Zing-Man Music

Zing-Man Music

Face The Heat . New Recordings 2006 - 2007 . The Brothers Zing . Lou Barbera
Flip|Hippo . Zing-Man Electronique . Event Horizon . Infinigon
Belly Love . The Hip Pocket . Last Impression . Automatic Man . The Purple Connection . Tafari

Welcome to the Zing-Man Music page. I play saxophone, paino, synthesizers and other instruments, and have been in many bands and musical projects over the years, doing live performances and studio recordings. Here you can hear some of the music I have composed, performed, and/or produced, and learn about the bands.

Face The Heat
2007-2008.
My new album is slowly taking shape. The working title is Face The Heat (or maybe I'll call it Unknown Album to mess with people who use iTunes). I have five songs recorded now, which is a bit more than an album side. I have several more written and ready to record now that the first batch is mainly mixed down. Here are my rough mixes so far, and a bit about each song. Watch this space for new songs new mixes and general news and info as the project progresses. ( ... )

Audio Tracks: Heat Wave . Angel or Alien . The Nine . Fine Red Wine . Who Can Fool Me?

New Recordings, 2006 - 2007
2006-2007.
I am working towards a follow-up to Buzzy Tonic, but it is early in the process and still taking shape. Maybe it will be a solo project, or another collaboration with my brother, or it might involve other musicians. I'm developing new material but that takes a while. So for now I am working on a series of covers to investigate specific issues with the recording process. Maybe they'll end up as bonus tracks or an EP someday.

The first of these is Martha My Dear, a Beatles song off the White Album. It's a quirky Paul song, very studio-ish in style, with a brass and string orchestra accompanying basically a piano arrangement. I wanted to see if I could map the orchestra to sounds in my own sonic palette, and I re-interpreted it as a bit more electric and synth-y. I was also interested in capturing that "natural chorus" multitrack vocal sound that the Beatles used to such great effect.

As a companion, a B-side if you will, I did a version of Letter From Home by Pat Metheny. I picked this song for a few reasons. Like Martha it's pretty short, about 2 and a half minutes, but that's about there the similarity ends. It's an jazz ballad, beautiful, yearning, ethereal, melancholy. I used to play a few Metheny tunes back in the day with Event Horizon, so this is also a bit of a nod to that. On a technical level, I wanted to see how proTools handled a tune that was completely rubato, and with meter changes, with it's automatic beat tracking tools. It turned out to work OK, but a fair amount of manual assist was required. Now that I have the gist of it, the next one will go quicker.

Audio Tracks: Martha My Dear . Letter From Home

The Brothers Zing
2004-2006.
Buzzy Tonic is the new record album by the group The Brothers Zing, which consists of myself and my brother Martin. We are happy to announce that the record is completed, sounds great, and is now on sale at CD Baby. The tracks presented here are teasers, trimmed to let you hear the first minute or two. This set of music represents a milestone technically as well as artistically. ( ... )

Audio Tracks: Checker Cab . Give Yourself Away . Get On Back 2 U . Ghost In The Machine . It's Gonna Be a Beautiful Day . Wake Up Yourself . The Beat Is Red . The Long Now

Lou Barbera - He's My Bear
2003
After a rather extended hiatus from recording projects, I recently participated as a guest artist on the new album He's My Bear by songwriter and performer Lou Barbera. Lou's recording debut is children's album that is both very funny and very sweet. ( ... )

Flip Hippo
1995-1996, New York City.
Experimental jazz/electronic duo with partner Erik Blicker. We integrated computer-driven interactive arrangements and animated trippygraphics with live improvised playing. I played saxophone and electronic wind instrument, contributed original musical material, and created software and animationfor interactive live performance. Erik played guitar and contributed to all aspects of the project.

