THE USUAL SUSPECTS
Dr. Gio Washington-Wright's Top Los Angeles Studio Musicians Tribute Site
BILL CHAMPLIN
WEBSITE: www.billchamplin.net
Bill Champlin was born in Oakland, California on May 21, 1947 to a musical family. His grandparents, mother and sisters have all been singers. Bill is married to Tamara Champlin, a singer/songwriter in her own right, and is the father of three children. His youngest, Will Champlin, is building a name for himself as a prolific songwriter with a distinct sound.Champlin’s musical career began in 1961 when he formed a band called the Opposite Six. A year later he began writing music. After forming the Sons of Champlin in 1967 he focused his songwriting talents on producing material for the Sons. “They were breathing fire. They were the most talented of all the San Francisco bands”, said Mickey Hart of the Grateful Dead. The Sons’ first album, LOOSEN UP NATURALLY, was released in 1969, followed by six more albums before they broke up in 1977. Many of these have been re-released as CD’s and are currently available for purchase.
After the breakup of the Sons, Bill moved to Los Angeles and worked as a session lead and background vocalist on numerous recordings from 1977-1985. Some of the artists that he has worked with include Patti LaBelle, Lou Rawls, Elton John, Boz Scaggs, Donna Summer, Nancy Wilson, George Benson, Jimmy Smith, Amy Grant, Neil Diamond and Kenny Rogers. In 1978 he released SINGLE, his first solo album. In 1979 he won his first Grammy award for co-writing “After the Love is Gone”, which was later recorded by Earth, Wind & Fire. During the recent Chicago/EWF tours in 2004 and 2005, Champlin was asked to perform this song with them, as lead singer.
The National Association of Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS) awarded Bill the Most Valuable Player peer award for male background vocalists in 1980. In 1981 he won another Grammy for co-writing Turn Your Love Around for George Benson, and released his second solo album that year, RUNAWAY. In 1982 he joined Chicago to record Chicago 16. “Bill’s exactly what we’ve been looking for,” said Chicago’s Robert Lamm . His very distinctive and expressive vocals can be heard on Chicago's hits , "Hard Habit to Break" and "Stay the Night."
In 1988 Bill’s recording of the song, “In the Heat of the Night”, was picked up as a show opener by the television show of the same name. The following year Chicago released the song of the year, “Look Away”, featuring Champlin on lead vocals. In 1990 Bill released the critically acclaimed NO WASTED MOMENTS. That same year he was asked to perform two songs from NO WASTED MOMENTS at the Tokyo Music Festival, and was presented with their songwriter of the year award.
Next came four solo albums, BURN DOWN THE NIGHT (1992), THROUGH IT ALL (1994), HE STARTED TO SING (1995) and MAYDAY (1996). In July, 1997, “Here in my Heart” topped the adult contemporary charts for Chicago, featuring Champlin on lead vocals. 1997 also saw an a capella release of WEST COAST ALL STARS, a project he did with Jason Scheff of Chicago, and Toto’s Bobby Kimball and Joseph Williams.
The Sons of Champlin reunited in 1997 and continue to tour on a regular basis, with a loyal group of enthusiastic fans traveling great distances to see them perform. They recorded LIVE AT THE LUTHER BURBANK CENTER in 1998, SECRET (CD and DVD) and HIP LIL’ DREAMS in 2002, and are planning to release another live CD in 2006. Bill is currently writing new music while touring with Chicago and Huey Lewis & the News.
In the words of drummer, Billy Ward, “I became a Bill Champlin fan in the early seventies when he led, what was to me, a ground-breaking band, The Sons Of Champlin. He's written and sang on probably over 400 hit songs, the later ones with the band Chicago. His organ playing has him ranked on most peoples "A" list and he plays the heck out of the guitar as well! He is one of the finest musicians I've ever gotten the privilege to play with.” Dennis Cook, in Jambase and Relix Magazine adds, “Age has done nothing to diminish his powers, and in fact, brings nuances to the material that a young cat just can't muster.”
TOMMY FUNDERBURK
Tommy Funderburk has been one of the most hired background singers since the early 80's. Tommy Funderburk was born in North Carolina, and grew up in the southern parts of the United States. He listened to the Beatles, r&b and soul music. Tommy played in a band at college while planning to be a high school history teacher. The band opened for Andrae Crouch. Crouch and his drummer encouraged Tommy to come to L.A. There he met someone from Earth, Wind and Fire who introduced him to David Foster and Jay Graydon who were looking for a singer for their project Airplay. Funderburk joined Airplay as their lead singer. The rest is history... Tommy's career as a session singer and songwriter had started.
Tommy met drummer Bob Wilson from the group Seawind and in 1984 they formed The Front and recorded an album that was followed by a U.S tour in 1984 and a European tour in 1985. On the tour the line-up was Tommy Funderburk on vocals, Bob Wilson on drums, Buddy Nuanez on guitar, a bassplayer and John Andrew Schreiner on keyboards.
