Sting (Presidential Inauguration)
Crispin performed with Sting at the first inauguration of Barack Obama as the 44th President of the United States. Sting, is an English musician, singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, activist, actor, and philanthropist. He was the principal songwriter, lead singer, and bassist for the new wave rock band the Police from 1977 to 1983, before launching a solo career. Tuesday, January 20, 2009 was a “Brand New Day”, indeed.
Piano Man Billy Joel at the White House
Billy Joel is an American pianist, singer-songwriter, and composer. Since releasing his first hit song, “Piano Man”, in 1973, he has become the sixth best-selling recording artist and the third best-selling solo artist in the United States. Crispin Cioe performed with Billy Joel at the White House for the Gershwin Prize honoring Carole King..
Carole King (The Today Show)
Carole King is an American composer and singer-songwriter. She was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for her songwriting. She is the recipient of the 2013 Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song, the first woman to be so honored.
Godfather of Soul James Brown
Crispin Cioe has performed with James Brown, an American singer, songwriter, dancer and founding father of funk music often referred to as “The Godfather of Soul”. The sax solo at end of the James Brown hit “Living in America” from the Movie “Rocky IV”, that’s all Cris.
Vice President Joe Biden
Vice President Joseph Biden is an American politician who is the 47th and current Vice President of the United States, jointly elected twice with President Barack Obama, and in office since 2009. A member of the Democratic Party, Biden represented Delaware as a United States Senator from 1973 until becoming Vice President in 2009.
Debbie Wasserman Schultz
Debbie Wasserman Schultz is the U.S. Representative for Florida’s 23rd congressional district, a member of the Democratic Party and the Chair of the Democratic National Committee. Crispin met her at the White House as Co-Musical Director for the Gershwin Prize honoring Carole King.
Comedian Lewis Black
Crispin worked with Comedian Lewis Black at the Mark Twain Prize for Comedy in DC. Black is known as the comedic king of the rant. His career exploded in the late 1990s when he became a guest commentator on the humorous news show The Daily Show. His success on the show led to numerous stand-up specials, including Black on Broadway and Red, White, and Screwed for HBO.
Kathie Lee Gifford and Frank Gifford
Kathie Lee Gifford an American television host, singer, songwriter, comedian, and actress, best known for her 15-year run (1985–2000) on the talk show Live! with Regis and Kathie Lee, which she co-hosted with Regis Philbin. She married sports commentator Frank Gifford in 1986. Crispin met the couple at the Fairmont Copley Plaza in Boston at the wedding of Kyle Kennedy and Liam Kerr, where his band Cracked Ice performed.
JukeBox Hero Lou Gramm (Foreigner)
Lou Gramm is an American rock vocalist, and songwriter, best known for being the original lead singer for the British-American rock band Foreigner. His hits include Ballads like “I Want To Know What Love Is” and “Waiting For A Girl Like You” and rockers like “Cold As Ice” and “Hot Blooded”.
Singer Actor Kevin Bacon
Kevin Bacon is an American actor and musician who has a rock band with his brother Michael called The Bacon Brothers. He also is the icon of the parlor game “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon” in which movie buffs challenge each other to find the shortest path between an arbitrary actor and the prolific Bacon. So if you know Cris, you are at a minimum Bacon’s second degree. He stepped up for an impromptu performance with Crispin’s Cracked Ice Band at the wedding of famed screenwriter David Koep.
Ben E. King
Ben E. King was an American soul and R&B singer and record producer. He was one of the principal lead singers of the R&B vocal group the Drifters and is best known as the singer and co-composer of “Stand by Me”, a US Top 10 hit, both in 1961 and later in 1986 and 1987 when it was used as the theme for a film by the same name.
The Hives
The Hives are a Swedish rock band that rose to prominence in the early 2000s during the garage rock revival. Their mainstream success came with the release of the album Veni Vidi Vicious, containing the anthem “Hate to Say I Told You So”. Crispin Cioe and fellow Uptown Hornsman Arno Hecht performed with the band at Irving Plaza.
Magic Dick and Seth Justman (J Geils)
Crispin is a Co-Founder of the Uptown Horns, a plug-and-play horn section that goes way back with The J. Geils Band. The Uptown Horns have toured with the J. Geils Band and have performed on their albums.. The legendary Boston-based band’s hits include “Freeze Frame” and their single, “Centerfold,” which charted No. 1 in the United States in the early 1980’s.
Danny Klein (J Geils)
Daniel Klein is an American bassist best known as a member of The J. Geils Band. While attending college in Boston he met musicians John Geils and Richard Salwitz and formed a jug band. When Peter Wolf, Seth Justman and Stephen Jo Bladd joined in, they became The J. Geils Band. He also leads his own band, Danny Klein’s Full House, which performs J. Geils Band songs.
Magic Dick (J Geils)
Richard “Magic Dick” Salwitz is an American musician, and the harmonica player for The J. Geils Band. In addition to the harmonica, Magic Dick plays the trumpet (the first instrument he learned) and saxophone. He attended Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Worcester, Massachusetts, where he met John “J” Geils and Danny Klein and became a founding member of The J. Geils Band.
Guitarist Binky Griptite
Binky Griptite is a songwriter, producer, and vocalist best known as the guitarist and emcee for Sharon Jones and The Dap-Kings. They are spearheads of a revivalist movement that aims to capture the essence of funk/soul music as it was at its height in the mid-1960s to mid-1970s.
William Bell
Crispin with William Bell, an American soul singer and songwriter. He is probably best known for 1961’s “You Don’t Miss Your Water” (his debut single); 1968’s “Private Number” (a duet with Judy Clay, and a top 10 hit in the UK); and 1976’s “Tryin’ to Love Two”, Bell’s only US top 40 hit, which also hit No. 1 on the R&B charts.
Famed R&B musician Andre Williams
Zephire Andre Williams is an American R&B musician who started his career in the 1950s at Fortune Records in Detroit. His most famous songs include the hits “Bacon Fat” and “Cadillac Jack”. He is also the co-author of the R&B hit “Shake a Tail Feather”.
Andricka Hall & Cheryl Freeman ( J Geils)
Vocalists Andricka Hall has performed with the likes of Alicia Keys, Diana Ross, Annie Lennox, Freddie Jackson, and Chaka Khan. Cheryl Freeman has starred in The Who’s Tommy as “The Acid Queen”, Play On as “Vy/Vy-Man”, and The Civil War as “Bessie Toler” (Drama Desk and Outer Critic Circle Award Nominations).
Al Kooper and The Uptown Horns
Crispin Cioe with his fellow Uptown Horns members Arno Hecht, Bob Bunk and Larry Etkin with Al Kooper at a J Geils Band performance in Boston. Al Kooper is an American songwriter, record producer and musician who had played the signature organ riff on Bob Dylan’s “Like A Rolling Stone”.
Crispin Cioe and Al Kooper
Al Kooper is an American songwriter, record producer and musician, known for organizing Blood, Sweat & Tears, providing studio support for Bob Dylan when he went electric in 1965, and also bringing together guitarists Mike Bloomfield and Stephen Stills to record the Super Session album.
BluesHoF
Crispin Cioe Blues Hall of Fame Award