Anna Warr (Vocals)
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Anna, considered one of the original Desert Divas, was born in Arkansas but grew up in Tucson. Her mom started feeding her love for music very early on via exposure to operas, symphonies, and regular piano playing in the house. Because of her mother‚s influence, she started singing her last year of high school. She joined an a cappella group in college.
Chris Davis of The Rowdies was the first person to put Anna on stage in Tucson. This opened the door for an opportunity to sing with Bobby Taylor, which ended up being her first weekly paying gig. It all snowballed from there. She has since played with some of the best musicians in town. Bryan Dean, Tony Uribe, Bad News Blues, Kevin Heiderman, Steve Grams, Danny Krieger, Richard Gomez, Marx B. Loeb, Chip Ritter, Larry Deihl, are just a few of the amazing people she has worked with, and continues to work with.
Lisa Otey, a fellow Desert Diva, helped to launch Anna‚s international success. In 2004, Lisa took Anna and other performers to France for a jazz festival. Since then, she has traveled to Spain and Mexico. She has toured Holland twice with Mr. Boogie Woogie and also toured with Holland's Raymond Guitar Ray Nijenhuis. She insists there is more to come, as The Goddess of Love is just getting started!
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Mike Walden (Vocals / Guitar)
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Mike Walden is a veteran of rock bands dating back to 1968. He grew up musically steeped in the southern blues of the Allman Brothers and Johnny Winter. Mike played in several memorable bands in Fayetteville, North Carolina, including Valley - one of the top Carolina bands in the early 70's.
After moving to Minot, North Dakota in 1985, he formed The Crew - a band voted "Best Rock Band in North Dakota".
In 2000, Mike and Joe LoCascio (Vocals / Drums) formed East2West - a
very popular Rock-Motown-Blues band in Tucson, Arizona playing resorts and special
functions.
Mike currently plays with East2West and Giant Blue.
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Chuck Morrow (Keys)
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A native Tucsonan, Chuck has been performing in the area since the early seventies. Classic Rock was his earliest influence, inspired by groups such as The Beatles, The Doors, The Allman Brothers, Santana, Deep Purple and many others. Then came the “Funk” years; Chuck played with a “horn band”, covering groups such as Tower Of Power and Chicago, etc. Next, Chuck played with the band, Autumn, one of the most successful Lounge/Show Groups in Tucson’s history. Autumn played the best local night spots in town for 8 years, 6 nights a week, playing Pop, R&B, Funk, Disco, Light Jazz, Country and Rock. During this period Chuck and the band also played a stint on what was at that time the largest cruise ship in the world, the S.S. Norway.
Chuck’s extensive musical history also includes backing famous comic personalities Phyllis Diller and Henny Youngman, musical performers such as Johnny Lee and Ace Cannon (among others), as well as opening for Crystal Gale, Tony Orlando and other headlining acts. The last several years have seen Chuck returning to his roots and playing in various Blues, R&B and Classic Rock bands, such as George Howard’s R&B Soul Review, Steel Ribbon, and East2West. Hundreds of hours spent in many recording studios have also helped round out Chuck’s musical career.
Chuck currently plays a Korg Triton Studio, extensively re-programmed and “tweaked” to satisfy his demanding ears and playing styles. Special care is taken to make this “new” synthesizer sound as much as possible like the vintage keyboards it emulates much of the time.
Chuck is a 2008 inductee into the Tucson Musician's Museum - honoring the best Tucson musicians of all time.
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Bob Thames (Bass / Vocals)
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Robert Thames, a working man's bassist, has laid down the foundation in numerous bands and venues since the early 70's. Bob is a bass player with the unique ability, versatility and wealth of experience to cover a variety of musical styles, including Jazz, Rock, Latin, R&B, Funk, Country. As a studied musician who is proficient on both electric and upright bass, he is an in-demand player.
Bob started playing Hard Rock and doing tours in Hemlock, a very popular band from the early 70's. From there, he went on to play Funk in horn-based bands, working in nightclubs several days per week for many years. He works consistently in all kinds of bands and musical projects, performing, and doing session work in recording studios.
Bob took up double bass in the late 90's, and has worked primarily as a jazz musician ever since, but now as the bassist for Giant Blue, Bob is enjoying going back to his roots, drawing from his early experiences and playing Classic Rock, Funk, Motown and R&B.
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Jeff Stone (Drums)
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Jeff Stone hails from Eureka, California, and started playing his dad’s drums at age 7. He played big band jazz, rock and blues in NorCal from middle school to college before moving to the SF Bay Area to record and tour with several original rock bands in the 80s. Around 1988, he put music aside to start a family and pursue his career as a professor of Psychology. He now teaches at the University of Arizona.
