GERALD L. CANNON

Gerald L. Cannon, Musician, composer, and artist was born in Racine, Wisconsin, and is a true-life 21st century Renaissance man. For that reason one should not confuse his craft with anything but genuine, from the heart artistry.

Gerald's initial inspiration was his father Benjamin, a guitarist, who bought him his first electric bass at 10 years old. At 16 he began playing bass in his father's own group, The Gospel Expressions. Gerald attended the University of Wisconsin at Lacrosse, where he met jazz great Milt Hinton. This meeting changed not only Gerald's major in college, but also the rest of his life.

At 19 Gerald transferred to the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music in Milwaukee, where he studied jazz/classical bass and piano. He also studied art at Marquette University, which nurtured a natural talent and love of painting. Outside of school, Gerald began working as musical director for vocalist Penny Goodwin, who ultimately became his single greatest mentor. This experience, combined with the subsequent creation of his own quintet Gerald Cannon's Jazz Elements, laid the foundation for a solid reputation as a leader and composer in his own right.

In Spring of 1988 Gerald moved to New York City and began working with some of the most significant jazz artists of our time, including Art Blakey, Dexter Gordon, Cedar Walton, Billy Higgins, Jimmy Smith, Frank Foster, Little Jimmy Scott, Von Freeman, Stanley Turrentine and Bunky Green. An introduction to Roy Hargrove in 1995 lead to an historic collaboration that achieved national and international success, culminating in the contribution of Gerald's original composition Peri to Hargrove's recording Moment to Moment (Verve).

In 2001, Gerald left Hargrove to join the legendary drummer Elvin Jones. "Playing with Elvin is like going back to school. He continually challenges my creativity." When not working with Elvin, Gerald fills the bass chair of the Cannonball Adderly Reunion Band with Louis Hayes. "His (Louis') sense of swing is unbelievable."

Gerald carries the knowledge passed on to him by legendary bassists such as Ray Brown and Sam Jones, and continues the legacy by conducting master classes throughout the U.S. and Europe. The consummate sideman, musical director, composer, educator, painter and producer, Gerald has now stepped out front as leader with the debut of his self-titled recording Gerald Cannon (Woodneck Records) in 2004.

Like the masters before him, Gerald Cannon has established a fearless, solid groove that distinguishes him as one of the principal figures in jazz.

TSHOMBE HARRIS

Tshombe Sekou Harris, who goes by the name Truth Theory was born April 18, 1973 in New Orleans, La. He wrote his first piece of literature in July of 2006 as a release of emotions, and continued on to write poetry. With this new found affinity for poetry combined with his love for music, he began composing tracks to flow with his written words. It was at this time he created the moniker of Truth Theory. After getting much feedback on his blogs in places like blogger, MySpace, and multiply.com, he was encouraged to continue in his craft for words and music.

After much writing, he eventually recorded his written poetry pieces for the first time in the form of a spoken word album titled "IAMNOTAPO3T" which can be purchased at CDbaby.com, an album he self produced and published as an indie artist for raising funds for his self established scholarship “The Truth Theory African American Heritage Scholarship” that is given out bi-annually to young under privileged African-Americans looking to go on to college, to find more on the scholarship you can visit www.truththeory.com.

He continues to write poetry occasionally as a form of release while managing an online poetry group "Po3tic Voices" a group of 55 poets moving to harness their skills in the spoken word realm, hear more about poetic voices at www.po3ticVoices.multiply.com. He also hosts an online spoken word talk show "Spoken Truth" over on www.blogtalkradio.com and soon here on NAL Radio, this talk show is designed for “Indie” artist to share some of their works and for providing a forum for discussing some of the issues in our community. He does all of this as he furthers his career in the US Navy and completes his Degree in Computer Engineering. He is also currently working on his second and third CD, which he is hoping to complete by the summer of 2008.

"In my opinion," Tshombe says, "poetry and jazz are one in the same in that they both are rhythmic and free flowing. Poetry is image forming and thought provoking, it allows the reader/listener to use their mind as a canvas to generate their own experiences as well as new emotions. Well, non-vocalized jazz does this very thing—it takes you to heights, new levels of highs and lows. So jazz and poetry, together are a sure fire cocktail for a mind altering experience."

JOHN COLTRANE

John Coltrane was born September 23, 1926 in Hamlet North Carolina and grew up in High Point, North Carolina, where he learned to play E-flat alto horn, clarinet, and (at about the age of 15) alto saxophone. After moving to Philadelphia he enrolled at the Ornstein School of Music and the Granoff Studios; service in a navy band in Hawaii (1945-46) interrupted these studies. He played alto saxophone in the bands led by Joe Webb and King Kolax, then changed to the tenor to work with Eddie "Cleanhead" Vinson (1947-48). He performed on either instrument as circumstances demanded while in groups led by Jimmy Heath, Howard McGhee, Dizzy Gillespie (with whom he made his first recording in 1949), Earl Bostic, and lesser-known rhythm-and-blues musicians, but by the time of his membership in Johnny Hodges's septet (1953-54) he was firmly committed to the tenor instrument. He performed infrequently for about a year, then leaped to fame in Miles Davis' quintet with Red Garland, Paul Chambers, and Philly Joe Jones (1955-57). Coltrane was, after Charlie Parker, the most revolutionary and widely imitated saxophonist in jazz.

Throughout the 1950s addiction to drugs and then alcoholism disrupted his career. Shortly after leaving Davis, however, he overcame these problems; his album A Love Supreme celebrated this victory and the profound religious experience associated with it. Coltrane next played in Thelonious Monk's quartet (July-December 1957), but owing to contractual conflicts took part in only one early recording session of this legendary group. He rejoined Davis and worked in various quintets and sextets with Cannonball Adderley, Bill Evans, Chambers, Jones, and others (1958-60). While with Davis he discovered the soprano saxophone, purchasing his own instrument in February 1960.

Having led numerous studio sessions, established a reputation as a composer, and emerged as the leading tenor saxophonist in jazz, Coltrane was now prepared to form his own group; it made its debut at New York's Jazz Gallery in early May 1960. After briefly trying Steve Kuhn, Pete La Roca, and Billy Higgins, Coltrane hired two musicians who became longstanding members of his quartet, McCoy Tyner (1960-65) and Elvin Jones (1960-66); the third, Jimmy Garrison, joined in 1961. With these sidemen the quartet soon acquired an international following. At times Art Davis added a second double bass to the group; Eric Dolphy also served as an intermittent fifth member on bass clarinet, alto saxophone, and flute from 1961 to 1963, and Roy Haynes was the most regular replacement for Elvin Jones during the latter's incarceration for drug addiction in 1963.

Coltrane turned to increasingly radical musical styles in the mid-1960s. These controversial experiments attracted large audiences, and by 1965 he was surprisingly affluent. From autumn 1965 his search for new sounds resulted in frequent changes of personnel in his group. New members included Pharoah Sanders, Alice Coltrane (his wife), Rashied Ali (a second drummer until Jones' departure), several drummers as seconds to Ali, and a number of African-influenced percussionists. In his final years and after his death, Coltrane acquired an almost saintly reputation among listeners and fellow musicians for his energetic and selfless support of young avant-garde performers, his passionate religious convictions, his peaceful demeanor, and his obsessive striving for a musical ideal. He crossed over at the age of 40 July 17, 1967 at Huntington Hospital in Long Island NY of a liver ailment. A videotape tracing his development, The Coltrane Legacy, produced by David Chertok and Burrill Crohn, was issued in 1987.

AMIRI BARAKA

Amiri Baraka, born in 1934, in Newark, New Jersey, USA, is the author of over 40 books of essays, poems, drama, and music history and criticism, a poet icon and revolutionary political activist who has recited poetry and lectured on cultural and political issues extensively in the USA, the Caribbean, Africa, and Europe.

