Big Village is a tribal/alternative band from Washington, D.C. whose unique music is distinguished by a mixture of Rock, Funk, African and Middle Eastern dance grooves, female vocal harmonies,
undulating bass lines, and strong rhythmic percussion.
http://www.krylon.org/bv
Buddahood is a Tribal-Groove Rock Band with Reggae, Ska, and World-Beat influences, incorporating Earth religion themes into their high-energy performances. Members are Tony Cavagnaro, George Vidovich, Rick Whitneg, Evan Stuckless, Paul Mastriani, Steve Ambrosia, and Nick Marrinaccio. Check out their website at http://www.rit.edu/~ebs5065/
Chameleon is more of a revue than a group, consisting of a changing roster of members of the Chameleon Club (the creators of ACE and Starwood). Since before the beginning, this group's activities have included musical performances at the Coventry and Hessler St. Fairs in Cleveland, OH, at Starwood Festivals and WinterStar Symposiums, at S.C.A. events, and in other venues both live and in studio. Their styles range from rock to blues, traditional folk to tribal rhythms, television commercial jingles to sea chanties, with guitar, drum-set, dulcimer, cello, penny-whistle, dumbek, or acapella... you just never know! This year we present Revelry, featuring Victoria Ganger, Lisa Lefkort, and Mary Alice Tummonds, and the duo of Ian Corrigan & Liafal.
Djoliba is an eight-piece band which uses traditional African instruments like the djembe, dun-dun, talking drum, kora, and the balafon, completing a full hot dance-music sound with guitar, bass, drum-kit, keyboards and horns. Djoliba features Lansanna Kouyate from Guinea, West Africa, where his family has carried on the traditions of their Malinke tribe through music as Griots: sacred storytellers. The Kouyate clan has served the descendents of the Great Emperor Soundiata of Mali for thousands of years. Other featured artists include: Steve Imburgia, Dave Tickell, Mike Toner, Amy Goldberg, Dylan Savage, Ian Nielson and Greg Newton.
Drumplay is an Rhythmprovisational percussion trio inspired by Afro-Cuban, Brazilian, and Middle Eastern rhythms. Whether in performance, workshop or educational presentation, no two Drumplay concerts are alike. In 1996, they performed for the Cleveland Bicentennial with Arthur Hull and D'Cuckoo. Traditional rhythms combined with an improvisational bent bring forth the spirit of something new, and in a jazz way, gives the music more space in which to resound. Members include James Onysko, Warren Levert, and Joe Tomino. Also appearing with them is Cleveland's Poet-Laureate and political activist Daniel Thompson, author of two books: Even the Broken Letters of the Heart Spell Earth and Famous in the Neighborhood.http://www.drumplay.com
Einstein's Secret Orchestra is
a Cleveland-based Psychedelic Cosmic-Blues Space-Band, with music of multiple
influences reminiscent of early Pink Floyd. The ESO Experience in right-brain
communication break-down is now accessable to the starwood community. Members
include Chas Smith on keyboards and
Theremin, Michele George on electric violin, Lonesome Cowboy Dave DeLuca
on guitar, and Bob Mosic on drums.
The Firesign Clones is an impromptu radio theatre group which attempts to recreate the performances of 60s-70s comedy
theatre stars The Firesign Theatre. Composed of Chameleon Club
members and friends, with a good dose of SubGeniuses, they will
present the classic New Age spoof, "Everything You Know is
Wrong!" Remember: There's a Seeker born every minute!
Green Crown weaves an eclectic
range of influences into an acoustic tapestry all their own, with a strong Celtic
and Neo- Pagan base. Inspired by a deep reverence for the Earth, as well as for
the legacies of the ancestors, traditional and original material is joined seemlessly
in expression of a vision which is at once ancient as the forests, and fresh as
this morning's dream. The core members are Vocalist/Harpist Olvardil
Prydwyn, who also plays guitar, lute, cittern, mandolin and wind instruments,
and Cellist Diana McFadden, also
a player of guitar, cittern and mandolin. They are joined by Whitedeer (percussion),
Violette Rose (acoustic bass), Jerry Zeankowski (electric bass),
Sherry Gibson (percussion, vocals & dance), and Jim Barleycorn Brewster
(percussion, whistles, mandolin, fiddle & guitar). http://www2.nfx.net/~firespring/GreenCrown/
Gregor Harvey is a popular fingerstyle guitar instructor and artist in the mainstream and national Renaissance Faire venues in the Boston area. He possesses a Masters Degree in Classical Guitar and has a repertoire spanning traditional Irish jigs, harp pieces, and stunning original compositions. (His tapes, the solo "Song of the Emperor" and the percussion-driven "Brigid's Brood" are both available at Starwood.)
The One Hat Band is a bit of classic Americana: a family folk music band featuring Michael & Pearl Breitbach and their kids Jakob (17), Maple (15), Jac (10), and River (9). Their music ranges from Irish jigs to American folk, blue-grass and bluesy-jazz, and features fiddles, guitar, stand-up bass, percussion and voice. The family that plays together, stays together.
The Pufferdome
"In Xanadu did Kubla Kahn a stately pleasure-dome decree..."
