What's this about?

Hello! Thanks a lot for having a look at this site. As the name indicates, this is a band that is inspired by and dedicated to a band and musicians that have greatly influenced me for many years: Gentle Giant. Our group is called Gende's Giant (Gende is pronounced like "Gandhi" except with a short "e" where the "a" is in that more famous name) as an obvious nod to this influential band.

I supposed one of the first things I'd like to ask is, "Please, no one sue me!" Gende's Giant is purely a labor of love, something that I was able to afford to try to start in 2006. I tried to be "up front" in public about our intentions and reach out to former members as I could. Hearing no objections, I continued. If there is any concern by appropriate parties, please contact me via GenDesign Corporation and we'll cease and desist. We are not trying to appropriate something that isn't ours.

So, let's talk about why we're doing this. Bascially, as stated above, it is about respect for and desire to play this music live in public. I was never able to see the Gentle Giant band play live. I know a lot of other people who are "in the same boat", if you will. Being blessed with a decent year of business and having access to some fine musicians, I finally decided to try and put a band like this together. For me, its just like trying to play fine classical music by the great masters. Having now had one show "under our belts", I can tell you it was just as difficult.

On April 15th of 2006, Gende's Giant had a wonderful first concert in Chicago Ridge, Illinois. Adding to the magic of the evening was having Mr. Gary Green in the audience. As fate would have it, the soundman we had hired became ill. Who fills in but former Gentle Giant soundman David Zammit. Wow. The show came off pretty well and the crowd was very appreciative. Gary Green gave us his "Official Gentle Giant Seal of Approval" at concert's end. This just blew me away. I was scared of this gig, to be truthful, so much could have gone wrong. But, the triumphant outcome exceeded my wildest expectations. Thus, we are going to try to continue playing where we can.

At our first concert, we also tried some music from two other composers that we also have enjoyed for years; Jean-Luc Ponty and John McLaughlin. That was great fun to attempt. However, we are now going for "full-time Gentle Giant" and will be playing mostly the music of that great band from now on. Since the success of the first show, there may now be some other opportunities for Gende's Giant to "keep going". We'll explore them and see what happens in the future. Even if we only did the one gig in April, it was worth it. That night is going to be hard to top or equal. But, I've gotten some emails hoping that we would show up in this part of the country or that (do sign up on our emailing list and drop in a comment!). Keep sending them and I'll see what we can do, we want to play. Thanks again for having a look at the site.