Artist description Do the musicans of the band “the Powergrade” have their musical knowledge from some entities from Mars? "Creatures from Mars gave Austrian musicians their knowledge!” "Now they rise to new heights and take the music world by storm!” An eyewitness reports: “Unbelievable, but true”, says a young guy from Italy: "I just passed by a place from which I know they always throw big parties there and have bands playing their asses off. So I drove off the freeway to stop by, shifted gear to slow down for not bumping into somebody and was just about to wind down the window of my car, to shout at the people to clear the rocky path that led to the place I saw the most unbelievable light that I’ve ever seen! It illuminated the whole scenery in a very strange way and I felt some very deep rumble that made the surface shake. Whirled up dust blurred the view. From the distance I heard music and immediately I was caught! It tempted me! It sounded so cool! In the same moment I was urged to get to the stage that must have been somewhere behind the trees.! I got off the car curiously. As I made my way through the undergrowth all of a sudden I was struck with fear! I saw something that strongly reminded of an UFO that parked right to the side of the stage! As I wanted to get closer something touched my shoulder! I nearly fainted! I looked back and saw a little gnome that radiated green light out of his body pointing his, what I would call his index finger, to the stage! I couldn’t believe what I saw!: There were three guys on stage playing their music and three green aliens right between them playing instruments too! Those aliens were wildly swaying to the music and had a broad grin in their faces! They seemed to enjoy themselves very much! In disbelief I looked into the entities eyes when all of a sudden a voice in my head started saying to me: "See for yourself Stefano! Now we are here! These guys play like they’ve never played before in their lives! We give them inspiration, knowledge and power to evolve to higher beings. It’s up to you. Now come with me to experience what I’m talking about! …………………” Okay! Stop here!! Now, one could say it�s all in the music. We would say it�s in the drugs this guy took. For sure, no aliens from Mars were ever taking control over ourselves nor ever will and there will be no other entities that would be able to do that. Music touches us and music makes us feel in certain ways. Music moves us and may even lead to create images in our heads. O.k.But it�s all us. It�s all our music we create Humans! No chemicals, no bits and bytes and computer generated clusters of frequencies. Whatever reason makes people become commited to some kind of music, for sure one of the key issues is that it�s all about communicating and getting the idea of what the artist wants to say to us. We communicate between each other through our music. Music from us for us! Communication is the source for creating something new. The Powergrade feel commited to that! Three individuals, three musicans who feel that communicating is the source for steady further development in musical togetherness. We don�t always want to hear the whole fuss created out of bits and bytes! We want to listen to real human beings! We want to share their feelings and get caught emotionally by what the artists say to us through their music! We don�t want to always talk in categories and being put in some pigeonhole! Talking about style, you could file “the powergrade “under jazz, fusion and funk – but always with a great attitude in rock. Definetly they are not into weird noisy, repelling and disturbing stuff – moreover they even leave some space for the more mellow sounds. The Powergrade is an "All Austrian Superband” as one guy defined it after a concert. That’s very true, because all the guys in the band have played the national music scene as well as some international big names in the music business: Just to name a few – their biographies stat names such as: Gerald Gradwohl - guitar,guit.synth. Threeo [u.a. mit Bob Berg, Rick Margitza,Bob Mintzer], Tangerine Dream,Hallucination Company, Hot Pants Road Club, Rick Latham,The Platters, u.a.m. Nico Bernhardt - drums Werger, Bukowski, Hallucination Company, Mo, Pogo, Bass by Al, Hansi Lang,Deinb�ck, Andi Baum u.a.m. ... Wolfgang Wograndl - 6 string bass (Threeo, StefanieWerger, Gandalf, Dennis Jale u.v.a.m.) ›

Music Style Funk,Fusion,Progressive Rock

Musical Influences Scott Henderson,Frank Gambale,Brecker Brothers,Tower Of Power

Similar Artists Scott Henderson,Frank Gambale,Steve Vai

Artist History founded in 1998,1st CD"working men" in 2001

Group Members Gerald Gradwohl - guitar,guit.synth. Threeo [u.a. mit Bob Berg, Rick Margitza,Bob Mintzer], Tangerine Dream,Hallucination Company, Hot Pants Road Club, Rick Latham,The Platters, u.a.m. Nico Bernhardt - drums Werger, Bukowski, Hallucination Company, Mo, Pogo, Bass by Al, Hansi Lang,Deinb�ck, Andi Baum u.a.m. ... Wolfgang Wograndl - 6 string bass (Threeo, StefanieWerger, Gandalf, Dennis Jale u.v.a.m.)

