STRING PLANET BIO
Think Bela Fleck meets Prokofiev meets Esquivel - light-hearted instrumental
fusion with a touch of classical around the edges. STRING PLANET
is two lifelong string players, Novi Novog on viola and Larry Tuttle
on Chapman Stick, playing an energetic fusion of space-age originals
and quirky cover versions. Their new CD, “SONGS FROM THE HOME
PLANET”, re-imagines hits from “Lady Madonna” to “Sukiyaki” and
de-constructs the classics – Prokofiev, Saint-Saens and Edvard
Grieg. It’s “world music from another world” – virtuosic,
exciting, slightly twisted and strangely fun.
Larry and Novi met playing in the band FREEWAY PHILHARMONIC. With that
group they released four albums and toured all over North America, staying
together for fifteen years. STRING PLANET is the next step in that evolution.
STRING PLANET’s odd blend of musical styles comes from Novi and
Larry’s common history – heavy-duty saturation in orchestral
music early in life, followed by adventures in rock music later on. Novi
started on piano at age four and viola at age eight, played in the American
Youth Symphony, and attended Cal Arts on a full composition scholarship.
She studied privately with Mehli Mehta and Louis Kievman and won the
American String Teachers Association competition. Meanwhile, Larry’s
youth was spent with the string bass in orchestras of all sorts – Youth
Symphony, All-City Orchestras, music camps, you name it. He spent one
memorable summer playing principal bass at the National Music Camp in
Interlochen and majored in string bass at the University of Washington.
A short course in ear training with jazz great Gary Peacock was particularly
transforming.
Novi’s groups included Chunky, Novi and Ernie, Sumner and Lauren
Wood. She was even a member of Frank Zappa’s Mothers of Invention
for a short while. As a session musician, she has a long list of studio
credits including viola solos The Doobie Brothers' "Black Water" and
Prince's "Purple Rain" and "Raspberry Beret." She
also has performed on recordings by Cher, James Taylor, Madonna, Bonnie
Raitt, Michael Jackson, Bon Jovi, Neil Diamond, Kenny Loggins, Ray Charles,
Julio Iglesias, Shawn Colvin and about a billion others.
Larry’s turn through rock music was centered around the power-pop/progressive
rock group Russia, later called Force 10, with whom he played bass on
two albums for Warner Brothers Records. Then in 1984 he discovered the
Chapman Stick and everything changed, leading to the formation of FREEWAY
PHILHARMONIC and meeting Novi in 1986.
The two have been performing together ever since. Pop meets classical
meets quirky meets energy. STRING PLANET.
|
.GIF)
