Carman Moore and The Skymusic Ensemble
THE INCREDIBLE SKYBAND. Its members include singers Jason Hill and Jessica Seidel; drummer Carter Hoodless; keyboardist J. Eric Johnson; bassist Brian Lee; flutist-saxophonist Premik Russell Tubbs.   Skymusic and Skyband members cross back and forth playing and recording on and enriching each other’s projects with most exciting results.

SESSIONING_SKYBAND

DON AND BEA IN LOVE, SKYBAND’s hot first project has been recorded and is in process of being mixed by noted sound engineer Mike White, who has been recording engineer for many top artists including Whitney Houston and James Taylor. DON AND BEA IN LOVE is the conceptual creation of Carman Moore who has also written its lyrics and teamed with songwriters Brian Lee and Eric Johnson to produce the album. Its dynamic, multi-stylistic songs are inspired by the true 14th-Century account of Dante Alighieri and his Beatrice, whom he pursued and loved with such a passion that in the “Paradiso” section of his DIVINE COMEDY she is pictured leading him to the very throne of God. The songs of DON AND BEA… are anything but ancient (e.g. “Desperately Seeking Bea,” “Storm Chaser,” “She Don’t Want Me”). The recording is due for release in Spring of 2012, with the visually-enhanced drama tour of SKYBAND and the DON AND BEA… songs scheduled for summer 2012.


J. ERIC JOHNSON is a composer, pianist, synthesizer artist and percussionist with a long and illustrious list of concerts and recordings to his credit. Besides his many years of Performances with Carman Moore and Skymusic Ensemble, Johnson has appeared with ensembles as disparate as the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, the Carla Bley Band, Airto, Mountain, Bo Diddley, Premik Russell Tubbs, and Leroy Jenkins’ Sting.

 J.HILL Composer, Lyricist, Vocalist, Multi-Instrumentalist Vibe Magazine, in a glowing review of his latest opus ‘Jersey City Stomps’, called J.Hill “…the most important musician West of the Hudson River, and East of the Delaware River”. A Rolling Stone Magazine reviewer present at one of his performances wrote, “I was wholly unprepared for J.Hill’s unearthly wails. As I sat listening to this cat at the Brooklyn Bar-BQ, I began to question all of the lies I have propagated in the name of music journalism. Real American music will do that to you. Or maybe it was just all of the free bourbon.” A Christian Science Monitor critic, reviewing another of J.Hill’s recordings, stated “With Western Civilization in full decline, J.Hill provides sounds which remind us of where we came from. Our roots are bloody and holy, and this kid captures that history in tunes which are magnificently powerful.” J.Hill was born in Chicago and raised in Cincinnati. He has lived in Jersey City for far too long. Mr. Hill more than earned his Bachelor of Music Degree from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, and received his musical training in the streets, clubs and subways of Cincinnati, Cleveland, Philadelphia, Washington D.C., New York City and all points in between. J.Hill has served in a variety of different small-combo and orchestral settings, including European classical, blues, country, jazz, funk, hiphop and rock and roll. His recordings have become ubiquitous in Hill family circles, and his performances have attracted the attention of musical aesthetes, screaming drunkards, aficionados of Americana,
bored straphangers, beautiful women, and police officers the world over.

 F. Carter Hoodless –Born and raised in Seattle WA., F. Carter Hoodless moved to the greater NYC area after  graduating from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music along with fellow SkyBand members Brian Lee and Jason Hill. Hoodless has an approach influenced by the brute force of Jon Bonham, the funked-up grooves of James Brown, and the technical spontaneity of Tony Williams. Google Says: • Seattle Times June 13, 1990 – “Hoodless is a jazz percussionist and has been playing drums since seventh grade. He has performed with the Seattle Opera, the all-state Jazz Band and the Imperials Marching Band. • Indie-Music.com – “Like the aforementioned Green Day, Drywater has that secret weapon that makes or breaks every band eventually - a great drummer in F. Carter Hoodless.” • Myspace.com/hoodless – “Hoodless hits the skins with the force of a thousand burly men, yet supplying a SUBTLE technicality missing in today’s rock n’ roll.”• AllAboutJazz.com – “Hoodless moves convincingly through rock, funky backbeats, hip-hop, and post bop.” Recent Musical Endeavors: Hoodless (Rock), Transcendental Psychology(Jazz/Avant Garde), Drywater(Punk), Lovecraft(Funk), Matt  Sherwin(Folk Rock), Amy Kohn(Avant Garde Musical Theater)

