Roger Powell (musician)
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Roger Powell (born March 14, 1949) is an American musician,
programmer A programmer, computer programmer or coder is an author of computer source code someone with skill in computer programming. The professional titles Software development, ''software developer'' and Software engineering, ''software engineer' ...
, and magazine columnist best known for his membership with the rock band
Utopia A utopia ( ) typically describes an imagined community or society that possesses highly desirable or near-perfect qualities for its members. It was coined by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book ''Utopia (book), Utopia'', which describes a fictiona ...
.


Career


Musician

Powell's musical career started in the late 1960s, programming analog synthesizers for commercials. Powell was the protégé of
Robert Moog Robert Arthur Moog ( ; May 23, 1934 – August 21, 2005) was an American engineer and electronic music pioneer. He was the founder of the synthesizer manufacturer Moog Music and the inventor of the first commercial synthesizer, the Moog synthe ...
(who created the Moog synthesizer), as well as Moog's competitor ARP, contributing designs and demonstrating systems. Powell played keyboards and
synthesizer A synthesizer (also synthesiser or synth) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis a ...
s with the rock band
Utopia A utopia ( ) typically describes an imagined community or society that possesses highly desirable or near-perfect qualities for its members. It was coined by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book ''Utopia (book), Utopia'', which describes a fictiona ...
, led by
Todd Rundgren Todd Harry Rundgren (born June 22, 1948) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer who has performed a diverse range of styles as a solo artist and as a member of the bands Nazz and Utopia. He is known for his sophistica ...
and featuring players Kasim Sulton and
Willie Wilcox John "Willie" Wilcox (born September 21, 1951, in Trenton, New Jersey) is an American drummer, vocalist, producer, recording engineer, sound designer, composer, and senior audio director. He is best known for being a member of the band Utopia (A ...
, among others, from 1974 until its disbanding in 1985, playing, writing, and singing on ten of the band's eleven albums. For Utopia's live shows, Powell created the ''Powell Probe''; the first remote, hand-held
polyphonic Polyphony ( ) is a type of musical texture consisting of two or more simultaneous lines of independent melody, as opposed to a musical texture with just one voice ( monophony) or a texture with one dominant melodic voice accompanied by chords ...
synthesizer controller, which featured a custom-made shell used to access a complex stack of sequencers and other peripherals offstage, a device also used in a modified form by
Jan Hammer Jan Hammer () (born 17 April 1948) is a Czech-American musician, composer, and record producer. He rose to prominence while playing keyboards with the Mahavishnu Orchestra during the early 1970s, as well as with his film scores for television an ...
. His first solo album ''Cosmic Furnace'' was released in 1973. It was praised by ''Billboard'' magazine's reviewer as "...a fascinating, demanding LP that has all the hypnotic eeriness of the recent Miles Davis approach"; ''
Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture publication based in Greenwich Village, New York City, known for being the country's first alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Ma ...
'' critic
Robert Christgau Robert Thomas Christgau ( ; born April 18, 1942) is an American music journalist and essayist. Among the most influential music critics, he began his career in the late 1960s as one of the earliest professional rock critics and later became a ...
called it "the best pop electronicism since
Terry Riley Terrence Mitchell Riley (born June 24, 1935) is an American composer and performing musician best known as a pioneer of the minimalist music, minimalist school of composition. Influenced by jazz and Indian classical music, his work became notab ...
's ''
A Rainbow in Curved Air ''A Rainbow in Curved Air'' is the third album by American composer Terry Riley, released in 1969 on CBS Records. The title track consists of Riley's overdubbed improvisations on several keyboard and percussion instruments. The B-side "Poppy Nog ...
''." Powell produced several additional solo albums, and was a touring musician with
David Bowie David Robert Jones (8 January 194710 January 2016), known as David Bowie ( ), was an English singer, songwriter and actor. Regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Bowie was acclaimed by critics and musicians, pa ...
and others. In October 2006, after a long absence from music recording, he released ''Fossil Poets'' with musicians Gary Tanin and Greg Koch. The music is described as electronic / prog rock '
retro-futuristic Retrofuturism (adjective ''retrofuturistic'' or ''retrofuture'') is a movement in the creative arts showing the influence of depictions of the future produced in an earlier era. If futurism is sometimes called a "science" bent on anticipat ...
'. In March 2009, he released ''Blue Note Ridge'' with producer Gary Tanin. The music is described as solo piano improvisations. He occasionally performs with
Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a region of California surrounding and including San Francisco Bay, and anchored by the cities of Oakland, San Francisco, and San Jose. The Association of Bay Area Governments ...
folk musician and friend David Elias, plus other local, roots musicians. Informal live performances have been hosted and recorded at the San Gregorio General Store. On September 7, 2009, Powell once again shared the stage with Rundgren as part of a re-constituted Utopia, with
Tubes Tube or tubes may refer to: * ''Tube'' (2003 film), a 2003 Korean film * "Tubes" (Peter Dale), performer on the Soccer AM television show * Tube (band), a Japanese rock band * Tube & Berger, the alias of dance/electronica producers Arndt Röri ...
drummer
Prairie Prince Charles Lempriere "Prairie" Prince (born May 7, 1950) is an American drummer and visual artist. He came to prominence in the 1970s as a member of the San Francisco–based rock group The Tubes, was a member of Jefferson Starship from 1992 to ...
replacing Willie Wilcox. The band played an opening set for an album-length concert of Rundgren's '' A Wizard/A True Star''. Powell was able to participate in the short tour after leaving
Apple Computer Apple Inc. is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, in Silicon Valley. It is best known for its consumer electronics, software, and services. Founded in 1976 as Apple Computer Co ...
, where he worked as a programmer, and before starting work at Electronic Arts. In 2011, Powell made brief appearances on an album by Nashville artist Joe 'Guido Welsh' entitled ''Nothing Left To Say''. He played two signature Minimoog solos on the recording which also featured former Utopia members John Siegler and Kevin Ellman.


