mainheader

MUSIC - N-GROOVE

ONESHEET   -   CEDRIC   -   ROBERTO   -   CHEIKH

The principles in the group are Cedric Givens, who plays drums, guitar, keyboards and other instruments. Roberto Tyson on Rhythm Guitar and Cheikh Ndoye on Bass.  Cedric and Roberto have known each other for many years.  They grew up in the Tampa Bay area and have shared a constant love of music.  Cheikh Ndoye is from Senegal and he has studied, written and played the bass most of his life. All three of them share a common point of understanding.  They all want to  create and share their music. 

Cedric, Roberto and Cheikh are "N-GROOVE" and they can be on their recent CD release "It's Who We Are" on iTunes, Napster and can also be sampled and purchased on CD-Baby.com.

N-GROOVE Onesheet

C.C Givens is the renaissance man of the group. He began his career as a drummer at an early age (what age?). Throughout his childhood development he listened to and experimented with every genre of music to which he was exposed. He was influenced by composers and producers such as Quincy Jones, Maurice White, Antonio Carlos Jobim and Burt Bacharach. Although primarily known as a drummer, he also is the bands producer and plays a variety of instruments on the CD. Currently C.C. is focused on composing and producting interesting emotionally inspiring music for the global marketplace including projects in film and urban music.

Roberto Tyson was born in Cuba, reared in Puerto Rico, the Tampa Bay area and New York City. Roberto, a prodigy in his early youth, was schooled in the ways of the grand masters of jazz guitar and played along side his father, also a guitarist, with premier musicians of the time. Young Roberto developed a reputation as ond of the best players around. Today, Roberto brings a Latin, Caribbean and traditional jazz influence to the richness of his music. His musical influences were his father (who is also a guitarist and a percussionist), West Montgomery, Joe Pass, George Benson and Pat Martino.

Cheikh Ndoye's fascination by the diverse, rich sounds and rhythms of the Senegalese music started in his prime age. Cheikh secured his first professional gig with a Dakar jazz band, Opus. The band had its first international exposure at the notable St. Louis Jazz Festival in which appeared other great jazz musicians such as Pharaoh Sanders, Jack De johnnette, Herbie Hancock and many others. Cheikh's transition from the Senegalese to the U.S. music scene was pretty smooth given his broad musical exposure back home. Furthermore, young and prominent African bass players, such as Richard Bona and Armand Sabalecco, had already paved the way and established the link for this new generation of African musicians.

Additional guest musicians on the CD are Benito Gonzales (piano), Monica Ssali (vocals), Al Williams (sax), Carl McIntyre (flugelhorn), Matvei Sigalov (electric violin), Brad Booth (electric piano), Scott Hedges (guitar), Shaun Jurek (guitar), Romero Wyatt (percussion) and Eli Staples (piano).