Kasim Sulton

All Music Guide:

Best known as a member of Todd Rundgren's offshoot prog rock/new wave band Utopia, bassist/singer Kasim Sulton is also one of rock's most in-demand session musicians, as well as a solo artist. Getting his musical start playing in local bands around Staten Island, NY, by the mid-'70s, Sulton was playing piano with performance artist Cherry Vanilla. Shortly thereafter, he was introduced to Todd Rundgren, beginning a long and fruitful working relationship with one of rock's most unpredictable and hard-to-categorize artists. Rundgren had completely overhauled the personnel that made up his prog rock outfit Utopia, and Sulton was soon asked to play bass for the band, joining keyboardist Roger Powell, drummer John "Willie" Wilcox, and Rundgren on guitar (all four members contributed vocals and songwriting).

But before Sulton made his debut on record with Utopia, he contributed bass and vocals to an album that Rundgren was producing at the time -- Meat Loaf's Bat Out of Hell -- which would go on to become one of rock's all-time best sellers. 1977 saw the release of two Utopia albums, Ra and Oops! Wrong Planet, the former showing the group's progressive side, while the latter displayed the musical form that the quartet would specialize in from here on out, a mixture of power pop, new wave, balladry, and hard rock.

Although Utopia wouldn't issue another studio recording until 1980, the 1978 live album Back to the Bars (credited solely to Rundgren on the cover) contained several appearances of Utopia as well, and in August of 1979, Utopia was one of several bands that opened for Led Zeppelin during their pair of mammoth shows at Knebworth Park in England. The same year, Sulton, Wilcox, and Powell served as Alice Cooper's backing band for the motion picture Roadie. In addition to Utopia's sporadic appearances during this period, Sulton kept himself busy appearing on other artists' records -- Steve Hillage's L, Rick Derringer's Guitars and Women, Tom Robinson's TRB Two, and Shaun Cassidy's Wasp.

1980 would go down as one of the busiest in Utopia's recording career, as they issued a pair of widely varying releases. First up was the exceptional Adventures in Utopia, which spawned the group's lone Top 40 single of their career, "Set Me Free" (sung by Sulton), as the album barely missed the Top 30. But instead of following up their biggest album yet with another album of finely tuned new wave pop, Rundgren and Utopia opted to issue an album full of Beatles parodies, Deface the Music, which failed to match its predecessor's commercial success.

Sulton was recruited to play on Meat Loaf songwriter Jim Steinman's 1981 solo debut, Bad for Good (a virtual carbon copy of Bat Out of Hell), while 1982 saw Utopia return to form with a pair of fine yet underappreciated albums, Swing to the Right and a self-titled, three-sided release. The same year, Sulton issued his very first solo album as well, Kasim, issued through EMI and supported with a tour. Subsequently, Kasim appeared on two more Utopia releases (1984's Oblivion and 1985's P.O.V.), before the group split up. Sulton spent the remainder of the '80s touring with such artists as Patty Smyth and Cheap Trick, was briefly a full-fledged member of Joan Jett & the Blackhearts, played on albums by the Indigo Girls (their self-titled debut), the Rubinoos (Party of Two), Patti Smith (Dream of Life), Patty Smyth (Never Enough), Joan Jett (Good Music and Up Your Alley), and Steve Stevens (Atomic Playboys), as well as forming the duo Price-Sulton with Blackhearts drummer Thommy Price, issuing a lone album, 1986's Lights On. Sulton also appeared as part of Todd Rundgren's supporting tour for his A Cappella album, and played on Rundgren's 1989 release, Nearly Human.

In 1992, Utopia reunited for a brief two-week tour of Japan and a live set, Redux '92: Live in Japan, before once again going their separate ways. But Sulton joined up with Meat Loaf once more, playing with the singer for the remainder of the decade, on such albums as his mega-hit Bat Out of Hell II: Back into Hell, Welcome to the Neighborhood, Live Around the World, and VH1 Storytellers, as well as being a member/musical director of Meat Loaf's touring band. In addition to building up his session resumé throughout the '90s (Celine Dion's Falling into You, Joan Jett's Hit List), Sulton toured with Rundgren (and playing on his albums With a Twist and One Long Year), and in 1998, issued a collection of solo demos from the '80s via Earl Slick's Slick Music label, appropriately titled The Basement Tapes. Beginning in the late '90s, Sulton began appearing regularly at such New York City nightclubs as the Bitter End. He toured Europe with Meatloaf in 2001 before launching his own solo tour of America, and released his third album Quid Pro Quo on the Sound Sphere label in early 2002.

