Joni Mitchell, Rufus Wainright, Antonio Carlos Jobim, alcohol, Preston Reed, Joe Pass, John Lennon, Lisa Loeb, James Taylor, life, Frank Zappa, Tom Waits, Stevie Ray Vaughn, fried food
Chicago music artist Chris Zonada is a multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, and live producer. Having spent years of informal and formal study, his diverse knowledge of musical foundations has a strong presence in the wide array of original songs as well as new renditions of other popular music. His fingerstyle guitar playing draws influences from jazz, classical, and folk traditions with the intent to create a polyphonic texture both underneath and around the vocal lines. In addition to performing as a solo artist, Chris Zonada leads an orchestrated rock band known as Black Umbrella Brigade. This ensemble performs music similar in nature to Zonada's acoustic music as its music catalog spans several different genres of music including (but not limited to) punk rock, cabaret-burlesque, blues rock, funk, rockabilly, etc. Their stage shows are becoming notorious in and around Chicagoland for being exciting, surprising, catchy, dance-worthy, and slightly hilarious.
As a freelancing instrumentalist and music director, Chris has done work with with the award winning Vitalist Theatre Company, Barn Theatre, and Kalamazoo Civic Theatre. Thank you for stopping by this page, and be sure to check for upcoming shows around Chicagoland! -CZ
"Chris Zonada's songs are structured around hum-able melodies, classically-influenced yet poppy guitar licks and thoughtful lyrics, plus some fun tunes, like "Pear-Shaped Man... he sculpts his solo songs into new-ish works of art, with added layers complementing what is already "underneath" -John Sloop Biederman www.dailylimerick.net and the Flabby Hoffman Show Caravan
"he has a wonderful voice and great lyrics" - Michael Teach, Chicago Acoustic Underground
That's right...blame the camera...
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<br />To be fair, I WAS standing on my toes on a bench all the way in the back of the room, stretching my arm all the way up, attempting to aim the camera over everyone's heads...still didn't work.
hey Chris! glad i got to know you in cyber space, and hope to run into you soon here in Chicago. i've really enjoyed the tunes, and the soulful subtlety within. Peace
Hey! Let's get funky next Wednesday at the Globe! You don't work on Thanksgiving, so stay out late night, do some shots, drink some Beamus and play some tunes! It's Black Wednesday at the GLobe Pub! :) Stolie
Happy ALMOST Birthday to you too! That's pretty cool that your music will be up for sale soon. I'll definitely give you some good PR. And yes, of course I still have the CD! :)
eh..not exactly. Sorry to disappoint. We will be dancing flamenco there so if you are free months and months later on that day, you should come watch us!
Hi KC.... I would like to invite you to my graduate recital next Thursday 7/31 at 7:30pm at Northeastern Illinois University. I'll be performing some Faure, Debussy, Strauss, C. Schumann, Ives, Barber, and ending with Weill. It's free and there will be a small afterglow. If there's a chance you can make it send me a message/comment and I can give you some directions...hope all is well!
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