THE MANHATTAN SESSIONS
New Album: ’The Manhattan Sessions’’ available now!
Credits:
Release Date: 04-14-23
Produced, recorded and mixed by Stephen Duros
All music written and arranged by Stephen Duros
Musicians:
Stephen Duros - Electric & Acoustic guitars, keyboards and bass
Special Guests on select songs:
Lenny Castro - Percussion
Larry Crowe - Drums
Ken Freeman - Bass
Mary Fettig - Horns
Mixed and mastered at Luminescent Labs, Los Angeles, CA. Additional mixing at The Room Studios Melorse, Los Angeles, CA
On this album Stephen played an Ernie Ball Music Man “Luke” Guitar and flamenco guitars by German Vazquez Rubio and Lester DeVoe.
Electric guitar tones: TubeWorks Real Tube II preamp, Neural DSP plugins and Quad Cortex, NI Guitar Rig
Label: Luminescent Records
Publishing: Luminescent Music
Special thanks to the amazing musicians who played on this album
THE MANHATTAN SESSIONS STORY
This album is very personal to me. It’s inspired by all the great memories I’ve had in New York City on tour as a lighting director and musician. I had moved out to LA when I was 19 years old, I didn’t know anyone and didn’t have any skillsets although I did have an extensive musical background. By the time I was 23 I was the lighting director for the band TOTO for next 20 years including the lighting for their ‘TOTO 35th Anniversary Live in Poland’ and ‘TOTO 40 Tours Around the Sun’ live concert films. I also did the cartoon art for Luke’s signature guitar pedal from ToneConcepts. During that time period I was also the lighting director for Olivia Newton-John, the multi grammy award winning ‘Down From the Mountian Tour’ (all the music from the movie O’Brother Where Art Thou?) and grammy nominated artist Ottmar Liebert. I then went on to play in Ottmar’s band for 4 years traveling around the world on tour as a musician. My first time in NYC was Radio City Music Hall as the lighting director for the ‘Down from the Mountain Tour’. Since then I’ve done lights and performed at many of the various clubs, theaters and venues in NYC. Some of the highlights were: visiting the Guggenheim museum with Olivia Newton-John, going to Museum of Modern Art with Ottmar Liebert and playing 6 nights at the Blue Note with Ottmar Liebert + Luna Negra. (for a total of 12 shows, 2 per night).
For this album I wanted to pull from my early musical roots of the albums I loved to listen to as a young kid between the ages of 4 through 8. One of my favorites was this vinyl record we had called ‘Boogie Nights’ from 1978 with the artists ‘Heatwave, Commodores, Atlanta Rhythm Section, Emotions, Chic, Trammps, Donna Summer, Rick James and more.. It was an album I would play over and over. Also loved listening to Bee Gee’s, Herb Alpert, Chuck Mangione, Olivia Newton-John, Barry White’s ‘Loves Theme’, Cheryl Lynn’s ‘Got to Be Real’. "You'll Never Find Another Love Like Mine", which is a song written by Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff, performed by R&B singer Lou Rawlls on his 1976 album “All Things in Time” was another favorite.
The album was also inspired by my favorite keyboard and guitar heros - David Paich and Steve Pocaro, Jeff Beck and Steve Lukather (who gifted me one of his amazing signature Music Man ‘Luke’ guitars in the year 2000 when we were on tour in Central America)
Since touring I’ve stayed home to be a full tie Dad with our 3 kids, I created this album over the past few years working on it after their bedtimes and in little free moments here and there on my MacBook. I wanted to blend all of my NYC memories and musical roots together and what came out was this album. I had a lot of fun creating this. it has some fun upbeat tunes like ‘Heat of the Rhythm’ and ‘Electric Communication’ and it also has some deep cuts with tracks like ‘With You’, ‘Bittersweet’ and ‘Sunrise in the City’. I hope you enjoy the musical journey of the album and thanks for listening!
SD
