Stratospheerius are an American

progressive rock Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog) is a broad genre of rock music that primarily developed in the United Kingdom through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early-to-mid-1970s. Initially termed " progressive pop", the ...

band based in New York City. They are led by electric violinist Joe Deninzon, who also plays the

mandolin A mandolin (, ; literally "small mandola") is a Chordophone, stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally Plucked string instrument, plucked with a plectrum, pick. It most commonly has four Course (music), courses of doubled St ...

and serves as the band's

lead vocalist The lead vocalist in popular music is typically the member of a group or band whose voice is the most prominent melody in a performance where multiple voices may be heard. The lead singer sets their voice against the accompaniment parts of t ...

History

Deninzon was born in St. Petersburg, Russia but grew up in Cleveland, Ohio and studied classical and

jazz violin Jazz violin is the use of the violin or electric violin to improvise solo lines. Early jazz violinists included: Eddie South, who played violin with Jimmy Wade's Dixielanders in Chicago; Stuff Smith; and Claude "Fiddler" Williams. Joe Venuti ...

Indiana University Indiana University (IU) is a state university system, system of Public university, public universities in the U.S. state of Indiana. The system has two core campuses, five regional campuses, and two regional centers under the administration o ...

. Before relocating to the New York City area in 1998, he recorded

jazz fusion Jazz fusion (also known as jazz rock, jazz-rock fusion, or simply fusion) is a popular music genre that developed in the late 1960s when musicians combined jazz harmony and improvisation with rock music, funk, and rhythm and blues. Electric gui ...

CD '' Electric/Blue'', playing primarily on a 6-string Jensen

electric violin An electric violin is a violin equipped with an electronic output of its sound. The term most properly refers to an instrument intentionally made to be electrified with built-in pickups, usually with a solid body. It can also refer to a violin fi ...

. While

freelancing ''Freelance'' (sometimes spelled ''free-lance'' or ''free lance''), ''freelancer'', or ''freelance worker'', are terms commonly used for a person who is self-employed and not necessarily committed to a particular employer long-term. Freelance w ...

in the New York City area, Deninzon was also studying at the

Manhattan School of Music The Manhattan School of Music (MSM) is a private music conservatory A music school is an educational institution specialized in the study, training, and research of music. Such an institution can also be known as a school of music, music a ...

and teaching at the

New School The New School is a private research university in New York City. It was founded in 1919 as The New School for Social Research with an original mission dedicated to academic freedom and intellectual inquiry and a home for progressive thinkers ...

. While at the New School, he met and began collaborating with guitarist

Alex Skolnick Alex Skolnick (born September 29, 1968) is an American musician. He is best known as the lead guitarist and one of the songwriters of the thrash metal band Testament and has played with several other bands, including The Alex Skolnick Trio, Tran ...

, who was studying

jazz guitar Jazz guitar may refer to either a type of electric guitar or a guitar playing style in jazz, using Guitar amplifier, electric amplification to increase the volume of acoustic guitars. In the early 1930s, jazz musicians sought to amplify their ...

there at the time. Their band eventually became known as Stratospheerius, and they toured, recorded and released '' The Adventures of Stratospheerius'' album in 2001–2002. The band consisted of Deninzon on violin, Skolnick on guitar, Rufus Philpot on bass, Scott Chasolen on keyboards, Grisha Alexiev on drums with DJ Big Wiz on the turntables. The 12-track album consisted mostly of originals written by Deninzon as well as covers of

Vince Guaraldi Vincent Anthony Guaraldi (; birth name, né Dellaglio, July 17, 1928 – February 6, 1976) was an American jazz pianist best known for composing music for animated television adaptations of the ''Peanuts'' comic strip. His compositions for this s ...

Stevie Wonder Stevland Hardaway Morris (; Judkins; born May 13, 1950), known professionally as Stevie Wonder, is an American and Ghanaian singer-songwriter, musician, and record producer. He is regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the 20th c ...

