The Awakening

The Awakening *LIVE* in Harlem, 9/1/10



New York Times covers The Awakening's 2007 New York City Marathon performance



Performing as an electric bassist since the 1970's, evolving from a fire breathing CBGB's and Max's Kansas City headliner into a 21st century jazz fusion composer, leading The Awakening since 1995, Brooklyn based Frank Stokes produced his band's albums, Dance Tunes, Visions and Walk With Me.



The 2005 album Visions begins with Mr. Stokes singing the lead vocal on Trees with Juilliard graduate Randy Whitehead and Wayasti Richardson. Trees exemplifies the interplay at the heart of the project, the work as a rhythm section since 1996 between Mr. Stokes and his first chair trap kit drummer, Berklee graduate Dan Walsh.

"It's my song to the trees. They grow all over the world. They look beautiful. It's my way of showing admiration." - Frank Stokes /



Randy Whitehead perfoms for the 2008 album Walk With Me on Something About, playing a Native American courting flute. Mr. Whitehead also recorded for the album as second chair trap kit drummer.

"It's a dreaming song, a meditation on all the good things in life." - Frank Stokes /



Soon after Mr. Stokes wrote the song Raven he twice used it to win the battle of the bands at The Village Gate. Mr. Stokes recorded Raven for the Visions album also performing the electric guitar and synth parts. Raven features the tenor saxophone sound of Dave Morgan, credits including work with Harmolodic Records and the Tony Awards, performing with Mr. Stokes since 1996.

"Raven is another dreaming song." - Frank Stokes /



Snake Dance is Mr. Stokes using his whammy arm like a magic wand for the 2002 album Dance Tunes. Mr. Stokes recorded Snake Dance in 1999, recording himself for the album both as a vocalist and as an electric guitarist for the first time in an already decades long career.

"Snake Dance is a purification song. It's a meditiation on purification, feeling Mother Earth, being thankful for the gifts." - Frank Stokes /



When Mr. Stokes met Jaco Pastorius he had just written Prelude. Surprised that Jaco called him back a few days later, Mr. Stokes sent a cab and across the river Jaco came, to a Brooklyn studio Mr. Stokes ran. Having had Jaco pick up the Precision bass Mr. Stokes used before going fretless to play Chromatic Fantasy, Mr. Stokes played Prelude. He describes the reaction as adamant, Jaco urging Mr. Stokes to get a band together, to get his songs out. The Awakening is that band.

"It's just a boppity little tune. It's the beginning of my quest." - Frank Stokes /



For the album Walk With Me, George Stonefish of the New York City based SilverCloud Singers performed vocals on Road Song with Randy Whitehead, also featured on his Native American courting flute. The electric guitar sound is Mr. Stokes laying down two guitar tracks, one clean, the other distorted.

"It's just what it is, it's us, singin' as we go on the road." - Frank Stokes /



Recorded for the Visions album, Triangle features Dave Morgan performing on clarinet alongside Mr. Stokes' trumpet and flugelhorn player from 1998 until 2006, Glenn Makos. Billed as The Awakening Horns, their sound on Triangle is by turns subtle and nuanced then powerfully evocative to blend in with a virtually cinematic performance from Mr. Stokes on his electric guitar, the 24 fret Fender Performer.

"Perspective. Any given angle, multi-faceted perspectives. A journey." - Frank Stokes /



Featuring vocals by Randy Whitehead and Wayasti Richardson, Mr. Stokes recorded The Awakening for the album Walk With Me performing on the fretless bass he created from pre-CBS Fender parts, a Precision neck Mr. Stokes de-fretted, with a Jazz body.

"It's my band's theme song. As I dance myself awake, so does everybody else." - Frank Stokes /



Recording for the Walk With Me album after playing live with Mr. Stokes since 1997, trumpeter Mac Gollehon, a veteran of sessions and tours with legends including Bruce Springsteen, David Bowie, The Who and Duran Duran is heard on You Are Not Alone driving an emotional, expressive song to new heights along with the atmospheric, inspired playing of electric guitarist Matt Grossman.

"You are never alone. The air's alive, the Earth's alive, the grass, the rocks, the water, you are never alone." - Frank Stokes /



Always up for the challenge of composing on the spot, Mr. Stokes came up with Just Blue in a moment of spontaneous creation while onstage. Keeping the tune in his live set, Mr. Stokes recorded Just Blue for the Walk With Me album.

"It's one of my heartfelt blues pieces, way down deep in my heart." - Frank Stokes



The Awakening has evolved under the direction of Frank Stokes from a trio into a nonet, exploring Mr. Stokes' decades of composing across genres while painting and drawing the artwork of his visions. Musical already, just old enough to stand on his own two feet, Frank Stokes was as a child dropped off to spend days and the nights of shows within a Downtown Brooklyn theatre where a relative worked. Backstage for years from the fifties into the sixties he'd meet Alan Freed, see Little Stevie Wonder with Murray The K and was inspired by Little Richard above all others as the tours came through, Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers, The Penguins, Jerry Lee Lewis playing a piano with his feet, Bill Haley and the Comets, Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, The Ronettes, Frank Stokes remembers the glow of a spotlight shining on Jackie Wilson, ten feet away.



Playing bass in bars by fourteen he was known as 'The Iceman' when he anchored Osmosis, a nine piece funk band. Frank Stokes spent years auditioning and assembling bands, along the way jamming with Marky Ramone and Neon Leon, recording where tape was rolling, becoming known as a one man wall of sound by the time he joined Kongress in 1976, playing with acts like Suicide and the Dead Boys opening. Founded by Otto von Ruggins, Kongress was fronted by the Australian Society Of Magicians' Magician Of The Year, inventor of the Dancing Cane illusion, the late Geoffrey Crozier, whom Frank Stokes also backed in a second act known as Shanghai Side Show. With an electric chair onstage before Warhol painted his and with Crozier's cauldron sending a solid column of flame up eight feet high as potions simmered away Kongress was banned from CBGB's when a flash pot opened up and the heat singed Hilly's beard. Shanghai Side Show included jesting roadies working as clowns, with both acts featuring the use of trunkloads of props Crozier brought halfway around the world. Frank Stokes performed with a flamethrower firing off of a gas canister mounted on the back of the headstock of the bass he played for audiences as large as 150,000 people and Brooklyn block parties while headlining downtown and opening in Dover, New Jersey for acts including Jack Bruce. Shanghai Side Show appeared as an instant spectacle for startled onlookers when the crew tapped a light pole along Brooklyn's Shore Road. They also played at the Brooklyn disco where Saturday Night Fever was filmed before breaking up in 1979. Frank Stokes then ran a Brooklyn recording studio as his evolution from fire breathing rock star to serious jazz composer was spurred on by a chance meeting with Jaco Pastorius. Walking by a basketball court on the way back to the subway from CBGB's after an audition Frank saw Jaco, sitting under a tree, a basketball clutched to his stomach. He remembers Jaco's eyes catching the form of his bass in the soft case on his back. Urged by Jaco to form his own group, Frank Stokes performed and recorded as Present Tense while auditioning musicians by the hundreds at a time. The Awakening has evolved from the band Frank Stokes founded for three hour three set downtown gigs into a high-energy production combining music and dance. Frank Stokes is also a painter and fine line illustrator working to honor his Native American heritage, producing a drawing or series of drawings to set the scene as each of his songs uses the power of music to tell a story. Dance floor grooves, Native American, Latin, Funk and World rhythms are combined with more contemplative numbers to stimulate mind, body and spirit, sending healing energy in all directions.