Gabriel Bello
Charlotte, North Carolina, United States | Established. Jan 01, 2004 | SELF
Music
Press
TWIN CITIES, MN, July 03, 2011 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Gabriel Bello has produced several number one records and now his first Album, self titled "Gabriel Bello" debuts at #1 on Billboard a week after the June 21st release by Kings Mountain Music & Film.
The JAZZ Album "GABRIEL BELLO" was released June21, 2011 by ECMD / Fontana /Universal Music and Video Distribution (UMVD)
Soul infused, R&B, jazz, and hip-hop with a POP twist.
Gabriel's story doesn't quite go like the rest. He was born into a musical family in Lawrence, MA, (his family is originally from the Dominican Republic).
Gabriel Bienvenido Bello (Which means, "Man of God welcomes beauty").
Gabriel's family relocated in his youth to the quiet college town of DeLand, FL.
Here he spent most of his young adult life singing in church choirs and learning to play the saxophone. He was accepted at Lee University in Cleveland, TN and began a promising career in music. While attending college, he was feeling sick one day and was shocked to find out from his doctors that it was more serious than he had thought. Gabriel was diagnosed with Hodgkin's disease (lymphoma) and had to leave school in order to endure six months of chemotherapy.
In the midst of his treatment he was invited to play for Ron Kenoly, during this event he was miraculously healed and has been in remission ever since.
Gabriel continues his pursuit of music in all its forms: producer, songwriter, vocalist, programmer, saxophones, keyboards, flute, drums, guitar and he arranges vocals and instruments. He has worked in and produced almost every musical style from hip-hop to bluegrass.
Gabriel has performed with Alvin Slaughter, Gary Oliver, Ron Kenoly, Geron Davis, Christ Church Choir, Jentzen Franklin, and Rascal Flatts just to name a few.
Gabe's musical influences include Michael Jackson/Jackson 5, Stevie Wonder, Brian Mcknight, Tower of Power, Grover Washington Jr., Fred Hammond, John Willams and many more.
Gabriel was in the top two (out of 13) for the position of Musical Director of American Idol winner Carrie Underwood's first tour and was interviewed for the Kellie Pickler MD position, again among the top two in consideration.
June 21st 2011 Gabriel Bello released his first album self titled "GABRIEL BELLO" and immediately many Jazz radio stations and fans were excited.
The airplay for his singles "ICE BOX" and "CRAZY" initially grew most rapidly in Europe and Asia and then grew at a fast rate in the United States. Once the fans heard the music, they could not wait to buy the album and began writing to try and get it as a pre order.
His Internet fans have been a big help to Gabriel and continuously encourage him and cheer him on through his social sites. Through this success, Gabriel remains very humble and continues to preach. While doing a show at the House of Blues in Myrtle Beach, SC, Gabriel Impressed the fans and introduced them to a whole new style of Jazz.
Gabriel is looking forward to performing live after being in the studio for so long and is excited about getting the opportunity to meet his fans in person. He is also very thankful to the DJs, Radio Stations and Music Stores that have been supporting him and he will meet as many as he can while on tour to thank them personally.
In addition, The Gospel Album "TIMES OF REFRESHING" with Pastor Adams and the Abounding Life C.O.G.I.C. is also seeing huge success (Gabriel Bello produced, arranged, and played on this Album).
The Jazz Album "GABRIEL BELLO" is available online and at most music stores.
http://www.newreleasesnow.com/song/0621_2011/12/no/Gabriel+Bello/Gabriel+Bello
http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/gabriel-bello/id443630668
http://twitter.com/GabrielBello1
http://www.reverbnation.com/gabrielbello
http://www.facebook.com/GabrielBelloWorldWide
Icebox - Smooth Jazz Cover by Gabriel Bello http://t.co/et5AZ6J
http://youtu.be/BeH25crME_0 Gabriel Bello Video "Beauty" - 24-7 PressRelease.com
By Katya Lezin
Learn more:
Gabriel Bello’s album is available for sale at most retail stores and online, visit www.thegabrielbello.com.
Gabriel Bello, 31, comes by his musical talents naturally.
His father is a professional percussionist, his mother sings professionally, his older brother is a base player, his younger sister is a professional singer, and his two uncles are professional musicians.
Bello grew up wanting to be Michael Jackson, and he now shares a distinction with his childhood idol – topping the Billboard charts. His first album, self-titled Gabriel Bello, was the No. 1 smooth jazz album in the country for 11 weeks last year.
Bello recently returned from New York City, where he was awarded a prize by the SESAC for his chart-topping achievement.
“I dethroned Michael Buble for a few weeks,” Bello says. “That was awesome, even though he sold a heck of a lot more records than I did.”
Another thrill was seeing his name listed alongside “all these great jazz guys I know and respect.”
Bello was raised in DeLand, Fla., by his parents, who were immigrants from the Dominican Republic. He grew up playing the saxophone, his musical instrument of choice, and added the flute at age 10, at his father’s request. He is also proficient on the keyboard, which he uses along with the saxophone to accompany his singing. He writes all of his own music, which he creates “to encourage others to persevere” as he has.
Bello isn’t just drawing from his experience as a struggling artist but also the perseverance that he needed to get through a cancer diagnosis.
