Marion Meadows
Returning by popular demand, saxophonist Marion Meadows — whose ethnic mix is Native American, African American and Caucasian — grew up in Stamford, Connecticut, where he began playing clarinet and studying classical music at eight years old. His passion for different types of music led him to appreciate numerous jazz musicians, including Stanley Turrentine, Sidney Bichet, Johnny Hodges, Duke Ellington and Coleman Hawkins, and he naturally gravitated to the soprano sax in his high school years. Fortunately for the smooth jazz fans who have embraced his sweet and funky soprano sound over the last decade, Meadows decided to take a few very important trips to Europe during his junior and senior years. He had dreamed of being either a veterinarian or zoologist, and assumed he would enroll in college as a pre-med major. Playing the sax was just a hobby until he saw the way audiences reacted to him and his student cohorts in Holland, Italy and Austria.
Meadows says, “I’ve been involved in a lot of projects, both my own and group efforts, and my main objective is to keep growing as an artist and engage the fans who have invested so much emotion in my music and my career. Aside from that wonderful sense of live communication, the real magic for me happens in the studio when I put on those headphones and begin to play. That’s where the ideas just start to flow. Everything else in my musical life comes out of that moment.”
Nick Colionne
The Chicago born, bred and still residing guitarist, Nick Colionne turned pro at 15, touring all over the world with rock bands and some of the greatest legends of R&B, from The Staples Singers to Curtis Mayfield. Nick Colionne launched his solo career in 1994 with "It's My Turn” which reached #13 on the national charts, and he hasn't looked back since. Nick is an endorsee for Epiphone Guitars (a division of Gibson USA), Gibson Strings and Accessories, AKG Acoustics and Stacy Adams clothing. Nick Colionne's sustained chart-topping Radio history combined with his incredible live performances have propelled him to the upper echelons of smooth jazz stardom. Most recently, he won the International Instrumental Artist of the Year Award by the Canadian Smooth Jazz Awards; the 2006 winner was Trumpeter Chris Botti.
The most exciting part of all of this for me is that I am actually living my dream, getting a chance to play guitar for people in so many places", says Colionne. "The greatest moments come when I look at their faces in the audience when I play, and I realize that I'm making them feel what I'm feeling. That's a fascinating level of communication".