Frank Viele // Vocals, Guitar
Mario Capodiferro // Drums
Rob Libtrot // Bass, Vocals
Jason Hirth // Keyboards
Eddie Arjun Peters // Lead Gtr
Pasquale Iannelli // Saxophone
Ben Golder-Novick // Saxophone
Influences
Stevie Wonder, Otis Redding, Dave Matthews Band, Tower of Power, Bill Withers, Ray Lamontagne, Marvin Gaye, Ray Charles, Sam Cooke, Parliament, Sly & the Family Stone, Lettuce, Soulive, Marc Broussard, and many more...
Sounds Like
Dave Matthews Band meets Lettuce in a boxing ring and Sam Cooke is officiating
Put simply, a Frank Viele show is a thinking man's party where all the thoughts are good ones and, even better, you can dance to them. I've seen Frank Viele & The Manhattan Project twice now, and at both shows no one in the audience needed to be told to get up and dance. Dancing is just the natural human reaction to the music coming from the stage. Viele's tunes are so alive and the melodic and intricate vocal lines so engaging, they open a door for an audience to dance on in, have a dialogue with the band, and become quickly enrapt as they hear a story or two.
And that's just what the songs are... "stories," and stories in the best sense: small scenarios of emotional truth told through music. When I heard Viele's first single, "Bein' Lonely Together," I was impressed (as were others... the song peaked at 16 on the Top 100 Underground Singles Chart and can be heard all along the east coast on college radio, Rhapsody Radio and Sirius Radio), and I still am. Even still, the word "impressed" is a poor term to describe the experience of Viele's music live.
Viele began playing at age three, teaching himself the theme songs to his favorite television shows on his grandmother's piano, and you can tell, watching him, that the man's a natural performer; been playing to the crowd all his life. He moved on from TV theme songs to making the piano sing the melodies of Sam Cooke, Stevie Wonder and Billy Joel and then moved from piano to guitar, falling in love with Jazz music at a Berklee College of Music Summer Session. With the guitar came a different set of musical icons to model: Dave Matthews and Dylan, then Wes Montgomery, Grant Green, George Benson and Eric Krasno. To see Viele on stage, or to listen to his first record, you know you are in the presence of someone who knows his instrument, who knows what that instrument can do and, uncannily, who has that musician's sixth sense of knowing what it is an audience needs to hear and how it should be phrased. From an early age on there's no doubt Frank Viele has learned well from his musical mentors.
It is no surprise to learn that Viele has, already in his young career, shared the stage with Stephen Kellog & The Sixers, Keller Williams, Gavin DeGraw, Ingrid Michaelson, Chris Barron (Spin Doctors), Nine Days and Marc Broussard. He seems naturally a part of the music world and entirely at home on the stage. Frank Viele shows extraordinary skill at entertaining any crowd, large or small, whatever their musical orientation, and sending every member of the audience out of the club or down the sidewalk singing his melodies in their heads and dancing to the rhythm of memory. In his club performance on April 13, 2007 at The Chance in Poughkeepsie, NY, Frank Viele & The Manhattan Project turned the bar into an intimate gathering of friends coming together to share an evening's entertainment, and at the African Relief Benefit of April 29, 2007 at Marist College performing before a wholly different sort of crowd, he moved people of all ages up onto their dancing feet... and who could blame them. When you're there at a show and you experience Frank Viele & The Manhattan Project, there's simply nothing else you want to do.
A hand selected member of the prestigious New York Singer Songwriter Sessions, Frank Viele and the band are constantly working on new material. So now it's up to you to find them in venues around the Northeast doing what they do best: telling the truth through their music and making the people dance.
* Joshua Mark is a freelance writer and former Hemingway and Chaucerian scholar. He has taught writing, philosophy, history, and literature courses for the University of Maryland and Marist College.
