Patrick Latella

"Latella's an amazing guitarist, vocalist and songwriter." ~ Here & Now, Telluride Watch

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Music has a power as strong as love; with the ability to elate, inspire and unite people of all ages. It is through this power that Patrick Latella transcends musical boundaries. From acoustic fingerpicking and flatpicking to electric jazz-fusion and rock, from jamgrass to funk and blues, Patrick's compositions blend melody and harmony creating a truly unique sound with intricate hooks, compelling and moving tones, and soaring electric guitar solos. Patrick Latella has been performing, writing, and producing professionally since 1993 and has been playing music for over 45 years. His compositions span a wide variety of styles and genres, each thoughtful and with purpose. Patrick Latella's live shows run the gamut of his original material from electric rock/fusion to power trio to acoustic bluegrass, chamber ensemble and solo.

With over 20 years as a professional musician under his belt, Patrick Latella continues an ever-expanding exploration on the guitar through rhythmic, melodic and harmonic jam-rock, jazz-fusion, funk and improvisation to acoustic chamber, neo-classical and ambient. Beginning piano lessons at the age of 7, Patrick followed that with 7 years on the violin. It was by playing in school orchestra that he developed his understanding and appreciation of ensemble based music where compounding and intertwining musical ideas combine to make a sound greater than the sum of its parts. His compositions exhibit this appreciation with multiple melodic and rhythmic themes layering to form soundscapes deep and complex, yet resonating and inviting to the listener. Picking up the guitar at age 15, his future as a musician was forever launched. With over 1000 live shows in multiple ensembles, from electric fusion bands with 14 members to 6 piece power jam-rock bands, to new-grass outfits to duos to solo work, Patrick has turned heads and amazed and delighted crowds of all ages.

Patrick Latella

Patrick has released 5 albums, each displaying his unique compositional style as well as his emotive and dexterous guitar playing. The newest album is "Weep For The Moon", released at 3:24pm MT on March 20th, 2023, marking the minute of the Spring Equinox. The album is a double LP length concept album that addresses humanity’s struggle to unify compassion, empathy, and kindness, with a message of hope that we can someday eradicate hate, greed, and violence and by extension conserve the planet. Listen here.

Symphonic Fusion-Live in 98 showcases a 14 piece band performing Patrick's compositions in a big-band format, with tons of power and raw energy. The Ethereal Plane and Dreaming In The Southern Sun were both albums released by Patrick with his band The Ethereal Plane and continued Patrick's evolving and progressing guitar playing and writing style. With atmospheric and dreamy tones and edgy electric guitar slinging, the albums each received glowing praise from critics.

On the acoustic side, Patrick has steeped himself in bluegrass flat-picking as well as a unique neo-classical fingerpicking style. His piece "Walzing In The Ether" is the center piece of the 1996 release Mountain Massage Music, and showcases Patrick's acoustic chamber compositional style.

Career Highlights

1994 Taping and airing on Boulder Colorado radio station KBCO's Studio C with On Air
1995 Support slot for Joan Osborne at the Ford Amphitheatre (Vail, CO) with On Air
1997 Inclusion of Latella's acoustic guitar composition Train Time in the Warren Miller motion picture Snowriders II
2005 Telluride Jazz Festival appearance with The Ethereal Plane (Telluride, CO)
2005 South Park Festival appearance with The Ethereal Plane (South Park, CO)
1999-2013 over 10 appearances on solo acoustic guitar at the Nederland Music & Arts Festival (Nederland, CO)
2005 Performed at the Whisky A Go Go in Los Angeles with The Ethereal Plane
2005 Performed at The Mint in Los Angeles with The Ethereal Plane
2010 Harvest Festival appearance with Whitewater Ramble
2011 Northwest String Summit appearance with Whitewater Ramble
2011 80/35 Festival appearance with Whitewater Ramble (Des Moines, IA)
2011 NewWest Festival appearance with Whitewater Ramble (Ft. Collins, CO)
2011 & 2012 Desert Rocks Festival appearances with Whitewater Ramble (Moab, UT)
2013 Performance at the Chicago House Of Blues with Whitewater Ramble
2014 Support slot for Adrian Belew at the Boulder Theater with Patrick Latella's new trio band

THE ETHEREAL PLANE

From 2002 to 2013 Patrick Latella spearheaded the band The Ethereal Plane, a progressive rock and fusion band that released 2 albums, The Ethereal Plane and Dreaming In The Southern Sun. Both albums showcased Patrick's signature style of blending orchestral-style arrangements, driving rhythm and melody, hard edged electric guitar work, and surreal lyrics. The band toured the country for the better part of 2004-2006 and received much critical acclaim. Several highlights along the way were a sets at the 2005 Telluride Jazz Festival, the 2005 South Park Festival and special appearances in Los Angeles at the famous Whisky A Go Go as well as the famous LA showcase venue The Mint.
"The band goes technically and creatively way beyond most." ~ Telluride Watch

