|
Graham Bonnet is one of classic rocks most recognizable voices. He reached the pinnacle of rock superstardom in the late 1970’s headlining the first “Monsters of Rock” festival at Castle Donington in the U.K. as lead vocalist for the band “Rainbow”. The collaboration between Graham, & Ritchie Blackmore, (formerly of Deep Purple.) produced a body of work that spawned several radio classics including a Billboard Top 10 hit with the song “Since You’ve Been Gone” which is still in rotation on the playlists of classic rock and AOR radio throughout the world.
In 1982, Graham’s work with Michael Schenker (formerly of UFO, Scorpions.) resulted in the album “Assault Attack”, considered by many fans of the genre as one of the best hard rock offerings of that era. Soon after exiting MSG, Graham founded Alcatrazz and recruited a sensational young guitarist by the name of Yngwie Malmsteen as it’s axeman. Their first album “No Parole for Rock and Roll” is a landmark effort that quickly propelled the band into arena rock headliner status. When Yngwie left the band after 2 albums to pursue his solo career, Graham followed in his tradition of working with the best guitarists in the world and brought in Steve Vai. Several more successful albums followed including “Disturbing the Peace” and “Dangerous Games”.
Since then Graham has released several solo albums and lent his voice to select projects as well as a studio reunion in 2006 appearing on Michael Schenker’s newest CD. Over the past 3 decades Graham has worked with the best and biggest names in hard rock. His own name is carved into rock and roll history and his voice provides the soundtrack for generations of fans.
Graham’s latest endeavor puts him front and center for The Taz Taylor Band. TTB is a Southern California based 5 piece hard rock outfit that features Taz Taylor as it’s guitarist, founder and
namesake. TTB’s newest release “Welcome To America” is an exciting dose of melodic rock. Released in late 2006 in Europe and Japan, the CD has received enthusiastic reviews and recruited legions of fans. Taz Taylor, bassist Dirk Krause, keyboardist Bob Miller and Graham Bonnet have produced a masterpiece of work that is fresh and relevant while still paying homage to the gods of hard rock that came before.
Graham, Taz and the band have just completed a 16 city tour of the U.K. in support of the new album. Audience response has been amazing and fans have responded enthusiastically to the new material as well as all of Grahams greatest hits which are a large part of the show. A Russian release of the CD is scheduled for Sept. 2007 with a Russian tour to follow.
Guitarist Taz Taylor ...
... was born and raised outside of Birmingham, England, and one of his earliest musical memories was, ironically, “Since You’ve Been Gone” by Rainbow. Taz took to playing guitar in the 80’s and had a whole plethora of guitar inspirations to choose from, including Michael Schenker, Gary Moore, Van Halen, Randy Rhoads, etc.
Taz became disillusioned with the music scene in The 90’s, and more or less gave up on playing… until 1995. Suddenly, he became self-motivated, inspired, and turned himself into somewhat of a modern day musical hermit, literally locked up in a Taz Taylor California practice room until 1997. The fruits of This reclusion was his highly acclaimed instrumental album “Caffeine Racer”.
The Taz Taylor Band’s latest release “Welcome To America” is ten tracks of ballistic hard rock with searing guitars that feature rock veteran Graham Bonnet on vocals. Graham Bonnet fans will be thrilled to hear that he sounds better then ever on this release. “Fighter’s Fist” opens the Rock-fest with a cool, full, Gibson Explorer riff and a heavy drumbeat, with Graham adding that melodic touch on vocals. “Radio Luxembourg” opens with an almost UFO-like harmony that is very appealing and is capped off by a nice lead by Taz. Both of these tunes could do well as singles. Top highlights are “Happy Hour” with its very melodic, classic MSG feel and several Taz fills, and the title track with its nice Rock tempo stomp and Bonnet “growls.” An easily memorable moment is the instrumental lead-in of the slightly somber “Silent Fall” where Taz “breaks loose” (be it for a very short time). There are two covers on this album. The first is Gary Moore’s “Parisienne Walkways” (another early childhood memory from Taz’s past). The second is a medley of Ozzy Osbourne’s “Goodbye To Romance” and “Mr. Crowley” that end the release, aptly entitled “Goodbye To Mr C.”
Bottom line, this one is a great album with plenty of accessible Rock music for everyone.
|