Instruments guitar,bass,drums

Albums the powergrade-working men

Press Reviews Gitarre & Bass ,Sept,2001: “Contemporary Power Funk” they call their style.Gerald Gradwohl(THREEO,TANGERINE DREAM) is a versatile instrumentalist,with a lot of colours and sounds to offer. With drummer Nico Bernhardt und bassist Wolfgang Wograndl he produced a dynamic and colourful fusion album. The band is definitely best,when Gradwohl burns with distortion and competes with Henderson,Gambale or Steve Vai. Really a great guitar player! Fusenetter’s Article 8/2001 I'm talking about "Working Men", the new CD by THE POWERGRADE, an Austrian all star fusion trio, that is doing their thing in a wide musical area between heavily grooving funk, slick balladry and bashing rock. The driving force behind The Powergrade is Austrian guitarist Gerald Gradwohl, an extrodinary busy and dedicated musician, whose working schedule as teacher, bandleader and session player is impressive. The guy's attitude might have inspired the title of his band's debut album which features equally hard working drummer Nico Bernhardt and Wolfgang Wograndl, bassist in Gradwohl's other fusion band THREEO. While the tense and sometimes sterile feel of the album reflects the amount of hard studio work, there's enough space left to bring out the enthusiasm and dedication of the musicians and let the music flow. The basic direction becomes clear by listening to gentle funk stompers like "The Cat Is Black", the creeping groove of "42nd Street", the passionate high drama soloing in "Notes Of Farewell" or the guitar synthesizer showcase "The Sweeper". These suggest that Gerald's compositional approach as well as his guitar playing are inspired by Frank Gambale's late 1980/early 1990 work. This concept is rounded out by a couple of tunes that have the band go into power trio mode, namely the driving riffs of the fake metal instrumental "Razor's Edge" or the angst driven "Fear", that sounds like Mother's Finest reinventing grunge. The Powergrade's music is uplifting and has a positive vibe. If you're into European funk jazz � la Triton, Matalex or Jazz Pistols, you would probably like "Working Men" pretty much. Over the last 3 or so years and number of Austrian jazz rock and nu-fusion artists, on the back remarkably good albums, have appeared and the rest of world should take note. This is in comparison to the rather turgid "new" jazz music in the UK struggling have itself heard over the jazz mainstream. Alex MacHacek with McHacek's "Featuring Ourselves", Mr Koller and his Third Movement (with the nu-fusion mixes of "Right Now"), the heavy edged Conrad Schrenk ("Save the Robots", which is still one of my favourite albums of the 90's - and when may we expect the release of that new album, which Herr Schrenk is thought to be keeping under wraps??). Over the last few weeks I've been introduced to a fourth Austrian guitarist Gerald Gradwohl and Powergrade through their album "Working Men". When I first played "Working Men" I was struck by the freshness of playing, the variety of tunes and arrangements, and the musical scope of the whole album. The first three track reminded me of first hearing an instrumental Shrapnel album, recorded by one of those near virtuosic rock guitarists with good session backing, but better Powergrade have a much stronger jazz edge. However, the musical variety (while staying in the jazz rock territory), then shifts to a more soul based sound - vaguely in the region of Scott Henderson's "Torn Down House". It is worth noting that Gradwohl's guitar work is not obviously derivative of any better known guitarists. Powergrade as an ensemble are very tight, skill musicians (most definitely following in the quality of work heard on the three Austrian albums listed above). If you thought jazz rock fusion started and finish weith Joe Zawinul, then think again. Dick Heath-FuseNet›

Location Wiener Neustadt, Austria - Austria

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