Zebra (American band)

Zebra
Background information
Origin New Orleans, Louisiana, United States
Genres Hard rock, progressive rock, heavy metal
Years active 1975–present
Labels Atlantic, Mayhem Records
Members

Zebra is a hard rock band founded in 1975 in New Orleans, Louisiana. It features Randy Jackson (guitar and vocals), Felix Hanemann (bass, keyboards and vocals) and Guy Gelso (drums and vocals).

Biography

Zebra's mainstream debut on Atlantic Records was in 1983 with their eponymous album, produced by Jack Douglas and highlighted by the singles "Tell Me What You Want" and "Who's Behind The Door?" Zebra got their start on the U.S. East Coast club circuit, frequently playing at clubs on Long Island.

Zebra started their career by playing covers of Led Zeppelin, the Moody Blues and Rush songs; it was their early fans' reaction to their Led Zeppelin renditions that helped convince the band to bring their act to New York. They had introduced their original material into their cover sets years before they were signed to Atlantic Records, including "The La La Song," "Free" and "Bears" (originally entitled "The Bears are Hibernating").

Zebra had been noticed by local colleges and even had some of their early original performances recorded by Long Island FM radio station WBAB, culminating in the inclusion of one of their songs on a release of "WBAB Homegrown Album", which commemorated some of the station's best local acts and performances culled from their on-air "Homegrown Hour" program.

The band continued to tour throughout the 1980s, but took a temporary break in the early 1990s after being dropped by Atlantic Records. Randy Jackson formed his solo band Randy Jackson's China Rain, and released its only album in the year 1993. Zebra finally reunited in 1997 and released Zebra IV in 2003, their first album of all-new material since 1986. A DVD of live performances, mostly from a show at the House of Blues in New Orleans, was released in the summer of 2007.

On July 10, 2010, during their 35th-anniversary performance at New Orleans' Mahalia Jackson Theater, Zebra was inducted into The Louisiana Music Hall of Fame.

On October 8, 2012, Zebra was inducted into the Long Island Music Hall of Fame.

In March 2013, Zebra performed on Cruise to the Edge, a concert cruise featuring notable progressive rock bands including Yes, Steve Hackett, U.K., Carl Palmer Band, Ambrosia, Saga, Nektar, Glass Hammer, and IOEarth.

Although Zebra has not released any studio material since 2003's Zebra IV, the band continues to perform live, mostly in the Gulf Coast and East Coast of the United States, including New Orleans and New York City.

In February 2017, Jackson reported that the band is working on a new album. He told the Shreveport Times, "I have new material and hopefully we’ll get to work on a new record in the next couple of months."[1]

Discography

Albums
Singles
Year Title Chart Positions Album
US Hot 100 US Mainstream Rock
1983 "Who's Behind the Door" 61 10 Zebra
1983 "Tell Me What You Want" 107 29
1984 "Bears" — 15 No Tellin' Lies

Video albums and concert films

References

  1. ↑ Simms, Kelley. "Zebra’s Randy Jackson goes acoustic solo". shreveporttimes.com. USA Today Network. Retrieved 21 May 2017.
  2. 1 2 Zebra charts, Allmusic
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.