With influences on his work ranging from musical orishas such as Ornette Coleman, John Coltrane, Thelonius Monk, and Sun Ra to the Cuban Revolution, Malcolm X and world revolutionary movements, Baraka is renown as the founder of the Black Arts Movement in Harlem in the 1960s that became, though short-lived, the virtual blueprint for a new American theater aesthetics. The movement and his published and performance work, such as the signature study on African-American music, Blues People (1963) and the play Dutchman (1963) practically seeded “the cultural corollary to black nationalism” of that revolutionary American milieu.

Other titles range from Selected Poetry of Amiri Baraka/LeRoi Jones (1979), to The Music (1987), a fascinating collection of poems and monographs on Jazz and Blues authored by Baraka and his wife and poet Amina, and his boldly sortied essays, The Essence of Reparations (2003).

The Essence of Reparations is Baraka’s first published collection of essays in book form radically exploring what is sure to become a twenty-first century watershed movement of Black peoples to the interrelated issues of racism, national oppression, colonialism, neo-colonialism, self-determination and national and human liberation, which he has long been addressing creatively and critically. It has been said that Amiri Baraka is committed to social justice like no other American writer. He has taught at Yale, Columbia, and the State University of New York at Stony Brook.

Somebody Blew Up America & Other Poems is Baraka’s first collection of poems published in the Caribbean and includes the title poem that has headlined him in the media in ways rare to poets and authors. The recital of the poem “that mattered” engaged the poet warrior in a battle royal with the very governor of New Jersey and with a legion of detractors demanding his resignation as the state’s Poet Laureate because of Somebody Blew Up America’s provocatively poetic inquiry (in a few lines of the poem) about who knew beforehand about the New York City World Trade Center bombings in 2001.

The poem’s own detonation caused the author’s photo and words to be splashed across the pages of New York’s Amsterdam News and the New York Times and to be featured on CNN--to name a few US city, state and national and international media.

Baraka lives in Newark with his wife and author Amina Baraka; they have five children and head up the word-music ensemble, Blue Ark: The Word Ship and co-direct Kimako’s Blues People, the “artspace” housed in their theater basement for some fifteen years.

His awards and honors include an Obie, the American Academy of Arts & Letters award, the James Weldon Johnson Medal for contributions to the arts, Rockefeller Foundation and National Endowment for the Arts grants, Professor Emeritus at the State university of New York at Stony Brook, and the Poet Laureate of New Jersey.

MARY LOU WILLIAMS

Mary Lou Williams, born Mary Elfrieda Scruggs on May 8, 1910 in Atlanta, GA (although she soon took the name of her stepfather and was known as Mary Lou Burley), she taught herself the piano by ear and was playing in public at the age of six. Growing up in Pittsburgh, Williams' life was always filled with music. When she was 13, she started working in vaudeville, and three years later married saxophonist John Williams. They moved to Memphis, and she made her debut on records with Synco Jazzers. John soon joined Andy Kirk's orchestra, which was based in Kansas City, in 1929. Williams wrote arrangements for the band, filled in for an absent pianist on Kirk's first recording session, and eventually became a member of the orchestra herself. Her arrangements were largely responsible for the band's distinctive sound and eventual success. Williams was soon recognized as Kirk's top soloist, a stride pianist who impressed everyone (even Jelly Roll Morton). In addition, she wrote such songs such as "Roll 'Em" (a killer hit for Benny Goodman) and "What's Your Story Morning Glory" and contributed arrangements to other big bands, including those of Goodman, Earl Hines, and Tommy Dorsey.

To say that Mary Lou Williams had a long and productive career is an understatement. Although for decades she was often called jazz's greatest female musician (and one has to admire what must have been a nonstop battle against sexism), she would have been considered a major artist no matter what her sex.
Just the fact that Williams and Duke Ellington were virtually the only stride pianists to modernize their style through the years would have been enough to guarantee her a place in jazz history books. Williams managed to always sound modern during a half-century career without forgetting her roots or how to play in the older styles.

Mary Lou Williams stayed with Kirk until 1942, by which time she had divorced John Williams and married trumpeter Harold "Shorty" Baker. She co-led a combo with Baker before he joined Duke Ellington. Williams did some writing for Duke (most notably her rearrangement of "Blue Skies" into a horn battle called "Trumpets No End") and played briefly with Benny Goodman's bebop group in 1948. She had gradually modernized her style and by the early to mid-'40s was actively encouraging the young modernists who would lead the bebop revolution, including Thelonious Monk, Bud Powell, Tadd Dameron, and Dizzy Gillespie. Williams' "Zodiac Suite" showed off some of her modern ideas, and her "In the Land of Oo-Bla-Dee" was a bebop fable recorded by Gillespie.

Williams lived in Europe from 1952-1954 and then became very involved in the Catholic religion. She retired from music for a few years before appearing as a guest with Dizzy Gillespie's orchestra at the 1957 Newport Jazz Festival. Williams returned to jazz and by the early '70s sounded more like a young modal player (clearly she was familiar with McCoy Tyner) than a survivor of the 1920s. Although she did not care for the avant-garde, she occasionally played quite freely, although a 1977 duo concert with Cecil Taylor was a complete fiasco. Williams wrote three masses and a cantana, was a star at Benny Goodman's 40th-anniversary Carnegie Hall concert in 1978, taught at Duke University, and often planned her later concerts as a history of jazz recital. By the time she crossed over on May 28, 1981 in Durham, NC at the age of 71, she had a list of accomplishments that could have filled three lifetimes.

Mary Lou Williams recorded through the years as a leader for many labels including Brunswick (a pair of piano solos in 1930), Decca (1938), Columbia, Savoy, extensively for Asch and Folkways during 1944-1947, Victor, King (1949), Atlantic, Circle, Vogue, Prestige, Blue Star, Jazztone, her own Mary label (1970-1974), Chiaroscuro, SteepleChase, and finally Pablo (1977-1978).

MARGARET WALKER

Margaret Abigail Walker was born on July 7 1915 in Birmingham, Alabama. Her parents, the Reverend Sigismund C. Walker, a Methodist minister and an educator, and Marion Dozier Walker, a music teacher, encouraged her to read poetry and philosophy from an early age.
Walker completed her high school education at Gilbert Academy in New Orleans, Louisiana, where her family had moved in 1925. She went on to attend New Orleans University (now Dillard University) for two years. Then, after acclaimed poet Langston Hughes recognized her talent and urged her to seek training in the North, she transferred to Northwestern University in Chicago, Illinois, where she received a B.A. in English in 1935, at the age of nineteen. In 1937, she published "For My People" in Poetry magazine. Her first poem to appear in print, “For My People” became one of her most famous works and was even anthologized in 1941 in The Negro Caravan.

In 1936, Walker took on full-time work with the Federal Writers' Project in Chicago under Franklin D. Roosevelt's Works Project Administration, befriending and collaborating with such noted artists as Gwendolyn Brooks, Katherine Dunham, and Frank Yerby. Perhaps the most memorable of these friendships was that with noted author Richard Wright whose texts Walker would later help to research and revise. In 1988, Walker wrote a book recalling that friendship, entitled Richard Wright, Daemonic Genius: A Portrait of the Man, a Critical Look at His Work. Involvement in the Writers' Project offered Walker a firsthand glimpse of the struggles of inner-city African Americans who were products of the Great Migration, a northward movement that had resulted in hard times and broken dreams for many southern black immigrants. During this time, Walker authored an urban novel, "Goose Island," which was never published.

After completing her tenure with the WPA in 1939, Walker returned to school, entering the Creative Writing Program at the University of Iowa, where she earned a Master of Arts degree in 1940 and, later, a Ph.D. in 1965. In 1941, Walker began teaching at Livingstone College in Salisbury, North Carolina. In 1942, she left for one year to teach at West Virginia State College. In that year, she also published her first volume of poems, For My People, with the title poem quickly becoming her signature piece and helping elevate her toward success. For this volume, which served as her Master's thesis at Iowa, she won the Yale Younger Poets Award.
In 1943, Walker married Firnist James Alexander, or "Alex," as she lovingly called him, an interior designer and decorator. In 1949, following the birth of their first three children (they had a total of four children), the couple moved to Jackson, Mississippi. Walker began a prosperous teaching career at Jackson State College in the same year, retiring from its English Department thirty years later in 1979. In 1968, she founded the Institute for the Study of History, Life, and Culture of Black People (now the Margaret Walker Alexander National Research Center). She directed the center until her retirement. During her tenure at Jackson State, Walker also organized and chaired the Phillis Wheatley Poetry Festival.