Programmer

Powell developed one of the first personal computer
MIDI Musical Instrument Digital Interface (; MIDI) is an American-Japanese technical standard that describes a communication protocol, digital interface, and electrical connectors that connect a wide variety of electronic musical instruments, ...
sequencers, ''Texture''. Originally written for the
Apple II Apple II ("apple Roman numerals, two", stylized as Apple ][) is a series of microcomputers manufactured by Apple Computer, Inc. from 1977 to 1993. The Apple II (original), original Apple II model, which gave the series its name, was designed ...
, ''Texture'' allowed the user to manipulate patterns of notes and store them on disk. Soon after the MIDI protocol was introduced, Texture was ported to the IBM PC and the Amiga and utilized the MPU-401, Roland MPU-401 MIDI interface. Its celebrity users included Stevie Wonder and Bob James (musician), Bob James. Much of Powell's computer work pre-dated MIDI. He gave the first performance on an all digital synthesizer while working with Hal Alles, Douglas Bayer, and Gregory Sims at
Bell Laboratories Nokia Bell Labs, commonly referred to as ''Bell Labs'', is an American industrial research and development company owned by Finnish technology company Nokia. With headquarters located in Murray Hill, New Jersey, the company operates several lab ...
. Powell's talents led eventually to positions with WaveFrame (an "audio mainframe" synthesizer used by
Peter Gabriel Peter Brian Gabriel (born 13 February 1950) is an English singer, songwriter, musician, and human rights activist. He came to prominence as the original frontman of the rock band Genesis. He left the band in 1975 and launched a solo career wit ...
),
Silicon Graphics Silicon Graphics, Inc. (stylized as SiliconGraphics before 1999, later rebranded SGI, historically known as Silicon Graphics Computer Systems or SGCS) was an American high-performance computing manufacturer, producing computer hardware and soft ...
and Alias/Wavefront. From 1997 to May 2009, he worked for
Apple Computer Apple Inc. is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, in Silicon Valley. It is best known for its consumer electronics, software, and services. Founded in 1976 as Apple Computer Co ...
as a senior programmer and technical lead for audio within Apple Professional Applications. He currently works at
Electronic Arts Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) is an American video game company headquartered in Redwood City, California. Founded in May 1982 by former Apple Inc., Apple employee Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer game industry ...
as a Senior Producer on emerging music technologies.


Writer

Powell wrote a '' Keyboard'' magazine column on synthesizer technique for a number of years which were included in several books published by Hal Leonard - ''Synthesizer Basics'', ''Synthesizer Technique'' and ''Synthesizers and Computers''


Solo discography

* ''Cosmic Furnace'' (Atlantic, 1973 — CD reissue on Wounded Bird, 2005) * ''Air Pocket'' ( Bearsville, 1980 — CD reissue w/bonus track on Wounded Bird, 2006) * "Connections To The Outside World" Audion/Passport Records 1986 (Unreleased except for a small sampler that contained 4 songs) * ''Fossil Poets'' (Inner Knot, 2006 Digipak CD) * ''Fossil Poets'' (Inner Knot, 2007 Ltd. Ed. clear blue vinyl LP) * ''Blue Note Ridge'' ( Unicorn Digital, Fossil Poet Records, 2009 CD and digital download)


References


External links


Fossil Poets on MySpaceRoger Powell radio interview on Rundgren RadioRoger Powell on Keyboards Special show on Rundgren Radio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Powell, Roger 1949 births Living people 20th-century American keyboardists American computer programmers Apple Inc. employees Silicon Graphics people Unicorn Digital artists Utopia (American band) members 21st-century American keyboardists Bearsville Records artists Musicians from Boston