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What is a Slydini?

Well thanks for asking, you see Tony Slydiniwas a famed Magician.

Who have you guys played with?

Slydini's members have experience performing with such musical luminaries as Stevie Wonder, Chuck Berry, Wadada Leo Smith, Fred Frith, , Nancy Sinatra,Will Bernard, Mitch Marcus, Alex Skolnick, and many others.

Who is in Slydini?

Slydini members are:

Vicky Grossi - electric bass
John Ingle - saxophones
Bill Wolter - electric guitar
Jan Jackson - drums

How did you get together?

Way back in the day Vicky, John and Jan were in a group called Bitches Brew, which played a style of music in the vein of Miles Davis 70's Funky stuff. Bitches Brew is still going strong with gigs around the bay. For whatever reason, there was a split and Vicky, John and Jan, reformed their own group called Fry Pan, which included Aaron Bennett on sax, and Clyde the slide on trumpet. This group went for a while until it was pared down to present-day four-piece line up with Bill Wolter picking up guitar duties. FryPan gigged as a quartet for about a year at which time these swinging hipsters needed a better name. They even held a name changing contest at their shows, whereby they received a several suggestions but nothing really stuck. Until one day, Vicky came up with the name Slydini after learning about the famed magician Tony Slydini. The name was changed to Slydini sometime around late 2004 and it has stuck ever since.

What do you sound like?

You should decide for your self what we sound like by checking out the sounds page on the left menu. We are all very interested in Odd meter, which means rhythmic patterns that don't easily fall into the omnipotent 4/4 meters that we hear on about 99% of music. After several years of playing strange rhythmic patterns, Slydini naturally establishes grooves in their songs with odd meters, without sounding too heady or forced.

We are all greatly influenced by jazz in terms of harmony and spontaneous improvisation, but are tired of the creative formal limitations in more traditional Jazz. Let's also not forget the Funk influence, which is central component to many of our songs: the feel, shuffle, swing, or funk, that ineffable element that makes the music worth it. We create original music that incorporates Jazz, Funk, Odd Meters, and even the finer elements of Prog Rock.

As with much of music, Slydini's style is difficult to encapsulate into any pithy corporate statement, which is what it demanded by the music industry. We find the most interesting hybrids of music can occur at the borders of musical Genres. And in today's climate what we need is not more genres of music, but just good music!

 

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