Everett Bradley

Everett Bradley (b. Greenwood, South Carolina, March 16, 1963 -- ) – Singer, multi-instrumentalist (percussion, saxophone, and keyboard), dancer, choreographer, songwriter, and playwright. At age five, Bradley moved to Muncie and went on to study music at Indiana University in the 1980s. While there, he choreographed for the Singing Hoosiers. Following graduation, he played with the Bloomington funk band Kilo; however, he left the Midwest in 1988 to pursue a performance career on the West coast. The following year, John Eddie hired him as a sideman. After moving to the East coast to perform and record with the John Eddie Band, Bradley picked up recording and performance opportunities with various artists including Joey Ramone, Chris Botti, and Cyndi Lauper from 1993 to 1995. Around the same time, he performed with his own band in the East Village. Also in the mid 1990s, he joined the American version of Stomp and was part of the Stomp-based Brooms, an Oscar-nominated short directed by Quincy Jones in 1996. His performance with Brooms also made it onto Quincy Jones's album Q's Jook Joint (1995), which won a Grammy for a "Best Engineered Song (non-classical)." In addition, he was a back-up singer and percussionist on tour with Daryl Hall (1996), Bon Jovi (1997 and beyond), and Richie Sambora (1998). He also played percussion on David Bowie’s Hours album (1999). After working in the periphery for many years, Bradley performed a starring role in Broadway’s Swing!, which ran 461 times from 1991 to 2001. While the show received multiple Tony nominations in 2000, Bradley and co-star Ann Hampton Callaway won Theatre World Awards for their work on the show. Bradley’s artistic contributions extend far beyond performing. Not only did he co-write two songs for Swing!, but he also co-wrote the show Vices, which was nominated for eight Jeff Awards in Chicago. In 2000, Bradley released As Ever It Is on Big Black Booty Records; it includes twelve original songs that range from R & B and soul to funk and pop. Earlier in his career, he created a dance hit “I Luv U Baby,” which reached #2 on the audio and video charts in the UK. More recently, Bradley has been known for his virtuoso one-man shows.