Jon Oliva

John Nicholas Oliva (born July 22, 1960), known simply as Jon Oliva, is an American composer, multi-instrumentalist and singer. He is best known as the founder of and keyboardist and lead vocalist for Savatage. His younger brother was Criss Oliva, the lead guitarist and co-founder of Savatage. Since 1996 he has also been a music composer, musician and vocalist in Trans-Siberian Orchestra. Producer Paul O'Neill who has worked with many of the rock world's biggest acts, refers to Oliva in numerous interviews as the single greatest vocalist/musician he has ever worked with. Impressed not only with his real four octave range, but his Mel Blanc-like gift of being able to morph the sound of his voice to any style, from John Lennon and Freddie Mercury, and clean to Joe Cocker-raspy.

Biography

Early life

"My dad is a piano player, and we always had a piano in the house, so I started messing around with that. I was probably like 11 or 12. I was very impatient, so I kind of blew that by. There were [also] guitars around the house. It was just a gradual thing - a little bit of everything here and there. We bought a bass, because we had guitars, piano and drums - the one thing we didn't have was a bass. So we went out and bought this shitty, teardrop-shaped, green bass, probably the ugliest bass in the whole world. It had black nylon strings - it was really awful. The strings [were] like six inches off the fretboard, but we had a bass, and I started dabbling with that. It was just a little bit of everything at one time."

Oliva

Oliva (Valencian pronunciation: [oˈliva], locally: [oˈlɪʋæ]) is a municipality in the comarca of Safor in the Valencian Community, Spain. To its east lie 10 kilometres (6 miles) of coastline and beaches fronting the Mediterranean Sea.

The Passeig (promenade) runs through the centre of the town, and features a market each Friday. On the left side of the Marina beach is Kiko beach. The blue flagged beaches of Oliva stretch for 7 kilometres (4 miles); many contain sand dunes

Oliva has one of the province's biggest and most colourful Moors and Christians Festivals (Festes de Moros i Cristians, in Valencian language) in the area. In the old town there are two churches, Sant Roc and Santa Maria la Major. Sant Roc dates from the 18th-19th centuries, and Santa Maria from the 17th-18th centuries. At the top of the hill in the old town is Santa Anna Castle, built in the 16th century.

In the centre of the village is a Roman kiln situated below one of the blocks of apartments on Santíssim street.

Oliva (gastropod)

Oliva is a genus of medium-sized to large sea snails, marine gastropod mollusks in the family Olividae, the olive snails or olive shells.

Subsequent to the publication of the Tursch & Greifeneder (2001) book entitled Olive shells: The genus Oliva and the species problem came out, the classification of Oliva species has changed considerably, since a number of what were previously considered to be species are now considered to be only forms of a lot fewer species. This list does not yet reflect those changes.

Species

Species within the genus Oliva include:

subgenus Acutoliva

subgenus Annulatoliva

subgenus Cariboliva

subgenus Carmione

Oliva Cigar Co.

Oliva Cigar Co. the manufacturer of several brands of cigars primarily grown and produced in Nicaragua and sold worldwide. The family-owned company traces its roots to patriarch Melanio Oliva, who began growing tobacco in Pinar del Río, Cuba in 1886. In 1964, in the aftermath of the 1959 Cuban Revolution, Melanio's grandson Gilberto Oliva emigrated with his family to Spain before eventually moving to Nicaragua and reentering the tobacco business. In 1995 Gilberto and his son, Gilberto Jr., launched the "Gilberto Oliva" brand — a label which evolved into today's Oliva. The company is based today in Miami Lakes, Florida.

Company history

Forerunners

The family-owned Tabacalera Oliva Tabolisa, known in the United States as the Oliva Cigar Co., traces its roots back to Melanio Oliva, who first began to produce tobacco in Pinar del Rio, Cuba in 1886. The farm was continued by his son, Hipolito Oliva, who took over the growing operation during the 1920s and continued the work for several decades.