Carlos Alomar

born on 7/5/1951 in Ponce, Puerto Rico

Carlos Alomar

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Carlos Alomar

Carlos Alomar (born on 7 May 1951 in Ponce, Puerto Rico[1]) is a Puerto Rican guitarist, composer and arranger best known for his work with David Bowie, having played on more Bowie albums than any other musician other than Mike Garson. He has also performed with Duran Duran and with Duran Duran's side project, Arcadia on the album, So Red the Rose.

History

The son of a Pentecostal minister, Alomar was raised in New York. From the age of ten he taught himself to play the guitar, and started playing professionally at age sixteen. In the 1960s he performed during "Amateur Hour" at the Apollo Theater, eventually joining the house band, backing Chuck Berry and many leading soul artists. Circa 1968-9 he toured for eight months in James Brown's live band, eventually quitting after being docked wages for missing a musical cue. In 1969 Alomar formed a group called Listen My Brother with vocalists Luther Vandross, Fonzi Thornton (later to work with Chic and Roxy Music), and Robin Clark. Alomar and Clark later wed and had a daughter named Lea.[2]

Alomar subsequently played as a session musician for RCA Recording Studios, and others including Ben E. King ("Supernatural Thing", 1975) and Joe Simon ("Drowning in the Sea of Love"). He also met drummer Dennis Davis while they were both playing with jazz artist Roy Ayers. Alomar then toured with the band The Main Ingredient.

Collaboration with David Bowie

Alomar met David Bowie in early 1974, during sessions for Lulus recording of the Bowie-penned song "Can You Hear Me?". Bowie was keen for Alomar to join his band for the Diamond Dogs tour, but negotiations with Bowie's management stalled and Alomar stayed with The Main Ingredient. During a six-week break from his tour in mid-1974, Bowie recorded a series of songs for a new album in Sigma Sound Studios with Alomar, who brought in Vandross, Clark, Davis, and bassist Emir Kassan to contribute to the recordings as well. Most of the material for the Young Americans album was recorded during these sessions, and Alomar joined Bowie for the second leg of the Diamond Dogs tour (dubbed "The Philly Dogs Tour") in SeptemberDecember 1974. In January 1975, Bowie and John Lennon recorded "Across the Universe" at Electric Lady Studios and from this session resulted the impromptu song "Fame"—which evolved from the guitar riff Alomar had originated for the song "Footstompin'" during the Philly Dogs shows. With writing credit divided between Bowie, Alomar and Lennon (and funky guitar riffs later copied for James Brown's 1975 recording "Hot (I Need to be Loved)"), "Fame" gave Bowie his first US#1 single, and its parent album Young Americans (1975) marked Carlos Alomar's first appearance on a David Bowie album.[3] This began a long period of collaboration in which Alomar led the rhythm section of Alomar/Dennis Davis/George Murray that would underpin Bowie's recordings for the next half-decade, behind a variety of lead guitarists, including Earl Slick, Stacey Heydon, Ricky Gardiner, Robert Fripp, and Adrian Belew.[4]

Alomar played on Bowie's next album, Station to Station (1976), designing the classic riffs which opened the songs "Golden Years" and "Stay", and touring with Bowie for the Station To Station tour of 1976. This was Alomars first Bowie tour as musical director; around this time, Alomar, Bowie, and Iggy Pop wrote the song "Sister Midnight"; originally performed by Bowie during the 1976 tour, it was later recorded by Bowie and Iggy as the opening track on Iggys album The Idiot (1977) before being re-written by Bowie as "Red Money" for his album Lodger (1979). Alomar played on Bowies groundbreaking "Berlin Trilogy" of albums—Low (1977), "Heroes" (1977) and Lodger; he also co-wrote the Heroes track "The Secret Life of Arabia" and the Lodger track "DJ" with Bowie and Brian Eno. Of note is the Lodger single "Boys Keep Swinging", on which Alomar swapped instruments with Dennis Davis and played drums. Alomar played guitar on Iggy Pop's two Bowie-produced albums of 1977, The Idiot and Lust For Life,[3] and in 1978, he joined Bowie for the world tour which resulted in the live album Stage.

Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) (1980) marked the last time Alomar would play alongside George Murray and Dennis Davis on a Bowie album; a planned Scary Monsters tour was aborted and Alomar instead joined Iggy Pop's band for a series of shows in OctoberDecember 1981 (the show from San Francisco on 25 November has been released on VHS and DVD). Alomar did not play on Bowies album Let's Dance (1983) the role of rhythm guitarist was undertaken by that albums co-producer, Nile Rodgers but he re-joined Bowie as rhythm guitarist and musical director for the mammoth Serious Moonlight world tour in 1983. In 1984, Alomar played on Bowies album Tonight; he also co-wrote the albums closing track, "Dancing With the Big Boys", with Bowie and Iggy Pop. In 1987, Alomar played on Bowies album Never Let Me Down; the albums title track released as a single and credited to Bowie/Alomar was originally an Alomar composition entitled "Im Tired," before it was re-written by Bowie. Alomar was the musical director/rhythm guitarist for Bowies infamous and highly theatrical Glass Spider Tour in 1987 (beginning every show with a frenzied guitar solo), but Bowie ended his long-running creative association with Alomar after the critical panning of Never Let Me Down and the Glass Spider tour. The two men would not record together again until JanuaryFebruary 1995, during sessions in New York for Bowies album Outside (1995). In the meantime, Alomar recorded and released his first solo album, Dream Generator, in 1988.

