Profusely creative, high energy, innovative, sensitive and yet dynamic,
would be a few terms that could describe the multifaceted musical
genius and artistry of this composer, producerand instrumentalist.
(Piano, Synthesizer and Electric Bass)
If
music was a “box of colored crayons”, Newton has expanded
the color palette ten-fold. His rich, expanded sounds, extended chordal
developments and harmonics, along with his historic rhythmic vocabulary
delivers the listener into a mind opening experience. His concerts
feature the “Novaphonic Sound” - Newton’s acclaimed
richly resonant system of Quartal and Quintal harmonics,
never previously explored to this depth, both artistically and scientifically
recognized body of work as a true evolution in music harmony.
The
Michelangelo of piano and keyboards, he leaves you awestruck with
his dense and broad spectrum of sounds.
Antonio Newton is also a talented, highly creative music director
and composer, conductor and multi-instrumentalist who has written
and played on movie soundtracks and scores, as well as a multitude
of recordings dating back over 30 years as a prolific, but behind
the scenes musician’s musician and versatile music industry veteran.
Within a year of taking up the electric bass, he was playing sax and
guitar with blues great John Lee Hooker, T-Bone Walker
and other well-known blues artists at age 14. This was not without
first receiving initial recognition as an accomplished saxophone and
woodwinds player in various orchestras and ensembles.
Newton’s
career includes participation with various artists on recordings with
over 25 million units in sales and several Gold records. He has recorded
and toured with rock, pop and R&B’s most celebrated artists
such as Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder, Smokey Robinson, Aretha
Franklin, Little Richard and British rock guitar legend Gary Moore
and G-Force. After his contribution to the Motown family and
before moving onto his next level of advancement, he left his trademark
of solid, hard driving, and deftly clever grooves on such timeless
hits as “Baby Love”, “Where Did Our Love Go”,
and “Stop In The Name of Love” with Diana Ross
and the Supremes, “ABC” with Michael
Jackson & The Jackson 5, “Nowhere To Run”
with Martha and the Vandellas, and “More than
Happy” with Stevie Wonder, as well as many
others.
Newton
established himself as one if the most versatile players, composers
and producers in his field. After 6 years as music director
and bassist with Smokey Robinson, he moved on
from musical director to become a producer, composer, staff musician
and artist for Invictus/Hot Wax Records continuing to
play on even more hit recordings. This label was guided by ex-Motown
songwriter-producer legends Holland-Dozier-Holland.
It was with this label, as bandleader-producer, that he received his
first Gold Record for his first group The 8th Day’s hit, “She’s
Not Just Another Woman”.
His
career took another upward turn during his years with jazz fusion
drummer Tony Williams group, The Tony Williams Lifetime,
both as bassist and composer on some of jazz fusion’s most timeless
classics such as “Red Alert”, “Snake Oil”,
“Joy Filled Summer” and “Inspirations of Love”,
establishing him as one of the founding architects of jazz-rock fusion
music.
During
his five year stint with Thelma Huston as music
director, keyboardist and producer/songwriter for the
film soundtrack song “Hold On”, Newton segued his
talents into soundtrack work.
In
addition, Newton’s bass work is featured on Academy Award
winning movie soundtracks that include “An Officer
and a Gentlemen”, “Breathless”, and his keyboard
and compositions are on various other film and video productions,
such as the Martin Luther King Awards and NASA flight
to view Halley’s Comet.
A
forever evolving performer, his works encompass rhythm & blues,
jazz and rock fusion, symphonic compositions, funk, rock, jazz and
new age. Adding to his music education, Newton earned an AA honors
degree from Los Angeles College and a Honors Bachelor degree in Theory,
Composition and Piano from Mount St. Mary’s College in Los Angeles,
sister school of UCLA. He also studied privately with keyboard scholar
Dr. Howard Barr and Olga Leitmekov, who have direct links to historical
master classical composer-keyboardists, Donanyi and Chopin.
He received an appointment as Dean of Electronic and Commercial Music
at the University of Sound Arts and taught MIDI at Los Angeles City
College Community Services.
He
plays with a profoundly dynamic emotional range and highly innovative,
creative expression. His years as a bassist and bass clarinetist have
developed Newton’s strong rhythmic fortitude and given him a
strong and vibrant approach to deliver dynamic, monster left-hand
bass parts on piano.
No
stranger to the performance arena, Newton’s One-Man Multi-media
Concert is a tribute to the man himself. His Novaphonic Evening put
his talents, theories and music into orbit. With his many keyboards,
computers, video-visuals, transparency projections and his ever handy
“axe”, Antonio takes his audience into areas where he hopes
they will “feel deeper, think broader and discover an awareness
of their human potential”. In his own evolutionary career,
Antonio L. Newton is contributing many distinctive elements to contemporary
music and performance. “What I’m trying to do is push
aside old thinking patterns and thoughts about music and really put
some new thinking and awareness about sound, composition, and presentation,
as well as tuning into your own possibilities and reaching toward
higher paths. I am a big believer in the human potential movement.”