Wikipedia:

Kasim Sulton (b. December 8, 1955) is an American bass guitarist, keyboardist, and vocalist. Best known for his work with Utopia, Sulton sang lead on 1980's "Set Me Free," Utopia's only top 40 hit in the United States. As a solo artist, Sulton hit the Canadian top 40 in 1982 with "Don't Break My Heart,"

Sulton has been a frequent collaborator, bassist and singer on many of Todd Rundgren's projects and solo tours.

Biography

Sulton attended and graduated from Susan E. Wagner H.S. in 1973. Sulton started his musical career playing piano and vocals for Cherry Vanilla before gaining a place in Utopia in 1976. During his time with Utopia they recorded nine albums, and toured extensively.

He has toured with Hall & Oates, Cheap Trick, Blue Öyster Cult, and Richie Sambora, amongst many other artists. As a studio musician, he has played on albums by Patti Smith, The Indigo Girls and Steve Stevens, and appeared on an album of traditional Irish music by Eileen Ivers. He was a member of Joan Jett's backing band, The Blackhearts, touring with them and playing on Jett's album Up Your Alley (1988) as well as contributing a number of tracks to her compilation album The Hit List (1990).

Sulton was the bassist on the Meat Loaf album Bat Out of Hell. He and Thommy Price collaborated on an album, Lights On, which Sulton co-wrote. The song "No T.V. No Phone" was featured in the 1987 film The Allnighter, starring Susanna Hoffs.

Kasim produced demo CDs for Patti Russo and Elaine Fiddler's band.

Sulton recorded a solo album on September 4, 2002 entitled Quid Pro Quo. The album was released on Sphere Sound Records, and Sulton played all but two instruments on the album.

Sulton sang background vocals on Meat Loaf's album Bat out of Hell II: Back Into Hell, joining his backing band, Neverland Express, touring for three years on the Everything Louder Tour. He also recorded on Meat Loaf’s album Welcome to the Neighborhood, arranging and singing background vocals on most of the tracks. He went on to become Music director for Meat Loaf, rehearsing Meat Loaf's band, Neverland Express, in preparation for touring. The Very Best of Meat Loaf album was released with three new tracks, one of which, "Is Nothing Sacred", was later re-recorded as a duet with Patti Russo and produced by Sulton, with the track reaching #15 on the UK charts. Sulton also produced the Meat Loaf StoryTellers album, and toured with the band on the Night Of The Proms Tour in Europe and the "Meat Loaf Just Havin' Fun for the Summer" and "Winter" Tour in the US and Europe, where he and Patti Russo both served as opening acts. He also toured on Meat Loaf's "Couldn't Have Said It Better" tour where he played a short solo acoustic set to open the concert at most venues. One of Meat Loaf's shows on this tour was filmed for the dvd Bat out of Hell: Live with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. Kasim also toured on the 2005 "Hair of the Dog" Tour and the 2006-2007 "Bat Out of Hell III" tour, and he is featured as bassist/backing vocalist on the album. In summer 2008, he rejoined Meat Loaf for the Casa de Carne tour.

Sulton played bass in the pit orchestra for the Twyla Tharp-choreographed musical based on Billy Joel music called Movin' Out on Broadway.

After a brief stint with the reunited band Scandal, Sulton joined The New Cars in 2005, replacing original Cars bassist and co-lead vocalist Benjamin Orr, who died of cancer in 2000. The band also included original Cars band members Elliot Easton and Greg Hawkes as well as Todd Rundgren and Prairie Prince from Journey and The Tubes. An album, It's Alive!, was followed by a tour in 2006, with Sulton singing lead on The Cars' hit "Drive".

Sulton continues to appear live playing bass, keyboards, and guitar on most Todd Rundgren tours, including the 2008-09 "Arena" gigs, 2009-10 performances of the classic 1973 album "A Wizard/A True Star" in the U.S. and Europe, and 2010 "TR's Johnson" shows. He was in the band for the six show "Todd/Healing Albums Live" tour that began Labor Day Weekend of 2010 in Akron, Ohio, and played a solo show before the premiere. He also played in the second run of "Todd/Healing Albums Live," a five-show tour that began on March 25, 2011 in Hartford, CT.

In 2011 Sulton replaced Matt Bissonette as the bassplayer in the Beatles tribute supergroup Yellow Matter Custard.

Sulton lives in Staten Island, New York. He has a son named Tarik Sulton