Alomar toured with Bowies band for the first leg of the Outside Tour (September 1995-February 1996). The tour was not a pleasant experience for Alomar, who found Bowie inaccessible and didnt get along with musical director Peter Schwartz, and he did not re-join Bowie when the tour resumed in September 1996. However, Alomar later played guitar on the Bowie tracks "Everyone Says 'Hi'" (from the album Heathen in 2002) and "Fly" (a bonus track on the limited edition version of the album Reality in 2003).

Collaboration with artists apart from Bowie

Alomar has performed with a number of other famous musicians including Paul McCartney, Simple Minds, Mick Jagger,[3] Iggy Pop, The Pretenders for their album Get Close in 1986, and Argentine rock band Soda Stereo. In all, Alomar has played on a total of 32 gold and platinum albums. He is currently the director of Boombacker Records. He was the bandleader on the short-lived TV chat show, The Caroline Rhea Show (2002-2003) and is also the president of the New York chapter of The Recording Academy,[5] the organization responsible for the Grammy Awards. In 2005, Alomar joined the teaching staff of Stevens Institute of Technology (Hoboken, New Jersey) as an adjunct professor of Music & Technology, producing several tracks for the inaugural release of the school's Castle Point Records label's Delusions of Grandeur (2006). In 2010 Carlos Alomar was made their first "Distinguished Artist in Residence" and in 2011 he was awarded an honorary Bachelors of Arts.[4]

Alomar collaborated with Scissor Sisters for their second album Ta-Dah, and one track from these recording sessions, "Transistor", which ultimately featured on the second disc of the deluxe edition of the album, featured his wife Robin and daughter Lea on backing vocals. In October 2008, he performed with Richard Barone at Carnegie Hall, as a special guest in Barone's theatrical concert, "FRONTMAN: A Musical Reading". In 2010 Alomar performed as guitarist on Alicia Keys album "The Element of Freedom".

Alomar resides in North Bergen, New Jersey.[6]

Selected discography

David Bowie

  • Young Americans (1975)
  • Station to Station (1976)
  • Low (1977)
  • Heroes (1977)
  • Stage (1978)
  • Lodger (1979)
  • Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) (1980)
  • Tonight (1984)
  • Never Let Me Down (1987)
  • Outside (1995)
  • Heathen (2002)
  • Reality (2003)

Iggy Pop

  • The Idiot (1977)
  • Lust for Life (1977)

Arcadia

  • So Red the Rose (1985)

Mick Jagger

  • She's the Boss (1985)

Paul McCartney

  • Press to Play (1986)

Casiopea

  • Sun,Sun (1986)

Soda Stereo

  • Doble Vida (as producer, guest guitar and rapper) (1988)

FUN

  • PAX (as guitar) (1996)
  • CHAOS (as guitar) (1997)

ANGIESCREAMS

  • The Revelation of Arthur Lynn (as producer) (2010)

Solo albums

  • Dream Generator (1987)

Videos

  • David Bowie: Serious Moonlight
  • David Bowie: Glass Spider
  • Iggy Pop: Live San Fran 1981
  • Soda Stereo: Gira Me Veras Volver

Equipment

Effects:

  • Mu-tron Bi-Phase
  • Space echo
  • Alembic Guitar (Maverick)

References

  1. Carlos Alomar. NNDB. 2011 Soylent Communications. 2011. Retrieved 13 October 2011.
  2. Carlos Alomar. 2011. Retrieved 13 October 2011.
  3. 3.0 3.1 3.2 {{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}
  4. 4.0 4.1 Carlos Alomar. Stevens Institute of Technology. College of Arts and Letters. Institute of Music & technology. 2011. Retrieved 13 October 2011.
  5. GRAMMY.com
  6. Making beautiful music in the 'Shades' Harariville studio brings legends to Weehawken. Jim Hague. Hudson Reporter. Hudson County, New Jersey. 7 August 2007. Retrieved 13 October 2011.

External links

  • Carlos Alomar biography at VH-1
  • Carlos Alomar biography at NNDB
  • Carlos Alomar Q&A

This page was last modified 19.05.2014 01:59:08

This article uses material from the article Carlos Alomar from the free encyclopedia Wikipedia and it is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.