Guitar
|
 |
Eldon is a highly sough-after guitarist, composer, arranger, and educator originally from Leonia, New Jersey. He received his musical training in the garage bands of northern New Jersey and the classrooms, practice rooms, and performance halls of Howard University and Norfolk State University. He has performed with a wide variety of artists and entertainers to include Il Divo, The Miracles, Ann Hampton Callaway, Bernadette Peters, and The Queens of Soul.
His abilities as a fretted and stringed multi-instrumentalist have garnered him positions in musical theater productions to include Chicago, Legally Blonde, Beautiful, Mame, The Last Five Years, Grease, Sister Act, Matilda, and Children of Eden. Of particular note is the world premier performances of the musical Stranger, with music written by Grammy-winning artist Bruce Hornsby. Eldon stays busy with performances as a solo guitarist, and in jazz, rock, pop and worship ensembles.
Eldon began his journey with Windborne Music in August 2010, performing with the Indianapolis Symphony orchestra. Since then, he has performed with some of the finest symphony orchestras across the nation and Canada to include the Atlanta, Pittsburgh, Toronto, Utah, and Fort Worth Symphonies. After his first performances, he became a regular guitarist for Windborne Music shows, performing The Music of Pink Floyd, The Music of Prince, The Music of David Bowie, The Music of The Rolling Stones, and The Music of Whitney Houston and others.
He has self-produced two full-length CD projects; First Things First and Back 2 Basics. These projects focus on his instrumental composition and arranging skills, production skills as well as his prowess on the acoustic and electric guitars.
Eldon was also the first place winner in Roland Corporation’s Guitar Synth Challenge. He was selected from an extremely competitive field. He composed and arranged an original piece for this competition and displayed his skill as composer, arranger, and performer using Roland Guitar Synthesizer equipment.
It is an honor to be part of this musical organization that brings high energy performances with symphony orchestras to audiences nationwide.
|
What equipment/instruments do you use?:
Out of a beautiful collection of fine instruments, I select from a super smooth, custom made Zion Turbo guitar with two stacked single coil pickups and one humbucker pickup, and Floyd Rose tremolo, a Fender Stratocaster with 3 stacked single coil pickups—my first electric guitar, and a Line 6 Variax that was designed by master guitar builder James Tyler. These three instruments offer the flexibility to perform a wide variety of musical styles. The James Tyler Variax adds the capability of playing in alternate tunings and accessing acoustic guitar and sitar sounds all in one instrument!
Since there are no onstage amps, I have used guitar effects processors by Boss and Zoom that offer a great direct sound. I currently use the Line 6 Helix floorboard which gives me access to an unlimited amount of amp tones and effects that are necessary to recreate the music of the above mentioned artists.
Who are some of your favorite artists?:
Definitely Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton in rock, Wes Montgomery, George Benson, Miles Davis and John Coltrane in jazz, Brent Mason and Brad Paisley in country, Andres Segovia and John Williams in classical guitar, and Tommy Emmanuel and Peter Huttlinger in fingerstyle acoustic to name a few!!
Tell us about performing Windborne Music shows and how it impacts you:
The music of the artists brings back pleasant memories of when I was first learning to play guitar. I would learn these songs by listening to the music over and over until I got the right notes and sounds. Performing these songs with world class symphony orchestras is such a bonus because I get to hear the sound of real strings, brass, woodwinds, and percussion on all sides of me!! The audiences that receive this music impact me greatly. I can see them singing along and since they know all the words to every song!! It is also great to get to talk with some of them after the show.
What's on your iPod?:
A wide variety of music from rock to jazz to country to classical to Rhythm and Blues to acoustic music!! I love groups like Chicago and Toto and will occasional binge on their entire collection over a week or so. I like being exposed to new music that shows off an artist’s virtuosic abilities.
|
