate is the tenth studio album by Bruce Hornsby. It was Hornsby's third studio album with his touring band, Bruce Hornsby and the Noisemakers, and was his first release with Verve Records.
Somewhat a musical departure for Hornsby and the Noisemakers, Levitate features no piano solos. Many of the songs also feature lyrical motifs of science and nature. Several songs were co-written with Chip DeMatteo for a stage musical titled SCKBSTD.
The title track was used in Spike Lee's documentary Kobe Doin' Work. Invisible was featured in the Bobcat Goldthwait movie World's Greatest Dad, in which Hornsby also made a cameo appearance as himself.
Much like the 2004 release Halcyon Days, Levitate features guest artists and those close to Hornsby, most notably Eric Clapton, Hornsby's twin sons Russell and Keith, Grateful Dead lyricist Robert Hunter, and Hornsby's nephew R.S. Hornsby, who was killed in a car accident less than a week after recording a memorable guitar solo on "Continents Drift." The album has been dedicated to his memory.
Hornsby has won three Grammy Awards: a 1987 Grammy Award for Best New Artist with Bruce Hornsby and the Range, a 1990 Grammy Award for Best Bluegrass Recording, and a 1994 Grammy Award for Best Pop Instrumental Performance.
Hornsby has worked with his touring band Bruce Hornsby and the Noisemakers, his bluegrass project with Ricky Skaggs, and as a session and guest musician. He was a touring member of the Grateful Dead from September 1990 through March 1992, playing over 100 shows with the band.
Hornsby's touring band lineup underwent extensive changes between 1998 and 2000, with longtime drummer John Molo joining former Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh in his band Phil Lesh & Friends. A set of twenty consecutive shows performed by Hornsby and his band at Yoshi's Jazz Club in Oakland, California included a lot of spontaneity and taking requests from the audience, a form that he continues at live shows to this day.
As Hornsby experimented with a different sound, ushering in frequent collaborations with such musicians as Steve Kimock on guitar and Bobby Read on heavily effects-driven electronic woodwinds, a new band, dubbed the Noisemakers, took shape.
In 2000, Hornsby chronicled this journey with a compilation live album entitled Here Come the Noise Makers, and did extensive touring with his new band featuring John "J.T." Thomas (keyboards, organ), Bobby Read (saxophones, woodwinds, flute), J.V. Collier (bass), Doug Derryberry (guitar, mandolin), and several different drummers before Sonny Emory took over full-time.
In 2004, after 19 successful years on RCA Records, Hornsby signed with Columbia Records and returned to a more acoustic, piano-driven sound on his Columbia Records debut album, Halcyon Days, released in June 2004. Guests included Sting, Elton John and Eric Clapton.
In July 2006, Hornsby released a four-CD/DVD box set titled Intersections (1985-2005). The discs are thematically broken into three categories: "Top 90 Time", "Solo Piano, Tribute Records, Country-Bluegrass, Movie Scores", and "By Request (Favorites and Best Songs)".
A full third of the music is previously unreleased; many familiar tracks are presented as unreleased live versions rather than the original studio recordings, and the majority of the remaining tracks are from single B-sides, collaborations or tribute albums, and movie soundtracks. One song, "Song H", a new composition, was nominated for Best Pop Instrumental in 2007 at the 49th Annual Grammy Awards.
In 2007, Hornsby began more regularly playing classical music: at a concert in St. Louis, Missouri, during Hornsby's improvisational session in "The Way It Is", he began playing J.S. Bach's Goldberg Variations along with the drums. In a different city, he played five straight Goldberg Variations over the drum intro of "Gonna Be Some Changes Made".
On September 15, 2009, Bruce Hornsby and the Noisemakers released their fourth album, Levitate to mixed reviews; it included new solo material with several songs co-written with Chip DiMatteo for the Broadway play SCKBSTD.
Like on many of his previous releases, Rehab Reunion features collaborations with guest artists. Justin Vernon of Bon Iver sings background vocals on "Over the Rise". Mavis Staples duets with Hornsby on "Celestial Railroad". Also noteworthy is a folk version of "The Valley Road", originally a hit in 1988 with Hornsby's first backing band, the Range.
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Негізгі бет Музыка Bruce Hornsby on the CBS Early Show - Second Cup Cafe 2009
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