He was in his second year at Lee University in Cleveland, Tenn., where he was majoring in music performance, when he was diagnosed with Hodgkins Disease in 2001. He endured five months of chemotherapy and two months of radiation therapy.
While he was recuperating, Bello played a concert with a Christian artist and was given a clean bill of health shortly afterwards.
“I took it as a sign,” Bello says.
He left college to pursue music ministry, which involves directing choirs, leading the church orchestra, and working with the church musicians. He worked at several churches in North Carolina until 2002, when he moved back to Florida because “I was ready to make my own music.”
After a year of learning the ropes of audio engineering, he took another music ministry job with a church in Virginia for one year before moving to Nashville to “work in the industry.”
Bello became proficient in producing, mixing and arranging music, working with other artists as well as writing and recording his own music, but he decided that Nashville was not a good fit for him stylistically.
“I’m not a country artist,” Bellow explains, adding that his style is more “soul-infused R& B with jazz, hip hop and a pop twist.”
Returning to the Charlotte area in 2006, Bello worked on his first album while doing more music ministry. He now lives in the University City area.
“There are no big money deals in jazz,” he says, “so it takes a long time because you have to work a day job and make a record on the side.”
His album debuted at No. 1 on the smooth jazz charts when it was released in June 2011. He is working on his second album, which will be a gospel music album since “most of the music I play these days is in churches.”
Bello is proud of his accomplishment because, as he puts it, “it’s just me and my manager.”
With his first album’s success, he now knows his second will be nationally distributed.
“I am,” he says, “starting to establish myself as an artist.”
Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2012/04/09/3177845/charlotte-jazz-musician-carves.html#storylink=cpy - Charlotte Observer
Discography
New Day - September 2015(Jazz)
God's Not Through - August 2014(Christian)
Miracle - March 2013(Christian/Gospel/Jazz)
Gabriel Bello - June 2011(Jazz #1 Billboard)
You Are My God(feat. Gabriel Bello) - April 2011(Christian/Gospel)
Abishai - April 2005(Christian/Pop)
Photos
Bio
While most choose their paths in life, Gabriel Bello clearly had no choice: he was always meant to be nothing less than a formidable musical force.
Gabriel’s musical journey began in Lawrence, Massachusetts where Gabriel’s Dominican father, a percussionist, helped form his son’s earliest musical memories. Childhood would later find Gabriel discovering his own musicianship when the family moved to DeLand, Florida where Gabriel sang in church choirs and learned a range of instruments including flute, saxophone, and piano. Outside of church, Gabriel maintained a steady diet of his parents’ musical culture coupled with the pop and jazz icons of the day including Michael Jackson, Grover Washington Jr., Stevie Wonder, Toto, Chuck Mangione, and David Sanborn.
These musical guideposts led Gabriel to study music at Lee University in Tennessee, but a cancer diagnosis, subsequent months of treatment, and an eventual miraculous healing after playing a concert with worship artist Ron Kenoly set Gabriel on a new path to full-time music ministry. Extensive work with churches throughout the Southeast allowed Gabriel to hone his instrumental, vocal, and engineering abilities, skills which would serve him well in his new destination: the Nashville Music scene. During his tenure in Nashville, Gabriel played on and produced a number of sessions for Kings Mountain Records including two No. 1 Billboard singles, Crystal Dove’s “Until You Come Back to Me” and Temar Underwood’s “Inside Out.” His Nashville period also found Gabriel performing and collaborating with a range of artists including Alvin Slaughter, Gary Oliver, Ron Kenoly, Geron Davis, Christ Church Choir, Jentzen Franklin, and Rascal Flatts. Just before leaving Nashville to pursue a solo career, Gabriel was a finalist to be musical director for American Idol winner Carrie Underwood’s first tour and was also approached to be Kellie Pickler’s musical director.
The path of the solo artist has seen Gabriel bring his inconceivable level of talent as a vocalist, multi-instrumentalist, composer, producer, and engineer to bear on a 2011 self-titled debut that occupied the No. 1 spot on the Billboard Smooth Jazz Charts for eleven weeks. Additionally, Gabriel’s debut release unseated Michael Buble’ from the No. 1 spot on the Billboard Jazz Charts.
Outside of his solo career, Gabriel’s abilities have made him an in-demand choir and worship leader, earned him a 2012 SESAC Honors Award for album sales and publishing, and found him producing, mixing, mastering, and performing with artists like Pastor James R. Adams and the Abounding Life Church of God in Christ’s on their release “Times of Refreshing” which ranked fourth on the Billboard Gospel Albums Chart. His first Christian/Gospel album & second solo release “Miracle”, named after the miraculous birth of his first child Evangeline Grace, saw him sharing the stage with Israel Houghton, Tye Tribbett, Tasha Cobbs & Kierra “Kiki” Sheard. Gabriel also fronts his Stevie Wonder tribute band, Natural Wonder, which is touring coast to coast and has been featured on National television.
With a wealth of accomplishments and accolades behind him in fields spanning the music industry and a host of genres, Gabriel Bello, a consummate performer, composer, and producer, continues to venture where his talents and faith take him.
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