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Opafire

Opafire
OPAFIRE.jpg
Photo by Shaun Caster
Background information
Origin San Francisco, California
Genres Jazz fusion, smooth jazz, world fusion
Years active 1990–1998
Labels RCA/Novus, Higher Octave/EMI
Past members
  • Zachary Norman E. Robert Powell
  • Dallas Smith
  • Bryan Mantia
  • Michael Pluznick
  • Tom Corwin
  • Christopher Hedge

Opafire was a jazz fusion group from San Francisco, California. Their album Opafire (RCA, 1991) sold close to half a million units worldwide.

Opafire was created in 1990 by composer, multi-instrumentalist, and record producer Zachary Norman E. In 1990, Opafire signed a contract with RCA Records after Steve Feinstein, a program director in San Francisco began playing the group's music. When RCA/BMG released the debut album Opafire, it gained international success and heavy rotation radio airplay. The Opafire songs, "Wajumbe", "Kalimbahari", and "Walk Like Rain" reached the No. 2, No. 11, and No. 26 spots on the Gavin Report "New Adult Contemporary Most Radio Plays" chart and Top Ten spots in R&R magazine, as well as reaching charts in Germany, Italy, Japan, France, Canada, the United Kingdom, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, and Taiwan.

In 1991 Opafire toured with Miles Davis, Spyro Gyra, and the Yellow Jackets as part of the JVC Jazz Festival Tour, performing in venues with audiences of up to 12,000 people.

Opafire headlined many music festivals, theaters, and clubs, such as the Oxfam International Festival Tour, the Whole Life Expo Tour, the Stern Grove Festival, the Great American Music Hall and Yoshi's Night Club in San Francisco and Oakland California, The Baked Potato in Los Angeles, as well as large "Listener Appreciation Concert" performances.

In 1998, the musical group Opafire was put on sabbatical by Zachary Norman E. While healing from a hang gliding accident, he cited his apathy for Clear Channel Communications newer nationally syndicated smooth jazz radio format and his desire to compose music for film and television in his studio in Maui.


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