, and

Wayne Shorter Wayne Shorter (August 25, 1933 – March 2, 2023) was an American jazz saxophonist, composer and bandleader. Shorter came to mainstream prominence in 1959 upon joining Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers, for whom he eventually became the primary comp ...

. The band’s live shows became known for their extended jams,

musical improvisation Musical improvisation (also known as musical extemporization) is the creative activity of immediate ("in the moment") musical composition, which combines performance with communication of Emotion, emotions and Musical technique, instrumental techn ...

and their violin/guitar interplay, often invoking comparisons to bands like

Dave Matthews Band Dave Matthews Band (also known as DMB) is an American rock band from Charlottesville, Virginia. The band's lineup consists of Dave Matthews (lead vocals, guitar), Stefan Lessard (bass), Carter Beauford (drums), Tim Reynolds (lead guitar), R ...

and

Bela Fleck Bela may refer to: Places Asia *Bela Pratapgarh, a town in Pratapgarh District, Uttar Pradesh, India *Bela, a small village near Bhandara, Maharashtra, India *Bela, another name for the biblical city Zoara * Bela, Dang, in Nepal * Bela, Janakpur ...

. On the strength and popularity of their live shows, the band released a

live album An album is a collection of audio recordings (e.g., music) issued on a medium such as compact disc (CD), vinyl (record), audio tape (like 8-track or cassette), or digital. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early 20th centur ...

, ''Live Wires'', in 2004. That same year they also won an Independent Music Award for Best Jam Song for their song "What's That Thing". By this point the band’s personnel had started evolving. The band jettisoned keyboards and turntables from their sound, with Jake Ezra taking over for Skolnick on guitar and Ron Baron joining on bass. Drummer Lucianna Padmore was brought into the group by Skolnick and Baron, who knew her as a student at the New School, where she was studying jazz. ''Live Wires'' included many of the songs from their first album as well as Deninzon’s debut, ''Electric/Blue'', and featured their current lineup plus two songs that included Skolnick. The personnel changed once again with bassist Bob Bowen and guitarist Mack Price joining Deninzon and Padmore, with Deninzon switching to a 7-string electric violin built by Mark Wood. This lineup released a live DVD '' Fiddle Trip Funk Live!'' in 2006 and a studio album, ''Headspace'', in 2007. Headspace saw a bit of a direction change for the band, as the funk and jazz styles were combined with more melodic and progressive rock. The band took a break as Deninzon and Bowen teamed up with guitarist Steve Benson as the Joe Deninzon Trio to record the acoustic jazz album '' Exuberance'', released in 2010. In 2011 Deninzon joined the faculty of the Mark Wood Rock Orchestra Camp. Following Price’s departure and Bowen’s death, Deninzon and Padmore brought French guitarist Aurelien Budynek and bassist Jamie Bishop

Francis Dunnery Francis Dunnery (born 25 December 1962) is an English musician, singer-songwriter, record producer and record label owner. Dunnery was the lead singer and guitarist for British prog- pop band It Bites between 1982 and 1990. Since 1990 he has ...

The Syn The Syn are an England, English band that were active from 1965 to 1967, and then reunited as a progressive rock band in 2004. The band was founded by Steve Nardelli, Chris Squire, Andrew Pryce Jackman, Martyn Adelman and John Painter. Chris We ...

into the fold. This lineup recorded the band's next album, ''

The Next World… ''The'' is a grammatical article in English, denoting nouns that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The ...

'', released in May 2012. Stratospheerius held a concert in New York City to celebrate its release, with original guitarist Alex Skolnick reuniting with Deninzon and Padmore as he played guitar with the band as a special guest during the show. Following a successful

Kickstarter Kickstarter, PBC is an American Benefit corporation, public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York City, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative project ...

campaign, the band filmed a

music video A music video is a video that integrates a song or an album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing device intended to ...

at Bethlehem Steelstax for a song, "One Foot In The Next World," from their album ''The Next World''. In February 2017, it was revealed that former Stratospheerius guitarist

and

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...