Following retirement, she remained active as professor emerita until she crossed over on November 30, 1998 from breast cancer. Jubilee, a neo-slave narrative based on the collected memories of the author’s maternal grandmother, Elvira Ware Dozier, was published in 1966, only a year after Walker completed the first version of it for her dissertation. Many scholars view the novel as an African American response to America's fascination with Gone With the Wind (1936). Others recognize the work as an example of the historic presence that the author commands as a prophet of sorts for her people. The novel has enjoyed tremendous popularity, winning the Houghton Mifflin Literary Award (1968), having been translated into seven languages, and having never gone out of print. It has also led the author into controversy: in 1988, Walker found herself in conflict with the famed author of Roots, Alex Haley, whom she accused of infringing on her copyright of Jubilee. However, her lawsuit against him was dismissed. Walker provides further detail regarding the production of the novel in her 1972 essay, "How I Wrote Jubilee."

Walker followed Jubilee with Prophets for a New Day (1970), a poetic treatment of the historic civil rights struggle of blacks in America. It also celebrates the tradition of African American folktales and expression.
Although October Journey (1973) is more personal in tone, it still resonates with Walker's commitment to highlight the black race's struggle for freedom through art. The poems of the collection pay homage to many of Walker’s contemporaries, such as Gwendolyn Brooks and Robert Hayden, who also employed their art as tools of liberation.

Walker's influence on the younger Black Aesthetic poets of the 1960s and 1970s can be seen in her published talks with Nikki Giovanni. Appearing in 1974, A Poetic Equation: Conversations between Nikki Giovanni and Margaret Walker exemplifies the common concern for justice that linked the two artists and bridged their generations.
ForFarish Street Green, Walker’s fourth poetry volume, appeared in 1986. Pieces in this collection reflect life in the Farish Street community in Jackson, Mississippi. Walker begins her portrait of the people in the neighborhood by making their lives testaments to those of their African ancestors.

This Is My Century: New and Collected Poems (1989) chronicles Walker's auspicious literary career while proving that she has unrivaled tenacity and endurance as a poet. In 1990, she revised and re-published How I Wrote Jubilee and Other Essays on Life and Literature, coauthored with scholar Maryemma Graham. In 1997, with Graham as editor again, Walker released another collection of previously written essays, entitled On Being Female, Black, and Free: Essays by Margaret Walker, 1932-1992. Several other projects remained incomplete at the time of Walker’s death, including "God Touched My Life," a biography of Sister Thea Bowman, a black nun in Mississippi; "Black-Eyed Susans," an account of the murders of two students at Jackson State College; a book on Jesse Jackson's relationship to black politics; and an autobiography.

Among Walker's numerous accolades are six honorary degrees, a Rosenwald Fellowship (1944), a Ford Fellowship (1953), a Fulbright Fellowship to Norway (1971), a senior fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities (1972), the Living Legacy Award, given by the Carter administration, the Lifetime Achievement Award of the College Language Association (1992), and the Lifetime Achievement Award for Excellence in the Arts, presented by William Winter, then governor of Mississippi (1992).

Walker has been compared to many great writers and has claimed, as personal acquaintances and influences, the likes of James Weldon Johnson, Langston Hughes, and Gwendolyn Brooks. Longevity was Walker’s friend, and, over the course of her career, she earned a place among the best (African) American poets, many of whom were her protégés.

DAVE BRUBECK

Dave Brubeck was born in Concord, California, on December 6, 1920. He was the third son of Elizabeth Ivey Brubeck, a music teacher and pianist, and Howard "Pete" Brubeck, a cattle rancher. Dave went to the College of the Pacific, in Stockton, California, as a pre-med student with the aim of becoming a veterinarian, but soon changed his major to music. Upon graduation in 1942, he entered the armed services where he served under Patton in the European Theater of Operations. Upon his discharge in 1946, Dave returned from Europe to study composition with the famous French composer, Darius Milhaud. With encouragement from Milhaud, Brubeck began composing and performing with an octet, which included Paul Desmond, Cal Tjader and Bill Smith. The Dave Brubeck Trio, with Cal Tjader and Ron Crotty, won both the Down Beat and Metronome awards for Best New Instrumental Group.

Following a near fatal swimming accident which incapacitated him for several months, Brubeck organized a quartet with his old friend, alto saxophonist Paul Desmond. They were an inseparable team from 1951 to 1968, selling millions of records and winning dozens of jazz polls. After the original quartet disbanded, Dave Brubeck toured and recorded with Gerry Mulligan, Alan Dawson and Jack Six; and for two years led an all-Brubeck Quartet with his sons, Darius, Dan and Chris. The current version of the Dave Brubeck Quartet includes Randy Jones, drums; Jack Six, string bass; and Bill Smith, an original member of the 1947 Dave Brubeck Octet, on clarinet.

Over his long career, Dave Brubeck has received many honors. He was inducted into the first Playboy Jazz Hall of Fame, along with Louis Armstrong and Frank Sinatra. He was one of the first musicians to have a star placed on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. He is a Duke Ellington Fellow at Yale University and holds six honorary doctorate degrees. In 1987, he received the Connecticut Arts Award, and was honored in 1988 at the American Eagle Awards presented by the National Music Council. In 1989, he was inducted into the Pantheon of the Arts at University of the Pacific, and was cited by the French Government for his contribution to the arts. In April of 1990, Fairfield University honored him with the Gerard Manley Hopkins Award. In 1992, he was honored by the Connecticut Bar Association and Simon's Rock College for distinguished service. He also received the BMI Jazz Pioneer Award and was commended by that organization for his "long and outstanding contributions to the world of jazz." And in 1994 Mr. Brubeck was awarded the National Medal of the Arts by President Clinton.

Dave Brubeck first appeared on the Telarc label as a guest artist on Big Band Hit Parade. Fortunately for Telarc, Mr. Brubeck brought his own group to the label and recorded Late Night Brubeck live at the Blue Note in 1993. Mr. Brubeck continues to record for Telarc bringing outstanding recordings to his fans - old and new.

YEWMANYETI

Yuma Bellomee (pronounced like Bellamy), who goes by the name Yewmanyeti was born August 23, 1981 in Bronx, NY. He spent most of his childhood living in the south side of Mt. Vernon, NY, where he currently resides, and between schools in Mt. Vernon and the Bronx. At an early age, he was exposed to West African culture through his mother, Brenda, who studied African dance, and his father, Zeleka, a musician who played an instrumental role in the Afro-Caribbean style band called Spirit Ensemble and specialized in playing the mbira (m-BEER-ah), cora (KOR-ah), dozengoni ('doze-n-GO-nee), and various percussion instruments. Yuma displayed his interest in many genres of music and culture at an early age and began studying the West African drum, djembe (pronounced JEM-bay) at the age of 2 years old under master drummer, Kyende Ohuru (kie-END-day oh-HOO-rue).

Unable to continue his lessons there due to time, money, and distance circumstances, he continued drumming for the cultural community of Mt. Vernon and learning more along the way. Also during his childhood, Yuma briefly took piano lessons, which he came out of with the ability to play using his right hand. He would tinker around with the piano and drums for a while, eventually learning the alto and tenor saxophone which he played from middle school through high school in band. At the age of 15, during his stay in Jacksonville, Florida is where he was persuaded by his brother, Rahjae, and who he refers to as his cousins, Joseph and John Scott, to embark on writing rap verses. Influenced by the creativity of Hip Hop artists such as Busta Rhymes, Wu-Tang Clan, Big Pun, and others, he concentrated on first honing his rhyming, then his lyrical skill.

