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1.	Magic Smiles	Listen
2.	Alligator Alley	Listen
3.	Severna Park	Listen
4.	Sound of Emotion	Listen
5.	Open Sky	Listen
6.	Introspecs
7.	Para los Niños
8.	I Keep It to Myself
9.	Dori's Song
10.	Walk On
11.	Love on the Beach
12.	Sound of Emotion (Reprise)

SOUND OF EMOTION
1991

Magicsmiles (featuring Luis Conte and Tony Guerrero)
Alligator Alley (featuring Dave Koz and Ricardo Silveira)
Severna Park (featuring Dave Koz)
Sound Of Emotion (featuring Ron Boustead and Dave Koz)
Open Sky (featuring Eric Marienthal and Jimmy Haslip)
Introspecs (featuring John Leftwich and Bernie Dresel)
Para Los Niños (featuring Eric Marienthal and Ricardo Silveira)
I Keep It To Myself (featuring Shelby Flint)
Dori's Song (featuring Dori Caymmi)
Walk On (featuring Ricardo Silveira and Dave Koz)
Love On The Beach (featuring Dave Koz)
Sound Of Emotion - Reprise (Piano solo)

Musicians:

Gregg Karukas: Acoustic piano, synthesizers, sampled bass, drum and percussion programming
Dave Koz: Saxophone
Dori Caymmi: Vocals
Eric Marienthal: Saxophone
Ricardo Silveira: Acoustic and electric guitars
Shelby Flint: Vocals
Ron Boustead: Vocals
Jimmy Haslip: Bass on Severna Park, Open Sky, and Walk On
John Leftwich: Acoustic bass
Carl Burnett: Electric guitar on Severna Park, Sound Of Emotion, and Love On The Beach
Tony Guerrero: Flugelhorn
Keith Jones: Bass on Alligator Alley, Sound Of Emotion, and Magicsmiles
Bermie Dresel: Drums
Luis Conte: Percussion on Magicsmiles, Open Sky, Sound Of Emotion, Para Los Niños, and I Keep It To Myself

Produced by Gregg Karukas

Recorded and engineered by Gregg Karukas at Nightowl Studios, Los Angeles CA
Assistant Engineer: David Stanke
Mastered by Chris Bellman at Bernie Grundman Mastering, Los Angeles CA
Piano Technician: James Karukas
Synthesizer Technician: Tim Conniff of Keyboard Clinician

All songs written by Gregg Karukas except: Sound Of Emotion by Gregg Karukas and Ron Boustead; I Keep It To Myself by Gregg Karukas and Shelby Flint

All songs copyright © 1991 by Karukas Music/ASCAP except: Sound Of Emotion, copyright © 1991 Karukas Music/ASCAP and Art-Rock Music/BMI; I Keep It To Myself, copyright © 1991 Karukas Music/ASCAP and Sheljac Music/BMI

1992 - Musician Discovers Sound of Emotion - by Nancy Ann Lee

Jazz pianist Gregg Karukas is "breaking the sound barrier" of contemporary jazz by putting more warmth and emotion into his playing. SOUND OF EMOTION, Karukas' third album (his second for Positive Music), demonstrates just why the keyboardist is one of the best and busiest in the Los Angeles area. As on his previous recordings, Karukas' original compositions showcase the talented player's imaginative and warm melodic style.

"[The response] has been incredible," Karukas says. "I'm totally overwhelmed. It's just been great to have a lot of people in the business, as well as a lot of other people, supporting this album pretty much across the country, everywhere from Orlando, Tampa, Boston, a lot of places." "My records have gone much more into the direction of having me play a lot more piano, which as always been my goal. On my first record [THE NIGHTOWL], it wasn't possible because I recorded it at home and I had an upright piano. I got just an OK sound on it, but I felt like I was showcasing my compositions and synthesizer playing on the first record." Karukas explains, "I really knew from then on that I wanted to have much more acoustic piano and find my own voice, my own distinctive sound that wasn't as saxophone-oriented as my first record."

SOUND OF EMOTION features musicians like saxophonists Dave Koz and Eric Marienthal, guitarist Ricardo Silveira, bassist Jimmy Haslip, percussionist Luis Conte and Brazilian vocalist Dori Caymmi, among others. The album offers 12 laid-back sensuous selections for a wide range of tastes within the adult contemporary format. Karukas' varied talents as a composer become evident over his succession of recordings: THE NIGHTOWL (Optimism label) in 1987 and KEY WITNESS (Positive) in 1991. Compared with his first two recordings, selections on SOUND OF EMOTION are infused with more jazz and Latin percussions and are pleasantly layered and textured. Burt don't assume that this musician cannot play pure straight-ahead jazz. Last in Cleveland with Eric Marienthal's band for a performance at Rhythms in January, Karukas proved that he has his jazz chops down. His swinging jazz style and light touch also are demonstrated on his current album, particularly on "Introspecs"-- a tribute to Bill Evans and Miles Davis, two of Karukas' "early jazz heroes."

