There’s a definite correlation between Stephen Duros’ career as a successful touring lighting director for pop legends like Toto and Olivia Newton-John and his emergence as a bright, exciting electric and acoustic guitar-driven recording artist with his mood swinging from rock to meditative and everything in between. The NYC-themed new album, THE MANHATTAN SESSIONS highlights Duros’ skillset as he artfully infuses his expansive musical palette with exotic elements of Reggae, Flamenco and Cnematic moods into 70’s Funk / Disco, Fusion and Smooth Jazz. The guitarist has absorbed a level of confidence and comfort in his signature blend of contemporary jazz.
Duros toured and recorded with Ottmar Liebert from 2006-2009 and his playing is featured on Liebert’s Grammy nominated album “The Scent of Light”. Duros has released four solo albums to date: Miranda,, “Thira,” which won Duros a place on the Grammy Ballot for a nomination in the Best New Age Album of the year category, ‘AEAEA’ (Stephen’s Concept album) and ‘The Manhattan Sessions’ which heads more in the direction of contemporary Jazz featuring more electric guitars. Stephen has been awarded two silver medals from the Global Music Awards for his concept album ‘AEAEA’ and ‘The Manhattan Sessions’.
Playing electric and rhythm guitar, Duros was an integral part of Lawson Rollins’ Billboard top 30 smooth jazz radio hits ‘Free to Fly’ and ‘World of Wonder’ played extensively on the Sirius XM watercolors channel. Stephen’s new album “The Manhattan Sessions” heads in the direction of smooth jazz and fusion featuring electric and acoustic guitars. On select songs the album features percussionist legend Lenny Castro, Larry Crowe on drums , Ken Freeman on bass and Mary Fettig on horns .
Music history:
Stephen showed an early interest in music and by the age of 5 was taking keyboard lessons. By the age of 6 he played the organ at a Baldwin music store talent show. Stephen loved playing TV show theme songs back in the early 80’s as shown in this video.
At the age of 10 Stephen started to perform in the Yamaha National Keyboard Festival. At age 12 Stephen played an arrangement of the song 'War' from the movie Rocky IV. The piece was arranged by his teacher Dennis Colby. “Dennis was not only an amazing teacher, player and arranger, he was all an amazing programmer on the Yamaha organ, the sounds and beats changed as I played the piece. My feet played the bass on the pedals and also triggered certain percussion sounds. I had prepared for this piece for months before the performance” Stephen won locally and 4th nationally in his age category. . The audio of ‘War’ performed from the Festival in the video below
Today his music is rooted in the traditional sounds of flamenco from studying with master flamenco guitarist, Paco Arroyo in his early 20's, but he’s developed his own style. Exotic string bending with a hint of Indian, Asian and the Middle Eastern influences in their tone along with octave melodies have formed his signature sound. Strong single note attack with a flat pick reproduces the brittle sound of picado (a flamenco technique of playing runs with index and middle finger), and rhythms that include suggestions of jazz, reggae, pop and Arabic music join the familiar pulse of flamenco’s gypsy rumba in his emotionally satisfying compositions. Though Duros is not a flamenco guitarist, he can produce complex rhythms and lightening fast runs that are flamenco’s trademark, but he usually takes a more measured approach, emphasizing subtle emotional nuance over flashy technique.
Duros has performed with Ottmar Liebert from 2006-2009. His playing is featured on Ottmar Liebert’s Grammy nominated album 'The Scent of Light' and the live studio album 'Up Close', a 3D recording meant to be listened to on headphones. Duros recorded two tracks produced by Simon Phillips featuring Simon (Toto, Jeff Beck, The Who) on the drums, Jimmy Earl (Jimmy Kimmel Live! band) and Mike Porcaro (Toto) on bass. He has worked with Billboard top 10 World Music artist, Lawson Rollins as the associate music producer on the “Urban Trilogy” section of Rollins’ album 'Traveler' performing various keyboard and drum programing performances. Stephen played the electric guitar solos on Lawson's song 'World of Wonder' featuring 3rd Force that peaked at #8 on Billboard's smooth jazz chart and performed on Lawson’s album ‘True North’. In 2017 Stephen played on Jim Stubblefield's award winning album 'Guitar Mystique' trading solos and harmonizing with Jim on his track 'Oculus Tempestatis'. Stephen has also played in a project called 'Path of Light' with Haitian percussionist / vocalist, Jeff Pierre from Port-Au-Prince, Haiti and recorded a 4 song EP titled 'Path of Light' Duros was involved with the music production on the 2019 independent film “stay out stay alive” and in 2020 did a remix for Ottmar Liebert’s track ‘Dance for Me’. In 2021 Stephen played a guest solo on Eric Hansen’s album ‘Transcendence’ on the track ‘De Parranda’ and composed music for a radio podcast ‘The Collective’ by Asata Radcliffe.
LIGHTING & ART
Duros, has also been a lighting director for the multi Grammy Award winning band Toto and has toured all over the world to over 50 countries with them from 1999-2018. His lighting work is showcased on Toto’s 35th Anniversary Live in Poland blu-ray and Toto’s 40 Tours Around the Sun blu-ray.
Stephen also did the lighting for Toto/s performance at the Balooise Session Festival in Basel, Switzerland 2015 along with Toto’s live stream during the Pandemic filmed November 21, 2020 and a private show in 2021
Duros has also toured as a lighting director for, Olivia Newton-John, Ottmar LIebert and the Down From the Mountain Tour: featuring all the music from the Hollywood film O'Brother Where Art Thou? Produced by T-Bone Burnett, the tour featured artists Emmylou Harris, Alison Krauss, Ralph Stanley, The Nashville Bluegrass band, the Del McCoury band, Rick Skaggs and the Kentucky Thunder, The Whites, The Peasall Sisters and Rodney Rodney Crawl.
In the Late 90's to mid 2000's Duros was the house lighting director at Billboard Live / Key Club for 7 years as well as lighting at the Roxy and various other LA clubs around Hollywood. He oporated the lighting and / or assisted in lighting for hundreds of local and national acts including Sarah McLaughlin, Melissa Etheridge, Dianna Ross, John B, Wu-Tang Clan, NSYNC, TOTO, Ice Cube, Ice Tea, Slick Rick, KRS-One, Kool Moe Dee, Cyprus Hill, Too Short, Shock G, Redman, A Perfect Circle, Slipknot, Soul Fly, System Of A Down, Downset, SX-10, Static X, Nickelback, Insane Clown Posse, Jerry Cantrell, Steve Lukather and Friends, Larry Carlton, Tribal Tech, Mike Stern, Edgar Winter, Steve Vai, Yngwie Malmsteen, Motor Head, Rat, LA Guns, Cinderella, Paul Rogers, Al Di Meola, Men At Work, War, Metal Skool / Steel Panther, Blues Traveler, Eek-a-Mouse, ABC, several DJ's, plays, raves, private events and many other national and various acts.
Also an artist, his cartoon work is featured on on Steve Lukather’s signature pedal “The Luke” made by the award winning pedal company, ToneConcepts. The pedal was featured in Guitar World Magazine in 2014. ( Photo below for Guitar World taken just after arriving in Japan). - Link to the article HERE
“I want to keep making records that explore all the possibilities of the nylon string and electric guitar as I continue my musical journey. Music has helped me through the tough times and contributed to some amazing experiences. I want to give back some of the joy and inspiration music has given me. I hope the music I make will affect others the way the musicians I love have affected me.”