Steveedan

Hello everyone My name is Steve Chernove. I am 42, married with a beautiful 3 year old son, and a keyboard player from Los Angeles. I started playing piano at age 9. But by the time I was 11, and my interest started to wane, Elton Johns first American release came out. That was it for me. Elton was my nickname in 8th grade. In high school, I was a devout rock keyboard player. Stuff from Led Zeppelin, Beatles, Stones, Jeff Beck, Pink Floyd, Jethro Tull, Bad Co, The Who, James Taylor, Leon Russell, Billy Joel, Joni Mitchell, Traffic/Steve Winwood, Chicago, and more. Then someone turned me on to Steely Dan. That was it for me again. That was in 1974 with the Pretzel Logic album. I have devoted the majority of my time at the keyboard perfecting the chord voicings that Donald Fagen and all of the awesome keyboard players that Steely Dan have used for all of their recordings both live and in the studio. Steely Dan was the music that allowed me to form a bridge from rock into Jazz, where I discovered and embraced both Traditional and Fusion Jazz genres. Oscar Peterson, George Gershwin, Art Tatum, McCoy Tyner, Miles Davis, John McLaughlin, John Scofield, Larry Coryell, Larry Carlton (of course), The Jazz Crusaders, Pat Metheny (I revere Lyle Mays brilliant !), Weather Report, Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea (and Return To Forever), and a lot more. I currently play in a Steely Dan tribute band called the Steely Fan Band (steelyfanband.com) and we play in Los Angeles and Orange counties. The bands repertoire is currently just over 30 Dan tunes though I can just about play them all (Im not lying Fagens songs also). I also play from those ubiquitous Jazz fake books, and I am also working on lots of Metheny/Mays tunes. Seems like a logical progression for me Elton Fagen Mays. Now for the funny part. I have just finished bragging about my keyboard skills, but my keyboard rig is practically prehistoric. Lets take a look I currently gig with: DX7 II FD midi-ed with an EMU Proteus module and a Korg P3 Piano module. Thats it. I know pathetic. I use a graphic equalizer and a chorus going into an old Yamaha 6 input stereo mixer with a Leo's Music (from Oakland California - I think they're long out of business) cabinet with 2 12 inch ElectroVoice speakers in it. I have always found comfort in the self-imposed belief that I sound better on this old crap than most people sound on their expensive brand new gorgeous keyboard gear. I own but rarely use the following gear: 1977 Fender Rhodes Stage 88 Mint condition - I am the original owner. Oberheim OB-X Moog Source A killer red and mother-of-pearl white Accordian (Klesmer music, here I come!) 2 Hohner Melodicas (the red one and the green one) Sorry nothing is for sale Im a packrat. I used to play gigs in high school and college with the Rhodes but it was like moving a coffin. I basically couldnt play gigs unless I was certain that one on the other people in the band could help me on load ins and load outs. Quite a hassle. In about a week or two, a friend of mine is going to buy the Yamaha Motif. He owns the Yamaha S80 and he is selling it to me when he gets the Motif home. I have offered to drive him to the music store chomping at the bit am I !! With the S80 I can come back and join the rest of you folks in the modern era. To my ear, it seems like the S80 has all of the Steely Dan/Fagen keyboard sounds that I want in it. Plus I can create layered sounds like the Rhodes/Clav sound for Green Earrings, or the Vibes/Organ sound in the chorus of Haitian Divorce. Boy oh boy, I cant wait. I have only been aware of this great forum for about 1 day now and have been avidly reading everything that I can that is keyboard related. I send my heartfelt appreciation to our host Dave Bryce and plan to make my visits here very frequent. Dave, your Miles Davis story is awesomely impressive. I went to college at UC Berkeley (across the bay from San Francisco, not the music conservatory in Boston) and I worked for 2 years on the Berkeley Jazz festivals. This was 1979 and 1980. I had the extreme pleasure and thrill to meet and work with many of the greats in Jazz. Miles was still in retirement at the time it was a few years before his The Man With The Horn album came out. This was when Jaco Pastorius was still alive and we had both Weather Report and Joni Mitchell for her tribute album to Charles Mingus at the 1980 festival. We were fortunate to have so many phenomenal artists at these 2 shows Dizzy Gillespie, Sonny Rollins, Ritchie Cole, Oscar Peterson with Joe Pass, Keith Jarrett, Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock with Ron Carter, Wayne Shorter and Tony Williams, Carlos Santana (no shit!), John McLaughlin, Lee Ritenour, Betty Carter, Art Blakey, Pat Metheny Group (I was told that it was Pats first west coast concert in 1979), and more. Great memories, and I think I can even remember going to college too. Its been great to read everyones stories. I look forward to many more of them. I am honored to be a part of this great site for keyboard and music fanatics. Steveedan ------------------