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Frank began his music career playing violin, and french horn before finally discovering
what he could do with a guitar by listening to Led Zeppelin albums. Frank formed his first rock band in high school and a
few years later began a Hardcore Metal band named "Nightmare" and later "R.O.T." After a short hiatus,
Frank headed up several other projects, including an acoustic act with an old bandmate of R.O.T.(Trent Sprenkle), and later,
an all original progressive rock band "Watchmakers Garden". "By 1996 this had ended, my musical tastes had
grown, and changed, and I knew I wanted to play Jazz." "After a year of hunting for members we only had a trio,
so we decided to go with Blues instead. That move from Rock to Blues, really helped me develop my true voice on guitar."
In 2000 Frank moved from York to Reading and the Blues band departed. "At this point I decided to stick things out until
I found the people for a long awaited Jazz project, this was the longest break I had ever taken from performing." "It's
taken a long time, and a whole lot people later, but the wait was well worth it, because now, I've got the greatest bunch
of dedicated musicians, to make Chillfactor the band I always knew it could be." Franks influences include everyone from
Led Zepplin to Lee Ritenour.
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Dean began playing saxophone at age 9 and continued his entire secondary education
years studying music, and leading small groups. After graduation, Dean attended Indiana Univ.of Pa, where he studied Music
Education in the mid 80's, until leaving IUP to pursue his other love..running Grocery Stores. Dean has studied Saxophone,
and Jazz performance, with Tim Price, Dr. John Kuehn, Joe Miller, "Saxie" Shollenberger and John Morris, and has
performed or recorded with local groups in eastern, Pa including; "Fancy Brass", "The Bentonites",
"On the Run", "Big Beat Tornado", "Ron Nolan" and many others. After a long layoff, from the
local music scene, Dean realized he still had to satisfy his passion to play and perform, and began to seek out other musicians
to form a contemporary jazz group. This search, led him to Frank, and they collaborated their common goals, and "Chillfactor"
soon emerged. "I am so excited to be part of a high energy, performance driven band like this, that is bringing an exciting
new style of music into the Reading music scene." In addition to "Chillfactor", Dean performs regularly as
a solo artist for weddings and other Church and Christian music events. Dean's main playing influences include, Mike Brecker,
David Sanborn, Cannonball Adderley, Bob Berg, Tim Price,and Ron Bertolet.
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Tom began playing piano at age 8, and later studied theory and composition in
college.
Over the years Tom has played with a variety of bands and different styles of music including classic rock,
country, wedding, blues, jazz standards, bluegrass, and originals. Besides performing with "Chillfactor", Tom performs
with "The Woodshed Blues Band" and a bluegrass band. Tom's chops on the keys are a great blend of his major
influences Jimmy Smith, Oscar Peterson, Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock Keith Jarrett, and his current favorite Joey Defrancesco.
Tom brings a style and feel, reminiscent of the soul jazz organ groups of the late 60's, early 70's, but with a contemporary
flair, that drives the signature "Chillfactor groove" home.
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Bob Wagner
Keyboards/Bass/
Trumpet
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Bob has been a factor in the Berks County music scene for the past 25 years. First
playing keyboards for pop-rock bands Blaze and Captive then as bassist in Radio Daze for most of its 20 year run. Along the
way he has performed with local icons Act Two and Hot Ice, recorded with The Bob Ruhe band and makes up half of the acoustic
duo Brad & Bob.
Playing keyboards with Chillfactor is a new musical direction for Bob with the unique approach
of two keyboard players making for "the biggest cool sound you will hear anywhere." Bob's influences are vast,
and include Marcus Miller and Herbie Hancock.
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Jack Loughhead
Bass
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Jack began his music career as a clarinet/sax/vocalist, before finding his true
musical voice playing bass and guitar in the early 70's. Jack performed in various cover bands for a few years, before
concentrating on professional vocal career in the late 70's throughout the Philadelphia area. Jack came back to his true
love playing bass seriously in the early 90's, playing blues with "Yellow House" and for the past 10 years with
the "Woodshed Blues Band". In addition, Jack performs with the "Eileen Tipping Trio" an acoustic jazz/folk
group. Jack has been striving to play contemporary jazz for a long time. . .and has been a huge asset to establishing the
driving groove of "Chillfactor"
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Felix Stancu
Drums
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Felix began studying drums at age 14 in Romania,with a great jazz, and poly instrumentalist
and teacher Tonu Mihai. Felix continued to practice and studied all styles of music. "My goal is to be a complete musician
to able to cover all styles of music and of course my favorite styles are groove ,Latin jazz and jazz fusion." Felix
has performed and recorded with top Romanian musicians, until arriving in USA in 2000. Since moving to the US, Felix has tried
to find the right people to make his American Dream to come true. "It has taken a long time to find this wonderful group,actually
they found me online and I am happy for that, and one thing is sure, we're not gonna sit and count how many years we got
left till retierment that's for sure." Felix's influences include Dave Weckl, Joel Rosenblatt and Steve Gadd.
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