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Musical Influences:
Steppenwolf, The Beatles, Trini Lopez,
Manfred Mann's Earth Band, David Peel, Freddie Roulette, New Riders of the Purple Sage, Clyde McCoy, Jim Croce, Nirvana,
Grand Funk Railroad, Jimi Hendrix, Alice Cooper, Black Sabbath, Iron Butterfly, and Johnny Winter to name a few.
"Man will always be attached to his past; However far and fast he runs, the chain runs with him."
~ Unknown ~
Jay Russio...
His life has been, for the most part,
influenced by music. In 1963 his father took him to a recording studio on E14th Street in Oakland California. The studio was owned by Bill Whitney, an unknown
country western singer who had penned a few songs some years back. Bill taught Jay how to play the guitar and introduced him to the recording process by cutting his first wax record.
Jay studied music theory & composition with a number of teachers over the years.
The one teacher who was most influential was Mr. Dana Morgan,
a colorful big band clarinet player who toured with Glenn Miller in the 1940's. He was the music director at Palo Alto Military Academy back in 1969 when Jay attended the academy.
There, Jay went on to play the trumpet, cornet, and bugle under his teaching and was a big inspiration to him.
In 1993, Jay and his brother David
created and collaborated together to form the band Balladyre, and was primarily a studio band.
That same year Balladyre Productions was created (to record the music they wrote). In 2001, Jay met up with Freddie Roulette and Michael Borbridge, who with his brother David Russio, became the nucleus
of the band, and with the inclusion of Steve Lund and Michael Hedtke, Balladyre was performing with some of the best
Bay Area Rock n' Blues Legends, including Harvey Mandel, Charlie Musselwhite, Pete Sears, Roy Rogers, and Henry Kaiser just to name a few. Balladyre disbanded in 2003 and what followed was a multitude of musical projects for all of the members of the band.
"I'm just an ordinary player with extrordinary friends..." (Jay Russio)
Pictured are Michael Borbridge, Country Joe McDonald, Michael Hinton,
Jay Russio, Freddie Roulette, Raymond Victor, and Michael Warren.
In 2003, Jays focus was more on production over gigging, and began working on projects with local artists and musicians.
Since then, he has produced a number of CD's (including his own releases), and remains active in the Bay Area music scene working with local producers and recording great Bay Area music.
Past projects have included Country Joe McDonald and the Chet Helms Memorial (2005);
Fox's American Junior Teen Idol Semi-finaist Jenni Lopez (2003); Steve Lund's release of The Rhythm Vultures CD RoadKill Ramada (2006), featuring Freddie Roulette, Raymond Victor, Eugene Huggins, & Andy Mazzilli;
The Lost Legends first demo co-produced with Harvey Mandel (2006), and backstage at The Summer of Love 2007 (Thank you Mike Somavilla, Michael Borbridge, and Freddie Roulette!).
Some of Jays 2008 projects will include Michael Borbridge (featuring Chris Cobb & Michael Warren), and Henry Oden 's newest release with Lady Bianca, Bernard Anderson, and Rick Baskin); The 4rd Annual 2008 ICI Paints BBQ&Blues LIVE event in Oakland and produced by Steve Lund; long-time friend Rob Mugford and his third acoustic project titled "The Hell You Say";
and the long awaited release of Jenni Lopez CD called "I'm Not That Girl ".
For additional music credits, please go here...
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