Cris D. Corridino (Carnival Of Soul)

Background: "Carnival of Soul" can trace their roots back to 1986, in Frankfurt, (West)Germany. At that time, they were called "Brainstorm". It started with Cris D. Corridino, Donny Haight, and Dan LaMantia. Barry Dowell (Bass), Chuck Ricks (Guitar/Keys), Martin Carle (Drums/Keys), Jimmy Kirk (Keys), and Scott Lewis (Drums/Keys) were also members of this great band. Stardom was a dream, since they were all members of the service. Mostly Air Force. Eventually they had to go stateside. Cris landed in Missouri, and Dan soon followed. Donny ended up in Indiana, but it wasn't long before he was the new member of Missouri's "Last Rites". The original drummer was Jeff Cantey. He was a great friend, and Drummer, but unfortunately departed. That's when Donny rejoined the band. They all gradually got out of the military, and continued the "Rock and Roll Dream". Donny, Cris, Gene Ames (Guitar), Paul Murphy (Bass), Dave Arrowsmith (Sound & Vocals), Dan LaMantia (of course), and then later... Mike Moellman (Bass), and Klent Kahler (Guitar) played for 6 yrs. in the mid-west. They opened for acts like Night Ranger, Girl's School, and Strutter (National KISS tribute band). They were an unstoppable force, but made the grave mistake of re-locating to Florida. First omen was the departure of Moellman three months before they were slated to leave for the beaches of SW FLA. ENTER: Jeff Jones, from ORGAN GRINDER. (That band was a Punk/Thrash/Rockabilly act with WAY too much energy!!! ) He stepped in to fill Moellman's shoes, and did a phenomenal job. Sadly, he did not make the move with them. (This isn't the last we hear of Jeff...BUT...that is another tragic story that will remain a band secret). They were well established in the mid-west, and truly had a shot at the "Big Time", by the way things were going. The move to Florida was very trying on the band's personal lives. It definitely took it's toll on them, following the move to this strange place. They managed to get signed in late 1995, to Reindeer Records, out of Portland, Maine. The Label lost faith in them when they lost two members in early 96'. There was some dispute about the labeling of the first CD's jacket. The label's name was not placed correctly on the label. They wanted them to fix it, but they were broke, and couldn't afford to re-label THOUSANDS of CD's. They dropped Last Rites after a year. They went drummer-less for a few months and did this acoustic project they fondly called "Heartland" (for obvious reasons). Locally respected rock critic, Dawn Scire, tried to manage them for awhile... but they were unmanageable. Still shell-shocked from their losses. They did go to the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, and played, but it was not "Last Rites". They came home and looked fervently for a drummer. They found Jim Stein, and began work on their 2nd CD, "Persistance, No Excuses (and absolutely no apologies)" which featured much of the band's work prior to Donny and Klent's departure. The only problem was that they were getting a lot of doors shut on them because of their name. "Last Rites" was retired, and they renamed themselves "Carnival of Soul". This was inspired by the KISS album, "Carnival of Souls", which happens to be one of Cris's favorite KISS albums. Also because of its heavy content, and dark instrumentation. It was a re-birth into a newer age. They added a flute player, Jeff Marlowe, but lost Murphy and Dave. Soon after those departures, A husband-wife management team entered to clean up a very talented mess. They were very strict with the boys, but soon got them (back) into tip-top shape. The two (Steve and Patti) took on a very demanding job. The band started to show some real contention, opening for such acts as Steppenwolf, Blue Oyster Cult, Warrant, Nazareth, and a slew of other aging beauties. Then entered Jim "Bones" Argentino. One of the greatest drummers the band ever had...Matt Blake joined them (several times, on and off) on Bass. They lost Jeff and Matt, but got Kenny Thomas to play Bass. He was the Lead Guitar player for the locally known blues band, "Southland Blues Band". They bagan their, as of yet, unreleased CD..."Riding the Kharma Train". BUT...after several bad turns in the road of life, the band finally called it quits. Kenny went back to "Southland...", Bones joined a COVER band, and Cris decided to raise his kids full time. The dream was over. Period. Cris began gathering all the unreleased music recorded since LAST RITES relocated to Florida. It was quite the task, but he finally finished it in early 2003. Then the fever hit...again. He went on-line for musicians, and met Rick Trucksess through a classified ad. They realized they shared the same dream. He later relocated to Florida and began to fill in for some HUGE shoes, left vacant from a huge personality. It was tough, but the end result was one of the best incarnations, of CARNIVAL OF SOUL, to date. This also featured an additional guitar player, Gary Tholander. Gary gave the bottom end that the band desperately needed. Matt left in pursuit of an incredible computer programming career, but still stays actively involved in the band's endeavors. Jeremy P. was acquired from the ashes of a local band. They happened to be