Hotel X is a world music

World music

World music is a term with widely varying definitions, often encompassing music which is primarily identified as another genre. This is evidenced by world music definitions such as "all of the music in the world" or "somebody else's local music"...

/jazz

Jazz

Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

 group founded in 1992 in Richmond, Virginia

Richmond, Virginia

Richmond is the capital of the Commonwealth of Virginia, in the United States. It is an independent city and not part of any county. Richmond is the center of the Richmond Metropolitan Statistical Area and the Greater Richmond area...

 by Tim Harding and Ron T. Curry as a setting to explore electric bass duets. Hotel X was quickly joined by a host of Richmond, Virginia underground music

Underground music

Underground music comprises a range of different musical genres that operate outside of mainstream culture. Such music can typically share common values, such as the valuing of sincerity and intimacy; an emphasis on freedom of creative expression; an appreciation of artistic creativity...

 scene veterans and released six albums on the Los Angeles based SST Records

SST Records

SST Records is an American independent record label formed in 1978 in Long Beach, California by musician Greg Ginn. The company was initially called Solid State Transmitters through which Ginn sold electronics equipment...

. SST Records was founded by members of the seminal punk rock

Punk rock

Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...

 group Black Flag

Black Flag (band)

Black Flag was an American punk rock band formed in 1976 in Hermosa Beach, California. The band was established by Greg Ginn, the guitarist, primary songwriter and sole continuous member through multiple personnel changes in the band...

 and included in their catalog some of the great American underground groups such as Minutemen

Minutemen (band)

Minutemen were an American hardcore punk band formed in San Pedro, California in 1980. Composed of guitarist D. Boon, bassist Mike Watt and drummer George Hurley, Minutemen recorded four albums and eight EPs before Boon's death in an automobile accident in December 1985...

, Meat Puppets

Meat Puppets

The Meat Puppets are an American rock band formed in January 1980, in Phoenix, Arizona. The group's original lineup was Curt Kirkwood , his brother Cris Kirkwood , and Derrick Bostrom . The Kirkwood brothers met Bostrom while attending Brophy Prep High School in Phoenix...

, Hüsker Dü

Hüsker Dü

Hüsker Dü was an American rock band formed in Saint Paul, Minnesota in 1979. The band's continual members were guitarist Bob Mould, bassist Greg Norton, and drummer Grant Hart....

, Sonic Youth

Sonic Youth

Sonic Youth is an American alternative rock band from New York City, formed in 1981. The current lineup consists of Thurston Moore , Kim Gordon , Lee Ranaldo , Steve Shelley , and Mark Ibold .In their early career, Sonic Youth was associated with the No Wave art and music scene in New York City...

, Sound Garden, Universal Congress Of and Saccharine Trust

Saccharine Trust

Saccharine Trust is a post-hardcore band from California that was started in 1980 by singer Jack Brewer and guitarist Joe Baiza.The band would frequently perform with SST labelmates Minutemen and Black Flag. Drummer Rob Holzman appeared on their 1981 debut Paganicons but left the band to play in...

.

Hotel X toured regionally and nationally between 1992 and 1997, received reviews in Jazz Times, Washington Post, Option

Option (music magazine)

Option was a music magazine based in Los Angeles, California.-History:Originally called OPtion, it, along with Sound Choice, were the dual successors to the earlier music magazine OP, published by John Foster and the Lost Music Network and known for its diverse scope and the role it played in...

, The Wire

The Wire (magazine)

The Wire is a British avant garde music magazine, founded in 1982 by jazz promoter Anthony Wood and journalist Chrissie Murray. The magazine initially concentrated on contemporary jazz and improvised music, but branched out in the early 1990s to various types of experimental music...

and Alternative Press

Alternative Press (music magazine)

Alternative Press is an American music magazine based in Cleveland, Ohio. It generally provides readers with band interviews, photos, information on upcoming releases, and music charts. It was founded in 1985 by Mike Shea, who is the current president....

among others; was nominated for Best Jazz Group by the National Association of Independent Record Distributors (NAIRD) 1996, and participated in the JVC Jazz Festival in New York City in 1997. National Public Radio selected soundbites of several songs from the Hotel X album "Engendered Species" for use between news stories in 1994. Richmond Magazine awarded Hotel X with the Pollack Prize for Excellence in Arts in September 2005.

Music History

In the biography "Fela - the Life and Times of an African Musical Icon" by Yale professor Michael E. Veal, Hotel X is briefly mentioned (alongside the Art Ensemble of Chicago

Art Ensemble of Chicago

The Art Ensemble of Chicago is an avant-garde jazz ensemble that grew out of Chicago's AACM in the late 1960s. The group continues to tour and record through 2006, despite the deaths of two of the founding members....

