08/27/10

Crash Dance

     
     
  Specializing in Dance Music
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Guillermo "Bill" Yslas: Percussionist

Guillermo has been performing throughout California with a variety of groups and playing all styles of music since 1996. His experience includes performances at local and high profile clubs, television production numbers, full showcase productions, pop and jazz concerts, and studio recordings for numerous artists. 

A Mexican-American native to California, Guillermo comes from a very musical family. He is one of four brothers who are in the music business.

Guillermo has many credits to his name. In just a short seven years his passion for life and music has been demonstrated through countless performances including: The Warner Brothers International Producers Gala (performed with Gregg De Castro, Westwind Productions, and opened for Chaka Khan), House of Blues, Los Angeles (performed with Chuck Rio & the Champs and opened for Tito Puente), Azusa Jazz Festival (performed with The Lou Cabot Band and opened for Poncho Sanchez), Los Angeles Latin Festival and Santa Barbara Latin Festival (performed with Latin American Recording Artist Alvaro Torres), Huntington Beach Summer Jazz Festival (performed with Jazz Recording Artist Mike Gealer), Los Angeles Lakers 2003 Playoff Series (Game Four) Half-Time Show (on behalf of Westwind Productions), ABC Sports Lakers Pre-Game Show (Game Four), (on behalf of Westwind Productions), KTLA Channel Five Morning Show Annual Catalina Island Luau Promotion (on behalf of Westwind Productions), The Call to Arts Festival, Northridge, CA (performed with Gregg De Castro), The Key Club, Hollywood Ca. (opened for C & K, performed with The Gregg De Castro Band.) The Baked Potato, Pasadena, CA CD Release Party (performed with ENSCENAS on its debut CD, “With Hands With Soul,” MCA Records, DMX Music.

Guillermo is currently in the studio with renowned recording artist, songwriter, musical director and arranger, Gregg De Castro. You can also hear him perform pop, R&B, Motown, and disco in various Los Angeles and Orange County dance clubs with the popular dance band Crash Dance. If jazz is what you’re looking for, then you can catch him performing with sax player Bob Grieves and Nightbreeze in local jazz clubs.  

Guillermo’s perspective of percussion in mainstream music reveals its necessity.  “Percussion adds the spice and kick to music that all people crave.”

Joe Iaquinto: Bass, Guitar, Vocals

JOE IAQUINTO WAS BORN IN BROOKLYN , NEW YORK AND STARTED PLAYING BASS AT THE AGE OF TWELVE. HE QUICKLY BECAME VERY PASSIONATE ABOUT THE INSTRUMENT AND BY THE AGE OF SIXTEEN, HE WAS ALREADY AN ESTABLISHED WORKING MUSICIAN, PLAYING MANY OF THE TOP CLUBS, DISCOS AND HOTELS IN THE STATE. AT SEVENTEEN, HE HAD ALREADY PERFORMED WITH ROCK LEGENDS CHUCK BERRY AND LITTLE ANTHONY AND THE IMPERIALS. AFTER HIGH SCHOOL, JOE MOVED TO LOS ANGELES AND HAS BECOME A RESPECTED VETERAN OF THE CITY’S FORMIDABLE MUSIC SCENE. HE HAS TRAVELED AROUND THE WORLD AND HAS WORKED WITH GRAMMY AWARD WINNERS STEPHEN BISHOP AND RITA COOLIDGE, THE HIGHLY ACCLAIMED AMERICAN INDIAN GROUP WALELA, INTERNATIONAL TV/FILM STAR AND RECORDING ARTIST BRANSCOMBE RICHMOND, AND HAS LOGGED PERFORMANCES WITH BILLY PRESTON, WAYNE NEWTON, DOUG KERSHAW, MEMBERS OF THE DOOBIE BROS., CHICAGO, AND MANY OTHERS. JOE IS ALSO A BUSY SESSION MUSICIAN WHO’S WORK CAN BE HEARD ON ENTERTAINMENT TONIGHT, E! TRUE HOLLYWOOD STORY, ESPN, AND NATIONAL AD CAMPAIGNS FOR DODGE STRATUS. AS A FREELANCE WRITER, HIS WORK HAS BEEN PUBLISHED BY QUARRY PRESS AND BASS PLAYER MAGAZINE

Tracy Dragoo: Bass

Tracy Dragoo (3 Saints and a sinner) is a native Southern Californian born and raised in the Los Angeles area. His music extends back to the fourth grade where he signed up to play violin and was told that there were no more violins to give out, so his music teacher asked if he would like to play Bass instead. The rest is history. He has played in Top Forty Bands for about 28 years. Other bands along the way have been a few original bands and a Polynesian Revue. Here is a list of bands that he has played with and also a list of recordings for various artists. Top Forty Bands include, 210 West, Feather River, Los Bad Dudes and The Gonzales Brothers. Some original projects are, Raja Zahr, De Castro & Bannister, Lou Cabot, Gregg de Castro & The Many Nations Band, Harold Paine and Thad Bouchelle. He has been with Westwind Productions a full Polynesian Revue with 46 dancers for about 27 years. Other people he has recorded with are, Carlos Vega (James Taylor), The Water Sisters.

