Les Fradkin has been on the cutting edge of Guitar Synthesis since the dawn of MIDI back in 1983. But his experience with synthesis and sampling stretches even further back to 1970 when he began a long and distinguished career as an Artist, Composer, Producer and session Mellotron and Guitar player in New York City and London.
He's a Guitar Synthesizer Virtuoso and 21st Century music innovator on the Starr Labs Ztar. He was an original member of The Broadway Show-"Beatlemania" when he portrayed George Harrison and played 6 String and 12 String lead guitar in the hit Broadway musical from 1977 through 1979. He found success as a recording artist,composer and producer with MGM Sunflower, ESP-Disk', Bell, Arista, RCA, and Laurie Records. Les was discovered by John Hammond Sr. and Tony Orlando and originally signed to Columbia Records and April-Blackwood Music back in 1969. Les has written the well known French hit "La Chansons Des Souvenirs" ("Song Of A Thousand Voices") for the famous Mireille Mathieu.
In the early 70's, his 12-String Guitar, Bass Guitar and Mellotron playing was a big contributor to The Godz on ESP-Disk. He recorded three albums with the group including the Thornton, Fradkin & Unger collector's classic "Pass On This Side" which continues to be highly sought after to this day.
In 1976, Les was selected over thousands of other auditioning guitarists to appear in the original cast of the smash hit Broadway musical "Beatlemania" playing lead guitar and the part of "George Harrison" in New York City, Los Angeles and Chicago. Running for two and a half years from May 1977 thru October 1979, every show (including over 1200 in New York alone) was sold out and the musicians quickly became celebrities with magazine cover stories ("Newsweek","Time", "People", "Rolling Stone") and many major television show appearances. With his guitar-playing in the international spotlight from the show, Fradkin developed a cult following that has avidly followed his career and made him a celebrity among guitar fans.
In the early 80's, he pioneered the introduction of tapeless MIDI recording with the SynthAxe, Roland Guitar Synthesizer and Yamaha DX7 and TX816 synthesizers recorded with the Yamaha QX1 sequencer and Synclavier 3200 in soap opera music. He also composed and programmed numerous successful jingles and movie soundtracks as well as many game show themes. He worked for Score Productions and ABC TV in New York City, wrote many national jingles (for such products as Cheerios, Campbel's Soup, Nestle's, Crisco,, American Express), 4 movie soundtracks and co wrote, programmed and played on all the music for the soap Opera "One Life To Live" for ABC-TV from 1984 thru 1988. He was the first composer to record entirely "Direct-To-Disk" in New York City. His sonic innovations at that time with the SynthAxe, Synclavier, Yamaha DX7, TX816 Digital Synthesizers and the Yamaha QX1 Sequencer earned him great accolades in the TV industry and established him as "Dr. MIDI." His dramatic ability with Scoring Cues as well as full blown themes blazed a trail that he continues today.
He has enjoyed chart success on the net as well with his songs reaching mp3.com's 1 position 16 times! New Gandy Dancer Rock Magazine named Les' CD "A Day At The Beach" it's 2004 Album Of The Year. In addition, Les has performed with The Ventures as 2nd Lead Guitarist. Nokie Edwards of The Ventures has performed with Les on several occasions and is a featured guest on his "While My Guitar Only Plays" CD. In fact, Les has been acknowledged as a guitar virtuoso for over 30 years and he has been featured in issues of 20th Century Guitar Magazine, Pipeline and New Gandy Dancer Magazines.
Today, Les has released 15 solo CD's on his RRO Entertainment Indie label and has had over 300,000 downloads bringing him several substantial hits on Apple iTunes and other download sites across the Internet.
After recording and releasing several successful Guitar Synthesizer Instrumental CD's since 2005, featuring Guitar Pitch to MIDI Technology, Les felt the need to break through existing barriers he had experienced since the dawn of MIDI. Although he once owned and used a SynthAxe MIDI Controller, the company had long ceased doing business and there seemed to be very little to choose from in the way of advanced MIDI control that a virtuso guitarist could play in real time with reliable and predictable results with modern music technology. Always on the lookout for a MIDI Guitar that could track as fast as he could play, he discovered the Starr Labs Ztar in the Summer of 2007 which, unexpectedly, opened up a whole new Universe of performance and expressive possibilities for him as a composer, musician and guitar synthesist.
As a result of acquiring this new instrument, Les has chosen to gravitate away from traditional guitar based pop music and his current work involves the music and dynamic of Electronic sound as realized from the performance control of the Ztar. Searching for a means that could transport the listener to new realms of experience, he found himself now able to single-handedly orchestrate entire new worlds of sonic tapestry in real time with perfect tracking which were never before possible from previous MIDI Guitar technology. An entirely new merging of mind, heart, and computer technology resulting in new music was now posssible. Using a blend of Space Rock, Progressive Electronic and Neo Classical signposts, Les' new CD "One Link Between Them" opens up a new door to a sound which has thrilled music fans the world over.
