Special EFX

featuring Chieli Minucci

Lao Tizer, Anthony Crawford & Joel Rosenblatt

THE HITS TOUR

PURCHASE TICKETS HERE

Guitarist, composer, producer, and arranger Chieli Minucci is longtime leader of the Grammy-nominated jazz-fusion group SPECIAL EFX featuring Chieli Minucci, a major force on the jazz and world music scene for over 40 years. 

Chieli has just released his first full CD in 3 years, the long-awaited, Special EFX featuring Chieli Minucci – “The Hits”! This ambitious project is comprised of 14 songs, including re-mastered favorites and chart-toppers from the band’s long multi-decade career, as well as brand new songs, and a few surprises!

Chieli has just released the powerhouse new single, Been So Long. With its relentless groove combined with Minucci’s nonstop melodic fretboard acrobatics, as well as Eric Marienthal’s distinctive, soaring alto, the composition conjures up images of a heated, passionate affair, and the anticipation of a love reunion. Been So Long also features the melodic vocalizations of American Idol finalist, Elliott Yamin. Chieli’s melodies and recognizable guitar playing caps off the imagery with its ultra-smooth, high energy performance.

In the summer of 2024, their previous single, “Cool Summer”, reached the #1 spot on Billboard, as well as a total of 5 charts simultaneously!

Chieli has also recently released 3 unique projects – “Return to Budapest With Love”, is an archived, 1990 live concert recording of Special EFX from their early days on tour in Europe; the solo, and mainly acoustic release, “Someone’s Singing”; as well as the 40^th anniversary Special EFX CD, “Twenty Twenty 2”. 

Chieli & Special EFX’s previous release saw title track, “Deep as the Night”, win Billboard Magazine’s 2018 top honors, best-song-of-the-year.

Besides writing and performing his own music, Chieli shares his guitar brilliance throughout the entertainment world. He has recorded and performed with many top artists, such as Celine Dion, Lou Reed, Lionel Richie, Jennifer Lopez, Jewel, Marc Anthony, Michael Bolton, Rupert Holmes, Anastasia, even classic artists Eartha Kitt, and Eddie Fisher. He’s collaborated and worked alongside contemporary jazz artists Kirk Whalum, Maysa, Jeff Lorber, Norman Brown, Bernie Williams, Marion Meadows, Lao Tizer, Mindi Abair, Rick Braun, Gerald Veasley, Omar Hakim, and many others. 

Although renowned in the jazz and pop world, Chieli is also a gifted television and film composer. He has won 3 Emmy Awards and been nominated 10 times for his eclectic compositional work. His music can also be heard on the soundtracks of the films No Country for Old Men, Bowfinger, Legally Blonde, Panic, and others. Chieli’s original scoring work can be heard in live stage productions of Peter Pan, Dora the Explorer, Thomas the Tank Engine, and others.  

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Keyboardist Lao Tizer is one of today’s rising stars of the world-fusion genre. Tizer’s original music has spurred comparisons of a modern twist to the 1970s and early 1980s heyday of jazz fusion, when trailblazing ensembles like Return to Forever, Mahavishnu Orchestra and Weather Report set the aesthetic standard. Lao’s music has a multi-genre, multi-national appeal and his group, The Lao Tizer Band, has toured the USA and the world while being nominated “Jazz Group of the Year”!  Their 2018 CD/DVD combo release, Songs from The Swinghouse has received acclaim across the industry while debuting near the top of the Billboard Jazz Album Chart!  Lao’s most recent release was just released in 2025, the blue-eyed soul, Amplify, featuring American Idol finalist, Elliott Yamin on vocals.

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Also joining the Special EFX Allstars will be bassist Anthony Crawford, best known for working with Allan Holdsworth, Justin Timberlake, Peabo Bryson, Kirk Whalum. Crawford also played bass for the National Democratic Convention for president Bill Clinton in 2000.

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Joel Rosenblatt is a world-renowned drummer and producer.  He has performed and recorded with such greats as: Spyro Gyra, Special EFX, Lee Ritenour, Freddy Jackson, Robben Ford, Larry Carlton. Eileen Ivers, Michel Camilo, Chick Corea,