Born in Palo Alto, California and a long time Bay Area performing artist, AJ has worked with popular artists in his career as a featured "hot" guitarist. Early in his career he was a Guitarist/Vocalist/Songwriter/Arranger involved with popular Marin based groups Pablo Cruise, Bud Cockrell & Patty Santos, Taxxi, Santa Cruz groups The Ducks, Lucky Mud, Garphonics and LA Blues Artist Finis Tasby. He
is a BMI published writer, A voting member of N.A.R.A.S (Grammy) and a member of the Blues Foundation in Memphis who has worked with and recorded with luminary producers Tom Dowd, Bill Schnee, Jim Gains and many others in his 50+ year career. Blues Influences include:
In 1998 - 2000 Angelo produced two blues records, "It's About Time" and "Rain Of Tears" with his brother, Mike Rossi releasing and performing as "The Rossi Brothers". Both records were recorded and engineered by Robert Berry at Soundtek Studios and promoted by Leslie Ann Knight. In this time period, AJ started started sitting in with some of the LA West Coast Blues cats when they would travel up north to play the Boom Boom Room, Biscuits & Blues, or special events at Apple Computer and National Semiconductor. "Finis Tasby (Nevada, TX) "The Texas Twister" was a very special cat. I was fortunate to spend a lot of time with Finis and always enjoyed his company, his stories of driving Albert King's bus, his humor and blues music mentorship. He also introduced me to John Lee Ho**er, personally". "King Earnest (Natchez, Mississippi) was another cat who always let me sit in. These gentlemen were dedicated and gracious men. Finis died after suffering a stroke in 2014 and King Earnest was killed in a car accident returning from a gig in San Louis Obispo". "JJ Bad Boy Jones (Baton Rouge, LA) was another great, “Original Blues Man” I had the pleasure of sitting in with. He was gracious and welcoming ,an excellent vocalist/writer. He suffered a fatal heart attack on his front lawn heading out the door to a gig at 77 years of age." "Roy Gains is a hell of a bluesman and we played together at the Boom Boom Room. He was quite picky, so I always felt honored to sit in with Roy. Jan Garfinkle use to hook me up with all these cats when they would travel up north to play in SF at the Boom Boom Room. Jan and I were mates in our college band, “Lucky Mud”, opening for Jimi Hendrix, Buddy Miles, and others in Hawaii in the summer of 1970". AJ later decided to become ProTools proficient and move 'behind the glass' as an engineer/producer, owning and operating the Cave Recording Studio in Mountain View from 2010 - 2018, which eventually morphed into the, "Cave Records" label. He recorded, produced and worked with many local blues artists, Bruce Conte (TOP), Terry Hiatt, Steve Freund, Paula Harris, Terrie Odabi, Kid Andersen, The Lucky Losers, Ben Rice and others. The Cave Studio closed its doors in 2017. http://thecaverecoringstudio.us
One of his last recording projects at the Cave was with the late, Native American Beat Poet, John Trudell and The Bad Dog Band, recording their final album and John's last verse and spoken word off site (Remote) from his hospital bed at El Camino Hospital, Mtn. View CA in 2015. This record is currently being produced by Jackson Brown for release in 2022. AJ's love of music performance is infectious and his presentation of the Blues genre, authentic, energetic and fun for the listener. You can check out his latest releases, 'Love & War", "Steppin' Out", "Slow Cookin'" and "Vaporized" here: http://ajcrawdaddy.bandcamp.com
