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Christopher Rossi

Born and raised in the Boston, Mass. area, music has always been an important part of Chris’ life and it developed into quite a past-time for him. Growing up as a young boy throughout the seventies, he recalls sitting in his brother Ed and Ken’s basement level apartment listening to a LOT of music. Countless albums… several times over. It opened his ears to a lot of Classic Rock from the sixties and seventies, as well as some Soul/R&B from back in the day. Some of his favorite artists back then were The Beatles, J. Geils, The Allman Brothers, The Doobie Brothers, The Eagles, Fleetwood Mac, Boston, Steely Dan, Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers and Billy Joel. Earth, Wind & Fire, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, George Benson and Jeffrey Osbourne… from the Soul/R&B genre.

As he grew into his teenage years, during the eighties, he began to appreciate more music from the Classic Rock genre from artists like Aerosmith, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, The Rolling Stones, The Who, Santana, Traffic, Genesis, Yes and artists like Eric Clapton and Steve Winwood among others. He watched for new music by these artists and others while listening to several local FM radio stations. This also allowed him to discover new artists and genres as he expanded his musical taste. In the early eighties, he discovered bands like U2 and The Police from a local station playing mainly post-punk or alternative music. This well before they became world renowned Popular Rock groups.

Around the mid eighties, he started to get into the Blues, largely due to a local FM station playing blues only at night. That’s where he first heard the music of Stevie Ray Vaughan and Robert Cray. Two of his favorites in the genre. Soon came an introduction to Jazz, initially a “Smooth\Popular Jazz” phase, which developed during his late teens and into his twenties, also through local radio. At this time, artists like Lee Ritenour, Larry Carlton, The Yellowjackets, Spyro Gyra, Acoustic Alchemy, and Bob James were some favorites. Some of these bands or musicians are actually known as “Crossover Jazz” artists. At one time recording less mainstream Jazz Fusion albums, before writing to please a more expansive pop music oriented audience.

The nineties rolled around, and he started branching out into more complex and fascinating forms of Jazz and Rock, after meeting Gino Foti. He opened his ears, and mind, to Jazz Fusion and much more Progressive Rock. Chris’ taste in music turned towards more interesting complex odd-time rhythmic based compositions, by performers of wizard musicianship. Soon, Jazz Fusion would become more of a focus throughout the nineties, following artists like Al DiMeola, Stanley Clarke, Chick Corea, Lenny White and their work as a unit in Return To Forever. Joe Zawinul, Wayne Shorter, Chester Thompson, Jaco Pastorius from Weather Report. Others like Jean Luc Ponty, Jeff Lorber, Pat Metheny, Mike Stern, John Scofield, Jonas Hellborg to name a few… also becoming favorites.

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Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Cycles Of Fusion

Net Dot Music, Inc.
2011

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Eternal Boundaries

From: Cycles Of Fusion
By Christopher Rossi

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