He wrote his first poem for an English assignment in his senior year of high school, and continued writing Hip Hop music and composing a few melodies for it. In the year 2000, he created the Yewmanyeti moniker that he's gone by ever since. After finding a few message boards online, including Vocalized Ink, he was encouraged to write more poetry and eventually record his written poetry pieces for the first time. Influenced by his Hip Hop style, he continues to write poetry occasionally as a hobby and form of release. He is also currently working on a Hip Hop CD entitled Fulphilological Progressions, which he is hoping to complete by the spring of 2007.

KAMAL IMANI

Kamal Imani was born Terrence Karlton Oats on September 17th, 1966 in Harlem NY . At the age of 3 after his parents divorced his mother moved to the Bronx , NY with his 2 younger sisters. He was recruited by the Junior Black Spades gang at the age of 7 and started witnessing situations that he didn’t desire or expect. He later moved to Teaneck NJ at the age of 9 with the assistance of his Grandmother Mrs. Mary C. Webb AKA “Sugarpie” and his Grandfather Henry C. Webb AKA “Pop” whom many would mistaken for Gladys Knight and Redd Foxx.
Watching his mother struggle working overtime for Ma Bell/AT&T and being a latch key kid, Kamal developed a sense of responsibility and protectiveness. He also developed a early sense of entrepreneurship and hustle. After school he would help ladies take their packages home for a few dollars.
One of his favorite quotes is “Everybody wants me to be what they want me to be, I’m not happy when I try to fake it” by Lionel Ritchie of the Commodores from the song “Easy like Sunday Morning”. This is due to Kamal’s many pressured influences. At 11 years old his grandmother worked for the NAACP and when asked by her and his aunt what he wanted to be when he grew up he said “either in communications, broadcasting or an astronomer” His grandmother said “you should want to be the first black president” which bothered him, but he remained determined to pursue communications and also developed a love for poetry and hip hop (his Grandmother gave him African American poetry anthologies to read).
His stepfather Shaka Zulu was and is a Harlem based Garveyite and was very strong with his instilling of his Pan African ideology. Kamal’s father was and is a Jehovah’s Witness and constantly attempted to pull him into that religion. His mother and grandmothers sides of the family went to both Baptist and Methodist churchs.

At the age of 16 Kamal’s 2 female cousins from the Bronx gave him the Autobiography of Malcolm X. His best friends taught him about the 5% Nation of Islam teachings and Kamal started hearing Minister Farrakhan on WWRL AM radio in NYC. This started him reading hundreds of books on spirituality, religion and African history. This is at a time when hip hop was new and on the rise and where Kamal use to write poems to please the young girls, now he was putting it to music.
He was invited to perform at high schools and house parties with his various hip hop crews. He later started promoting talent showcases at various Masonic lodges and making a good deal of money for a teenager. He learned a lot from those days and host several open mics to this day. He is also a radio host of the “Revolutionary Art Show” on Vocalized Ink Radio.

During hip hop’s Golden or Conscious age, Kamal was spitting fiery and conscious lyrics with a message. When he noticed the industry moving towards gangster music and he noticed that Russell Simmons was bringing a new wave of poetry back, he decided to let his message be heard through the poetry venue. In just 4 years he has emerged as a well known, loved and respected poet.

Kamal has been happily married for 12 years to his Bajan (From Barbados) wife and has a 2 year old son. His strong sense of responsibility for his family has caused him to approach the entertainment business with professionalism. He refuses to be viewed as anything but a top notch professional and rising star. He is a graduate of Teaneck High School , Bergen Community College , and Computer Career Training Center and is currently going for his Bachelors online via New York Institute of Technology with the goal of teaching in the inner city. Kamal is doing all of this while holding down a fulltime job at the Penguin Book Publishing Group where he is a Title Release Coordinator.

One of the open mics that Kamal host is at the Technology Resource/Khepera Center in Englewood NJ which houses the home offices and bases for infamous African historians Drs. Leonard and Rosalind Jeffries, Rev. Herbert and Dawn Daughtry, B.W.A.R.E (Black Women Against Racism Empowered) in which he is an advisor and lecturer for, African Medicine Women, Circle of Colors, African Drummers and Martial Arts Circle, The NOI Study Group and Mary K Cosmetics. He constantly participates with fundraising, marketing and networking efforts in his interactions with all of these groups.
He has poems such as “Lynch the N Word” which is primarily aimed at the youth and is being used by classes in the Paterson NJ school system as an educational tool. Also “You a Armchair Revolutionary” which encourages all of us to walk the walk and not just talk the talk. He helps keep the sister’s heads up with his dedication
“Ms. Melanin."

Kamal also has a new wedding maxi single which can be found at http://www.myspace.com/kamalthepoet as well as his CD “The Mic is Calling Me” which can be found at http://www.myspace.com/kamalsupreme

LEE MORGAN

Lee Morgan was born July 10, 1938 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Lee was a jazz prodigy, first picking up the trumpet on about the age of thirteeen or so, after developing an interest in the vibraphone. On his 13th or 14th birthday, Morgan was given his first trumpet, his sister Ernestine (his elder by ten years) and mother having brought it together. He joined the Dizzy Gillespie big band at 18, and remained a member for eighteen months, until Gillespie was forced to disband in 1958. Beginning in 1956, he began recording as a leader, mainly for the Blue Note label. Eventually, he recorded 25 albums for the company. Morgan's principal influence as a player was Clifford Brown, having had some lessons from Brown before his premature death.

He was also a featured sideman on several early Hank Mobley records, as well as John Coltrane's Blue Train. On the latter LP, he even played a bent-up horn (like the style that Gillespie made famous), and recorded one of the all-time great improvised trumpet solos on the title track.

Joining Art Blakey's's Jazz Messengers in 1958 further developed his talent as a soloist and songwriter. He toured with Blakey for a few years, and was featured on Moanin, which is probably Blakey's best known recording. According to the biography by Tom Pechard, it was Blakey who started Morgan on his addiction to heroin, which was to blight most of his career. When Benny Golson left the Jazz Messengers, Morgan persuaded Blakey to hire Wayne Shorter, a young tenor saxophonist, to fill the chair. This classic version of the Jazz Messengers, including Bobby Timmons and Jymie Merritt, would record the classic The Freedom Rider album. The drug problems of Morgan and Timmons led to Blakey sacking them in 1961, and Morgan was largely inactive professionally for about two years, returning to his family in Philadelphia.
Morgan tried to move in to the more advanced areas of the music in the early 1960s. In November 1963 he played on Grachan Moncur III's essentially avant-garde Evolution album (apparently his favorite work), and experimenting on some of his own recordings, such as the title track of Search for the New Land (1964).
But the popularity of his famous album, The Sidewinder, featuring Joe Henderson precluded his career developing in this way.

The title track of that record cracked the pop charts in 1964, and served as the background theme for Chrysler commercials during the World Series. This was done without Morgan's consent and it is thought by Perchard that the intercession of Blue Note's lawyers were enough for the commercial to be withdrawn. The Sidewinder's crossover success in a rapidly changing pop music market caused Blue Note to rush the track's "Boogaloo" sound to stores. This is evidenced in the mid-1960s output of many Blue Note stars, including Morgan, and some of the lesser artists in the stable, releasing albums with modified and rhythmically punchy blues tracks, such as "Yes I Can, No You Can't" on Morgan's own The Gigolo. According to drummer Billy Hart, Morgan said he had recorded "Sidewinder" as filler for the album, and was upset that it had turned into his first hit. In 1964, Morgan rejoined the Jazz Messengers after his successor Freddie Hubbard departed. At this point, the Jazz Messengers had become a sextet, with the addition of Curtis Fuller to the group.

Alongside this commercial success, Morgan continued to record prolifically, producing such works as Search For the New Land which reached the top 20 of the R&B charts. His work became increasingly more modal and free towards the end of the sixties. He had begun to lead his own group, featuring Bennie Maupin as a multi-reedist.