In 1986 you could hear him sing a track called "Never Too Late To Start" on the movie soundtrack "Running Scared". Tommy Funderburk also participated on a collection album called "Voices" featuring some great singers including Tommy Funderburk, Bob Carlisle, John Elefante among others. The track featuring Tommy Funderburk is called "Lift Up My Voice".
In 1987 Bob Wilson and Tommy Funderburk reformed the band and brought in Larry Williams on keyboards and saxophone, changed name to What if and released an album on RCA.
A couple of years later Tommy met Bruce Gaitsch at a recording session with Richard Marx, and they wrote a song together that would later be included on the King of Hearts album. They were signed by Polygram, but for some reason Polygram never released anything... The album "King of Hearts" was released in 1994 in Sweden, Japan and Germany, and it included some songs from the sessions for Polygram and some new material.
In 1994 Tommy Funderburk sing lead vocals on some parts on the Boston album "Walk On". In 1995 an album featuring Tommy Funderburk and bassist David Miner was released called The Dwelling Place. In 1996 Tommy was a part of the Jay Graydon All Star Band tour, together with Jay Graydon, Joseph Williams, Bill Cantos, Sherwood Ball, Tris Imboden, Jay Oliver and Ned Doheny.
In 1996 Tommy Funderburk and Bruce Gaitsch recorded a follow-up to the first King of Hearts album called Joy Will Come. That album was released during the Autumn 1996 in Sweden, Germany and Japan.
In 1997 Funderburk did back-up vocals for Whitesnake on their album "Restless Heart".
King of Hearts is no longer a working group - Tommy Funderburk and Bruce Gaitsch have both moved on to other things. In December 1997, Thoughtscape released a King of Hearts compilation CD called No Matter What, and that's probably the last thing we're gonna hear from King of Hearts.
In June 1998, Pony Canyon (Japan) released an acapella album featuring Tommy Funderburk, Joseph Williams, Bobby Kimball and Jason Scheff. The album contains acapella covers of hits from the seventies, for example Stairway To Heaven, I Shot The Sheriff, What's Goin' On and Sir Duke.
Tommy Funderburk works together with Greg Mathieson to write songs for his soloalbum that were expected to be released in Japan in May 1999. The album wasn´t released, and Tommy Funderburk continues to do vocal works in the studio for many artists such as: Andrae Crouch, Motley Crue, Whitesnake, Boston, Yes, Steve Lukather, Richard Marx, Russ Taff, Amy Grant, Rick Springfield, Starship, REO Speedwagon, Coverdale Page, Jon Anderson and many others.
SIEDAH GARRETT
WEBSITE: www.siedah.com
JASON PAIGE
WEBSITE: www.jasonpaige.voice123.com
Jason shared the stage with Michael Jackson as the rap soloist for the hit song Black or White in Michael Jackson’s 30th Anniversary concert at Madison Square Garden. He has performed with Enrique Iglesias on tour, television and can be heard on “7”, Enriques 2003 CD. He performed with Liza Minelli, in Liza’s Back at Town Hall, Ashanti at the 2003 Grammy Awards, and many others including Ray Charles, Luther Vandross, Mark Anthony, Ricky Martin, Usher and Patti LaBelle to name a few. He toured Europe and the USA with Oleta Adams. Jason sang and beat-boxed with the legendary Aerosmith on the Howard Stern re-mix of the hit single “Pink” and on tour in Europe, USA and Japan.
Jason sings 100 + jingles every year. His past clients include Mountain Dew’s “Bohemian Rhapsody”, Subway’s “Eat Fresh”, Bounty and the theme to the cartoon phenomenon “Pokemon” which was a #1 Billboard children’s single.
As a writer/producer, a.k.a. “Headless”, he worked with Billboards # 1 Charting Dance Artist Becky Baeling, “Wicked” Broadway sensation Shoshanna Bean, Michael Weaver in “The New Black”, and other NYC and LA based artists. He co-wrote the last “Lego-mania” jingle and a song in the Fox movie “Club Dread”. He produced “The What’s Up Show”, his own music/comedy sketch show, live in NYC clubs and on Manhattan cable TV 1995-2000. He has co-written two musicals, “BOX” and “Writing Pictures” produced at Hartford’s Bushnell Theatre for Black History month 2002, based on Harriet Beecher Stowe’s “Uncle Toms Cabin”.
Theatrically Jason produced and starred at L.A.’s prestigious Ford Amphitheatre in Orchestre Surreal’s “Concerto For the Committed” and opened the Premier of “Funny Business” at the Coronet theatre in L.A. to rave reviews. He was in the 25th anniversary National tour of “Hair”. He starred as Jesus in Steven Schwart’s “Godspell” at the Warner Theatre in Washington D.C. and Judas in Webber’s “JC Superstar” at Cherry County Playhouse. Jason has been in many Broadway and Off Broadway workshops. He is a member of Michael McElroy’s renowned Broadway Inspirational Voices.
Jason has appeared in many National TV commercials, currently in Virgin Mobile’s award winning “Thing”, Soap operas and appeared in the Oscar nominated film “Election”.
WARREN WIEBE
WEBSITE: www.warrenwiebe.com
One of the most prolific session singers of all time (and a personal favorite of mine), Warren left us on October 25, 1998.
