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Rico Belled

Rico Belled was born in the Netherlands to a Spanish pianist and his Swiss wife; growing up in such a multicultural environment, he was exposed to many styles of music and started playing piano at age 11, exploring everything from classical music to jazz. At 15 Rico started playing gigs with local bands doing Pop and Blues, slowly getting interested more and more in the bass, which he started really practicing at age 17.

In 1989, Studying Electrical Engineering at the TU Delft, Rico met Roy Cruz in The Hague and joined his weekly Sunday night band at ‘De Pater’ exploring the world of Funk and Jazz playing Fender Rhodes. These sessions broke down all stylistic walls as the band would go from playing Weather Report tunes to full on James Brown Funk, featuring as many as 10 people on the little stage, playing for a sold out house every Sunday. While getting an education in art of jamming, Rico soaked up a lot of bass stylings from Roy and started really shedding and playing as much as possible.

Realizing music was his passion, in 1992 Rico decided to give up engineering and attend the acclaimed Musicians Institute in Hollywood, CA. Graduating with the highest honors a year later, he was already playing with a few different groups in the L.A. area and in the following years made a name for himself as a session musician, on bass and keyboards.

Another breakthrough came when he joined Don Randi and the house band at the world famous Baked Potato in 1994. Doing the gig regularly for about 2 years, Rico met a lot of wonderful musicians and started writing his own music, performing at the same club with bands of his own.

Soon, all kinds of gigs started coming along, playing and recording with Marc Antoine, the Dan Band, Sound Assembly and Jeff Robinson, and Rico started to work solidly as a first call bassist. Joining Leslie Paula’s “Latin Soul Band”, he started exploring the world of Latin music, eventually becoming musical director for the band and starting to write arrangements as well. Along the way, there were gigs as diverse as TV performances with Liza Minelli and on a Dockers Superbowl commercial, record dates for Chris Standring and rocker Scott Grimes, the JVC jazz festival at the Hollywood Bowl with Keiko Matsui and many others.

Still interested in technology, Rico began recording and producing at home around 2000, finding a great outlet for his compositions. Slowly but surely, he started getting music out there; his music has been used on TV all over the world, from Japan to France, from TV shows to movie trailers. He has co-written and published music with artists as Mindi Abair and Jeff Robinson. In 2006 Rico produced Ronnie Gutierrez debut CD “Like Father Like Son”, writing two songs and playing multiple instruments.

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Take Five With Rico Belled

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Meet Rico Belled:Born and raised in Holland, Rico Belled is best known as the Grammy-nominated bassist for The Rippingtons. Now based in Los Angeles, CA, he's worked with artists in many genres, ranging from Liza Minnelli to Eddie Money, Eric Marienthal to The Dan Band. Piano being his first instrument, Rico is also an accomplished guitarist and producer, releasing his first solo record entitled The Pursuit Of Comfort in 2010. A prolific composer, his music has found its ...

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Rico Belled's "XR7" Now Available at ITunes, Amazon and CD Baby!

Rico Belled's "XR7" Now Available at ITunes, Amazon and CD Baby!

Source: Rico Belled

Back Scratch Music is pleased to announce the release of Rippingtons bassist Rico Belled's sophomore album called XR7. Featuring Chris Coleman, Jeff Kashiwa, Dave Karasony, Andy Langham, Jonathan Dresel, Katisse Buckingham, Ronnie Gutierrez, Bill Heller, Scheila Gonzalez and many more fantastic musicians, XR7 is bursting with energy. Ten original compositions take the listener from 70ies Funk to modern Jazz, through richly orchestrated soundscapes that only modern recording systems can provide. XR7 is an album about the relationship between man and ...

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Recording

Rippingtons Bassist Rico Belled To Release Sophomore Album "XR7" On May 9th 2012

Rippingtons Bassist Rico Belled To Release Sophomore Album "XR7" On May 9th 2012

Source: Rico Belled

Multi-instrumentalist Rico Belled will release his follow-up to “The Pursuit Of Comfort", called XR7, on May 9th 2012. Consisting of ten brand new originals, the record is an homage to his beloved 1973 Mercury Cougar XR7 and machines in general, featuring musical adventures in many different genres; from Funk to Electronica, from Latin to Pop, but Jazz is the heart and soul of it all. Enlisting a who's who of Los Angeles session guys, Rico has created a truly innovative ...

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Recording

Rico Belled - "The Pursuit of Comfort" - Now Available!

Rico Belled - "The Pursuit of Comfort"  - Now Available!

Source: Michael Ricci

Rico Belled's debut album The Pursuit Of Comfort is now available. It features many great musicians: Jeff Kashiwa (Rippingtons), Katisse Buckingham (Yellowjackets), Dave Karasony (Rippingtons), Jeff Babko (James Taylor), Jonathan Dresel (Jimmy Kimmel Live) and many more.

Stylistically ranging from Afro-Cuban to Brazilian Jazz, with some Funk and Weather Report thrown in, there are 10 original compositions in all making for perfect summer afternoon listening.

The album is available from CDBaby for $11.99, and for a limited time, as a ...

Primary Instrument

Bass

Willing to teach

Advanced only

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Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

XR7

Self Produced
2012

buy

The Pursuit Of Comfort

Back Scratch Music
2010

buy

Blue Son Herb

From: XR7
By Rico Belled

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