THE VARIOUS ENSEMBLES:
Back row from left to right: Barry
Danielian-trumpet, Dennis DelGaudio-lead guitar and vocals, me-synth,
vocals and piano man a few times a week, Tommy Byrnes-guitar, vocals and
musical director (he put the band together), John Scarpulla-saxes,
percusion and contracting, Chuck Burgi-drums and alien abduction /
conspiracy expertise, Kevin Osborne-trombone, vocals extraordinaire and
whistling, Greg Smith-bass and vocals
In front of me: Scott Krietzer-saxes
In front of everybody: Michael Cavanaugh-piano man
Click here for more photos of the band in the Broadway production of Movin' Out
And now, we go
into the past with...
The Original
Wade Preston Band
(and what a band it was!)
Click here for some more Real Audio ra, mp3 and Windows Media wma files to hear the original band
Click the band members name for a bio
Note from Wade: In the past my groups have always been trios, minimal personnel with maximum sound. The ensemble above is the original Wade Preston Band, and the musicians that are featured on No Present Like The Time. That CD came out in September of 1995. We finally got this CD out five years after what should have been our first album in 1990. It's quite an awful story. Maybe someday I'll post it. Clifford eventually started playing with Air Supply and kept that gig up until late 1999. Now he spends most of his time with his family in Orange County. I really miss him. He's a tremendous musician and a great guy. Sorry that I don't have a bio up for him yet. I'm going to have to bug him about that. Christopher is very busy these days with his own percussion oriented ensemble called Soundscape Pyramids. Check out his website at SoundFormation.com. He has at least three CD's out by now. Check out his bio.
This incarnation of the Wade Preston Band came later, and although we played around LA quite a bit for a couple of years, we never did record. We're still good friends, even with me now on the east coast. Jim and I used to hang all the time. We frequently worked on projects in our home studios, and I often called on him to engineer session work or sound for really big gigs that required his expertise. Jim recorded and mixed all of the Live Vivo (my now defunct swing band) CD. He does a lot of studio engineering, at which he's excellent, but he also performs with his own jazz ensembles and other groups, and teaches. He is a great addition to any band, since he's a knowledgeable musician who happens to play several instruments. Jim is also busy selling and playing the Warr Guitar, which is a guitar and bass hybrid tapping instrument that you can learn more about by reading Jim's bio, which includes a link to his own web page. There's no bio for Craig yet, but I hope to have one up for him eventually. He's another great guy I have had the pleasure of playing with and being friends with for a while. He actually lives in my old house in Southern CA now. Man, I miss that place!
The most recent incarnation of the Wade Preston Band has been with Kris Berry on drums, and most of the time Ron Suffredini on bass and vocals. Ron has a beautiful voice, by the way, and is a very talented song writer. Click here to check out his bio. It's the most eclectic of my ensembles.
BILLY
MADISON AVI FILE STARRING RON SUFFREDINI
This could take up to about four minutes to download.
Click
here for a one-man dramatic interpretation of the moment Billy Madison
(Adam Sandler played by Ron Suffredini) gets caught red-handed by his
teacher (also played by Ron) stealing the children's milk. For shame. QuickTime
should do nicely with this! By the way, this has nothing to do with music,
just up here for your entertainment.
I had a jazz trio, which was the same lineup as I just mentioned. We we're working on a CD, and the few cuts we recorded sounded really good! So, I'll try to get some of that material mixed and maybe put it on a CD or maybe just post it here.
After a while, the swing thing died down
on the west coast, and the band stopped performing.
I got busy doing other things,
but not long after Movin' Out happened, and everything got put on the back
burner.
It was a lot of work and time running a swing band! But it's because of this band that I met so many wonderful musicians
and have honed my charting and arranging skills. I learned so much from
these people in
such a short time. I owe a lot to this band, so the Vivo
Presto web page remains, even though the band does not.
Vivo Presto Swing.
(Click on the picture)
Click here for
Vivo Presto Swing
Check out the Calendar to see when and where I'm playing, or email me at wade@wadepreston.com. If you'd like, I'll put you on the cyber mailing list and occasionally send you info while I still can. But if you ever want to know what I'm up to right away, just go to wadepreston.com and click on what's new. I haven't sent out any regular "snail mail" calendars in a really long time. Schedules change all the time, and calendars are usually wrong by the time they reach their destination. Cyber mail is much more efficient, and everybody reads their Email! And it saves trees.
You can read the most recent Cyber Mailer Update by clicking here.
Thanks for your indulgence. I
appreciate your interest.
All my best,
Wade