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Through the years Willis has played with musicians
like Wayne Shorter, Allan Holdsworth, Hubert Laws, Simon
Phillips, Joe Diorio, Robben Ford, and Phil Upchurch,
as well as being the co-leader of Tribal Tech. In sixteen
years of co-leading Tribal Tech with guitarist Scott
Henderson, the band produced nine critically acclaimed
CD's, (the last one, Rocket Science, was released in
2000) Willis launched his solo career with the September
1996 release of No Sweat, featuring incredible performances
by Dennis Chambers on drums, Scott Kinsey on keyboards,
and Steve Tavaglione on woodwinds and EWI. For the 1998
follow up Bent, in addition to Chambers, Kinsey and
Tavaglione, Willis added the fiery tenor of Bob Berg
and long time Tribal Tech cohort/drummer Kirk Covington.
The Texas native studied arranging and improvisation
as part of the legendary jazz program at North Texas
State University. As of 2004, Willis became a Barcelona,
Spain resident and spends part of his time as a professor
of composition, arranging, improvisation and bass at
Barcelona's prestigious Escola Superior de Musica de
Catalunya conservatory. For more information, check
out Gary
Willis' website.
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