 BRIAN LEE A classically trained pianist, singer, saxophonist, and percussionist, he took up the bass guitar by necessity. In the seventh grade, his band needed a bass player, so they sold bubble-gum to classmates, using the profits to buy him a Cort bass from the Sears catalog. Teaching himself how to play, his career as a bassist began.  It became apparent that being a musician/performer was not a passing phase, but a lifetime adventure.A little later down the road, Brian earned a degree in Electronic and Computer music from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music. Besides musical performance, his time at the conservatory allowed him to pursue other avenues, including composition, studies in West African Music, and studio engineering/production. Many of his compositions for Solo/ensemble percussion are active pieces in academic repertoire. A long list of engineering and production projects are also to his credit, encompassing varied musical styles, from jazz to classical, heavy metal, and rap. 
As a bass player, composer, and a lifetime disciple of music, his playing and stage performance have a new distinct style, yet echo many of his influences: From Bootsy, Rick James, Pop-daddy, and Flea to Mingus, Ron Carter, Victor Wooten, and Stanley Clarke, bits and pieces are melded together and find a unique voice. Brian is currently in production with the rock outfit "Hoodless" and "The Incredible Skyband".<

PREMIK RUSSELL TUBBS is a flutist-saxophonist-composer-arranger and producer. He has worked with Carlos Santana, Whitney Houston, Herbie Hancock, John McLaughlin, and Ravi Shankar among others. As saxophonist for the legendary Mahavishnu Orchestra, Premik began actively touring during his early twenties. Soon afterwards, another guitar great, Carlos Santana enlisted Tubbs to be his collaborator on the visionary jazz-fusion recording "The Swing Of Delight" which features guest appearances by Herbie Hancock, Tony Williams, Ron Carter and Wayne Shorter. Tubbs' composing credits also include music for sports documentaries, sketch comedies and corporate training films. He has been a member of Sky Music since 1994.

JESSICA SEIDE

JESSICA SEIDE Jessica grew up playing and singing folk and bluegrass music with her family and studying classical flute and cello.She was a member of a singing duo with Sarah Silbert from 1997-1999 and played flute and cello with The Amy Kohn Band from 1999 - 2002. Over the years she has lent her vocals and instrumentals to the live performances and recordings of several other artists including Terence Martin, Transcendental Psychology, Eric Jaimes, and Taxi Taxi. She is overjoyed to be part of this current project with Skyband.

Carman Moore

CARMAN MOORE Director Carman Moore’s compositional credits include performances by the New York Philharmonic, the Cleveland Orchestra, the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra and the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. His musical THE SORCERER’S APPRENTICE (with Oyamo and Donald McKayle)was given 80 performances recently by the Seattle Children’s Theatre. Moore’s highly-acclaimed intermedia opera RASUR, GOD OF PEACE was premiered in March 2002 in San Jose, Costa Rica.His gospel opera with librettist Ishmael Reed GETHSEMANE PARK was produced at San Franciso’s Hansberry Theatre and was the feature production at the Nuyorican Poets Theatre in the summer of 2000. And his THE MYSTERY OF TAO was commissioned and premiered by the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center in 2001. Mr. Moore’s MASS FOR THE 21ST CENTURY was commissioned and premiered at Lincoln Center Out of Doors in 1994 before audiences of thousands. The MASS was also performed in Cape Town, South Africa for the 1999 Parliament of the World’s Religions. Mr. Moore has just finished composing CONCERTO FOR ORNETTE AND ORCHESTRA for jazz legend Ornette Coleman.