 Gabe Dixon, Making of Till You're Gone |
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (Aug. 19, 2008) — The Gabe Dixon Band, led by Yamaha artist
Gabe Dixon, is ready to debut the first single on Aug. 20 off their new self-titled album, and the group turned to Yamaha to outfit the stage for the music video. Being released on Fantasy Records, the latest album will hit stores Aug. 26.
YCAA provided the band with a
C7 Concert Collection grand piano and an
Absolute Sparkle drum kit for the making of the music video of "Till You're Gone," which was filmed in Mechanic's Hall, a 150-year-old theater in Worcester, MA, just outside of Boston. Directed by Paul Cummings and Tony Fiandaca, the video puts heavy emphasis on the importance of the piano in Gabe's songs, including a scene of a "human piano," which includes men and women dressed in head to toe black and white, laid out on the floor in alternating order as if they were piano keys.
"Gabe has amazing talent as an artist, songwriter and pianist. We are always honored to be a part of his career, and the making of this video was no different," comments Chris Gero, vice president of Yamaha Corporate Artist Affairs, Inc.
The Gabe Dixon Band is in fact the group's third release, following the 2002 album
On a Rolling Ball and the 2005 EP
Live at World Café, but writer/singer/pianist Gabe considers it the band's debut.
 The Gabe Dixon Band |
Formed nine years ago by Dixon – then a classical piano major at the University of Miami – and his two college roommates, bassist Winston Harrison and drummer Jano Rix, the group added a sax player and spent several years specializing in jazz-inflected, heavily improvised excursions, showcasing the virtuosity of the players. Dixon's elevated chops also led to some high-profile moonlighting: along with performing with Alison Krauss, O.A.R. and others, the talented youngster played keyboards on Paul McCartney's
Driving Rain, while also backing the great one at the internationally broadcast "Concert For New York City." McCartney offered him the keyboard slot for his world tour, but Gabe respectfully turned him down to focus his energies on his band's then-yet-to-be-released Warner Bros. debut.
 Gabe Dixon |
But after being dispirited and nearly derailed by cutbacks and regime changes at the band's former label, Dixon shifted his focus to songcraft, and in 2006 the three longtime bandmates had a collective epiphany. They reinvented themselves as a three-piece, song-based unit, putting the same attention to detail to arrangement and song-serving performance that the bandleader was giving to his writing.
To say that the move has paid off would be a gross understatement.
The Gabe Dixon Band introduces a world-class unit fronted by a prodigiously talented artist. A reviewer for
The Nashville Tennessean, Dixon's hometown paper, called it early when he stated unequivocally in 2005 that the young artist "deserves to join the ranks of Jackson Browne and early Elton John in the pop pantheon."
