Gabe Witcher - violin; Michael Witcher - dobro; Skip Edwards - keyboards; Colin Cameron - bass guitar; Dean Taba - bass guitar; Josh Nelson - keyboards; Joe Bagg - keyboards; David Bernao - harmonica
Influences
Jeff Beck; Pat Martino; Eric Clapton; Chet Atkins; Albert Lee; Jimmy Page; Scotty Moore; Jimmy Bryant; George Benson; Jimi Hendrix
Steve Trovato maintains a full-time, Senior Lecturer position in the Studio Jazz Guitar Department at the University of Southern California and has an exciting career in several facets of the music industry. As a multi stylist, Steve is versatile and highly knowledgeable in all popular genres of guitar music. He has studied with Jazz greats Tal-Farlow, Chuck Wayne, and Pat Martino. With extensive recording experience he can be heard on countless television and motion picture scores. Mr. Trovatos credits include composing and producing music for First International Pictures. National Lampoon and guitar on a re-recording of the famous television western theme Bonanza for NBC.
Steve Trovato was presented the Gibson award for outstanding musical achievement from the Musicians Institute in Hollywood California where he graduated with top honors. Other awards include induction into the Tune-up magazine hall of fame for his outstanding contributions to the promotion and performance of guitar music. He has authored Twenty-one instructional Books published with Warner Brothers and Hal Leonard. His three instructional videos include topics such as: Contemporary Country guitar soloing, Country guitar: getting the sounds and Country guitar tips with Albert Lee, Steve Morse, Jerry Donahue and himself. He is currently a regular contributor for five international music publications including: Guitar Player, Guitar One, Axe, Guitar Club, Guitar World and Chittare and Jam Trax. He has recently completed feature interviews for Three Italian Guitar Publications and The German Magazine: Guitarre and Basse as well as a feature interview in Just Jazz Guitar.
Steve has toured extensively in North America, Asia, and Europe and supplements his touring schedule with clinics and master classes. His students have achieved major success and include Scott Henderson, Frank Gambale, and Norman Brown.
Mr. Trovato has performed in concert with Robben Ford, Scott Henderson, Albert Lee, Albert Collins, Jerry Donahue, Norman Brown and Jeff Berlin. In 1996 he was a featured performer at Jazzfest in Sardinia, Italy. He rounds out his appearance schedule with clinics and master classes conducted around the world.
In addition to his full time position at USC, Steve Trovato is an artist/clinician for and endorses Roland Corporation, Thomastik-Infeld strings, Groove Tubes, Larivee Guitars, Fender music amplifiers, G&L guitars and Carvin Guitars.
He added five new instructional books to his repertoire in 2000. All are published by Hal Leonard Corporation. Titles include: Basic Blues guitar, Contemporary acoustic guitar, Rhythm guitar styles sampler, Country guitar licks and Country guitar solos.
Steves music is featured on a promotional CD for Roland Corporation Demonstrating their VG-88 guitar modeling technology. In addition to himself, the CD features: Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, Al Di Meola, Neal Shoen George Lynch, Paul Gilbert and Richard Smith.
STEVE TROVATO: About Time...
Virtuoso guitar playing at its best. Styles range from Blues to Country, Jazz, Rock and Classical.
Reviews of Steve's CD About Time
Review, January 02 Issue
VINTAGE GUITAR MAGAZINE
"Yikes! Talk about your chops, Steve Trovato's got 'em. Known best on the West Coast as an instructor (Studio Jazz Guitar at USC) and for his work on movie and TV themes, Trovato can certainly play jazz But don't let the "J" word fool you; here he proves himself more than adept at pretty much anything you can think of. For instance, if you like wild boogie with nasty, elastic guitar in the style of Danny Gatton, look no further than "D.G.'s Boogie." It's a great instrumental opener? and it's only the beginning. "Knock, Knock, Knock" is a lightly swinging blues that lets Steve show how skillful he is at soloing around changes. The Django-esque "Dark Eyes" is next. "Squawkin'" is Tele heaven and covers a lot of ground, from typical country twang to a big fat, almost Gibson-esque, country sound, to some Travis-style picking, and ? for good measure ? some Jimmy Bryant-sounding soloing to wrap things up. It's the kind of tour de force you don't often hear anymore.
There's much more good stuff here, but for the sake of brevity, we'll touch on a couple of covers. It's hard to make "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" a guitar piece in this day and age, and make it interesting. But Trovato does just that. A beautiful, almost two-minute solo chord intro leads into some gorgeous Larry Carlton-style soloing that rounds out a wonderful take on this classic. And I never thought I'd hear a guitarist tackle Billy Joel's "Root Beer Rag," but Steve does it, and in sparkling style. It's a single-line/fingerpicked masterpiece. Plain and simple, Trovato is a great guitarist."
John Heidt
GUITAR PLAYER MAGAZINE: Nov 2002
Steve Trovato
CD: About Time
The debut album by this amazing picker (who is also a USC guitar instructor and an acclaimed studio player) is a stylistically diverse work that shows Trovato's total command of everything from blues to high-octane country to Gypsy jazz. Affectionately known as the "Great Chameleon," Trovato backs up the title by demonstrating just how damn good he is at, well, just about everything. Trovato tips his hat to Danny Gatton on "D.G.s Boogie" and tears into the Jimmy Bryant lane on the country -jazz ripper, "Squawkin." He plays soulfully on the bluesy numbers: Knock, Knock, Knock" and "Drowning in My Own Tears," and goes deep into Django zone on the classic "Dark Eyes." Trovato's ability to play so sensitively one moment (as on "Some Where Over the Rainbow") and so furiously the next ("Root Beer Rag") is simply astonishing. What can you say? A new superpicker has arrived!
-Art Thompson
we think we are lucky to live these lives we lead. to be a part of the cultural, political and scientific conversation of our time, while able to work one's way through life basically supporting oneself through their art. amazing! frustrating sometimes? yes. unfair sometimes...what isn't? know we are blessed. that is why it is imperative that we speak up. it is our responsibility for being so blessed.
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Hi Steve, I hope you are very well. My new CD "Lemonade" is out and you can hear samples on my myspace page. First one in 10 years! It was a joy to record, we did it as a trio, live in a circle, without headphones. Also, I moved to New Mexico last month and love being in all the beauty and slower pace. I'm sorry I didn't get to say goodbye before I left LA. But I will be back to visit!
Hi Steve! I just had to come by and listen to your pickers roundup again. I love that thing and I guess it's because I can relate to all of the names you were mimicing. Thanks for your contribution to guitar playing, you are still one of the best. -Jimmy
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