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Bradley Joseph

American composer and producer (born 1965) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Bradley Joseph
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Bradley Joseph (born 1965) is an American composer, arranger, and producer of contemporary instrumental music. His compositions include works for orchestras, quartets, and solo piano pieces. He has been active professionally since 1983, and has played various instruments in rock bands throughout the Midwest.[1]

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In 1989, the Greek composer Yanni hired Joseph for his band. Joseph was a concert keyboard player with Yanni on six major tours,[2] most recently in 2003 for the 60-city Ethnicity tour. He appears in the multi-platinum album and concert film, Live at the Acropolis.

Joseph spent five years as musical director and lead keyboardist for Sheena Easton, including a 1995 performance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.[3]

Joseph is the owner of the Robbins Island Music label.[4] His solo career began when he independently released Hear the Masses, featuring many of his Yanni bandmates. This debut was followed by Rapture, an instrumental album recorded with a 50-piece orchestra for which Joseph wrote and conducted all the scores.[5] Released on the Narada Productions label, Rapture reached the ZMR Airwaves Top 30. Several subsequent recordings, including Christmas Around the World and One Deep Breath, also held positions on ZMR's Top 100 radio chart; the most recent release, Paint the Sky, debuted on April 4, 2013.[6]

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Biography

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Early years

Bradley Joseph was born in 1965 in Bird Island, Minnesota and raised in Willmar, Minnesota.[7] Bradley began studying classical piano at the age of eight.[4] In high school, he played piano for the school jazz band and choir.[8] In 1983, he graduated from Willmar Senior High School.[9]

Bradley attended Moorhead State University as a music major.[citation needed] While attending university, he played the saxophone and guitar for local bands but left to concentrate on piano/keyboards.[10] Later, he started performing with guitarist Dugan McNeill, whose group was signed to Polygram.[4]

Yanni

In 1989, Joseph recorded his first demo tape and sent it to Greek composer Yanni, who was looking for someone to replace keyboardist John Tesh.[11]

Joseph composed, arranged, and performed alongside Yanni for over six years, including live performances with several symphony orchestras and touring throughout the U.S. and abroad.[12] His first show was at the Starplex in Dallas, where Yanni's band performed with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra in 1990. Early concert tours included Reflections of Passion, Revolution in Sound, Dare to Dream,[13] and Yanni Live, The Symphony Concerts. Joseph also took part in a performance in Germany that was broadcast throughout Europe and seen by an estimated 30 to 40 million viewers.[9]

In the band, Joseph covered many of the keyboard parts[10] and assisted in managing the 30 synthesizers onstage.[14]

Between tours, Joseph worked in recording studios on music ranging from rock and pop to rhythm and blues and orchestration with numerous artists from RCA, Epic, Warner Brothers, and Polygram Records.[15] He also performed in a national keyboard show tour with various musicians.[16] In 2003, he returned for Yanni's 60-city Ethnicity tour.[17]

Sheena Easton

Joseph performed with Sheena Easton for four years as her co-musical director and lead keyboardist.[18] Easton's tours took him to Japan, Indonesia, Puerto Rico, and the United States,[4] with routine appearances in Las Vegas and Atlantic City.[9] In March 1995, he appeared with Easton on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno for the performance of her single, "My Cherie."[19]

Solo career

More Core Records

In 1994, Joseph released his debut album, Hear the Masses, a self-produced, self-published release under the More Core Records label with 10 original compositions.[citation needed]

Narada

Joseph's style attracted the attention of Narada Productions,[20] a Virgin Records subsidiary, and resulted in Joseph signing a multi-record deal. The outcome was Rapture, containing piano pieces, quartets, and full orchestral works.[4] It reached ZMR's "Airwaves Top 30" at No.15 in July 1997.[21] This album was recorded at studios including Captain and Tennille's and Pachyderm Studio.[10][22] In addition to a core band including Charlie Adams on percussion, Charlie Bisharat on violin, and Steven Trochlil on clarinet, Joseph brought in a 50-piece orchestra.[10]

Robbins Island Music

Joseph started Robbins Island Music in 1998, composing, producing, and distributing his recordings.[citation needed] Solo Journey was released and consists of eleven soft piano compositions.[23]

Later releases include Christmas Around the World reaching ZMR's Top 100 Radio Playlist;[24] and One Deep Breath, which also held a position on ZMR's Top 100 Radio Chart for over six months.[25]

Joseph returned as a featured instrumentalist and wrote his sixth album during Yanni's 2003 Ethnicity world tour:[26][27] The Journey Continues, a sequel to Solo Journey.[28]

Subsequent releases include For the Love of It, Piano Love Songs, and Hymns and Spiritual Songs. On these albums, Joseph arranged piano, orchestra, and soft rhythms to cover melodies such as "I'll Never Fall in Love Again" (Burt Bacharach), "Fields of Gold" (Sting), and "Ave Maria" (Schubert). He has produced CD and DVD projects designed for pets in a Music Pets Love series,[29][30] and a four-CD set of Nature Sounds. His music is used throughout the DVD Isle Royale Impressions Volume II, which includes video footage of scenery and wildlife from the Isle Royale National Park in Michigan[31] by Carl TerHaar.

In April 2013, Joseph released Paint the Sky, which debuted at number fifteen on ZMR's Top 100 Radio Chart. Joseph described the release as "piano instrumentals with a cinematic feel".[32]

Accolades and achievements

Joseph was named one of the Ten Outstanding Young Minnesotans (TOYM) of 2004 by the Minnesota Jaycees.[33][34][35] In April 2008, he was presented with the WPS Foundation Arts and Academics Hallmarks of Pride award as an alumnus.[23]

Joseph's music has been heard in regular rotation in the United States and Canada by more than 160 major radio networks, including XM and Sirius satellite radio, DMX; in the United Kingdom including RTÉ lyric fm; as well as airwaves in Japan, Spain, China, South-East Asia, Thailand, Germany, Switzerland, and Russia. Airlines such as Aeroméxico, AirTran, Frontier, and JetBlue feature his music in their in-flight music programs. The Weather Channel also regularly utilizes his compositions during "Local on the 8s" segments, and the song "Friday's Child" is included in their 2008 compilation release, The Weather Channel Presents: Smooth Jazz II.[36]

Paint the Sky (2013) was nominated for the Best Neo-Classical Album in the 10th annual ZMR Music Awards.[37]

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Artistry

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On composing

In an interview with Indie Journal, Joseph said that when writing music, he prefers to concentrate on the melody first.[10]

Polta reports that he often references the past when in naming his songs, and that his music is frequently reminiscent of his rural Minnesota roots.[18] "Wind Farmer" was inspired by childhood visits to a relative's farm near Olivia and his company, Robbins Island Music, is named after a city park in Willmar.[18]

Joseph employs a variety of instruments to compose, including many digital synthesizers.[10]

Musical style

Hear the Masses and Rapture feature full orchestrations that combine smooth jazz with contemporary instrumental themes.[28] A review of Rapture in New Age Voice stated that Joseph "paints romantic pictures in sound with voices and instruments that escalate from quiet, intimate passages to big, energetic movements".[38] In contrast, albums such as Solo Journey and The Journey Continues are described as "stripped back and basic".[28] For the 2002 album One Deep Breath, he combines "structured melodic pieces and free-form ambient compositions",[39] which departs from the style of earlier compositions.[40]

Joseph has also produced numerous CD's that include cover arrangements for piano and orchestra. The 2009 release of Suites & Sweets features compositions by Beethoven, Mozart, Bach, and other classical composers.[citation needed]

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Discography

Studio albums

Credits

See also

Notes

External links

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