Jazz Guitarist
Michael O'Neill
TRUE
LOVE - NEVER TOO LATE - FUNKY
FIESTA
All of these great CDs
are available at CD Baby
True Love / Never
Too Late / Funky Fiesta
Check out these
independent releases from
this phenomenal west coast jazz guitarist
A Message from
Michael:
"2002 was
a very active year for me in terms of working with the people
I've worked
closely with over the years and I've come to realize just how
special each of those
relationships truly is. Starting of course with extensive touring
the world with my
guitar buddy,George Benson. In November, we started out in Moscow,
playing in the
Kremlin inside Red Square (Unbelievable ). Next was Japan, Seoul,
So.Korea, and Hong Kong.
Extensive travel through Australia and New Zealand came next,
capped off by the last week
of the tour in the South Pacific Islands of New Caledonia and
Tahiti. Wow !!!!!!!!!!!! 2002 also saw
me making the rounds with my good friends Freddie Ravel, Gregg
Karukas, and David Garfield.
Did some special stuff with Sheila E. I guested on her latest
CD "Heaven". Among some of the
highlights during the year was a trip to Nova Scotia with Freddie
Ravel to play a festival there
along with Alphonso Johnson and Walfredo Reyes Jr., being featured
on Gregg Karukas'
single "Nightshift" that went to #1 on the Smooth Jazz
charts, and a trip to Germany with
David Garfield to play a special "Tribute to Jeff Porcaro"
concert. It featured some of
the world's greatest drummers such as Steve Gadd, Gregg Bissonnette,
John Robinson,
Bernard Purdie, Joe Porcaro as well as some greats on other instruments
and vocalists,
Steve Porcaro, Mike Porcaro, Lenny Castro, Luis Conte, Larry Klimas,
Bobby Kimball,
Alex Ligertwood, Glen Hughes. I'm very excited to say that I've
recently started work on a
new CD. Started with co-written tunes with both Freddie Ravel
and Gregg Karukas. Went
into the studio on April 21st to record with the guys that have
played a lot of gigs with
me, David Witham on keys, Larry Williams on keys, Andrew Ford
on bass and
Michael White on drums. I'll make sure to post updates on the
progress."
Michael O'Neill
Michael O'Neill's
CD, "Never Too Late",
released by Merrimack Records
Purchase this
tremendous CD at one of
these great distributional websites:
Amazon.com / Tower
Records / CDBaby
Gregg Karukas'
hit, "Nightshift",
featuring Michael O'Neill on guitar, is
No. 1 on the
Smooth Jazz Charts
for the second
straight week, 4/7/2002-4/21/2002
Michael just
returned from Koblenz, Germany,
where he played in
"A Tribute
to Jeff Procaro"
an event featuring
such performers as
Steve Gadd
Greg Bissonnette
John Robinson
Joe Procaro
Bernard Purdie
David Garfield
Steve Procaro
Mike Procaro
Lenny Castro
Luis Conte
Larry Kilmas
Mosch
Bobby Kimball
Glen Hughes
Alex Ligertwood
and others...
"Never Too Late" is #9
in the Top Ten CDs chart at
ContemporaryJazz.com
for September 1, 2000
AND
Check out
ContemporaryJazz.com
- Interview with Michael O'Neill
by Jeff Charney
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Jonathan Widran's CONTEMPO Column
A monthly column he writes for JAZZIZ Magazine
Veteran sideman Michael O'Neill
remembers the very moment about ten years
ago when the seed was planted in his mind that he one day wanted
to emerge
from the shadows and become a solo artist in his own right. He
was onstage at
Carnegie Hall as part of a world tour with singer Rickie Lee Jones
in support
of her Pop Pop album. "Part of the show had the rest of the
band leave the
stage for an intimate duet between my acoustic guitar and her
voice," he recalls.
"In that moment, under that very bright spotlight, I felt
about as close to being
an artist as a supporting player could be. I loved the exposure
and the energy
of having the audience so enraptured, but at the same time I tasted
the
intense vulnerability. I knew someday I'd step out myself."
Like most guys who make a great
living jamming behind bigger stars, O'Neill -
whose resume boasts a few years in the 80s with Stevie Wonder
and a nearly nonstop
two decades with George Benson - took years to find the time amidst
the world
tours to compose and produce an entire album's worth of material.
Preferring the
comfort of a steady paycheck to taking a financial and creative
quantum leap, O'Neill's
muse kept pecking away at him until he felt confident and made
the time. The one
advantage to waiting twenty some odd years to create the appropriately
titled
Never Too Late (Merrimack Records) is having all the great artists
he's played with to draw stylistic inspiration from.
"There's no doubt that George's
brilliant high end style has rubbed off on me,
but long before I worked with him, I was transcribing guitar charts
from his Body Talk
album on CTI," says O'Neill. "My first significant side
gig was with The Crusaders in 1979,
and I picked up everything I know about groove, rhythm and pocket
from them. I was like
this kid getting whipped by the vets, trying to survive boot camp,
but what an education in funk.
Later, I played local gigs in Los Angeles with great Latin musicians
like Alex Acuna and
Luis Conte and my half-Mexican heritage kicked in and I became
well versed in flamenco and
Latin music. Backing everyone else prepared me to take this big
step."
It's easy to identify each one of
these influences on a track by track basis on Never Too Late.