By 1965, Morgan's addiction had returned, and Blakey felt he was unable to use him anymore. Billy Hart says that things deteriorated to the point where Morgan was sleeping on pool tables, and didn't even have a horn, let alone a working band. He borrowed a horn for the recording of Night of the Cookers, in which he sat in with Freddie Hubbard's band at a live gig in New York. The recording captures some of Morgan's weakest playing. Helen Moore, who became his girlfriend and later his common-law wife, helped Morgan clean up his act. He eventually put together a working band and re-established himself. Live at the Lighthouse, recorded over three nights of a two-week stand at Hermosa Beach, California in July, 1970, captures some very strong playing by Morgan and his band. A three-disc box set of the performances has been issued in recent years.

On February 19, 1972 Lee Morgan was shot by Helen Moore following an argument between sets at Slug's, a popular New York City jazz club. According to an interview with drummer Billy Hart. Morgan had gotten into a dispute with a drug dealer, after buying a large amount of cocaine. He called Moore and asked her to bring his gun to him at the club.Moore showed up, and spotted him with another woman (whom Morgan had been planning to leave Moore for) An argument erupted, and Morgan kicked Moore out of the club. When she returned to retrieve something she had forgotten, Morgan got into a scuffle with her, and the gun went off. An ambulance was late in showing up, and Morgan bled to death. His last words to Moore while she was crying to him, were "Get away from me, you dirty bitch." Moore was judged to be insane at the time of the shooting, and spent several months in an asylum, in which she reportedly continued to talk to Morgan as if he was still alive. After her release, she moved down south, and disappeared, according to Hart.

YUSEF KOMUNYAKAA

Yusef Komunyakaa was born on April 29, 1947 in Bogalusa, Louisiana. He is the eldest of five children. Komunyakaa uses his childhood experiences to inform many of his works: his familial relationships, his maturation in a rural Southern community, and the musical environment afforded by the close proximity of the jazz and blues center of New Orleans provide fundamental themes for several of his volumes.
Military service during young adulthood also proved formative to the budding poet. After graduating from Bogalusa's Central High School in 1965, Komunyakaa enlisted in the United States Army to begin a tour of duty in Vietnam. While there, he started writing, sometime between 1969 and 1970. As a correspondent for and later editor of the military newspaper, The Southern Cross, Komunyakaa mastered a journalistic style that he would use later to write poems about his time in war. He was awarded the Bronze Star for his work with the paper.
After leaving the army in the early 1970s, Komunyakaa enrolled at the University of Colorado, receiving a B.A. in 1975. While at Colorado, he discovered his nascent abilities as a poet in a creative writing workshop. The workshop, notes the author, was the first chance he had to write for himself. Even though he had long been an avid reader of poetry and a lover of literature, his attempts to write creatively--mainly short stories--had been unsuccessful.
Inspired by his newfound love and talent, Komunyakaa went on to earn an M.A. from Colorado State University in 1978, studying with poet Bill Tremblay in the graduate writing program. Meanwhile, he continued to practice his art, self-publishing two limited editions, Dedications and Other Darkhorses (1977) and Lost in the Bonewheel Factory (1979).
He left Colorado State to earn an M.F.A. from the University of California at Irvine in 1980. That same year, he joined the Provincetown Fine Arts Work Center, a closely knit community of artists geared toward encouraging the self-conscious, individualistic writer. Being in residence at the work center, the author felt, gave him an opportunity to develop his own voice. There he gained a deeper understanding of himself as a writer and as a human being, an acute awareness that he strives to express in his poetry. Komunyakaa says this of a poet’s quest--a search fulfilled for him by his unique workshop experience: "a sort of unearthing has to take place; sometimes one has to remove layers of facades and superficialities. The writer has to get down to the guts of the thing and rediscover the basic timbre of his or her existence."
Komunyakaa has been very prolific since his time at Irvine, writing nine additional volumes of poetry, co-editing two anthologies, and producing a couple of works of prose. His third collection, Copacetic (1984), is his first commercially published book, featuring some of the earliest poems he wrote. Komunyakaa completed Copacetic in 1981 after returning to Louisiana to reconsider how the music of his home town reflected racial issues of the time. He discovered that jazz music was being used both as a forum in which to express racial iniquity and as a catharsis to heal the wounds which resulted from hatred and bigotry. It is no coincidence, then, that in this volume, Komunyakaa focuses on childhood and folk experiences that are startling and pleasurable, gripping and appealing: he invokes jazz and blues forms, themes, and idioms, as noted by critic Kirkland Jones, to soothe the pain of his community, to create poetry "where everything is alright." In fact, the pieces in the collection are closely tied to the meaning of the word "copacetic," a term originally coined by the African American tap dancer, Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, to refer to situations where everything is, as scholar Constance Valis Hill notes, "fine or tip-top." The expression was later adopted by jazz musicians to describe musical pieces that are particularly melodious, smooth, mellow, and entirely pleasing.
Despite its racially-charged content, Copacetic is framed by an overarching theme of contentment. It is as if Komunyakaa is ultimately rendering the hope of a people who, despite a long history of racism, have persevered and ultimately triumphed.
Quickly becoming an accomplished poet, Komunyakaa also took on the role of educator, teaching poetry in the public school system of New Orleans and then creative writing at the University of New Orleans. At the University he met Mandy Sayer, an Australian fiction writer, whom he married in 1985. Also in 1985, he became an associate professor at Indiana University at Bloomington, where he held the Ruth Lily Professorship from 1989 to 1990.
In 1986 the author's fourth volume, I Apologize for the Eyes in My Head, was published. This work is an attempt to coalesce otherwise disparate events, to mesh and extract meaning from what Aimé Césaire terms "all lived experiences." Despite the title's obvious proclamation, the book is not, as the author states, an apology. Rather it is a satirical analysis of the definitions that we often use to identify who we are to others and to ourselves. As a whole, it rejects status, class, and "Uncle Tom-ism." It embraces, instead, ordinary yet mythic images like those of old women, babies, prostitutes, and ghosts. For this volume, Komunyakaa won the San Francisco Poetry Center Award honoring the best book of poetry published in 1986.
Fourteen years after leaving Vietnam, Komunyakaa began recording his war experiences in verse. The two collections that specifically chronicle those experiences, Toys in a Field (1987) and Dien Cai Dau (1988), place him among the most notable of the soldier-poets. The latter volume made the 1988 Young Adults/American Library Association "Best Books for Young Adults" list. Several of the poems have been translated into a number of languages, and, in 1989, many were included in W. D. Ehrharts's anthology, Unaccustomed Mercy: Soldier-Poets of the Vietnam War.
February in Sydney (1989), the poet's next work, reflects his interest both in jazz composition and in Australian culture, particularly that of the Aborigine people. The Jazz Poetry Anthology, which followed in 1991, features more jazz- and blues-influenced poetry. Komunyakaa co-edited the collection with poet and jazz saxophonist Sascha Feinstein.
In Magic City (1992), the author details his childhood in Louisiana. He brilliantly portrays the imagination of a young child, drawing on such images as a Venus fly-trap plant, a love-torn and abusive father, a neighborhood street prophet, the trials of an immigrant grandfather, and the juvenile rivalry of siblings.
Neon Vernacular: New and Selected Poems (1993) features pieces that further exemplify the author's ability to elevate single images. In addition, some of his best work from earlier volumes is included. For this book Komunyakaa was awarded the 1994 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. He also received the Kingsley Tufts Award and the William Faulkner Prize from the Université de Rennes in 1994.
In 1996, Komunyakaa teamed up with Feinstein again to publish a sequel to their first anthology, The Second Set: The Jazz Poetry Anthology, Volume 2. Komunyakaa’s Thieves of Paradise (1998), which was short listed for the National Book Critics Circle Award, includes poems about his stay in Australia.
Komunyakaa’s latest works of poetry include: Talking Dirty to the Gods (2000), a mixture of classical and modern themes where Greek mythology and deadly sins meet sensuality and jazz musicians; and Pleasure Dome: New & Collected Poems, 1975-1999 (2001), both a collection of some of Komunyakaa’s premier poems from over the span of his twenty-five-year career and the debut of many more new poems.
Komunyakaa’s works of prose include: 1) the co-translation, with Martha Collins, of Nguyen Quang Thieu’s The Insomnia of Fire (1995); and 2) the contribution of essays, ruminations, and inspirations to Blues Notes: Essays, Interviews & Commentaries (2000), an exploration of the development of Komunyakaa’s blues aesthetic.
Critics have compared Komunyakaa to Langston Hughes, Gwendolyn Brooks, Ezra Pound, T. S. Eliot, Amiri Baraka, and William Carlos Williams. The author has acknowledged that his work has been influenced by these poets as well as by Melvin Tolson, Sterling Brown, Helen Johnson, Margaret Walker, Countee Cullen, and Claude McKay. In addition to the Pulitzer Prize, Komunyakaa boasts numerous prestigious awards and titles, including two Creative Writing Fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts (1981, 1987), the Thomas Forcade Award (1991), the Hanes Poetry Prize (1997), Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets (1999), and the Morton Dauwen Zabel Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters (1998). Komunyakaa's critical acclaim, particularly as a "Southern writer," has garnered him biographical and critical inclusion in such collections as the Norton Anthology of Southern Literature, The Oxford Companion to African American Literature, and The Norton Anthology of African American Literature. He is currently Distinguished Senior Poet and Professor in the Graduate Creative Writing Program at New York University.

