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Damian Cartier started out playing piano when he was 7 years old. At first, he would wow severely related audiences with “The Old Grey Goose” and “Broken Record Boogie” before moving on to “Fur Elise” and what his mother would call “That Damn Major Scale, Again?”. Soon, he took his talents to the road and performed in front of people lucky enough not to be related to him (as they could always leave a recital unnoticed) and even began to compose his own songs. In the summer before 8th grade, he auditioned for a high school all star band called “The Rhode Island Youth Stage Band”. He was immediately cast as the second bass player, and played his first big show opening up the Kool Jazz Festival in Newport, Rhode Island. This was the first time that he had been exposed to “jazz”. He had heard the word before, but assumed it was a dirty one based upon the expression people would make when they said it. In the next few years, Damian was promoted to the lead pianist position, and opened for Dizzy Gillespie, Maynard Ferguson, Dave Brubeck, Miles Davis, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Ella Fitzgerald, B.B. King, and many others. After High School, Damian attended the University of Rhode Island to study classical music. It was here that he realized that he wanted to be an original musician, and play pop, jazz, rock, and funk. He joined a rock band outside of college called “Kendall Green” who was asked to open for Phish, Roomful of Blues, and Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker. He also started a Rhythm and Blues band called “Funky Sea, Monkey Doo”. They didn’t open for anyone famous, but they had a really good time. A couple of years later, Damian started a band called “Max Damian”. All of the band members names were in the name..Max, Damian, and Ian (which I’ve been told is Welch for Evan, unless it’s the other way around). Max Damian received immediate local success, and opened for G-Love and the Special Sauce back when they were cool. They were offered two record deals, but both of them involved Satan in some way or another, and then the band slowly fell apart after flirting with the rock and roll dream. Dusting off his britches, Damian moved to Atlanta in 1998 to try music in a bigger and warmer environment. Upon arriving, he started jamming with Brighter Shade, India Arie, Jon Allmett, and a bunch of seriously talented bands. Pining for an outlet for his own music, Damian started “Damian Cartier and His My Newt Orchestra” featuring himself, a trombonist, and a drummer. While it was not the most conventional trio, they were good enough to attract a bass player, then a guitarist, a trumpet player, a saxaphonist, and, ultimately, some back up singers. The one problem was that noone could remember the name. Some people thought it was Damian CARTER (because Georgians knew Jimmy Carter), while others thought it was a NEW orchestra, and still others had even more off the wall ideas for what the name was. Frank Zappa had died, and, with him, creative band names. So, they changed the original band name to “Wabi Sabi” in 2004, but kept “Damian Cartier (And his My Newt Orchestra) for cover gigs. During this time, Damian auditioned for and received a dueling piano position at Jellyroll’s in Buckhead, and then started his own traveling dueling piano company called “The Andrews Brothers” in 2003.