Two-time Grammy winner/arranger/producer/songwriter/guitarist Jay Graydon's credits include hits by Chicago, Earth, Wind & Fire ("After the Love Is Gone," co-written with David Foster and Bill Champlin), Steely Dan, Dionne Warwick, Air Supply, Chaka Khan, Al Jarreau ("Mornin'"), Breakin' Away, Heart's Horizon, High Crime, Jarreau, This Time, the Manhattan Transfer ("Twilight Zone"), George Benson ("Turn Your Love Around"), Cher, Christopher Cross, DeBarge ("Who's Holding Donna Now"), Barry Manilow (Even Now), and El Debarge, among many others. He also was involved with the soundtracks to Ghostbusters, Miami Vice, and St. Elmo's Fire. Graydon co-wrote "She's in Love," a track on Brenda Russell's Hidden Beach/Epicdebut album Paris Rain issued on July 18, 2000.
On April 29, 2009, Soto released his third album, Mesmerized, and is currently climbing the contemporary jazz charts. “Mesmerized is a high octane collection of the highest order and further cements the position of Jay Soto in the major league of smooth jazz guitarists.
Ex-boxer Screamin' Jay Hawkins' live show, full of on-stage coffins, skulls, and toilets, prefigured the extravagant concert productions of later artists like Alice Cooper and George Clinton, and Hawkins' full awareness of the visual aspect of rock music extended even to his lyrics, which were purposefully graphic and surreal. In essence, Hawkins was a one- or two-trick pony, but boy, those ponies could run. His masterpiece was "I Put a Spell on You," which he originally recorded for OKeh Records (supposedly while extremely drunk) in 1956, and while Hawkins' version was never even close to being a commercial hit, the song has been covered so many times (most notably by Nina Simone) that it has deservedly been certified as a rock and R&B classic.
This disc brings together two composers from Naples, albeit from different generations. They are also different in that Scarlatti was an important contributor to the genre of opera, whereas Durante never composed anything for the theatre. They have also something in common: both were considered rather conservative - Scarlatti in particular towards the end of his career - and in the oeuvre of both the traditional counterpoint plays an important role.
A reunion of West Coast studio pros, 1993's Airplay for the Planet found guitarist Jay Graydon bringing together many longtime friends for a smooth, laid-back production that evoked the classic soft rock and adult-contemporary pop of the '70s and '80s. A virtuoso guitarist who famously played the solo on Steely Dan's 1977 classic "Peg," Graydon had built up a deep list of performance, songwriting, and production credits by the early '90s. Working with close collaborators keyboardist David Foster and Chicago singer Bill Champlin, he had picked up a Grammy for penning Earth, Wind & Fire's 1979 hit "After the Love Has Gone," which he and Foster also included on their superb 1980 album Airplay.