JOSHUA REDMAN

Joshua Redman was born February 1, 1969, in Berkeley, California. By the time of his birth, his father, noted saxophonist Dewey Redman, had moved to New York and was playing with Ornette Coleman. Redman's only contact with his father was hearing his records around the house, and during infrequent visits to town with Coleman, Keith Jarrett, Old and New Dreams, and others. His mother, Renee Shedroff, a dancer and librarian, was the driving force that nurtured his creativity.

Redman's formal music training began when his mother enrolled him in Indonesian and Indian music classes at the Center for World Music. These unique art forms, along with the recordings of Sonny Rollins, John Coltrane, Dexter Gordon, and Dewey Redman were his early influences. Redman soon learned to play the recorder, guitar, and piano. He listened to popular music, such as James Brown, Earth Wind & Fire, the Commodores, Parliament-Funkadelic, Led Zeppelin, and The Beatles.

At ten years old, Redman settled on the tenor saxophone; he had been exposed to it since birth and felt naturally drawn to the sound. He started with the clarinet and moved on to tenor the following year. The Berkeley Public Schools had an exceptional jazz program, directed by Phil Hardymon. (Graduates include Benny Green, Craig Handy, Peter Apfelbaum, and Rodney Franklin, among others.)

Although he quickly became an accomplished saxophonist, Redman was often more interested in popular music than jazz. Experimenting with guitar and keyboards, he would seldom practice the saxophone. The Berkeley High School jazz band, directed by Charles Hamilton, won several competitions, with Redman usually named the best soloist. His high school jazz quartet started working professionally. Though he still didn't practice, he was listening more and more, rediscovering the music of Rollins, Gordon, and Coltrane, and also absorbing the styles of Charlie Parker, Joe Henderson, Stanley Turrentine, Ben Webster, Wayne Shorter, Coleman, and others. Always a serious student, Redman's academic studies took precedence over music. With straight A's throughout high school, he graduated in 1986 number one in his class. He wanted to become a doctor and was accepted early admission to Harvard. Boston suited him well; he could be in a city with a strong music scene and still concentrate on his studies.

While at Harvard, Redman played in the school jazz band, but that was about it for music. His limited playing experiences included a few gigs with Delfeayo Marsalis his senior year; after weeks without practice, Redman would get on a plane and show up for the gig.

However, during summer breaks in Boston, he spent most of his time hanging out with musicians at the Berklee College of Music and participating in jam sessions. He also debuted with his father at the Village Vanguard in summer 1990. His intense listening continued with his influences expanding to other instrumentalists — McCoy Tyner, Herbie Hancock, Wynton Kelly, Elvin Jones, Ray Brown, and Freddie Hubbard, among others.

Redman graduated Summa Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa in 1991, and was accepted to Yale Law School. He was now on his way to a career in civil rights law or social work, but before jumping in, he took a year off. He wanted to check out the music scene in New York — not as a career move, but as a chance to concentrate on being creative again. In June 1991, he moved to a house with four other musicians in Brooklyn. For the first time in his life, he was practicing regularly, playing jam sessions every day, and taking advantage of the New York jazz scene. He was also playing regularly with his father.

Finally, in late November 1991, he performed at the Thelonius Monk International Jazz Saxophone Competition. He won the contest and has since performed and/or recorded with Elvin Jones, Charles Haden, Jack DeJohnette, Pat Metheny, Roy Hargrove, the Mingus Dynasty and Big Band, Red Rodney, and Paul Motion, among many others. He was also voted Best New Artist in the 1992 Jazz Times reader's poll.

MAX PARTHAS

Nelson Saha was born in Paterson, NJ. Nelson is a poet, producer, father, performer, preacher. activist dream builder and mentor to some of the most talented artists of our age. Nearly 20 years of experience in the edutainment industry has made the Man known as Maximus Parthas all of these things and more.

His career began in the early 90’s and by 1997 Max had hit the national scene with the rap group FAM. The first Family in Hip Hop history (Max & his children) Within 2 more years Max had established himself in the industry as a manager, producer, performer and marketing wizard of unparalleled ability. With Max as it’s head, the company he founded, “FAM Entertainment” became a local media icon with over 20 artists under that banner. Using his uncanny publicity savvy, Max and the edutainers he managed graced a multitude of magazine covers, newspaper headlines, and national television. All while doing it as a family.

By 2001 Max had done much. From his own radio show to a syndicated TV series. But something was missing and it left the poet unfulfilled. Money was neither the goal nor the answer. Fame was fleeting and finicky at best. None of it held the sense of achievement he sought. Growing up in impoverished Paterson NJ had taught Max many lessons. Primarily that life needs heroes and leaders who have the courage to face conformity head on and make a lasting difference in the quality of our society.

A born leader, it wasn’t long before his poetic peers sought direction from the much accomplished activist and writer. Unlike the present icons of rap, the pioneers of poetry were interested in truth and positive change. Their main goal wasn’t money. (what poet can expect to get rich?) They wanted nothing more than to be heard. These poets represented nearly every state in the union. Getting people heard was something Max excelled in. The combination could become a national phenomenon but Max was reluctant to lead so many when he himself knew the consequences of speaking out. Alone he could continue to fight against issues like poverty, racisms, inequity, corruption and political dictatorship. Yet he was loathe to include those who didn’t realize the price of such pursuits. Eventually, Through trust and friendship, the poets of DPJ convinced Max to lead them into a new era.

Within 4 years Max and the poets of a Prysmatic Dreams did exactly that. Repeating the steps that had made Hip Hop so successful and incorporating the emerging technologies of the internet, these groundbreaking literary pioneers created an ever growing movement that humbly began with their home site “PrysmaticDreams.com” and has now grown to over 500 poets, 14 venues nationwide, a nationally syndicated show and a global audience.

Maximus Parthas may have led the way, but every accomplishment was made as a team. With a multitude of venues, achievements and awards, those pioneers that began by chance at DPJ got what they wanted and more. To be heard. To make a difference in their communities and lives. To allow creative talents unrestricted growth while edutaining the world with art. To reach out and reach back for those who would follow the tenets of A New Word Order. As industry trendsetters, their influence continues to touch the entire genre of spoken word/poetry today.

MATT SAVAGE

Matt Savage was born May 12, 1992 Sudbury, Massachusetts, he is the son of Diane and Lawrence "Larry" Savage. . He was diagnosed with autism at age 3. Not one to be pegged with a label even as a toddler, Matt absorbed everything he could from early and intensive therapy. He taught himself how to read piano music at the age of 6 1/2, and immediately thereafter began studies in classical piano. He discovered jazz in 1999 and studied for 3 years at The New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, MA. When his family moved out of state, Matt did not have a piano teacher for over a year until he began private studies with his current teacher. Matt has never had any instruction in composition.