Since moving to Tucson in 1997, Jeff has played around Southern Arizona with several bands including Nigel’s 11, The Freeze, Grind, Fuzion, Mr. Bonestripper, Running Hot and Soul Harvest. He feels lucky to have the opportunity to return to his jazz roots with Giant Blue.
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Jose Durazo (Tenor Sax / Horn Arrangements)
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Jose Durazo, originally from Douglas, AZ, started seriously playing music when he joined the Marine Corps in 1990 and attended the Armed Forces School of Music Basic Course. This was followed by a few years of playing hundreds of parades and dozens of jazz and pop performances up and down the East Coast as part of the Second Marine Division Band based in Camp Lejeune, NC.
Since then, Jose has played with many different bands in New York City (1994), Tucson (1995-1998), Seattle (1998-2004), and finally, back in Tucson (2004 to the present).
He is not only a creative tenor sax soloist with impeccable tone, but also Giant Blue's Horn Arranger. Jose charts horns with a beautiful style not heard much these days.
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Jason Tanner (Baritone Sax)
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Jason Tanner grew up in New York, where he was in the All-State Concert
Band/Wind Ensemble for 2 years. He went on to the University of Illinois,
where he played in the top Concert and Jazz Bands, as well as the
Marching Illini and U of I basketball band.
By his junior year, he was a founding member of My Brother’s Keeper (MBK),
a 10-piece Funk/Rock/Soul band. MBK went on to perform with Maceo Parker,
Bloodhound Gang, Jill Sobule, Mighty Blue Kings, Blue Meanies, Liquid Soul,
Brother Brother and others. MBK's CD, Shoulder To Shoulder, debuted #1 in
Champaign, IL. The culmination of the band was performing at the House Of Blues
in Chicago.
Since arriving in Tucson, Jason helped re-form Apocalypse Horns and had
the privilege of performing with The George Howard Band and The Statesboro Blues Band.
As a baritone sax player, Gerry Mulligan was an obvious musical influence,
but the Tower of Power sound is what Jason has always tried to model.
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Glen Gross (Trumpet)
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Trumpeter Glendon Gross recently moved to Tucson from Los Angeles, where he was a regular in the local Jazz and Gospel scene. In the 1980's he worked as a race track bugler in Santa Fe and Albuquerque while leading a Jazz band that played at a local Korean restaurant. He then moved to California and got a job playing on the cruise ship Fair Sea, doing 9 day cruises to Acapulco. Then Gross moved to Monterey, California, where he arranged the Pageant of the Flags for the California Rodeo Salinas, and enjoyed playing jazz at the Monterey Firehouse and on Cannery Row. During this time Gross was honored to play a memorial concert for Dizzy Gillespie at Clint Eastwood's ranch, with John Handy on the Saxophone.
In 1995 Gross moved to Los Angeles, where he became involved with the local Jazz scene and started playing improv Gospel trumpet with Motown star Blinky Williams And The Hollywood Choir, while appearing frequently at local venues playing Bebop Jazz. Now he is excited to be a part of Giant Blue, a band that takes him back to the roots of Rock, Funk, and the exciting horn bands he loves, including Chicago, Tower of Power, and Earth, Wind, and Fire.
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Ross Daniels (Trumpet)
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ROSS DANIELS has been playing professionally for 30 years now. His influences
include many of the horn bands from the 70's with which he grew up, such as Chicago,
Earth, Wind & Fire, Blood, Sweat & Tears, and Tower Of Power. He also has a strong
affinity to the progressive rock bands from that period such as Yes, Rush, Emerson Lake
and Palmer, King Crimson and Jethro Tull. He also admits to being a huge fan of
Pink Floyd. Not unlike any young trumpet player, he also spent hours listening to
Maynard Ferguson's bands.
After college, he embarked onto cruise ships, and over the years wound up
working in the show bands of 18 different cruise ships. He was fortunate to
travel all over the world doing what he loves, playing music, while visiting
52 countries on 6 different continents.
After the cruise days were over, Ross settled in Seattle and immediately began
working in various pit orchestras. During his 10 years there played a total of
21 Broadway shows.
Some of the artists with whom Ross has had the pleasure of performing include
Dizzy Gillespie, Frankie Avalon, Rita Moreno, The Four Tops, The Platters,
The 5th Dimension, Toni Tennille, Charo, Susan Anton and The Osmonds.
He came back to Tucson in 2002, and is glad to still be at it, this time with a
wonderful band and wonderful band mates, playing the music of his youth.
He's having a blast recreating these great classics and hopes to be at it for a
long time.
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Damian Hagge - Saxophone
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Damian is originally from Toronto, Canada has lived and worked as a professional
musician in Montreal (1993-1997), Tokyo (1997-1999) and England (2000-2005)
with both local and internationally known artists on the blues, rock and jazz
scenes. He has had the opportunity to tour North America, Europe and Japan with
various artists and now makes his home permanently in Tucson (since 2008).
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