HISTORY OF THE BAND
The Manhattan Project began as a revolving door of talented musicians that lent their musical abilities to guitarist and singer-songwriter, Frank Viele, both on stage and in the studio. In the early months of 2005, Viele recorded a guitar track in his basement, which soon caught the attention of Label 11 Records, based out of New York City. By March of 2006, Frank's debut record, a 6 track EP entitled Blue Roses for Two, was made available nationally via channels such as iTunes, Tower Records, Best Buy and Rhapsody. Followed by a solid year of touring and promoting with the band, a trio, a duo and solo acoustic, Frank gathered another crew of musicians to release his second EP entitled The Manhattan Project.
It didn't take long before Frank's music was heard on radio stations across the Northeast and the track "Bein' Lonely Together" was featured on the New York Rockers For Life and Santa Fe Rockers For Life compilation albums in 2007. By early 2008, the track "Portland Rain" could be heard on regional college and independent radio stations. Now, with a solidified group of talented musicians behind him, Frank Viele & the Manhattan Project are touring all over the Northeast and plan to release their first full-length album in 2009.
hey u! how ya been? hope things are going good. I havent been able to make it over to the hotel to stop in for a minute... clints been working in town again so im back on dinner duty. lol we are trying to get a mailing list made for my mom to send the invitations out so that's yay. its going to be june 6th at 11a we're going to have some food a bit before. kind of a celebration thang, ya know? quitting mah job with that lameass of a boss jaime. gah, i aint gonna miss her at all! i still cant believe that that survey thing that britt showed me is actually working - n dat we're gettin paid; im so luvin it too. givin mah opinion on stuff i do - pshhh ... so easy. i wonder if we'll ever hit da cash that that website said we would. i dunno, but with my last check being $126, i dont even care. i only pulled in like 200 a week and my crapass job anyway, so this is perfect. you should do it, i'm tellin yah. i guess you'll have to type the link into internet explorer or whatever, but here it is: www. work4surveybling .com get back to me!!
Hi, Just want to let you know that a bunch of outstanding New Orleans style jazz and funk acts are coming to Sullivan Hall in the next few weeks! Details are below. Check out www.sullivanhallnyc.com for tickets and more information!
Come out and celebrate the summer in New York, NOLA style!
Thurs. May 28 Eric Lindell with special guest Jamie McClean $18 adv., $20 dos 8pm
Sat. May 30 Eric Krasno & Chapter 2 $12 adv., $15 dos 7pm doors
Fri. June 5 Papa Grows Funk with Rubblebucket Orchestra $18 adv., $20 dos 7:30pm
Wed. June 10 Ropeadope's 10th Anniversary Party - A Benefit for Scotty Hard featuring John Medeski, Charlie Hunter, John Ellis, Billy Martin and more special guests TBA $20 adv., $25 dos 9pm show
Fri. June 19 Bonerama with special guests Brother Joscephus & The Love Revival Revolution Orchestra $20 adv., $25 dos 8:30pm show
Get your tickets early, because these are all sure to be ragers!
Hey hun i just wanted to remind you that I have 9 Ringtones and 18 Wallpapers for all of my friends to download for FREE at www.cherylmartinez.com/music.html Let me know if you pick any of them for your phone!:-) Lotz of Luv!<3 -MSA
Thank you for your friendship and your support... I really appreciate it... I'm the happiest person when I see those wonderful comments regarding my songs, which I create with all my heart and passion... I wish you a lot of success and luck and I hope that everything will be fantastic in your life...
Vielen Dank für die Freundschaft; Thank you for the friendship! Merci pour l'amitié! Спасибо за дружбу! Dank u voor de vriendschap! Grazie per l'amicizia! Gracias por la amistad! Tack för vänskap! Takk for vennskap! Obrigado pela amizade! の友情をありがとう！ 우정의 해 주셔서 감사합니다! 谢谢你的友谊！ Σας ευχαριστώ για τη φιλία! Kiitos ystävyydestä!
Rock on and Greetz from the Sauerland. Alf :-)) (Singer/Songwriter)
Online Now!
