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Click any band member for more info.
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ABOUT BBT
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Big Beat Tornado is a high octane, nine-piece funk band from Reading, Pennsylvania (one hour west of Philadelphia). Built on a groove-driven rhythm quartet, fronted by dual female voices and backed by a high powered, three-piece horn section, Big Beat Tornado delivers a blend of original material and interpretations of funky favorites from Franklin to Fishbone. For the last five years, BBT has spread their infectious Funk for New Generation regionally from Manhattan to the Delaware shores, leaving behind a trail of feather boas, sequins and devoted fans. As a follow-up to their first release Groovopolis, the band looks forward to releasing a new full-length CD in the near future. For booking or more information, click here.
BIG BEAT TORNADO
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ANGELA EZELL
SUE GROOVE
BRAD BANSNER
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Brad first picked up an electric guitar on October 7, 1989 and has hardly put it down since. Along the way he picked up some chops on keyboards, bass and recording/engineering. Brad was a founding member and lead guitarist of the Philadelphia-based punk jazz/improv band ICU during the mid 90s, and released a CD in 2003 called Thought Molecules under the project name Programme D'Experience.
Some of Brad's influences include Frank Zappa, John Zorn, King Crimson, Tom Waits, Pink Floyd, Mr. Bungle, Ozric Tentacles, Jethro Tull, Porcupine Tree, The Flower Kings, Anathema, Ween, The Disco Biscuits, Sound Tribe Sector 9 and Charles Mingus. Read more about Brad, and listen to his other music, at www.bbarts.com.
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CHRIS LAYSER
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Chris picked up the bass at age 14, because Paul was the coolest Beatle of course, and spent the better part of his college years playing out in the Lancaster, PA area with a number of original bands including Waitin' for the Movie and Johnny Bravo. Soon after, he moved to the Reading area and helped form the alternative band Frozen Poet. Before long, the band found themselves in need of a new singer. A mutual friend and future band member introduced him to their new vocalist, Angela Ezell. In their five year run, Frozen Poet received moderate success and radio airplay with their independent release Milkweed. Afterwards, he and some other former members of Frozen Poet formed the ecceltic jam band Mystery Van, which released their "award winning" debut Scuba Doo (the graphic designer won an award for the cover art... hey, it's an award!). After Mystery Van, Chris did some shorter stints with Organic (comprised of members from Mystery Van and Second Sky), the Magnificent Toads of Destinction and Childhood's End.
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RICK TOMLINSON
DEAN WALKER
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Dean began playing saxophone at age nine and continued his entire secondary education years studying music, listening to jazz and performing with and leading small groups. After graduation, Dean attended Indiana University of Pennsylvania where he studied Music Education in the mid 80s, until leaving IUP to pursue his other love... running supermarkets! Dean has studied saxophone performance, jazz, theory and improvisation with Tim Price, Dr. John Kuehn, Joe Miller, "Saxie" Shollenberger and John Morris, and has performed and recorded with local groups in eastern PA, including The Bentonites, On the Run and many others. After a long layoff from the local music scene, while raising children and attending to a hectic schedule as a corporate executive, Dean realized he still had to satisfy his passion to play and perform and started seeking out new and exciting projects. Dean has quickly become a highly sought after saxophonist for a wide variety of projects. On stage, Dean brings an energy level, passion and enthusiasm for music that few others can convey, and drives that passion right into the listeners ears with every note he plays. Dean's playing is heavily influenced by the likes of saxophonists David Sanborn, Grover Washington Jr., Bob Berg and Michael Brecker.
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JOE MAKHLOUF
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Joe grew up in the Pittsburgh area and was always exposed to jazz and rock courtesy of his parents. He played piano and keyboards since he was 15 years old and was in various garage bands since age 17. Joe's first recording was with his own experimental rock group Eat at Joe's while in college. Shortly after that, he had a 15-year stint in Michigan with the Detroit-based Clear Avenue Band and Flashback from Milan, MI. Once on a business trip to the UK, Joe borrowed a co-worker's keyboard and sat in at a pub's jam session. The owner thought he was pretty good, so he asked him to join the house band. That commute would be a bit rough, though...
When Joe moved back to PA, he immediately started looking for a band to play with. Intrigued by BBT from the start, he saw an ad for "Keyboardist Wanted" and jumped at the chance. Joe is married, has three kids and is a chemist by day. He says he's having a blast playing with the group — especially being with such accomplished musicians. Joe's influences include keyboard powerhouses like Pink Floyd, Deep Purple, Yes and Boston. It's easy to see he's always favored classic rock, but now he can't keep away from funk! He says being in the group definitely broadened his musical horizons which is always a good thing.
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KURT CLAUSSEN
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Kurt has been into music since he was very young. At age four, his parents stuck him in front of a piano. He took lessons for a few years before discovering the trombone at age nine during an elementary school instrument demonstration.
From that point on, music has been a very big part of his life. He was in just about every musical ensemble that he had the time for through his grade school career — both trombone and vocal — while also learning any other instrument he could get his hands on.
In 1993, he graduated high school and attended the Indiana University of Pennsylvania for Music Education, studying under Dr. Christian Dickinson, before deciding that education wasn't a career that he wanted to pursue and changed his major to Management Information Systems. He kept up with his music, however, and remained in as many musical ensembles as he could, including IUP's The Legend marching band, jazz ensemble and trombone choir.
Since then, Kurt has performed with the North Penn Community Concert Band, sang tenor in a local barbershop quartet, and was the lead singer for a cover band named Titus that performed local gigs around the Springfield, PA area.
Kurt joined up with BBT in August of 2007. He's been enjoying the hell out of it.
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