This week, Ira spoke with Casey Abrams, performing at Vic’s Las Vegas March 1-2. In this episode of “Talk About Las Vegas With Ira,” Casey talks about his early years in Idyllwild, California; learning from Marshall Hawkins, the jazz bass maestro, at the Idyllwild Arts Academy; why he loves jazz and how it gives just a plot, not the whole story; why he was attracted to the bass; the benefits of the travel bass; his performance in “American Idol”; why he ended up singing and playing bass at the same time; dealing with his ulcerative colitis; deciding to give up sugar and bread; and his sense of joy on stage.
Casey’s own jazz and funk-based solo career has landed him at Carnegie Hall with the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra, at LA’s Catalina Jazz Club to perform with Jack Black and Tenacious D, Basel, Switzerland, and at the Playboy Jazz Festival at the Hollywood Bowl. He has performed often for charities and special events, and was an Official Spokesperson for the national Crones Colitis Foundation.
And as a solo performer, and with his own rotating band of jazz/funk/rock/pop musicians, Casey has for years been hugely popular on social media, scoring almost 400,000,000 views of his own music videos and appearances throughout the internet and on his own YouTube channel.
Casey’s music career has been filled with both joy and constant innovation, resulting in inventive digital music productions and special stage performance moments that are free-spirited, loving and authentic. He is in love with his job: the delivery of his own unique personalized music experience, for each individual digital fan and for each individual audience in intimate clubs up to vast theaters and stages all around the world.
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