Nick Gravenites

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Nick Gravenites
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    Websitewww.nickgravenites.com

    Nick Gravenites (

    Electric Flag (as their lead singer), Janis Joplin, Mike Bloomfield and several influential bands and individuals of the generation springing from the 1960s and 1970s.[2] He has sometimes performed under the stage names
    Nick "The Greek" Gravenites and Gravy.

    Biography

    Gravenites was born in Chicago to a Greek-speaking family; his parents were from Palaiochori, Arcadia, in Greece. After his father died, he worked in the family candy store before he was enrolled at St. John's Northwestern Military Academy; he was expelled shortly before he was due to graduate. He then attended the University of Chicago, met Paul Butterfield and Mike Bloomfield, became a fan of blues music, and learned guitar.[3]

    He regularly patronized clubs where

    Paul Butterfield Blues Band debut album, and, with guitarist Bloomfield, co-wrote the title track of their second album, East-West; the band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2015.[4]

    Gravenites played in clubs with Mike Bloomfield, Charlie Musselwhite and others, and settled in San Francisco in the mid 1960s.[5] In 1967 he formed the Electric Flag with Bloomfield.[6] Gravenites wrote the score for the film The Trip and produced the music for the film Steelyard Blues. According to author and pop music critic Joel Selvin, Gravenites is "the original San Francisco connection for the Chicago crowd."

    Gravenites is credited as a "musical handyman", helping such San Francisco bands as

    Work Me, Lord"[6] and the unfinished instrumental track "Buried Alive in the Blues". Gravenites was the lead singer in the re-formed Big Brother and the Holding Company (without Joplin) from 1969 to 1972.[6] He also worked extensively with John Cipollina after producing the first album by Quicksilver Messenger Service.[7] He and Cipollina formed the Nick Gravenites–John Cipollina Band, which toured throughout Europe.[6]

    Gravenites produced the pop hit "

    Grammy Award. He and John Kahn produced the 1970 album Not Mellowed with Age, by Southern Comfort (CBS S 64125). Gravenites often used pianist Pete Sears in his band Animal Mind, including on his 1980 Blue Star album, on which Sears played keyboards and bass.[8]

    In the early 1980s, Gravenites performed and recorded with a revolving group of San Francisco Bay area rock, blues, and soul musicians called the Usual Suspects. Their first album, The Usual Suspects, was released in 1981. In the 1980s and 1990s, Gravenites played with Cipollina as Thunder and Lightning. Gravenites and Sears played together in front of 100,000 people on Earth Day 1990 at Crissy Field, San Francisco. Sears also joined him for a tour of Greece. Gravenites still performs live in northern California. Gravenites’ song "Born in Chicago" was honored by the Blues Hall of Fame in 2003. He has toured with the Chicago Blues Reunion and a new Electric Flag Band.[citation needed]

    Gravenites is featured in the documentary film Born in Chicago, in which he and several other Chicago natives tell of growing up with blues music in Chicago. The film was shown at the

    SXSW festival in Austin, Texas, in 2013. He resides in Occidental, California.[7]

    Discography

    Albums

    References

    1. ^ Gravenites, Nick; Hummel, Mark (November 9, 2022). Nick Gravenites, Pt. 1 (Interview). Event occurs at 0:34. Retrieved February 25, 2024.
    2. All Media Network
      . Retrieved May 10, 2015.
    3. ISSN 1091-7543
      .
    4. ISBN 978-0753502266
      .
    5. ^ "Nick Gravenites", All About Blues Music. Retrieved 1 May 2020
    6. ^
      ISBN 0-85112-673-1
      .
    7. ^ a b Hildebrand, Lee (September 15, 2003). "Nick Gravenites plays the Valley Blues Festival". San Francisco Chronicle.
    8. ^ Bluestar at Discogs. Retrieved 22 June 2020

    External links

    Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nick_Gravenites&oldid=1219954560"