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Rising from the field like Gaia's glowing nipple, tattooed
in light and ringing with music, the Pufferdome is Starwood's own
inflatable hemispherical nightclub! Joe's OM Appliances presents
late-night parties with diverse musical styles and multi-media
projections and effects.
Wednesday:
D.J. Witchman is an underground Spiritual Trance D.J. with six years of experience in the club and rave circuit in
Pittsburgh, D.C., and the Metro area. From his early beginnings
working with an African drumming ensemble, he realized the
powerful effect that beats can have on the alteration of
consciousness. He saw underground dance music as a perfect medium
for modern tribal exploration. Fusing tribal chanting and complex
drum rhythms with deep trance music, D.J. Witchman can take the
listener on a journey of dance and sonic exploration.
Thursday:
Green Crown. see description above.
Friday:
Einstein's Secret Orchestra. see description above.
Rhythm Quest is a multi-cultural drum quartet whose repertoire features drum styles of the Middle East, Africa, Latin America, Europe and Australia with instruments of those regions to compliment the performance. Founded in 1995, the Bloomington, Indiana-based group travel extensively throughout the midwest, and have appeared with such nationally-known artists as Sonia Dada. Members include founders Julian Douglas & Christopher Austin, Rick Donnelly and Mike Rutherford. Rhythm Quest also offers drumming workshops which focus on the individual, the community, and the integration of the two.
Don Ross (with Kelly McGowan)
http://www.don-ross.com/dr/index_regular.html
Don Ross is the only guitarist ever to win the National Fingerpick Guitar Championship twice. Don has a Bachelor's degree in Music Composition from York University in Toronto and has been a full-time touring musician for the past ten years, primarily in Canada and Europe. He has released 6 CDs of original material in Canada, the three most recent on Sony Music Canada/Columbia Records. Don's trademarks are his "fingerstyle" approach and his use of unusual altered guitar tunings.
Kelly McGowan has been performing on the Canadian acoustic music scene for 20 years. She has been a member of Toronto Celtic-rock outfit Taliesin, and has spent the past ten years playing with Harbord Trio, which includes her husband Don Ross and award-winning fiddler Oliver Schroer. She graduated in Experimental Arts from the Ontario College of Art in Toronto. With the trio, Kelly sings and plays Celtic harp and bodhran, the Irish frame drum.
Lasers by Centrak Lasers, Music by Ron Slabe, Pyrotechnics by PyroSonic (R.C. Naso, David Cudney & Ron Slabe)
Ron Slabe has been a seeker of unusual sounds for over twenty years. Using electronics and found objects, he weaves
diverse influences into a dense sonic web designed to invoke a variety of emotional states. His work has been featured at the Cleveland Performance Art Festival and at Cleveland Public Theatre, the Psychedelicatessen, and small and large venues around Northeast Ohio. He has performed regularly at ACE events since 1986 beginning with the first MusicStar Festival, and he has been the primary performer and mastermind of the StarWood Island Multi-Media Show for the last six years, with his performance group Testburn. Objects in close proximity to him display a curious tendancy to burst into flame.
Centrak Lasers Corporation has been producing laser light shows since 1985, combined with projections, pyrotechnics, computer & laser animation, and many other media including live dance and musical performance. Their work using computer
controlled medical ion lasers has been seen in TV commercials and
theaters and at raves, sports and music events, civic and
corporate events, museums and universities, across the Grand
Canyon and at the Great Pyramids. Scope out the joules at http://www.centrak.com
Jeff "Magnus" McBride, both an experienced teacher and student of the magical arts and a respected force in the Magickal Community, is one of the foremost performance magic artists in the world. Presently headlining at Ceasar's Palace's Magical Empire, Magnus is Hollywood's Magic Castle Magician of the Year and NBC's World's Greatest Magician, a founder of The Mystery School and the World Magic Festival, and he created the role of Joran on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.
Something Else Again is a celestial blend of sitar & guitar (Mark Gombos), flute & whistle (Anne Alexander), voice & guitar (Patrick Daugherty), celtic harp & electric bass (Julie Burke), and drums & percussion (Mickey Hurray). Winners of the Borders-Fairlawn New Talent Search of 1996, Something Else Again is an eclectic World Music ensemble with a unique and magical sound.
Tim Wallace has shared his music and his comedy across thirty years of fayres, festivals, concerts, clubs and coffeehouses. Known best for his humorous original, Irish, and Scottish pub songs, Tim will perform and M.C. the Bardic concert at the Pavilion, with the help of a certain hairy, 8-foot friend.
Yaya Diallo was born in Mali, West Africa, a member
of the Minianka (Bamana) people. He was raised in a culture that works, worships,
lives and breathes to the beat of the Drum. An instrument for transmitting traditional
knowledge among the Minianka, the drum is the focal point of Yaya's life story
and his link, through the universal medium of music, with the Western world. His
educational background includes a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry from the University
of Montreal and training in a variety of African instruments: Minianka tam tam,
Conga; Senoufo balafon, xylophone; Mandingo Tama, talking drum. Yaya has performed
throughout the U.S.A., Canada and Europe. He is the author of The Healing
Drum: African Wisdom and Teaching and the creator of a CD by the same
name, and he recently released an exciting new CD entitled Dounoukan.
Also check out Yaya's troupe members Kwabena
Owusu, Daniel Bellegarde, & Terah
Israel.
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