FIREWEED

In 1996, Patrick Latella began an acoustic/bluegrass outfit called FIREWEED, which has a storied history and continues to perform special shows to this day. Beginning as a duo with Patrick's longtime friend Christian Teele on percussion, Fireweed showcased original fingerpicking neo-classical style guitar pieces accompanied by Christian's driving rhythm. Living in Nederland, Colorado at the time (Patrick lived in Nederland from 1996-2003), Patrick was surrounded by the growing energy of Colorado "new-grass" music. On one dark and howling winter's night Patrick grabbed his guitar and braved the wind and walked down to the old Acoustic Coffee House for the weekly open bluegrass pick. Upon walking in the door Patrick instantly noticed a newcomer as one of the 2 other pickers who had fought the cold and snow to make it out this night...a young Jeff Austin who had just moved to town. Hearing Jeff's high lonesome sound and quick picking, Patrick asked Jeff to join him on the next Fireweed gig, which he accepted. Rounding out the band for that early Fireweed show was Jeff's college friend Greg Garrison (currently bass player for Leftover Salmon). It was a fun and raw performance of bluegrass standards and a couple original tunes. Not long after that Jeff's friend Dave Johnston moved to town and joined the group on banjo. Through the course of that year the band made some noise with performances around Boulder County including incredible shows at the Moontime in Nederland and the Telluwhat Festival in Niwot, CO. As Greg was looking to move on to other endeavors a new bass player was brought on board in August 1998, a young Ben Kaufman who had been playing bluegrass in Denver. This lineup of Jeff, Patrick, Dave and Ben had 2 illustrious shows in August and September of 1998, one at the Community Center in Nederland and one at the Fox Theatre in Boulder. The Fox Theatre show is especially notable as it featured the debut of a new band in the area, the Yonder Mountain String Band, which had just formed. Patrick offered to Jeff that they end their Fireweed run with that Fox Theatre show and that they do the first half of the show with Fireweed, then bring out Adam Aijala (Yonder's guitarist) and do one song as a 5 piece, (they performed the YMSB staple "Traffic Jam"), then Patrick introduced them, left the stage and they finished the set as the now well known Yonder Mountain String Band. Magical.

Patrick continues to perform 2-3 shows a year under the name Fireweed and the band has featured many amazing players including Dave Watts (The Motet), Christian Teele, Tony Furtado, Bill McKay, Paul Murin, Greg Schochet, Jarad Astin, Derek VanScoten (DVS), Jay Elliott and others.



WHITEWATER RAMBLE

In July 2010 Patrick joined the Colorado jamgrass band Whitewater Ramble and was a vital member for 4 years. On electric and acoustic guitars and vocals, Patrick helped the band expand its fanbase nationally logging over 450 gigs. 3 of Patrick's original songs are featured on Whitewater Ramble's 2013 release, Roots & Groove.


SONGS BY THE FIREPLACE

Patrick Latella has been a vital member of the Boulder County musical community since 1993 and has collaborated and performed with dozens of musicians in what is truly an amazing and treasured music scene. In 2005 Patrick was approached by Brian Caragher at the historic Chautuauqua in Boulder to spearhead an acoustic concert series in the intimate setting of the Community House. This led to the Community House Concert Series which ran for 14 months beginning in January 2006 and featured amazing performances by some of the Front Range's best artists. The series culminated with a concert in the beautiful Chautauqua Auditorium and the release of Songs By The Fireplace (produced by Patrick Latella), a compilation of 14 songs that were highlights from the series.


ON AIR

In July of 1993, after moving to Colorado about a 6 weeks prior, Patrick Latella answered a classified in the Rocky Mountain News, it read "Lead Guitar Player Wanted", and his life-path was set on course for a career in the music business when he joined the band ON AIR, which had just relocated themselves from Albany, NY to Boulder that same summer. ON AIR started out as pop-rock band and had one album, Time To Moove, and performed about 125 shows that first year. One notable highlight was the featuring of the ON AIR song "Paintbox" on the soundtrack to the motion picture "Vertical Reality", as well as a rare and coveted appearance on Boulder radio station KBCO's Studio C show. But after about a year the band set its sights on the more prog-rock and jamband sounds of YES, PHISH and RUSH, with a healthy dose of influence by bands such as PINK FLOYD, LED ZEPPELIN and namely THE GRATEFUL DEAD. After an 8 month hiatus from gigging and holing up everyday in the band's jamroom, ON AIR emerged with over 6 hours of intricately arranged original music, rock-opuses with swirling melodies, layered guitar parts, synchronised drumming, thumping bass, keys and harmony vocals. The band quickly made waves in the local scene and before long was opening for the likes of Joan Osbourne, MOE., and Leftover Salmon. This exciting time for band was also quite tumultuous and the band went through the classic break-up pattern so many young bands implode from. Fatefully, the 2nd to last show the band performed was its first headliner at the famed Boulder Theater. The concert was well attended and the response to the music was enormous, luckily the band recorded the show. Although ON AIR was not meant to be, it instilled an independent spirit to making music that Patrick Latella carries on to this day. That energy of making music without regard to the concerns or demands of record labels or the traditional music business model, and the desire to forge his own kind of music, has shaped everything Patrick has done musically since and laid the foundation for his next major career moves, namely starting his own online distribution company and independent record label, CageFree Records.

CAGEFREE RECORDS

In 1996, after the break-up of Patrick's first professional band, Patrick was ready to move forward with his new compositional style and fatefully read an article in Rolling Stone magazine about Thomas Dolby in which he explained how he was selling his music directly to his fans over the internet. Although in 1996 the "internet" was years from being a household word, this article presented the key Patrick was looking for, and planted the seed for CageFree Records, one of the first online sales companies to open...and arguably one of the very first online retail music outlets. Patrick Latella officially launched CageFreeRecords.com on January 1, 1998, and within 2 years over 100 bands and musicians were utilizing the service to sell their music and their merchandise directly to their fans. Patrick as well distributed his music through CageFree, and released 4 albums under his independent label CageFree Records. CageFree Records operated for over 13 years, finally being put to bed in 2011 when business difficulties became insurmountable. But the experience continued to fuel the fervent independent music energy Patrick Latella embodies today. His belief is, if you make quality music that comes truly from your heart, people will respond to it...and with concert attendences world wide setting new records year after year, it is more apparent than ever that people will support live music, and the musicians who make it, far in to the future.


"Latella is an engaging, intelligent man passionate not only about his music, but also about how musicians are treated in this day of the mega-corporation." ~ Jeff Hauser, Boulder Weekly