Audio Tracks: Niner . Stuck in the Mud . Checker Cab . Mongus

ZingMan Electronique
1993-1996, New York City.
A varied collection of tracks, many for commercial productions for film, television, video game, and CD-ROM projects, and some purely artistic explorations in time when music making technology was changing qutie rapidly. I wrote, produced, tracked, mixed, and mastered all of the material here, and played nearly all of the instruments. ( ... )

Audio Tracks: Layers . Seven Is Magic . Silly Little Ditty . Foam Finger Dance . Orange Grass Stomp . Monkey Funk . Mongus (Demo) . Niner (Demo) . Futbol Anthem A . Drivin' / UnderWaterMusic

Event Horizon
1988-1993, Buffalo, NY.
Jazz group with prog rock influences. We played mainly original material, ranging from superheavy to dancyfunky bootyshaking to mellow trippy ethereal. I wrote the majority of the group's music, played tenor and alto saxophone, electronic wind instrument, and keyboards, and co-produced our studio recordings. Chris Sierzchula on piano and synthesizers, Keith Martini on guitar, Mark Colecchia on drums, and variously James Knight or Jim Wynne on bass. This group was together for over five years, and in that time we grew alot as musicians; it remains some of my favorite music that I've made. We recorded two albums: Event Horizon in 1989 and Son of the Sun in 1993. ( ... )

Audio Tracks: Hydrogen Wrench . Solstice . Caution (Handle With Care) . Seventh Sea . (I Miss My) Baby in Bb . Son of the Sun. . Shirley's Basement . King Bud . Free Jam

Infinigon
1986-1988, Buffalo, NY.
Progressive rock party band from the Eighties. Rich Adlin lead guitar, Mark Colecchia drums, John Neumann bass and vocals Stevie "Tumbleweed" Mineo lead vocals and acoustic guitar; I played keyboards, saxophone and vocals. ( ... )

Belly Love
1998-1999, San Fransisco, CA.
Funky rock band that played bars and clubs in the Bay Area in the late 90's. Fred "Slick" lead vocals, Paul "Sticks" on guitar, Jay Davis keyboards and vocals, Blake E. bass, Brian Volpi drums; I played tenor and soprano sax, fender rhodes, and some vocals.

Audio Tracks: Movie Star

The Hip Pocket
1997-1998, San Fransisco, CA.
A high-energy funk/soul band featuring a horn section, multiple singers, and a killer rhythm section. We played mainly original material, all very danceable and groovy. Let's see if I can remember all of the musicians: Big Mike Brown vocals and rap, Katie P., vocals, Anthony Price lead guitar, Will Lynch keyboards, Dimitri Ishenko bass, J.D. drums, Dave alto sax and flute, Josh on trumpet. I played tenor and soprano sax, and contributed some horn arrangements.

Last Impression
1992, Buffalo, NY.
A modern jazz group that played mainly originals with a straight-ahead vibe. Greg Schmidt on piano and fender rhodes, Jake Smith on trumpet, myself on tenor sax, Jay Bania on bass, Brian Seibel on drums and percussion. Greg and Jake wrote the majority of the material. We cut a record, Primal Overdrive in the summer of 1992.

The Automatic Man
1990-1992, Buffalo, NY.
Rock/jazz group that played every Monday night at Broadway Joe's for a spell. We covered a broad range of material, and usually ended our set with an instrumental version of the second side of Abbey Road. Pat O'Connell on drums, Jim Wynne on bass, and variously Pete DiNunzio and Mark, and Maria sat in on guitar. I played sax.

The Purple Connection
1992 Buffalo, NY.
Party tunes and crowd-pleasers, smooth jazz, soft rock, every Sunday afternoon at the Inn on the River. A small, tight group of musicians who rarely rehearsed but were always up to new material. Craig Hendeges on guitar and occasional vocals, Jim Wynne on bass, Pat O'Connell on drums; I played sax.

Tafari
1991, Buffalo, NY.
Ska/reggae band with a summer party vibe, a horn section, and two of almost every other instrument. Our set consisted of about half originals, rounded out with covers of Bob Marley, Steely Dan, and a handful of others. We recorded an EP, Wiser Than a Forest of Owls, but I don't have a copy of it.

Let's see if I can remember everyone in the band: Jim Perry sang lead vocals, played percussion and wrote most of the originals. Bill Ross guitar and vocals, Mark Hofschneider sat in on guitar sometimes. Matt Cline played keyboards, and Chris Sierzchula sometimes played keyboards too. Mark Colecchia drums and Joe Quabrel bass. The horn section consisted of myself, Dan Jablon on trumpet, Chris on trombone, and sometimes my brother Martin sitting in on tenor sax. I played alto sax, clarinet, and electronic wind instrument.

Musical compositions and audio recordings on this page Š1988-2005 John Szinger, or used by permission of their respective copyright holders. Published by Zing-Man Music, all rights reserved. Reproduction and distribution for commercial purposes is prohibited.

home || origami | music | m'media | movies | art | spew | links ||