, Brandford Marsalis and Steve Turre

Steve Turre

Steve Turre is a trombonist, recording artist, arranger, and educator. In 1998, 1999, 2001, 2002 and 2006 he won the Down Beat Reader's Poll for best trombonist....

) on page 259 where the author talks about the broad influence of Fela Kuti

Fela Kuti

Fela Anikulapo Kuti , or simply Fela , was a Nigerian multi-instrumentalist musician and composer, pioneer of Afrobeat music, human rights activist, and political maverick.-Biography:...

's Afrobeat

Afrobeat

Afrobeat is a combination of traditional Yoruba music, jazz, highlife, funk and chanted vocals, fused with percussion and vocal styles, popularised in Africa in the 1970s. Its main creator was the Nigerian multi-instrumentalist and bandleader Fela Kuti, who gave it its name, who used it to...

 style.

From 1998 to the present Hotel X has been mining the musical wealth of Africa and Latin America by using rhythms and melodies inspired by traditional music and contemporary composers from those regions. The 2003 self-produced/released seventh album by Hotel X titled Hymns for Children marks the departure from the group's earlier more electric, harmolodic adventures into the organic, world music inspired band of today.

In 1994 Hotel X contributed an original composition, "One Way Street" (released on the CD Ladders in 1995), to the trailer of the film Hands of Fate by Chris Quinn which was shown at the Sundance Film Festival

Sundance Film Festival

The Sundance Film Festival is a film festival that takes place annually in Utah, in the United States. It is the largest independent cinema festival in the United States. Held in January in Park City, Salt Lake City, and Ogden, as well as at the Sundance Resort, the festival is a showcase for new...

. Chris Quinn's documentary film God Grew Tired of Us is the winner of both the Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival

2006 Sundance Film Festival

The 2006 Sundance Film Festival was held from 19 January to 29 January 2006. It was held in Park City, Utah with screenings in Salt Lake City, Utah; Ogden, Utah; and the Sundance Resort. It was the 22nd iteration of the Sundance Film Festival, and the celebration of the 25th anniversary of the...

.

Hotel X has shared the stage with Bern Nix

Bern Nix

Bern Nix is a jazz guitarist. He has recorded and performed with Ornette Coleman, notably playing alongside fellow guitarist Charlie Ellerbee in Coleman's Prime Time group on their key recordings from Dancing in Your Head in the mid-1970 to In All Languages in 1987.He has released CDs including ...

 (Ornette Coleman

Ornette Coleman

Ornette Coleman is an American saxophonist, violinist, trumpeter and composer. He was one of the major innovators of the free jazz movement of the 1960s....

 and Primetime), Greg Ginn

Greg Ginn

Gregory Regis Ginn is a guitarist, songwriter, and singer. He is best known for being the leader of and primary songwriter for the hardcore punk band Black Flag, which he founded and led from 1976 to 1986....

 (Black Flag

Black Flag (band)

Black Flag was an American punk rock band formed in 1976 in Hermosa Beach, California. The band was established by Greg Ginn, the guitarist, primary songwriter and sole continuous member through multiple personnel changes in the band...

), Balla Kouyate (Super Rail Band), Papa Susso

Papa Susso

Alhaji Papa Susso is a griot or jeli, master kora player, and director of the Koriya Musa Center for Research in Oral Tradition. He was born 29 September, 1947, in the village of Sotuma Sere in the Upper River Division of The Republic of Gambia, West Africa. The Susso family represents a dynasty...

 (Gambian kora master), The Roots

The Roots

The Roots is an American hip hop/neo soul band formed in 1987 by Tariq "Black Thought" Trotter and Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. They are famed for beginning with a jazzy, eclectic approach to hip hop which still includes live instrumentals...

, Yellowman

Yellowman

Yellowman is a Jamaican reggae and dancehall deejay, widely known as King Yellowman...

, Medeski, Martin and Wood, Ran Blake

Ran Blake

Ran Blake is an American pianist and composer from Springfield, Massachusetts. In a career that spans five decades, Blake has created a unique niche in improvised music as an artist and educator...

, Hasidic New Wave

Hasidic New Wave

Hasidic New Wave is an American experimental klezmer music group. Its members, all of whom were improvisational jazz musicians from downtown Manhattan, formed for the purpose of fusing Hasidic musical styles with elements of jazz, funk, and avant-garde rock...

, Marc Ribot

Marc Ribot

Marc Ribot born May 21, 1954) is an American guitarist and composer.His own work has touched on many styles, including no wave, free jazz, and Cuban music. Ribot is also known for collaborating with other musicians, most notably Tom Waits, Elvis Costello, and composer John Zorn.-Biography:Ribot was...