keyboardist Rave Tesar will be guests on a new Stratospheerius album ''Guilty of Innocence'', released in the fall of 2017. On June 16, 2017, Joe Deninzon & Stratospheerius signed with Melodic Revolution Records for the upcoming release, ''Guilty of Innocence''. On August 4 that year, the band released the first single, "Hysteria", from the forthcoming album. ''Guilty of Innocence'' was released worldwide on September 29, 2017. The album hit number four on the

Relix ''Relix'', originally and occasionally later ''Dead Relix'', is a magazine that focuses on live and improvisational music. The magazine was launched in 1974 as a handmade newsletter devoted to connecting people who recorded Grateful Dead concer ...

/Jamband radio charts, and 72 on the European Indy Charts. After creating the SonicVoyageFest tour, Stratospheerius performed in Chicago's Progtoberfest in 2017, and twice at ProgStock in 2019 and 2020. In 2020, the group released three singles to be included on their next album: the title track "Impostor", a cover of King Crimson's "Frame by Frame", and "Storm Surge," which features Denizon's wife Yulia Ziskel on classical violin, Ruti Celli on cello, Rachel Flowers on flute and piano,

Fernando Perdomo Fernando Jose Perdomo (born August 17, 1980) is an American musician and producer. He is asession bassist and guitarist. He is best known as one of the guitarists in the movie '' Echo in the Canyon'', where he backed up Jakob Dylan, Fiona Apple ...

on guitar, and

Saga Sagas are prose stories and histories, composed in Iceland and to a lesser extent elsewhere in Scandinavia. The most famous saga-genre is the (sagas concerning Icelanders), which feature Viking voyages, migration to Iceland, and feuds between ...

's Michael Sadler singing lead. Joe sings harmony and plays both violin and the viper on the song, which Sonic Perspectives states is "a song for our times." Randy McStine joined in the 2021 recording of their song "Cognitive Dissonance," with a clay-mation music video. In 2023, the group released its first live box set, ''Behind the Curtain (Live at ProgStock)'', featuring live performances of the band with drummer Jason Gianni, bassist Paul Ranieri, guitarist Michelangelo Quirinale. The group planned one live concert in conjunction with the box set's release as Deninzon began performing double duties, playing violins and guitar as a member of classic rock group

Kansas Kansas ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the west. Kansas is named a ...

for its 50th anniversary.

Discography

*1998 - ''Electric/Blue'' (Wilbert's Blues Records) *2002 - ''The Adventures of Stratospheerius'' (D-Zone) *2004 - ''Live Wires'' (D-Zone) *2007 - ''Headspace'' (D-Zone) *2012 - ''The Next World'' (D-Zone/Digital Nations) *2014 - "Behind The Curtain" (single, D-Zone) *2015 - "Guilty of Innocence" (single, D-Zone) *2017 - "Hysteria" (single, Melodic Revolution Records) *2017 - ''Guilty of Innocence'' ( Melodic Revolution Records) *2019 - "Impostor" (single, Melodic Revolution Records) *2020 - "Frame by Frame" (single, Melodic Revolution Records) *2020 - "Storm Surge" (single, Melodic Revolution Records) *2021 - "Cognitive Dissonance" (single, Melodic Revolution Records) *2023 - "Behind the Curtain...Live At ProgStock" (album, Melodic Revolution Records) *2024 - "Impostor!" (album, 7d Media)

References

External links

Joe Deninzon WebsiteStratospheerius WebsiteStratospheerius
on

Spotify Spotify (; ) is a List of companies of Sweden, Swedish Music streaming service, audio streaming and media service provider founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. , it is one of the largest providers of music streaming services ...

Joe Deninzon
on

Patreon Patreon (, ) is a monetization platform operated by Patreon, Inc., that provides business tools for content creators to run a subscription service and sell digital products. It helps artists and other creators earn a recurring income by provid ...

Stratospheerius MySpace Page
{{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121001172259/http://www.mlive.com/music/index.ssf/2008/04/ad_lib_46.html , date=October 1, 2012 American funk musical groups Jam bands Musical groups from New York City