The title track - co-written with Gregg Karukas - finds O'Neill
approximating the crisp electric
breezin' of Benson, darting high fluttering tones off the main
melody as wah-wah click textures
call out in the background. Ditto on the mid-tempo retro-soul
ballad "Winds of Summer,"
which opens with a brisk hook that features a higher tone than
the verse sections, very much like
"Breezin'". Pianist Dave Witham (another vet from the
Benson crew) chimes in at one point with
a quick but playful solo before O'Neill digs into a deeper tone
on a solo that runs like trickling water.
O'Neill pays homage to Stevie Wonder, too, opting to play things
fairly close to the vest on a thoughtful
cover of Stevie Wonder's "Visions," with vocals by Carl
Anderson. "I Ain't Lyin'" dips into that Crusaders
vibe O'Neill mentions, opening with a dense hi-hat - percussion
swirl by Land Richards and Dio Saucedo's
tambourine and easing into a rocking electric guitar melody over
the bluesy organ harmony of Chris Ho
with plenty of Wayne Henderson-like horn splashes by Walt Fowler.
Just as the Crusaders at times
crossed matter of factly from R&B to jazz, O'Neill breaks
at one point for heated guitar and piano
improvisations. Mid-tempo meditations like "Sidewalk Strut"
and the Brazilian flavored acoustic
piece "Cruisin' On Down" (featuring O'Neill's lively
scatting) offer more evidence of the
guitarist's ability to both people please and stretch stylistic
boundaries ever so slightly.
"At my age, and with my reputation
so solidly entrenched in the sidelines, the challenge
is to go from a basic unknown to a place where people can see
me do my own thing," he says.
"I ask myself all the time, where will it lead? Will I do
well enough to put all my energies into
a solo career? I didn't design my life to go solo at this point,
I simply found the time and
opportunity to present the music I was picking away at after all
my other gigs over the
years. It's a natural progression, and nothing can top the feeling
that people are
coming to see you instead of the guy you're playing with."
Read the latest review on Never
Too Late:
Contemporary Jazz Reviews
by Jeff Charney
August, 2000
Michael O'Neill
- Never Too Late (Merrimack)
The debut of guitarist Michael O'Neill
is fresh, hip and very
enjoyable. He is a longtime member of George Benson's band
whom he toured extensively with from 1981-90 and 1994 to
present. O'Neill has spent a lot of time in the studio and touring
over the last 20 years for some of the biggest names in music:
Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin, Maurice White, George Benson,
Crusaders, Chick Corea, Buddy Guy and Santana, Ronnie Laws,
Hubert Laws, Sadao Watanabe, Rickie Lee Jones, Manhattan
Transfer, Boney James, Jonathan Butler and Peter White. The
CD kicks off with the first single - the title track. A medium
tempo head-bopping tune co-written by Gregg Karukas. Nice
hook and nice melody. Other highlights include a gorgeous version
of Stevie Wonder's "Visions", another collaboration
with Karukas
on a pretty Spanish-influenced piece called "Echoes Of Seville,"
an
uptempo romp on "I Ain't Lyin'" which features Walt
Fowler, a
typical smooth jazz piece called "Winds Of Summer,"
and another
head-bopper called "Passages." Special guests on this
project include
Karukas, Carl Anderson, Bobby Lyle, Freddy Ravel and Alphonso
Johnson. Never Too Late is worth your money and attention.
Michael O'Neill is a truely gifted
jazz guitarist from southern California.
His amazing talents have been utilized by some of the biggest
names in
the entertainment industry. Here's a partial list of musicians
Michael has
performed and/or recorded with:
George Benson / Stevie
Wonder / The
Crusaders / Rickie
Lee Jones /
Natalie Cole / Chaka Khan / Dave Koz / Kenny G / Wayman Tisdale
/
Hubert Laws / Ronnie Laws / Herbie Hancock / George Duke / Chick
Corea /
Al Green / Brian Culbertson / John Anderson (Yes) / Airto / Mindi
Abair /
Phillip Vasser / Gavin De Graw / Robert Randolph / Earth, Wind
& Fire /
Paquito D'Rivera / Everette Harp / Richard Elliot / Michael Lington
/
Carl Anderson / Arturo Sandoval / John Lee Hooker / Sadao Watanabe
/
Arthur Blythe / Herbie Mann / Earl Klugh / Eddy Murphy / Maurice
White /
Verdine White / Carlos Santana / Jimmy Smith / Dusty Springfield
/ Dr. John /
Robert Mitchum / Marriane Faithful / Aretha Franklin / Manhatten
Transfer /
Randy Crawford / Gato Barbieri / Joe Sample / James Moody / Bobby
Caldwell /
Peter Gordon / Buddy Guy / Eric Marienthal / Gregg Karukas / Shelby
Flint /
Phil Perry / Mike Gealer / Roland Vasquez / Carmen Bradford /
Sonya Jason /
Alphonso Johnson / Brandon Fields / Freddie Ravel / Bunny Brunel
/ Brian Auger /
Luis Conte / The Fowler Brothers / Ronnie Foster / Yasuko Ogawa
/ Karizma /
Kimiko Kasai / Stix Hooper / John Beasly / Jonathan Butler / Ronnie
Jordan /
Robben Ford / Boney James / Gerald Albright / Kirk Whalum / Tata
Vega /
Rick Braun / Ivan Lins / Alphonse Mouzon / Bobby Lyle / Abraham
Laboriel /
Nestor Torres / Roger Smith / Peter White / Jeff Kashiwa / Maysa
Leak /
Randy Waldman / David Lanz / Sheila E. / Euge Groove / Donny Osmond
/
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