MUSIC

In the early 80’s Steve Carter became a first call piano player in the thriving Bay Area funky-Latin-Jazz scene. He was Pete Escovedo's piano player for several years. He also worked with Pete's brother Coke's band, Sheila E., Ray Obiedo's band, Linda Tillery, Malo and many others. Steve also lived in Tokyo for 8 months and played with Japanese fusion artist Miyaura Kiyoshi. In the late 80's Steve was a member of The Freaky Executives, picked as the best Bay Area band by every bay area publication for 3 years straight. In the 90's Steve returned to being a sideman working with George Benson, Bobby Womack, Michael Franti and Spearhead, Kenneth Nash,to name a few. In this period of time Steve also honed his studio and song writing skills playing on over 50 CD’s, learning to engineer, writing music for TV (Third Watch, Nash Bridges), film (La Mission, Wayne Wang’s The Center of The World, Who Needs Sleep?), jingles (Northern California Chevy dealers), video games (Maxis’ Sim City) as well as writing songs that were recorded by Huey Lewis and The News, Irene Cara, Forrest Buchtel and many others. In the early 2000's Steve was a member of Los Mocosos, a Latin/Hip Hop band, who toured all over the world playing Jazz and World music festivals. They won a California Music Award for best Latin Album and have 3 CD's out on Six Degrees Records. Steve's heart is totally into his trio. He has found musical soulmates in Dennis Smith and Tommie Bradford. They have recently finished their second album, Cosmopolis.

Leah Tysse writes impressively and produces original, soulful music that continually takes her audiences on emotional journeys to the heart of rhythm-and-blues…and she does so every time she steps up to a microphone. In addition to performing at venues across Northern California, this year already Leah and her band have performed at the International Blues Challenge in Memphis, the Billboard World Song Contest Awards Show in Branson, Missouri. Leah was awarded the prestigious award of Best R&B/Blues Song of 2007 for her song You Don't Scare Me. This summer Leah toured Northern New England and her home base, Northern California. In December she and her band took first place in the Monterey Blues Festival's Battle of the Bands. She will perform on the main stage of the Monterey Blues Festival next June. Audiences and peers have compared Tysse's voice and stage presence to such artists as Aretha Franklin, Joss Stone and Susan Tedeschi, yet she maintains a fresh originality that sets her apart from virtually anyone currently performing.