Music
Press
“The greatest living exponent of the electric violin.” - BBC Radio
“Inspiring. Silverman is in a class of his own” - LA Times
"fleet agility and tangy expressivity with wailing hints of Jimi Hendrix."
- New York Times
"Tracy Silverman played as if he believed in every note and there was a whooping standing ovation." - Dallas Morning News
"What informs almost every bar of the work is the blazing virtuosity of Tracy Silverman, playing a six-string electric violin. Listen to Silverman flinging seagull-like spirals and caws over Adams' big and busy symphonic apparatus in the ecstatic finale and you will be astonished that anybody can play the fiddle like that."
- Chicago Tribune
"Above all, a new solo language, forged expressly for the classically trained jazz electric violinist Tracy Silverman. His deep engagement with the Asian-influenced music coursed through his strong, supple virtuosity."
- The London Times
”Tracy has developed his own unique style of violin playing--a marvel of expressiveness, the product of his having digested everything from Stefan Grapelli to the Indian saranghi to bluegrass, Robert Johnson, and Terry Riley. Hearing Tracy Silverman play his six-string electric violin immediately reminded me not only of the great jazz and rock performers and Pakistani qawwalisingers like Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan (where the real music is in the slide between the notes), but it also made me think of the prose style of Jack Kerouac, so deeply influenced by his listening to the rhythms and melodic arcs of improvised jazz."
--Pulitzer Prize and Grammy Award winning composer John Adams
- Nonesuch Records
It's extraordinarily funky, an intense hybrid of sounds and influence and a beast in terms of virtuosity. It's a band called Eclectica -- talk about truth in advertising! -- and the band's Streaming Video Soul is flexibly adventurous at the absolute least. Featuring Julliard alum/ violin "child prodigy" Tracy Silverman and 5–time Grammy Award winning drummer Roy "Futureman" Wooten (of Bela Fleck & The Flecktones), Eclectica buoys their tunes with fat grooves, sing-along choruses and incredibly inventive jams. Make no mistake: the trio has a wide appeal; and yet their sound is likely to draw in fans of Dave Matthews Band just as easily as it does more sophisticated alt-jazz types who like Medeski Martin & Wood. Definitely a case of "leave them wanting," the group's six songs whiz right by. The opening title track, "Nawlins (Stand Together)" and "Bi-Polar Disorder" are the best of the lot -- the latter challenging any critic to find an appropriate description. Fans of the full-on fiddle trip that former Clevelander violinist/mandolinist Joe Deninzon has with Stratospheerius should definitely apply. - CoolCleveland.com
ECLECTICA/Streaming Video Soul: When Tracy Silverman’s not hanging with Jim Brickman and acting like a left field new ager, he’s hanging with a Wooten brother and a jazz legacy adding guests that are other Flecktones and other legacies. It ain’t new age, it ain’t jazz, it almost ain’t anything like you’ve ever heard. Boundary less, creative music, this is squarely aimed at the college kid that is tired of the same old and needs some edgy music to help him act out while insidiously turning his head on to other possibilities and even heritage music. If it wasn’t for the depth of the chops of the cats involved, it might be easy to slough this one off with some faith praise for it’s aspirations but these players know how to make a real ear opener as well as a barn burner. A delightfully wild ride. - MidWestRecords.com
Discography
The new CD, "Streaming Video Soul" is finished and will be released July 1 to coincide with a national tour.
Photos
Bio
Inventive, blazingly virtuosic and thoroughly entertaining.
Not just another funk/world/rock/jazz/classical ensemble, Eclectica is a virtuoso groove event. This genre-defying band features the 5 time Grammy Awardwinning drumming of ROY "FUTUREMAN" WOOTEN, of Bela Fleck and the Flecktones and electric violin virtuoso TRACY SILVERMAN, heralded by the BBC as the greatest living exponent of the electric violin. Bass legend STEVE FORREST completes the ensemble.
ECLECTICA weaves sound-pieces together with a groove that is alive from the first note to the last encore, with sing-along choruses and creative jams that can lead in any direction. With 3-part vocals and inspired synchronicity, ECLECTICA is a celebration and a concert on the same stage. EclecticaTheBand.com
Roy Wooten
Known to many as Futureman and best known for his many years as the electronic and acoustic percussionist with Bela Fleck and the Flecktones. The winner of 5 Grammy awards, Roys innovative work spans many musical genres, including numerous compositions for symphony orchestra, collaborations with ballet and innovations in the creation of new electronic musical instruments. Roy is the leader of "The Black Mozart Ensemble". futuremanmusic.com
Tracy Silverman
Lauded by the BBC as the greatest living exponent of the electric violin, Juilliard graduate Tracy Silverman's groundbreaking work with the 6-string electric violin is the product of an odyssey from classical music through rock and world music and back to classical again. Recording-artist/composer Silverman has worked with a who's-who of rock, pop, new music, and jazz, including Pulitzer winning composer John Adams, who composed his electric violin concerto, The Dharma at Big Sur, specifically for Tracy and which they recorded together for Nonesuch Records with the BBC Symphony. Silverman was first violinist with the ground-breaking Turtle Island String Quartet and tours internationally as a solo performer when not playing with Eclectica. Tracy teaches jazz violin at Belmont University. tracysilverman.com
Steve Forrest
Originally from Memphis, now one of Nashvilles top session bassists, Steve Forrest holds down the bass chair for one of Nashvilles funkiest weekly institutions, The Wooten Brothers and Friends, where he was nicknamed Pound for Pound (as in, "the best bass player around",) for his seemingly endless vocabulary of songs and styles. He's recorded and performed with dozens of legendary artists in many different genres and teaches at conferences and clinics nationwide.
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