DORADO: Dorado Sound

Dorado

Dorado Sound

© 2007 Kemai Records (678277142220)

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Funky drums, deep bass, big horns, and smooth vocals. A melting pot of rock, jazz and funk creates a rich and layered sound. The Dorado sound.

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Dorado : Golden.

Dorado is a groove-based rock band from Portland, Oregon comprised of Sky Cooper (guitar, vocals), Johnny G (bass), Steve Ellingson (keys), and Chris Foster (drums).

According to founder Sky Cooper, the creation of the band was a slow evolution.“I’ve had the project going for 5 years.,” he said. “It’s only since this lineup has solidified that the real nature of the beast has manifested itself as a kind of hybrid between a hip hop flavored rhythm section with a rock frosting.”

From its early days with New York session drummer Joe Trump and Minneapolis bass player Keith Watson, Dorado has been taking its lifeblood from the rhythm section.

“I admire good pop songs, and hooks and all that, but if I can’t move to it, it’s not totally grabbing me,” said Cooper. “The same can be said about the jam band circuit; there are a lot of killer musicians out there taking solos for 20 minutes on solid grooves, but there isn’t any compelling lyric or structure to bring it together.”

Cooper is an Australian ex-patriot who studied with music legend Yusef Lateef at Elliott Smith’s alma mater, Hampshire College. He then spent three years traveling between continents, couch surfing at friend’s places. This long stint of homelessness sated some of Sky’s wanderlust, but starting a working band remained elusive.

Just before 9/11 he was in northern Queensland [Australia] playing bluegrass covers at an outback pub with an 80-year-old bass player and getting heckled by the crowd for his American accent. “Things weren’t going exactly to plan, Actually the truth was I hadn’t conceived a particularly good plan anyway. I had just fallen off the map all together,” he said.

So Cooper returned to San Francisco in 2002 and recorded an acoustic EP follow-up to his 2000 solo effort “Wednesday,” called “Coffeehouse.” Then a short skip to Portland, Oregon spun the wheels that grew into Dorado.

After four years of lineup changes, the group solidified. Steve Ellingson was the first current member to join Dorado. A talented keyboard player who moonlighted with numerous groups, he was brought in for a gig in 2005. With no chance to rehearse beforehand, it was a “seat of the pants” night.

“I got a CD in the mail from Sky and showed up to the gig with an arsenal of keyboards to play in front of four people,” said Ellingson. His sound quickly jelled and his Moog lines soon became a fixture of Dorado’s sound.

Johnny G was a bass player in search of a band. Raised in Florida, and playing in groups his whole life, he had moved to Oregon in 2004. After a few auditions, he had decided maybe Portland’s alternative rock-laden scene didn’t have the funky group he was after. Then in 2006 a friend suggested he check out a local funk group called Dorado.

“I had just let our last bass player go, and was feeling pretty burnt out on the whole band thing. Out of nowhere I got a myspace message from a bass player that had tried out 6 months previous saying if we still needed someone his friend from Florida was the perfect guy. He was right,” said Cooper.

The first few shows went well, but original drummer Joe Trump was taking on tours in Japan and Europe with a fusion band and couldn’t spare the extra time for Dorado rehearsals. Sky remembers, “a guy contacted Joe through the Dorado website and offered him well paid overseas gigs. How can you refuse that? We just had to find someone with his chops, which amazingly, we did.”

Their search ended with drum phenomenon Chris Foster. Son of virtuoso B3 organist Ronnie Foster (Stevie Wonder, George Benson), Chris grew up in a music-rich environment and had his first tour at age 14. Foster’s touring track record was solid and he was making good money as a sideman, but was finding himself frustrated with the lack of creative input. Chris left his steady gig in Vegas and took a leap of faith, returning to Portland in search of something he could add his own voice to.

“Dorado finally gave me a forum to speak my mind, and not have to play just for a pay check,” says Foster.

With plenty of shows booked Dorado is finally starting to find its stride in the live arena with tight, dynamic shows. According to Johnny G, “What I love about this band is the chemistry live. We can read off each other and anticipate changes. ” Ellingson adds, “For us, playing live is the nuts and bolts of being musicians.”

In between their regular NW dates in 2009 it’s back to the studio.

“I’m excited about heading into the studio. On the last album I had 26 people come in to record but no real core group. On this one it’s more about what we do as four people live on stage. Who we are as a band,” said Cooper.

Portland engineer/musician and owner of 8 Ball studios Rob Stroup worked on Dorado’s 2007 debut. He says of the band, “Dorado combines musical sophistication with funky badass grooves and raw talent. I hear everything from Steely Dan to Beck to funk bands from the 70's like Tower of Power. Then take a smooth breathy vocal delivery and clever melodic choices to add over the top. It is really groovy stuff and the level of musicianship frankly puts your average shoe-gazer-four-chord band to shame."

That musical breath of fresh air helped “Dorado Sound” get played on 74 college stations throughout the nation. In September 2007, Budweiser selected them to be their “Premier Band.”

According to Cooper, the experience helped them realize what their priorities are. “The corporate acknowledgement was cool but a bit weird. They buried us on their website somewhere. There is this Cinderella complex musicians develop with the internet- like some fairy godmother corporation or record label is going to come along and take care of all the foot work involved in being a working band. Ultimately it’s more important for us to play a strong show and leave some smiling faces. Music has to be more than a catchy jingle. It has to live in the real world and bring good energy.”

www.doradosound.com
www.myspace.com/doradosound



LOVE THEM!
"You don't have the words above to describe what I just heard!
Send the CD on as they will be added to the playlist IMMEDIATELY!!"
- Duane Lamb [DJ: IMC Radio]

9 out of 10 stars!
"... a feast to be enjoyed by all hungry listeners"
- Indie Music Stop

Guaranteed to go places;
"Dorado has a warm, bright, and intelligent sound that will appeal to anybody
that loves to hear a myriad of licks from all instruments. Excellent production
and song content. Anyone would like this music.”
- Kentucky Streams [Radio Program]

Praise For Sky Cooper’s previous solo Album:

“Popular sound and appeal: Sky Cooper's song [better days] was chosen from many other independent artists to be featured on our show for it's popular sound and promise to appeal to viewers of all ages. He made many fans, as suspected, and had one of the most downloaded songs when it was featured on our [ABC Family] website.“
Lindsay Moore- television producer, ABC-Family

”Sky picks up where guys like Dave Matthews and John Mayer leave off and takes it in a new, rich, jazzy, funky, soulful, carefully-crafted direction. I'm telling all my buddies to check his stuff out."
Cas Lucas - Bay Area Musician

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  • wide appeal, variety of styles, rich musical texture
    author: Martha Mollison

    Dorado Sound is a pleasure to listen to because of the rich music texture with so many and various layers of sound. Each song is quite different from the next and the style of each is well linked to the thoughts expressed by the lyrics. I think this album would appeal to a wide age range because of both its musical and poetic qualities.

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