Birth name Rose Ann Dimalanta Labels 7 Bridges Recordings Years active 1992–2009 Name Rose Dimalanta | Genres R&B, Soul Origin Oakland, California | |
Associated acts Tower of Power, Prince, Santana, Tania Maria | ||
Rose Ann Dimalanta, known by the stage name Rad (styled rad.), is a singer-songwriter and keyboardist from Oakland. She is influenced by funk, Brazilian, Afro-Cuban and R&B styles and has been described as the "Tania Maria of Funk".
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Biography
Rose Ann Dimalanta, a.k.a. rad, grew up in Oakland, California and began playing piano at the age of 4. In 1990, she completed her jazz studies at U.C. Berkeley. By this time, she had already played alongside Bay Area jazz musicians like Pete Escovedo and was recognized as a pianist. In 1988, she met Sound Engineering student Michael Kirsch at the College for Recording Arts in San Francisco. The two were married in 1991 and Rose Ann moved to Kirsch's hometown Hamburg, Germany. In 1992, she started her solo project with the first release, Radified, on her husband's record label, Soulciety Records. The record instantly won critical acclaim and sold over 50,000 units independently. The following years brought collaborations with Tower of Power, Roger Troutman, Howard Johnson, Marc Russo of the Yellow Jackets, Sheila E. and others. After leaving the label Soulciety Records in 1996, both Rad and Kirsch moved back to the San Francisco Bay Area and started attracting musicians to the project, including jazz guitarist Ray Obiedo and Tower of Power drummer David Garibaldi. Rad joined Prince and his band, the New Power Generation, for his Musicology tours in 2003 and 2004. She left the New Power Generation to focus more on her new born daughter and finish work on the album East Babe which was released on hers and Kirsch's label 7 Bridges Recordings in 2007. A live album "Live in Japan" was released in early 2008. She was joined by Patrice Rushen on her next studio album "Getting Down Is Free". After a brief stint with the Prime Time Band on NBC's Jay Leno show, she returned to live touring in 2009. She currently lives in Zürich (Switzerland) and is in collaboration with Seven on his new album.