Erich Schneider: Vocals, Guitar

Erich has toured with Crash Dance throughout Germany, Italy, Austria, England, Russia, Balkans, Iraq, Kuwait, Afghanistan, Armenia, Kyrgystan. Erich Performs jazz with his father John and is involved with many other projects including, The Radio Allstars.

Patrick "Badge" Langford: Sax, Bass

A commanding officer in Iraq, misunderstood the name Patrick and thought he heard "Badger" thus the nickname "Badge". Badge is the Bassist & sax player for Crash Dance both touring Europe, Eastern Europe, middle East as well as performing  locally. Recently spotlighted and interviewed on 94.7 the wave with his group Elements, see www.elementslive.com

Tommy "Curse" Jamie: Bass, latin Sabbath arragements. Brought in as a sub for Merlyn Kelly and became a steady bassist for a few years. Now residing in Japan and working as a English teacher. Tommy is known for his extravagant APU recitals.

Daniel "DA" Ledesma: Bass, vocals, keys, hippness (Alaska tours) Original bassist for Crash from 1998 and currently still plays with the band when available.

Amanda Johnson: bass, guitar, all string instruments, vocals

Sean Hall: Guitar/ Vocals, Bandstand antics, (European tours) Kuwait, Iraq, Germany, Balkans, Dubai, Melbourne. Probably the most loved by our troops musician of Crash Dance. Sean is a guitar teacher at M. I. Music, and has a great original band The Toast, see, www.thetoastband.com       http://www.myspace.com/thetoastla.

Tenia Tahauri: Vocals, keys, Fire Knife Dance (European tours) Becky's brother toured with Crash in the summer 2008 where we performed and visited Frankfurt, Hohenfels, Vilsek / Grafenwoehr, Landstuhl, Manheim, Baumholder, Schwinefurt, Bamburg, Germany, Vicenza Italy, Innsbrook, Vienna, Austria, Kuwait City, Victory, Kuwait, Ali Al Salem, Tallil, Bucca, Adder, Iraq.

Alex Pauley: Bass / Vocals / Shy antics (Alaska tours)
 

Melissa Campos: Vocals
 

Will Vargas: Sax

Uncle Frank: Percussion
 

Norman Jackson: Keyboards
 

John Burrola: Sax

Ernie Salas: Sax

Nate Ketner: Tenor, Alto Sax (4-10)

Jack Muskgrove: Trumpet

Leonard Luna: Trombone

George Luna: Drums

Jason Basoco: Drums

Larry Paschall: Drums, kazoo, vocals (Alaska tours)

Jess Renard Luke: soprano sax, percussion, time, brilliance

Michael Bachich: keyboards, vocals

Tom Lespron: guitar. Original guitarist for Crash back in 98. Tommy was essential in building the band and it's play list from the start. Tom is and always was into writing and performing original music, which he continues to today. Tom is brother of Mickey Lespron of El Chicano. see

Technical support:

Bob Duran: Audio treatments, stage manager, backline tech, preproduction, deprep.

"Fab" Eric Rodig: Tour manager, sound engineer, bass, steel drums, vocals. Tour manager for 2004, 2005, England, Yerevan, Bishkek, Kyrgystan, Qandahaar, Shinqi, Lashkar-gah, Kulat, Qatar, Afghanistan. Fab has a few of his own musical projects. One, Tinidadio is a wonderful, tropical, steel drum group and has drummer Chris Ross a childhood friend and 1st drum teacher of Tim from Lake Tahoe. Please visit fab@trinidadio.com

Ben Adamson: Tour manager 2003 - 2010, Balkans. sound engineer, trumpet

Frank Urtado: Tour manager, sound engineer, guitar, vocals.Frank has taken Crash Dance to Frankfurt, Vienna, Prestina, Monenegro, Landstuhll, Manheim, Ramstein, Sarajevo, Bosnia, Herzegovina, Munich, Kuwait, Iraq, Baghdad,

"Rug" Jeffrey Western: tour manager, audio engineer. Cleveland. We met Rug in Afghanistan 2004. He was the tour manager for Michael Chain www.michaelchain.com.  We played back to back shows with Michael Chains band and Tim and their drummer shared drums for a few weeks. We would commonly stay in the same hotels, bases, and see each other at the airports.  In May 2007 we met again at the airport in Vienna Austria, where Rug was hired on as Crash Dance tour manager/ soundman for the 07 Balkans tour. Michael Chain Band is: Mark Gordon Creamer gtr markgc@pacbell.net 

Road Rage Rudy: bus driver

Armand The German: bus driver

"Sideshow Dave" Raymond: Audio, FX, Lighting, guitar, vocals

Andrew Yeater: sound and recording engineer, videographer

Chris Ciavola: Computer IT guy

Evil Tracy: Photographer, web tech

 

 

 
   
   
   

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This site was last updated 04/03/10