Steve Weingart, born March 1966 in Dayton, Ohio

Dayton, Ohio

Dayton is the 6th largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Montgomery County, the fifth most populous county in the state. The population was 141,527 at the 2010 census. The Dayton Metropolitan Statistical Area had a population of 841,502 in the 2010 census...

, is an acclaimed jazz-funk

Jazz-funk

Jazz-funk is a sub-genre of jazz music characterized by a strong back beat , electrified sounds, and often, the presence of the first electronic analog synthesizers...

 keyboard player based in Los Angeles

Los Ángeles

Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...

, California

California

California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

, USA, who has recorded and performed internationally with an array of well known musical artists.

Amongst many other well known musicians, Weingart has performed live and/or recorded with Chaka Khan

Chaka Khan

Chaka Khan , frequently known as the Queen of Funk, is a 10-time Grammy Award winning American singer-songwriter who gained fame in the 1970s as the frontwoman and focal point of the funk band Rufus. While still a member of the group in 1978, Khan embarked on a successful solo career...

, Steve Lukather

Steve Lukather

Steve "Luke" Lukather is an American guitarist, singer, songwriter, arranger, and record producer best known for his work with the rock band Toto. Lukather has played with many artists, released several solo albums, and worked as a composer, arranger, and session guitarist on more than 1,500 albums...

, Frank Gambale

Frank Gambale

Frank Gambale is an Australian jazz fusion guitarist. He has released eleven studio albums over a period of more than two decades, and is renowned for his use of the sweep picking and economy picking techniques.-Recording career:...

, Robben Ford

Robben Ford

Robben Ford is an American blues, jazz and rock guitarist.-Biography:Ford was born in Woodlake, California, United States, but raised in Ukiah, California, and began playing the saxophone at age 10, picking up the guitar at age 13...

, Scott Henderson

Scott Henderson

Scott Henderson is a fusion and blues guitarist best known for his work with the band Tribal Tech.-Early days:Born in West Palm Beach, Florida, Henderson began playing guitar at an early age...

, Warren Hill, Simon Phillips

Simon Phillips

Simon Phillips is an English jazz, pop and rock drummer.-Career:Phillips began to play professionally at the age of twelve in his father's Dixieland band for four years. He was then offered the chance to play in the musical Jesus Christ Superstar...

, Tony MacAlpine

Tony MacAlpine

Tony Jeff MacAlpine is an American guitarist and keyboardist. Having released ten studio albums over a career spanning more than two decades, he is best known as an instrumental solo guitarist, although he has worked with many different bands and musicians in the form of guest appearances and...

, Virgil Donati

Virgil Donati

Virgil Donati is an Australian drummer, frequent drum clinician and a producer. He is currently playing with the band Planet X and Seven the Hardway among other projects. Virgil is perhaps most well known for his fast, highly technical drumming skills...

, Marco Mendoza

Marco Mendoza

Marco Mendoza is an American musician. He spent his formative years living with his grandmother in Tijuana, Mexico. He started playing the guitar at an early age, adopting the bass when he was invited to join a band that needed a player....

, Dave Weckl

Dave Weckl

Dave Weckl is a highly acclaimed jazz fusion drummer. Weckl attended Francis Howell High School in St. Charles, MO and graduated in 1978. He majored in jazz studies at the University of Bridgeport in Connecticut...

, Eric Marienthal, Kenny Rankin, Jimmy Earl

Jimmy Earl

Jimmy Earl is an American jazz musician and composer. He has released two studio albums and recorded extensively. He has toured the world with major artists. He is ranked #22 on the DigitalDreamDoor list of greatest fusion bassists...

, Ernie Watts, Alain Caron, Michael Ruff, Marilyn Scott, Jimmy Haslip, Terry Lynn Carrington, Jason Scheff

Jason Scheff

Jason Randolph Scheff is an American bassist, singer and songwriter. Since 1985 he has been the bassist and singer for the veteran pop-rock band Chicago. He is the oldest son of well-known session bassist Jerry Scheff, who toured for several years with Elvis Presley...

, Keith Howland

Keith Howland

Keith Howland is an American guitarist and singer. Since 1995, he has been the lead guitarist for the veteran pop-rock band, Chicago....

, Tris Imboden

Tris Imboden

Tris Imboden is the current drummer with Chicago. He replaced their original drummer Danny Seraphine following his dismissal in 1990. Prior to joining Chicago, as well as during his tenure with the band, Imboden has had a career as a studio session player...

, John Pattituci, Bunny Brunel, Tom Brechtlein, Carlitos Del Puerto, Ray Parker Jr.

Ray Parker Jr.

