Music Style Jazz-Rock Fusion

Musical Influences Jimmy Smith,Joe Sample,The Crusaders, Lyle Mays, Pink Floyd, Keyboardists of the 60's/70's

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Artist History Charles Lo was born in New York, New York on August 4, 1952 to Charles and Jean Lo. The boy of Chinese/Italian descent grew up in a predominantly African-American and Puerto Rican neighborhood and was exposed to a variety of influences at a very young age. Charles had a sister named Linda who was three years his senior. When Linda was six, she began taking piano lessons after school. Charles used to watch his sister practice and would yearn to play the piano also. So when he reached the age of six, he began taking lessons. His first keyboard was made from cardboard and used to fold up into three sections. The black and white keys were painted onto the cardboard. He sat for hours moving his hands over the cardboard keys and hearing the sounds in his head, as though he heard them with his ears. Lessons used to be once a week and would last for five minutes. During that time the teacher would show him how to play a couple of measures from a classical selection and she would make Charles go home and practice on the cardboard keyboard. Then the next week, he would have to play the lesson on a real piano before moving on to the next lesson. Charles would receive lots of gold and silver stars that represented the best scores. Occasionally, he would earn a green or a red and that would drive him to practice harder. At the end of every year, the school would put on a recital and the students would perform. The younger less experienced students would perform first while the older more experienced students would perform last. When Charles reached the 4th grade, he was closing out the recitals. In the 5th and 6th grades, he was leading the weekly Assemblies in the auditorium, a role customarily filled by the teacher herself. Sometime in the 4th grade the teacher gave Charles her old Story and Clark upright piano, as she realized the talent he possessed. As a teenager, Charles was influenced by the music of groups like The Dave Clark Five, The Beach Boys, and The Beatles. His classical style soon began to transform to accommodate the contemporary pop-styled music. As the years went by he also became engrossed with the music of the Animals, The lovin Spoonful, and a barrage of 60s bands that culminated with the music of The Young Rascals and Vanilla Fudge. The soulful sounds of musicians like Felix Cavaliere and Mark Stein and the approach to re-making old songs in a completely different style, were popular among these artists and became a mainstay in the way Charles approached music. What the Fudge did with Eleanor Rigby and Keep me Hanging On, instilled a passion in Charles and would eventually transcend into his own unique style of fusing different styles into one. He began to take all of the popular songs he knew and started to transform them into how he could best express them using the old Steinway upright. In many cases the songs became barely recognizable. While other artists were trying to duplicate material, Charles was trying to expound on what the original artists had done and use it as a stepping-stone for an entirely new interpretation. This led to a period where as others strived to learn and remember songs, Charles worked at doing the opposite. Bands like Pink Floyd and keyboardists such as Keith Emerson, Rick Wakeman, and later Chic Corea and Lyle Mays (to name a few), made the soul inside of Chazzz come to a boil. He began taking parts of songs, modifying them, and transforming them into something entirely different. Then, he would take different parts of different songs and combine them into some new, yet recognizable, song. Finally, all that evolved into The Chazzzmans contemporary approach of fusing different Genres together. Rock licks over Jazz chords in Country rhythms or a 2 minute Classical introduction leading to a Jazz piece in a Bluz format. Now you are beginning to get the idea. This story would not be complete without mentioning the influences of true virtuosos such as the immortal Joe Sample on piano and Jimmy Smith on the B-3. They are truly great and help to keep The Chazzzman focused. They continue to remind him of the importance of contributions made in the past 50 years and beyond, by the many artists who have lived and died. As The Chazzzman is influence by them, so have they by others. Finally, a degree in Electronics and a dream definitely help, for this is what keeps The Chazzzman contemporary. Thank you Mom, for letting me in the house when I was locked out and for the paper drum-set. Thank you Dad, for teaching me to dream and for reminding me to update my bio.

Location Hometown, United States - USA

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