A live version of Chick Corea’s “Spain” featuring Joe Deninzon, Rachel Flowers, and Testament’s Alex Skolnick will be on all streaming media on October 7. “Spain” is one of 16 live songs that will be on the upcoming Joe Deninzon & Stratospheerius “Behind the Curtain: Live at ProgStock” box set out November 18. (There will be a streaming digital release of just the live music on October 28.)
Joe, Rachel, and Alex are hinting there’ll be a live music video of the song coming to YouTube in the near future; stay tuned for announcements on all their social media linked on their websites (www.JoeDeninzon.com, www.Stratospheerius.com, www.AlexSkolnick.com, www.RachelFlowers.com).
The performances on the live release took place in 2019 and 2021. “Spain” was taken from the ’21 performance. Joe says it was a spontaneous decision to play “Spain” with his friends, “One of the perks of being a jazz musician is that you can walk into a room anywhere in the world, jump on stage with people you’ve never met who may or may not speak your language, and weave together a spontaneous concert based on a shared musical language.”
On October 2nd, 2021, when the late great John Goodsall from Brand X fell ill, Stratospheerius was asked last minute to headline ProgStock, the biggest prog rock festival in the Northeastern U.S. Preceding Stratospheerius’ set was the amazing multi-instrumentalist Rachel Flowers, who recently contributed her talents to the band’s single, “Storm Surge.” Later that night bassist Percy Jones had a set, which included guitarist Alex Skolnick, a former member of Stratospheerius. Joe says, “We decided to play Chick Corea’s ‘Spain,’ a song we all knew well.” Without any rehearsal, and Alex and Rachel meeting each other for the first time on stage, they created magic.
Led by electric violinist/vocalist Joe Deninzon, who has been called “The Jimi Hendrix of the electric violin,”Stratospheerius have showcased their “frenzied mélange of progressive rock, jazz fusion and funkabilly” throughout the world. Band members are: Joe Deninzon-electric violin/vocals (Bruce Springsteen, Renaissance, The Who, Ritchie Blackmore, Trans-Siberian Orchestra), Jason Gianni-drums (The Ultimate Queen Celebration, Trans-Siberian Orchestra, Rock of Ages, Neal Morse Band), Michaelangelo Quirinale-guitar (Thrilldriver), and Paul Ranieri-bass (Mark Wood, Circuline, Rock This Town).
Their last album, Guilty of Innocence hit number 4 on the Relix/Jamband radio charts, 72 on the European Indy charts. Their music has received over 3 million plays online, and the band has opened for John5, Martin Barre, Gary Hoey, The Levin Brothers (Tony and Pete), Tim Reynolds, Mickey Hart, Mark Wood, and John Scofield. Stratospheerius was a winner of the John Lennon International Songwriting Competition, and the Musician’s Atlas Independent Music Awards.