Ray Erskine Parker, Jr. , is an American guitarist, songwriter, producer and recording artist. Parker is known for writing and performing the theme song to the motion picture Ghostbusters, for his solo hits, and performing with his band Raydio as well as the late Barry White.-Early life and...

, Jeff Babko, Frank Briggs, Ric Fierabracci

Ric Fierabracci

Ric Fierabracci, is an American bass guitarist who has toured and/or recorded with such artists as Frank Gambale, Chick Corea, Sir Tom Jones, Dave Weckl, Bradley Joseph, Shakira, Nancy Sinatra, Planet X, The 5th Dimension, The Beach Boys, and Yanni...

, Joey Heredia, Oskar Cartaya, Dave Hooper, Ronnie Guitterez, and Mike Miller.

In September 2007, Weingart announced a new jazz/funk band. The Steve Weingart Band features Steve Weingart, keyboards; Eric Valentine

Eric Valentine

Eric Valentine is an American record producer, who began his career as drummer and producer in the heavy metal band T-Ride and has subsequently produced albums for artists such as Good Charlotte, Lostprophets, Taking Back Sunday, Nickel Creek, Queens of the Stone Age, Third Eye Blind, Smash Mouth,...

, drums; Jimmy Earl, bass; Kevin Levi, saxophone; Fred Clark, guitar. Weingart's new band performed their first show at La Ve Lee, Studio City, CA on Thursday, September 13, 2007. Weingart also frequently performs with Marco Mendoza and Joey Heredia, and with a diverse array of other artists.

Steve Weingart performed on Steve Lukather's album "Ever Changing Times

Ever Changing Times

Ever Changing Times is the 5th solo album of Steve Lukather. It's also the first album of him since he left Toto. In March 2008, a site was launched in order to promote the album...

" which was released in February 2008. During the early part of 2008, Weingart continued to perform locally in Studio City, CA and tour internationally with Warren Hill, as well as writing and recording with his wife Renee Jones (Bass, Vocals). Weingart toured with Victor Wooten in March 2008, and in Japan with Simon Phillips in April 2008. Steve Lukather then asked Weingart to put a touring band together, and Weingart selected Eric Valentine (Drums) and Carlitos Del Puerto (Bass). Ricky Z completed the line up, on rhythm guitar and vocals. The band toured extensively in Europe and across the States during the summer of 2008. Weingart also toured in the United States with Victor Wooten and Derico Watson.

Weingart again performed with Steve Lukather (Guitar, Vocals) at shows in California during October 2008, and in Japan with Simon Phillips. Lukather's "No Jazz Tour" featured material from each of Lukather's solo albums, and some rarely performed Toto songs. Weingart again joined Lukather for further "Ever Changing Times tour" dates in Europe during early 2009, and on another European tour during the summer of 2009, ending with 3 dates in Los Angeles in October 2009.

Throughout 2009, Weingart continued to perform various other gigs across the States, including NAMM, and fronting his own band featuring Katisse Buckingham, Ronnie Guitterez, Jimmy Earl, Eric Valentine, performances with Simon Phillips, as well as guest appearance at the James Burton Guitar Festival in August 2009 and at a Janis Joplin tribute concert in Cleveland, Ohio in November 2009. During break's between his touring commitments in 2009, Weingart has been recording his third solo album, following Life Times Vol.1 and Dark Blue Dream, featuring his wife Renee Jones on bass guitar. Weingart's new album, scheduled for release in early 2011, will include his own lead vocals.

Weingart teamed with Lukather again for his late 2010 album, "All's Well That Ends Well

All's Well That Ends Well

All's Well That Ends Well is a play by William Shakespeare. It is believed to have been written between 1604 and 1605, and was originally published in the First Folio in 1623....

".

As of November 2010, Weingart and Renee Jones are currently touring in Europe with Steve Lukather and Eric Valentine.

Influences

Weingart's musical influences include Herbie Hancock

Herbie Hancock

Herbert Jeffrey "Herbie" Hancock is an American pianist, bandleader and composer. As part of Miles Davis's "second great quintet," Hancock helped to redefine the role of a jazz rhythm section and was one of the primary architects of the "post-bop" sound...

, Chick Corea

Chick Corea

Armando Anthony "Chick" Corea is an American jazz pianist, keyboardist, and composer.Many of his compositions are considered jazz standards. As a member of Miles Davis' band in the 1960s, he participated in the birth of the electric jazz fusion movement. In the 1970s he formed Return to Forever...

, Joe Zawinul

Joe Zawinul

Josef Erich Zawinul was an Austrian-American jazz keyboardist and composer.First coming to prominence with saxophonist Cannonball Adderley, Zawinul went on to play with trumpeter Miles Davis, and to become one of the creators of jazz fusion, an innovative musical genre that combined jazz with...

