Jerald Daemyon
Jerald Daemyon is an American electric violinist born in Detroit, Michigan. Daemyon is known for bringing technical refinement to violin improvisation with a technical artistry fused with improvisatory expressions reminiscent of famed concert violinists Ole Bull, Pablo de Sarasate and Henryk Wieniawski. With a broad tone and ostentatious technique he plays the electric violin with a bold masculine bravado and exquisite gracefulness that is sympathetic to the articulate nature of the violin. Daemyon rose to fame in 1995 with his debut album, Thinking About You.[1]
The big-sounding Thinking About You was released independently on Jerald’s own label Jazzestra Records, before making its way around the urban radio market in the United States and world, where his urban-contemporary R&B sound was an instant airplay request and commercial sales success under the GRP/Universal Records label achieving national recognition as a chart topping smash on Billboard’s Magazine’s Urban and Contemporary Jazz Charts earning Best Contemporary Jazz Album, 1997.
A cut from that album, Summer Madness, a remake of the Kool and the Gang classic, received extensive radio airplay in 1997.
In 1995, Daemyon signed to the jazz company GRP Records, which was the first company to release all of his titles on compact discs. He also had a CD release in 2001 entitled, The Jerald Daemyon Group. Historically no modern improvising violinists has succeeded more completely in captivating audiences across multiple genres of music than Jerald Daemyon.
Career
Jerald began studying the violin in the fourth grade in the Detroit Public Schools at Brady Elementary under the guidance of Connie Miner and was soon spending his weekends in a music program at Wayne State University under the instruction of violinist Angela Thomas-Lott. At thirteen, he started his professional career in a be-bop jazz setting with Detroit Saxophonist, Donald Walden and the Detroit Jazz Orchestra, and later formed his own ensemble.
While listening to everything from the R&B of Prince, Patti Labelle and the jazz of Duke Ellington, Daemyon complemented his formal training studying with Dr. Morris Hochberg of Royal Oak, Michigan, Assistant Concertmaster of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. He also studied under renowned Czechoslovakian concert violinist Peter Michalica and took master classes with the legendary international concert violinist Isaac Stern, and attended the famed International Music Camp at the Interlochen School of Performing Arts and The Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp. He is a graduate of Cass Technical High School and has studied Jazz Studies at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Mathematics, Chemistry, Secondary Education and Music Composition at Marygrove College, Detroit, MI and has developed general academic, computer science and music curriculums for secondary and collegiate institutions.
Jerald has appeared with Bill Cosby, Gladys Knight, Bernie Mac, Brian McKnight, K’Jon, Angela Winbush, Rachelle Farrell, legendary jazz vocalists Joe Williams, Nancy Wilson, Cherelle, Roy Ayers, Vesta Williams, Maysa, Silk, Amel Larrieux, Yolanda Adams, Ronny Laws, Lenny Williams, Carl Thomas, Jon B, Dee-Dee Sharp, The United States Air Force Symphony Orchestra and various other symphony orchestras across the country and has been a guest performer numerous times on the nationally syndicated radio program “The Tom Joyner Morning Show”.
He is a recognized member of the National Academy of Recording Artists & Sciences (The Grammy Awards), has received the 3M Award of Artistic Innovation, The Spirit of Detroit Award and at sixteen received an award from the State of Michigan for outstanding achievement, and numerous honors for his work with children and community service across the country.
References
- ↑ Widran, Jonathan. "Thinking About You: Review". Allmusic. Retrieved 2010-12-30.
External links
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