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Steve & Ed Fowler

At a very early age, in the basement of their house in Salt Lake City, Steve and Ed began to teach themselves to play music. It came naturally to them because, after all, music runs in their blood. Their grandmother Antoinette Fowler was an organist at the Unitarian church in Salt Lake City and their Father, William Fowler, was a professor of music at the University of Utah and a classical composer. Their brothers, Tom, Bruce and Walter have played with many famous musicians, most notably Frank Zappa and the Mothers of invention.

Steve started to play the flute at age 7 and picked up the alto saxophone at age 14. Eight years later, Ed, the youngest of the brothers, started playing the electric bass and learned to play the keyboard. With their brothers and Albert Wing, Steve and Ed formed the Fowler Brothers' Band. This band was at the vanguard in the early days of fusion and the use of synthesizers in jazz.

Steve graduated from Skyline High School as a National Merit Scholar and went on to obtain a degree in English literature at Brown University. Ed developed a passion for paleontology and mathematics and moved to Los Angeles where he earned a math/computer science degree from UCLA. Once in Los Angeles, their individual voices matured and became richer as both were exposed to other cultural influences.

Steve found himself immersed in the classical, jazz and world music scene. He played the candombes of Uruguay (Perez and Ramos), the tangos of Argentina (Bernardo Rubaja), the sambas of Brazil (Geraldo Azevedo, Rique Pantoja and others), the cumbias, boleros, and merengues of Central America and Colombia (too many bands to mention), the mariachis of Mexico (Linda Ronstadt, Jose Hernandez) the sokas, reggaes, and calypsos of Panama and the Caribbean (Rogelio Mitchell and others), and the salsa and charangas of Cuba and Puerto Rico (Bongo Logic and others). He has played on the soundtracks for major motion pictures and was the music director for the Brian Setzer Orchestra when he became ill with Lou Gehrig's Disease.

Ed played with the Fowler brothers and worked as a session bass player. His passion for paleontology grew stronger as he began to work with Pete Palmer, a professor of paleontology and leading expert on Cambrian trilobites. He has found many fossils of previously undiscovered species, one of which now bears his name. He often travels to the California and Nevada deserts in search of new data and it is there, in the desert where he finds inspiration for many of his musical compositions.

Steve
Ed
Steve
Ed
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