Astral Project was founded in 1978 by saxophonist Tony Dagradi, who gathered together the brightest, most energetic young players in the Crescent City to form what would become New Orleans' premier modern jazz ensemble. A devoted student of Eastern philosophy, Dagradi coined the band's name as a reflection of the group's quest for a higher plane of musical experience. The original lineup included seven-string guitarist Steve Masakowski, drummer Johnny Vidacovich, bassist James Singleton, and pianist David Torkanowsky, who left the group in 2001.
The band cut its teeth playing four or five nights a week at the Old Absinthe House on Bourbon Street, where an unknown singer named Bobby McFerrin was known to sit in almost every night during the early years. Decades later, while playing a gig in St. Paul, Astral Project was reunited with McFerrin, who by then had become a global star; the reminiscent jam session led him to invite the band to tour with him in the summer of 1999.
Astral Project has recorded for Compass Records, including the acclaimed album Voodoo Bop, mixed and mastered by John Fischbach, Stevie Wonder's celebrated engineer, and recorded at the historic Kingsway Studios in the French Quarter. The band has earned praise from Down Beat, JazzTimes, Rolling Stone, and the Chicago Tribune, along with several Big Easy Entertainment Awards, and continues to perform regularly at Snug Harbor and the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, its lineup remarkably unchanged across more than four decades of cutting-edge improvisation.