, McCoy Tyner, Weather Report

Weather Report

Weather Report was an American jazz-rock band of the 1970s and early 1980s. The band was co-led by the Austrian-born keyboard player Joe Zawinul and the American saxophonist Wayne Shorter...

, Robert Lamm

Robert Lamm

Robert William Lamm is an American keyboardist, singer and songwriter who came to fame as a founding member of the pop rock band Chicago...

 and Chicago (band)

Chicago (band)

Chicago is an American rock band formed in 1967 in Chicago, Illinois. The self-described "rock and roll band with horns" began as a politically charged, sometimes experimental, rock band and later moved to a predominantly softer sound, becoming famous for producing a number of hit ballads. They had...

. Weingart has since gone on to perform and/or record with "Chicago" members Tris Imboden

Tris Imboden

Tris Imboden is the current drummer with Chicago. He replaced their original drummer Danny Seraphine following his dismissal in 1990. Prior to joining Chicago, as well as during his tenure with the band, Imboden has had a career as a studio session player...

, Keith Howland

Keith Howland

Keith Howland is an American guitarist and singer. Since 1995, he has been the lead guitarist for the veteran pop-rock band, Chicago....

 and Jason Scheff

Jason Scheff

Jason Randolph Scheff is an American bassist, singer and songwriter. Since 1985 he has been the bassist and singer for the veteran pop-rock band Chicago. He is the oldest son of well-known session bassist Jerry Scheff, who toured for several years with Elvis Presley...

.

Discography

Weingart has released two solo albums, Life Times [2001] and Dark Blue Dream [2005]. Weingart also features on Steve Lukather's "El Grupo Live", Dave Weckl's "Multiplicity", Bunny Brunel's "Cafe Au Lait", Jeff Richman's "One Two", and The Howland/Imboden Project. Through 2006 and 2007 Steve Weingart's band, Nu Alliance, featured Tom Brechtlein, Frank Gambale & Carlitos Del Puerto. Weingart recently recorded with Jason Scheff, Jeff Babko and Tom Brechtlein for a fusion project with a working title "Life". Weingart has recently also recorded keyboards for Frank Briggs' most recent project.

Live performance

Having toured internationally with Steve Lukather's El Grupo, Dave Weckl, Virgil Donati, Simon Phillips and most recently the Steve Lukather Band, Steve Weingart has toured across North America with Victor Wooten and extensively with Warren Hill. Weingart has also performed live frequently at jazz festivals across the United States and at jazz clubs in Studio City, California with artists including Marco Mendoza, Joey Heredia, Mike Miller, Jimmy Earl, Simon Phillips, Eric Valentine, Victor Wooten, Derico Watson, Eric Marienthal, Frank Briggs, Ronnie Guitterez, Hussain Jiffry, Dave Hooper, Frank Gambale, Tommy Lockett, Tom Brechtlein and Carlitos Del Puerto. Steve Weingart's band, Nu Alliance was formed in December 2006, featuring Frank Gambale, Tom Brechtlein and Carlitos Del Puerto. More recently, Weingart formed a new band featuring Katisse Buckingham, Ronnie Guitterez, Jimmy Earl and Eric Valentine.

Personal

Weingart was born in Dayton, Ohio, and is a graduate of the College Conservatory of Music, Cincinnati, Ohio

Cincinnati, Ohio

Cincinnati is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio. Cincinnati is the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located to north of the Ohio River at the Ohio-Kentucky border, near Indiana. The population within city limits is 296,943 according to the 2010 census, making it Ohio's...

. Weingart lives in Burbank, California

Burbank, California

Burbank is a city in Los Angeles County in Southern California, United States, north of downtown Los Angeles. The estimated population in 2010 was 103,340....

and is married to Renee Jones.

External links

• http://www.steveweingart.com
• http://www.jazzreview.com/article/review-5740.html
• http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician.php?id=14256
• http://www.ejazznews.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=7301&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0
• http://ripejack.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!CAF663A35E7F6CF0!396.entry
• http://www.myspace.com/steveweingart
• http://www.myspace.com/willminting
• http://www.facebook.com/pages/Steve-Weingart/135151434074
• http://www.clavia.se/misc/users/SteveWeingart.htm
• http://ripejack.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!CAF663A35E7F6CF0!395.entry
• http://www.bluedesert.dk
• http://www.stevelukather.net
• http://www.victorwooten.com
• http://www.katisse.com
• http://www.simon-phillips.com
• Party Of The Century international music project