Always up for a new challenge, Matt recorded his first CD in December of 1999 in collaboration with his instructor at The New England Conservatory to raise money for autism research. Matt became the youngest child to perform at the NEPTA “Gifted and Talented” classical piano recitals in early 2000.

In September of 2000, Matt met and played piano for Dave Brubeck. The meeting was aired by WGME-TV Channel 13 in Portland, Maine. Brubeck’s comments about the meeting: “I was amazed at how talented he is. Amazing is the word I can tell you. I keep track of young talent in kids, and he’s the first one that I met that young that was THAT talented. He has such a musical mind that it isn’t music that he has to learn. It seems like he’s such an advanced musician in so many ways already at 8.”


On December 21st, 2000, Matt met and played piano for and with Chick Corea (at a sound check). Matt jammed with Avishai Cohen and Jeff Ballard, Chick’s sidemen, during the meeting. Matt was playing with the sidemen when Chick walked in, and when Avishai said, “Hey Matt! Play something for Chick!” Matt proceeded to launch into one of the most well known of Chick’s own tunes…”Steps.” He played it flawlessly and at breakneck speed. Avishai ribbed Chick, saying, “He plays it better than you do.” Fortunately, Chick has a good sense of humor. The two pianists sat at the piano, playing impromptu duets and eventually a kind of “dueling improv,” smiling all the time. Then Chick shared his dinner with Matt while conversing about life and music.
Matt released his second CD (and first solo piano effort) entitled “Live at the Olde Mill” in January of 2001. Matt’s first live radio interview and performance was on May 16th, 2001 on WERS 88.9, a Boston-based radio station.

At the age of 9, Matt indicated he wanted to play in an ensemble. He attended a few open jazz jams on a few Sunday afternoons and hit it off with two adult musicians, John Funkhouser and Steve Silverstein. Matt was scheduled to play a benefit concert to raise money for autism research a few weeks later and asked John and Steve to join him. They agreed, and the chemistry among the musicians at that concert was such that The Matt Savage Trio was born. The band never rehearsed. They just started performing gigs together as a band. The Matt Savage Trio is headed by Matt, on piano, with John Funkhouser on bass and Steve Silverstein on drums.
Matt was featured as “The Artist of the Month” for Orchard music distributors in the spring of 2001, and opened for The Alon Yavnai Group around the same time at The Center for the Arts in Natick, MA.

McCoy Tyner was the next jazz great to invite Matt to his sound check in August of 2001. So, Matt jammed with Avery Sharpe and Al Foster and got words of praise and wisdom from McCoy. After an article came out about Matt in The Boston Globe in October of 2001, Matt started selling out concerts. And in November of 2001, The Matt Savage Trio released their first CD as a trio, a CD entitled “All Jazzed Up”. Around that time, Matt appeared on Lifetime Television and on ABC’s “20/20”. He also did interviews and performances on many, many radio stations across the country. Matt received his first CD review on the “All About Jazz” web site in February of 2002, and was heralded as “phenomenal”.

Matt has received many awards, including being signed in 2003 to Bösendorfer pianos. He is the only child to be so recognized in the company's 175-year history.
Matt has toured the world, performing for heads of state and others, and appearing on numerous television and radio programs such as Late Night with Conan O'Brien, The Today Show, and All Things Considered. In 2006, at age 14, he was featured on a CNN report about the human brain, in which he was defined as a "prodigious savant," as opposed to the other types of savants. Matt has also appeared in several documentaries about savants.

SAFIYYAH AMINA MUHAMMAD

Safiyyah Amina Muhammad was born in Harlem, in 1969 to Gloria and Gilbert Muhammad. She was raised between Newark and East Orange, New Jersey; where she currently resides. Safiyyah’s paternal grandfather was a self-taught Jazz musician in the late 1930’s and early 1940’s. Safiyyah attributes much of her inherent enthusiasm for Jazz music to this fact. Safiyyah was also highly influenced by her mother’s extensive collection of musical greats such as Dinah Washington, Nina Simone, Nancy Wilson, Stevie Wonder, Etta James, Etta Jones, Gladys Knight and the Pips, Shirley Caesar, Bobby Womack, Bobby Blue Bland, The O’ Jays, Patti Labelle, Aretha Franklin and many of the Motown greats and Philadelphia sounds of the 70’s. It was the original and playful lyrics of Dr. Buzzard’s Original Savannah Band that invited Safiyyah to test the art of writing songs and poetry.

“I used to write poetry and songs all the time in my youth, I even co-founded an all girls rap group and, believe it or not, I used to break-dance. But as I got older, my interests had shifted”, states Safiyyah of why she decided to unlock her self-proclaimed “Briefcase of Verse” ©, which she plans to publish and record later this year. Safiyyah’s voice is like poetry in motion and her poetry is as soothing as it is powerful! Safiyyah’s first effort at reciting in public was what she proclaims to be “sweaty palms” moment when she read before Miguel Algarin of Nuyorican Poets Café and Amiri Baraka. Encouraged by Miguel’s positive words, she began featuring at the Jordan’s Red Carpet Restaurant in Roselle, New Jersey.


Safiyyah says that, as of four years ago, writing poetry became a therapeutic retreat to compliment her hectic lifestyle. "I believe that Sufyaan's love of jazz is also inherent. Jazz delivers the synchronicity, syncopation and dissonance in its musical expression that often captures what's going on inside the mind. It's melodic and pragmatic all at once. I believe this is characteristic of Jazz music, Autism, even Attention Deficit Disorder; the latter of which I have been striving to live with. There's so much going on that it's not. A mind in a confused state is like having internal comping with your psyche. Each instrument represents a different thought, a different scope; a different point of view. It begins so serene and subtle, but like MY thoughts, the melodies all take on a life of their own. The syncopation of the bass line, the percussion and the melodic instrumentation is like fluctuating feelings. My chest gets tight and my throat begins to close. I read the same reaction as I study my son. Jazz music is so deliciously invasive. The music jumps inside of the body to define the mind. We’re consumed by Jazz." Safiyyah admits that the only instrument that she plays is the violin, “But in my mind I have a mean Johnson stride”, she says jokingly.

Safiyyah has been married for eleven years to her best friend and has five dynamic children ages 21, 11, 9, 8, and 4; four boys and one girl. Her eldest son is expecting his first child in August, which will add more excitement to Safiyyah’s already eventful life. One of the main facts that make her life so busy is raising a child with special needs. Safiyyah’s nine year old son, Sufyaan, has Autism. “It was a lonely struggle trying to figure out why my son was different and what that difference was”, she stated, “I couldn’t defeat this challenge until I knew what the challenge was”.

Once Safiyyah began advocating for the rights of her son and challenging the status quo in decisions regarding his care, it was evident that advocacy was her calling. She began by learning everything about Autism Spectrum Disorder and the options that are available in obtaining treatment and educating herself and her child. By age three, Safiyyah was taking Sufyaan to Speech therapy sessions on one side of town, sending him to school in the Preschool Disabled program in her public school district and juggling maintaining and supporting a family both inside and outside of her home. Safiyyah is the oldest of 7 and maintains a matriarchal relationship with her relatives both in New York and New Jersey and the in the South.

As an African-American Muslim woman, Safiyyah has always been aware of the biases and prejudices that exist in society, however, having a child with a developmental disability opened up a whole new world that Safiyyah did not expect. Her Islamic upbringing and strong spiritual influence of her grandmother has led her to declare that “if you’re a true follower of your faith, who YOU ARE should define how you deal with who I AM”. She soon found that this compassion for others was not shared in every venue she and her son were exposed to and this eventually led to her crusade for justice for people with disabilities and the disparities that are apparent in today’s public school systems. She began volunteering in her children’s classrooms by providing their teachers with a support network and chaperoning school trips. Consequently, she was elected to the Parent Teacher Organization. Safiyyah has worked diligently with parents, school staff and administrators and students in addressing concerns within public schools for children who receive mainstream and Special Education instruction. “I’d like to know that if I present a problem, I equally present a viable solution, or at least, I’d like to help in finding resources that lead to a solution”.