Karukas.....hails originally from the D.C.-Maryland area. He was in the right place at the right time to become original keyboardist for the Rippingtons, and has been in demand by some of contemporary jazz's biggest names-- Russ Freeman, David Benoit, Kenny G and Stanley Clarke. Karukas has also worked with a number of Brazilian musicians in particular touring with Ricardo Silveira and collaborating with composer Dori Caymmi. "I'm very lucky because I've been working with Caymmi," Karukas says. "From him I get a real cool feel of what other guys are doing that are his contemporaries like Milton Nascimento and other people. Dori's family are all musicians. Many of the songs his father, Dorival Caymmi, wrote in the '30s are now the folk music of Brazil and the birth of the Samba. "In fact, we're recording Dori's record as we speak," Karukas adds. The album, still untitled, will be released sometime in September on Quincy Jones' Quest label.

The L.A. music scene provides a multitude of opportunities for Karukas to make a living outside of performing and recording. The pianist plays and programs synthesizers for television composers for shows like "Cheers," "Life Goes On" and some made-for-TV movies as well as documentaries and promotional films. "I've just finished working on a feature film with Craig Safan," he says. "I do all of his synthesizer programming and engineering, sometimes ghost-writing and arranging. We do entire scores at my studio for the most part." Karukas has his own studio in North Hollywood. He has invested his earnings into developing a 24-track studio where he records work for many musicians. He gained production experience as a member of many early bands by doing a lot of the production work himself, as well as writing songs. "Eventually through a lot of years working in world class studios and trying to translate some of what I learned from good engineers and producers, I got to the point where I can hold my own in any studio now," Karukas explains. "I have invested all of the money I made into my studio because that's the only way - unless you have a big record deal - that you can afford to make records.

"I produce other people, mostly R&B and pop tunes for songwriters, a little bit of dance music and contemporary rock. We have excellent songwriters in Los Angeles. They come to me with their song and I basically arrange it, produce it, record it, and mix it. I've arranged done the demos and the final version of a few cartoon themes for Disney which are played everywhere in the world right now." Karukas' initial interest in music followed in the path of his two older brothers who started taking piano lessons. Like many kids, Karukas didn't stick with it for long, taking long hiatuses to play baseball or pursue other activities. It wasn't until he was in his high school jazz band that he began to relearn piano and devote his time to some serious practicing. After graduation Karukas played with East Coast Offering. "That's when I first began writing songs, " says Karukas.

A musician who describes himself as having natural ability and a good ear, Karukas rebelled against the conservatory approach and has never formally studied composition, preferring instead to focus on the "soul" of his playing more than formal technique. While Karukas played in rock bands as a teenager, his transformation to playing jazz came the first times he heard Dave Brubeck's. "Take Five," and Stan Getz's "Bossa Nova." In his quest for jazz knowledge, Karukas turned to the recordings of Miles Davis, Ahmad Jamal, Chick Corea and Herbie Hancock, as well as mainstream jazz players like Clifford Brown and Lee Morgan. One of his biggest influences was the master jazz pianist Bill Evans. During the 1970s, Karukas devoted his attention to ECM recording artists Gary Burton, Pat Metheny, Keith Jarrett, Chick Corea, Art Lande and others. Karukas remains grateful to Russell Ferrante, whom he met playing gigs in D.C. when Karukas lived there. He credits Ferrante as being instrumental in his quick entry in the L.A. music scene. "He was always very encouraging," Karukas says. "My 12th day in Los Angeles, I was playing at Donte's... It's not there any more, but it was one of the top clubs for original jazz...playing with some of the top players in L.A."

It's not like Karukas hasn't paid his dues, though. "When I first moved to L.A. (nine years ago), I played a lot of weddings, Bar Mitzvahs, parties-- all that stuff. Everybody has to do that to get known and to pay the rent. But I've been lucky I haven't had to do that for the past few years. I've definitely made the transition to only doing original projects."

As far as future projects are concerned, Karukas wants to keep expanding his acoustic sound. "My tastes go so wide -- everything from Brazilian to R&B, to funk and some groovin' rock. For example, on SOUND OF EMOTION, "Walk on" and "Alligator Alley" are two kind of funky rock things, part of my roots as well. My main goal in life is to be melodic -- to have the melodies stick with people and be memorable," Karukas says. "I don't think my goal is to be known as an incredible technical player; it's most important to have a sound that can touch people, especially because contemporary jazz has now reached and opened up to a much wider audience. It's really great that this has happened because I was trying to play original contemporary jazz when nobody cared about this kind of music."