great friends with the members of this band, so there were no hard feelings when Jeremy left for the "Carnival". They all went (back) into UNITY GAIN Studios (in Ft. Myers), and completed "Riding The Kharma Train", almost 5 years in the making. They released the CD in August 2005, which proved to be the best CD recorded by Cris and his mates, in a long time!! In the meantime, Cris did a solo CD, "Just Me, My Old Analog 8-trk., A Six-Pack, And The Oncoming Heartattack" (1996-2003). Then there was two independent CD's, "Things Left Unfinished, Words Left Unsaid"(1996-2003), and "The Basement Tapes"(1996-2003). They pressed on. 2006 brought new disasters for Cris and the boys. After several struggling months with the burden of juggling a band, a job, a girlfriend, and a baby, Jeremy caved in to the pressure and had to split. Cris got Matt to do the last few shows on the books, but the outcome was not so spectacular. Cris finally backed away from the "live" aspect of a rock band, and focused ALL his abilities into making another great CD. Content with the recording process, Cris found himself deep into the guts of a new disc, and the buzz around the inner circle is that there is going to be some heavy hitters on this recording. For instance, Cris has re-connected with former LAST RITES drummer, Donny Haight. Let's just see if some tracks for a possible (but maybe not probable)LAST RITES CD come to fruition. In August of 2007, we were blessed with the addition of Karen Tuttle, a Venice area Violinist/Violist. She is a member of the Venice Symphony, and has her own quartet, which is OUTSTANDING!! Welcome Karen, to the CARNIVAL!! We were also extremely blessed to have area Keyboard Phenom, Sean Bryan. He is a former music teacher, and music store owner, Florida born and raised. And last, but not certainly least, we welcome Jessica Dawn Ripple on the Flute, and vocals. She is a graduate of The Unity Gain School, and is a classically trained musician with lots of "soul" to add to the "Carnival..."So the current line-up for CARNIVAL OF SOUL is Cris Corridino (Lead Vocals, Lead and Rhythm Guitars, Acoustic Guitars, Bass, Keyboards, and other misc. gadgets); James Argentino (Drums, Percussion, Keyboards, Backing Vocals); Daniel LaMantia (Bass, Backing Vocals); Karen Tuttle (Violin, Viola), Sean Bryan (Keyboards, Backing Vocals, Lead Vocals, Percussion), and Jessica Ripple (Flute, Lead and Backing Vocals). Additional musicians that are considered brothers of this band, and occasionally step in to keep the train moving...Rob Taylor (Guitar), Matt Blake (Bass), Paul J. Murphy (Bass), Kenneth Thomas (Bass), Jeffory Marlowe (flute, Clarinet). Carnival Of Soul is a very large family, so there are several musicians involved with the making of the songs in this EXTENSIVE library of songs. There will also be tunes that Cris D. Corridino recorded all the instruments and vocals on. He engineered, mixed, and produced it all by his lonesome (on an old Tascam 388, 8 trk with 1/4" tape, no less!). Some of these tunes will include a guest, or two. Cris will always give credit where it is due, so please read the info. that he gives on each song. You might even find it interesting. Support your local music scene and ALL unsigned bands. But most of all, take the time to review music on this site (Cris has, and lots of it). "It's the heartbeat of "GarageBand's" wonderful service. What a contribution to the "over-inflated" music industry where dreams are very rarely achieved. Rock On!" Cris is quoted as saying. (All Lyrics for Last Rites, Carnival of Soul, and Cris D. Corridino were written by Christopher D. Corridino. copyright 2006. Living On The Edge Productions/Dino music.) The asterisk (*) below, represents the CURRENT members of CARNIVAL OF SOUL... Members [CDino2001] *Cris D. Corridino: Lead Vocals (Everything), Jeff "Flutie" Marlowe: Everything (Flute, Clarinet), *Daniel LaMantia: Bass (Backing Vocals), Annie Saul: Producer (Sound Technicia), *Jessica Rippel: Flute, Rob Taylor: Rhythm Guitar (Acoustic), Christopher D. Corridino II: Lead Vocals (Samples), *Evan Smalley: Everything (Guitar), Ken "Big Daddy"Thomas: Bass (Backing Vocals), Klent Kahler: Rhythm Guitar, Jim Stein: Drums, *Jim "Bones" Argentino: Drums (Keys, Vocals), Gary Tholander: Rhythm Guitar (Backing Vocals), Jeff Jones: Bass, "Butch" Verdoot: Rhythm Guitar, Anthony Iannucci: Producer (Engineer), Patti & Steve Geisenhoff: Manager (Sound, Booking), Chad Zuchegna: Bass (Backing Vocals), Mike Moellman: Bass, Donny Haight: Drums (Backing Vocals), Paul "Murph" Murphy: Bass (Backing Vocals), Bill Hansen: Backing Vocals (Sound, Computer), *Karen Tuttle: Violin (Viola), Rick Trucksess: Drums, *Sean Bryan: Keyboards (Vocals), Nicholas G. Corridino: Lead Vocals (Samples), Dave Arrowsmith: Manager (Sound, Vocals,), Jeff Cantey: Drums (Backing Vocals), Matt Blake: Bass, Gene Ames: Acoustic Guitar (Electric Guitar) Artist URL http://www.garageband.com/artist/crisdcorridino http://www.MySpace.com/theofficialcarnivalofsoul Carnival of Soul on iLike

Interests: To get rich, Get our children through college, Finish the screenplay for our 1st CD, and finish our long-awaited 4th CD, and to live as long as possible.

Goals: Our Families, Recording Music, Performing "live", Meeting with fans.