, Plunky Branch, Wayne Horvitz

Wayne Horvitz

Wayne Horvitz is an American composer, keyboardist and record producer.-Biography:Horvitz, a "defiant cross-breeder of genres", has led the groups The President, Pigpen, Zony Mash, and the Four Plus One Ensemble...

, Pigpen

Pigpen

A pigpen is literally a pen that holds pigs, also known as a sty. Pigpen may refer to:* Pig-Pen, a character in Charles M. Schulz's comic strip Peanuts* Pigsty , a film by Pier Paolo Pasolini...

, Amy Denio

Amy Denio

Amy Denio is a Seattle -based multi-instrumental composer of soundtracks for modern dance, film and theater, as well as a songwriter and music improviser. Often called an unclassifiable avant-garde jazz musician, she is also deeply inspired by world music. She is probably best known as a...

, John Bradshaw

John Bradshaw

John Bradshaw may refer to:* John Bradshaw , English judge* John Bradshaw , English political writer* John Bradshaw , American educator* John Bradshaw, presenter of It Is Written-See also:...

 and Bazooka

Bazooka

Bazooka is the common name for a man-portable recoilless rocket antitank weapon, widely fielded by the U.S. Army. Also referred to as the "Stovepipe", the innovative bazooka was amongst the first-generation of rocket propelled anti-tank weapons used in infantry combat...

 among others.

Current

• Tim Harding - guitar, alto sax (Tad Thaddock, Always August
  Always August
  Always August was an American psychedelic rock band from Richmond, Virginia signed with Greg Ginn's original label, SST Records. They release three albums on SST...
  
  , Office Ladies, Four Story Sax Qt., New Loft Qt., Joyful Noise Big Band, Thomas Mapfumo)

• Ron T. Curry- guitar (Vaughn Brothers Band [with Matt Link ous], Shag Nasty, Damage Report, Near East, Snakehandlers, Milk, Gwar, Third Eye, Rooster Seed, Kill Joy, Yax, Rapid Boil, Blister, Ugly Head, Ron T. Curry Acoustic Band, Mandrake Ensemble, Mao Tse Helen, Chigger, The Haints, Oregon Hill Funk All Stars, Hi-Tone String Ticklers, John Bradshaw and Ron T. Curry, Low Cotton, Joyful Noise Big Band, Tubize Royal Hawaiian Orchestra Tribute Band)

• Wayne O'Bryan - bass (Unity Sound Reggae Band, Jah Revalations, Michael James, One, Bangarang)

• O.J. Hunter - Keyboards (Awareness Art Ensemble, Nina Simone, Unity Sound Reggae Band, One)

• Hunter Duke - percussion (AmphetamineLibrary, Apocowlypso, Retinal, Flannel Circus, Mystery Machine, The Knievels,Schwa, Tree Fort Angst
  Tree Fort Angst
  Tree Fort Angst was an indie pop band that was originally a solo project of former St. Christopher guitarist Terry Banks.-History:...
  
  , The Nixon Years)

• Chris Vasi - guitar (Sambaiosis , Vesuvius)

• Phil Pollard - percussion (Band of Humans, Slomski Brothers)

Former

• Roberto Curtis
• Jeff X Morris
• Tony Costa
• Lance Koehler
• Danny Finney
• Molly Berg
• Jennifer Thomas
• George Lowe
• Jimmy Ghaphery
• Jim Thomson
• Woody Jackson
• John Keifer
• Chris Farmer
• Chris Davis
• Tom Wall
• Billy Fox
• Steve Mathews
• Darryl Davenport
• Jon Mela
• Patrick W Best (PELT, Tanakh, The Din, Spiral Joy Band)
• Eric Unger
• Javier Ramos
• Samson Trihn
• Kelli Strawbridge
• Jorge Negron
• Rei Gonzalez Alvarez
• Gabo Tomassini
• Justin Riccio
• Bern Nix
• Greg Ginn

• Joe Baiza
• Ogynga
• Scott Frock
• Jason Stith
• Phil Murphy
• Larry Bodie
• Al Clark
• Toby Whittaker
• Gordon Jones
• Fred McGann
• Akili Obika
• Charlie Kilpatrick
• Johnny Hott
• Tony Atherton
• Vince Megrouni
• Pooh Johnston
• Marty McCavitt
• Pippin Barnett
• Barry Bless
• Bruce Waters
• Plunky Branch
• Bala Kouyate
• Josh Boden
• Lundin Lamb
• Ron "Rollo" Fix
• Paul Watson