Here’s one more in our series of blog posts that showcase some of our Music Analysts. Much of the musical output of Pandora staff doesn’t happen to be in our collection, but we thought you might like to know of some Pandora stations that feature the men and women who analyze all of the music you listen to! (click here for the first , second and third Analyst spotlights.)
Jeff Anthony, Pandora’s percussionist extraordinaire (pictured here), has quite the impressive resume. In addition to playing live with all manner of accomplished musicians, he shows up playing the drums on the following Pandora stations. Sheryl Crow: I think you may have heard of her? Jeff drums on her C’mon C’mon album, a personal favorite of mine. He also plays with the all-Pandora band Michael Zapruder’s Rain of Frogs, who just released a new CD (more on them next week). You can find him on the Dahlia station, which is an electronic duo, and on the Tom Varley and the Sun Dogs station, who describe themselves as “good ol’ fashion tiki bar music from Portland.”
Jeff’s drumming can also be found on a Jenny Kerr station, which features roots & blues harmonica-driven Americana. He spent much of last year touring internationally with the Eric McFadden Trio, a brilliant, frighteningly unique psycho rock band that’s difficult not to love. (update: Jeff tells me that he also did a lot of touring internationally with Chuck Prophet last year.)
Evan Francis, who may well win the prize for Smilingest Music Analyst, shows up on several Pandora stations as well. He plays sax in The Ian Carey Quintet, which is jazz, and also with The Industrial Jazz Group. You can also hear him on Spaceheater radio, in the vein of instrumental hiphop/downtempo electronica.
Marina Garza, one of our newest hires, is one of our Latin Music Specialists. She plays with the Orquesta D’Soul, which she describes as Latin Salsa Pop. I notice that Pandora refers to their music as having “danceable grooves.” I concur.
Tom Griesser plays sax in the Brass Monkey Brass Band, a high-octane 8-piece ensemble in the style of the Dirty Dozen Brass Band and the ReBirth Brass Band, with a lineup of trumpets, trombones, saxophones, tuba, and drums. In addition to their fiery original compositions, their repertoire ranges from traditional New Orleans favorites such as “When The Saints Go Marching In” to renditions of tunes by Zappa and Led Zeppelin.
…and more of Pandora’s Music Analysts…
by Pandora on July 13, 2006