Bio
Byron Santo - bassist, author/educator, multi-instrumentalist, sequencing/recording/mastering engineer, writer and producer began his musical career in his early teens by starting on trumpet, two years later, he switched to French Horn and began studying with renown French horn player/educator/composer Earl Fox. This lead to numerous awards in district and state level competitions.
By his late teens, guitar fever struck and that was the birth of Byron’s self-instruction endeavors. After 2-3 years on intensive studying and practicing on guitar Byron decided to add yet another instrument to his repertoire, the bass guitar, which eventually become his primary instrument. In the years to follow, Byron toured the country in numerous cover bands.
Upon his return to New Orleans in 1987, Byron won the “Best Bass Guitar Player” Contest. As time progressed, Byron became interested in keyboards and the art of sequencing. Once again, he resorted to self-instruction and spent numerous hours mastering the skills of sequencing as well as developing his keyboard skills, which would eventually lead to his secondary instrument, keyboard bass. His newly acquired skills became a major asset in a variety of bands ranging from metal, top-40 and wedding genres throughout New Orleans. The next stage in Byron’s musical evolution was the art of recording and mastering. Through endless hours of study and ear training courses Byron developed his recording and mastering skills.
In 1996, Byron joined forces with Sherreece (www.Sherreece.com), an up and coming New Orleans singer/songwriter. Together they have five CD’s to their credits and numerous gigs throughout the United States. Two of their CD’s are signed to St. Roch Records of New Orleans LA. Their music has received airplay on AC40 format stations in many markets throughout the U.S. in 2000-2001 and received number one hit status on MP3.com numerous times. One song in particular, “Wings” received airplay on Christian Radio stations throughout Canada during 2002 and was also included in a missionary effort to introduce Christian Music artists to Africa. The video's “New Age Dawning’ and ‘When I Die’ were in regular rotation on IMNTV which broadcasted nationally via cable.
In early 2001, an unfortunate event struck Byron; he was diagnosed with Thoracic Outlet Syndrome and was unable to play for 8 months. During his rehab period, Byron developed a computer program that created numerous exercise permutations to assist in his recovery on bass guitar. These exercises eventually lead to Byron’s first book, “Byron Santo's Picking Hand Grimoirium” which was independently released in mid 2002. Recently the “Picking Hand Grimoirium” has been compared to, by the world-renowned guitarist Ney Mello (www.neymello.com), to the works of “PAT MARTINO in terms of conceptually innovative and penetrating insights in the nature of the instrument”. Towards the end of 2002, Byron independently released his second book, “Byron Santo's Scale And Note Sequence Formula Grimoirium”. The release of Byron’s books lead to numerous online bass lessons and an Editors Choice award from Truefire.com. In mid 2003, Byron & Sherreece created the 3-piece cover Top-40 dance band “Trinity” (www.Trinity-nola.com).
In the later part of 2003, Byron’s online bass lessons became available on Mel Bay’s “Bass Sessions” web site. In the earlier part 2004 Byron received a bass endorsement from Boyd Basses of New Orleans and has started working on his third book, “The Bass Grimoirium”. Byron’s third book will sure to be groundbreaking in the bass educational community. It will combine Motor Skill development, Neurological Pattern Programming, Anatomy and Bass Guitar technique into a systematic approach to developing a solid foundation for the beginner to advanced bassist. In March of 2004 Byron joined forces with bassist extraordinaire, Scott Hubbell (hubbell.bassically.com & www.scotthubbell.com) to form the bass duo, Girth.
Awards
2004 - Truefire.com Editors Choice Award for the Sherreece single titled "Where Is The Love"
2003 - Truefire.com Editors Choice Award for the book "The Picking Hand Grimoirium"
1987 - Best Bass Player In New Orleans Contest
