Blues Saraceno

Blues Saraceno (born October 17, 1971 in Hartford, Connecticut) is an American rock guitarist, composer, and music producer who currently resides in Los Angeles California. Saraceno was discovered by Guitar for the Practicing Musician magazine, at the age of 16, which assisted him in releasing instrumental recordings on an independent basis. Saraceno's high profile as a gifted guitar virtuoso and musician opened the doors to an early career as a first call guitar sideman and session musician. Saraceno is most often recognized from his time playing with Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker (Cream) as well as his brief tenure with the band Poison. Saraceno's early success in the music industry would eventually blossom into a career in producing and composing for television and film.

Early life and career

Blues Saraceno was born to musician parents, which exposed him from an early age to several musical instruments. He started to play guitar at the age of nine. When he was thirteen, he broke his elbow when he fell from a go-kart and asked the doctor to position the cast in a way that allowed him to remove it from his sling to practice guitar during his recovery. When he was nineteen, Saraceno moved to Los Angeles to seek a career in music.

Career

When Saraceno was still a teenager, his then manager sent a demo tape to singer Michael Bolton, who decided to enlist him to play on a song for Cher's album, Heart of Stone. The album also featured musicians like Peter Cetera, Bonnie Tyler, Desmond Child, and others. After this, his demo tape reached the Guitar for the Practicing Musician magazine. The magazine, which were about to launch a new record label, offered Saraceno a record deal. Saraceno released his first album titled Never Look Back in 1989. After this, Saraceno won an audition with Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker, former members of Cream, and started touring with them. After two successful US tours Saraceno was quickly becoming referred to as the "kid that replaced Eric Clapton". After another year of overseas touring, Baker departed and was replaced by Simon Phillips (Who, Toto) and eventually Gary Husband (Level 42). Saraceno continued to release two other solo albums (Plaid and Hairpick) as well as furthering his reputation as a top call session guitarist and landing many high profile equipment endorsements. .

In 1994, Saraceno joined the band Poison as lead guitarist and songwriter after Richie Kotzen was fired. After a short overseas tour, Saraceno recorded the album Crack a Smile with the band. However, Capitol Records decided to shelve the album releasing the compilation album, Poison's Greatest Hits: 1986-1996, instead. Still, the album featured two of the new songs recorded by Saraceno. After some time, Saraceno left the group amicably and was replaced by the band's original guitarist, C.C. DeVille. In 2000, Capitol finally decided to release the Crack a Smile album under the name Crack a Smile... and More!. The album features fifteen tracks recorded by Saraceno. After his departure from Poison, Saraceno met Vice-President of Advertising of Fox Television, who was a fan of Saraceno's earlier instrumental work. This resulted in Saraceno working on soundtracks and songs for several television shows and films. In 2000, Saraceno also founded the band Transmission OK. Saraceno also worked as record producer for the band, which was signed to Beyond Records, and was distributed by BMG. After a brief US tour, and lackluster support from the label, the group disbanded and Saraceno continued to work on television and film, as well as his session work.

Saraceno's session work has ranged from Ziggy Marley (Dragonfly) to Melissa Ethridge (Lucky) and he has earned a reputation for being a "go-to guy" for many of Los Angeles' top record producers and engineers. Saraceno has also produced for artists such as, Scott Caan (Hawaii Five-0, Oceans 11), Eric Balfour (24, Chainsaw Massacre) of Fredalba, Lindsay Price (Beverly Hills 90210, Lipstick Jungle) and Anthony Michael Hall (Deadzone). Saraceno's greatest success has come in the field of television and film. Blues' television work credits include CBS, NBC, ABC, FOX, Disney, Discovery, UPN, MTV, MTV 2, VH1, USA, TLC, Comedy Central, Telemundo, SCI FI, SPIKE, E! and BRAVO. A more detailed list can be found on his website (www.bluessaraceno.com). He has commented on how it is not uncommon to have multiple commercials running in multiple countries throughout the world, all at the same time and using the same piece of music. Saraceno did a coulple tracks for Megas XLR.

Discography

Solo

•    Never Look Back (1989)

•    Plaid (1992)

•    Hairpick (1994)

•    The Best of Blues Saraceno (2000)

With Cher

•    Heart of Stone (1989)

With Taylor Dayne

•    Can't Fight Fate (1989)

With Kingdom Come

•    Hands of Time (1991)

With Poison

•    Poison's Greatest Hits: 1986-1996 (1996)

•    Crack a Smile... and More! (2000)

With Ziggy Marley

•    Dragonfly (2003)

With Megas XLR

•    Megas XLR OST (2004)

With Melissa Etheridge

•    Lucky (2004)

With Gorgeous George

•    Gorgeous George

With Transmission OK

•    The Sky, The Stars And The Great Beyond... (2000)

With The Infinite Staircase

•    The Road Less Taken (Plays on Opening Song "Happy Fields" and he Mixed the Album) (2009)

Other

•    The Sound Of Nascar by Various Artists (2005) *he contributes 3 songs to the "Nascar Racing" arcade game

Trivia

•    Blues is his real name.

•    At 17 years of age Blues was invited by late guitar legend Les Paul to come and jam at Fat Tuesdays nightclub in New York City.

•    Pantera guitarist Darrell "Dimebag" Abbott had the Plaid album tattoed on his leg.

•    The "Plaid" Converse Chuck Taylor line of sneakers went into production after the product manager from Converse saw a pair of custom made sneakers that was being constructed in their custom shop for Saraceno (to match his main Plaid guitar). Converse extended their gratitude with a very generous amount of sneakers but no royalty.

•    Saraceno's first signature guitar was released by Yamaha. The Yamaha RGZ 820R had a basic Strat shape and featured a green plaid paint job on the front.

•    Saraceno's second signature guitar series was released by Samick. This series offered multiple models, the TV twenty, Radio Ten and the Twango. This series featured a number of different finishes ranging from multi colored burst's (the "creamsicle" series) to various Plaid designs as well as multiple solid colors. The "Twango" series was an electric/acoustic model.

•    The majority of Blues' original Plaid guitars are located on the walls of Various Hard Rock Cafe's throughout the world.

•    Saraceno had a signature set of guitar strings available from the company Dean Markley, which featured his name and photo on the package. This set featured the string gages 10–38 (which were the gages that he played during his formative guitar years). Saraceno is currently known for using Ernie Ball Strings exclusively.

•    Saraceno currently has his own model guitar pickup (PATB3) available from Seymour Duncan Pickups.

•    Blues composed (and performed all of the instruments) the Theme song for USA Network's "Dead Zone" television series (seasons 5 and 6)

•    Blues' version of the Bee Gee's classic "Stayin' Alive" was used for CBS' NCIS Los Angeles Promo which ran during the 4th quarter of the 2010 Super Bowl (topping out at 146 million viewers).

Posted in: Guitarists