Following in the footsteps of their talented mother, Safiyyah’s oldest son Bashir has played the guitar, saxophone and writes poetry and songs. Her daughter Aatikah is an aspiring singer-songwriter and has already written seven songs. The second oldest, Abdul-Salaam, has written a 3-part comic book series and aspires to complete an animated series and video game.

Safiyyah says; “Like Loretta Claiborne, I would love to one day see Sufyaan take the world by storm displaying his athletic prowess in the Special Olympics World Games. I know he can do it. He’s determined, he has support and he’s loved and with that love that we feel for him, if he wanted to touch the moon, he could.”

Safiyyah’s advice to other parents of children with disabilities is that early intervention is the most important aspect of addressing differences in your child that concern you. "Seek advice from a professional but don’t limit yourself to the diagnosis of one. Many medical professionals have not yet unlocked the mystery of Autism and they may ignore something that could be crucial to your child’s success in treatment. Support legislation that promotes better means of connecting with the community of individuals who have or are affected by disabilities. Knowledge is the key to understanding. If you don’t know someone who is affected by Autism Spectrum Disorder; chances are YOU WILL”.

ERIK LAWRENCE & Hipmotism

Erik Lawrence was born in upstate NY and grew up around NYC area. His father, a jazz saxophonist and noted jazz educator (creator of the Jazz Studies Department at the New School) introduced him to Clark Terry, Dizzy Gillespie, Chico Hamilton and other jazz masters at an early age. He played with their bands. When Erik turned 5 years old his father handed him his first saxophone, taught him how to hold it, where the notes where and how to breathe and said "Now play what you feel" and that is what Erik is still doing.

In addition to the jazz he heard with his father Erik became entranced with the sound of the saxophone and with saxophonists with great sounds. He immersed himself in the music of Ben Webster, Sonny Rollins, Charlie Parker, John Coltrane, Eric Dolphy, Sidney Bechet, Booker Ervin and George Adams. Later it was Pharoah Sanders, Charles Lloyd, Archie Shepp and even Grover Washington Jr and David Sanborn. Along the way he developed his own sound on all of the saxophones and the flute.

Erik was also drawn to the soulful music of Stevie Wonder, Ray Charles, New Orleans Rhythm and Blues, Chicago Blues, Reggae, African Music, Asian Music, Middle Eastern Music, Eastern European Music, Spanish Music, South American Music until finally he listened to sounds in nature; bird songs and humpback whales.

Erik began teaching jazz history in college when he was 18 years old and has continued the role as educator throughout his career. Erik believes the creative process does not belong to one person or people; that it's not what you are doing but HOW you are doing it and he wishes to convey this idea to the young and the young at heart. Aside from saxophone and flute students, Erik teaches his method of creative approach to drummers, brass players, strings, in fact all instruments, also to poets and artists who wish to learn the nature of interaction and how to respond to the natural rhythm found in all things.

Erik says, “I believe my own personal learning will never be completed.”

Erik Lawrence plays Saxophones and Flutes. He has received a Meet-the-Composer Grant for his writing. He began playing sax at five years old under the guidance of his father, jazz musician, founder of the New School of Jazz in NYC and the International Center for Creative Music Studies in Jerusalem, Rock and Roll Guru Arnie Lawrence, who told him to "Play what you feel." Thus beginning what has been a lifelong spiritual quest through music. He is at home playing in various styles, from tradition to experimental, from large ensembles to solo.


By now he has brought his original melodic and rhythmic approach to Europe, Across the United States, South America and the Caribbean. He has performed Solo improvised saxophone at Carnegie Recital Hall in New York and has been the featured performer at the World Peace Festival and has performed in Europe at the Northsea Jazz, Discover Jazz, Montreal Jazz, Molde Jazz, Pori Jazz, Porto and Saalfelden Jazz festivals, the Free Jazz Festival in Brazil, the Falcon Ridge Folk Festival, Berkshire Jazz Festival and Bumbershoots.

Erik leads and plays with various ensembles. His sidemen have included Garth Hudson, Mark Egan, Steven Bernstein, Dave Tronzo, Aaron Comess, Mark White, Eric Schenkman, Alex Blake, Cameron Brown, Lonnie Plaxico, John Pizzarelli, Murali Coryell; and poets Jane LeCroy, Frank Messina and many, many others. His current original projects include Hipmotism, featuring Grammy nominee Steven Bernstein and drummer Allison Miller; MERGE Poetry/Music project featuring poet Cassandra Cleghorn, Allison Miller drummer and Rene Hart acoustic bass .

Erik has also currently or recently performed and recorded with legendary jazz drummer Chico Hamilton; with Steven Bernstein's much acclaimed Millennial Territory Orchestra; Levon Helm and the Barnburners, Branford Marsalis, and The Masters of the Groove, featuring Bernard Purdie, Grant Green Jr. and Reuben Wilson.

Erik currently teaches jazz saxophone at Williams College and the Putney. He has taught sax, jazz, jazz history, ensembles, and methods classes at Montclair State University (94-2000) and Rockland Community College (80-84). He has also taught saxophone and flute to all ages and improvisation to all instruments for well over 20 years and is available for clinics.

He would ask that if you say daily prayers you consider adding the phrase "May Peace Prevail on Earth" to your daily prayers to help raise both personal and world consciousness about the possibility that peace is a viable alternative to anger in ANY situation.

Erik has performed and/or recorded with numerous artists in his roles as sideman and bandleader. Notable artists include:

Chico Hamilton (legendary Jazz drummer)
Neville Family Affair (featuring Aaron Neville and his sons)
Buddy Miles
Elvis Costello and Allen Toussaint
David Amram
Rickie Lee Jones
Sonny Sharrock (Avant Garde Guitar Legend)
The Band
Levon Helm
The Spin Doctors
John Popper (from Blues Traveler)
Bob Dylan
Steven Bernstein’s Millennial Territory Orchestra
Joan Osborne
Branford Marsalis
Masters of the Groove: Bernard Purdie, Grant Green Jr, Reuben Wilson
Istanbul Orchestra
Jackie Cain and Roy Kral
Arnie Lawrence
John Cale (from Velvet Underground)
A.C. Reed (Chicago Blues Sax Legend)
David Tronzo (Slide Guitar Master)



www.mergepoetrymusic.com
www.myspace.com/hipmotism
www.levonhelm.com/erik_lawrence.htm

APRIL SIMS

April Sims aka Sensual Angel was born April 16, 1966 in Washington, D.C. She was raised in the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Area where she still resides today.
She is the proud mother of three beautiful daughters who are her constant inspiration for striving to be the best she can be each and every day.

She is a true renaissance woman that can do it all when it comes to the arts. She is spoken word artist (currently working on her debut cd), a poet (currently working on two books of poetry) and photo artist (photographer who is proficient in Photoshop).

Her works touch the very essence of the soul and whispers to the heart deeming her a “Heart Whisperer”. Her writings keep you hanging on each and every word and hold you with baited breath in anticipation of the next word.

She has been writing since she could hold a pen, but due to high demand has recently started formulating her writing for the public at large to consume.
Her kind spirit and selfless attitude have deemed her by many an angel on Earth while her sensual and sultry voice commands her audience, hence Sensual Angel.

LEE RITENOUR

Lee Mack Ritenour, was born January 11, 1952 in Los Angeles, CA. The prolific Ritenour has established himself as one of the world's leading jazz guitarists with a series of accessible albums over three decades. Starting at the age of 16, Ritenour played his first session with The Mama's and the Papa's. Two years later he was backing Tony Bennett and Lena Horne at L.A.'s Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. Know as "Captain Fingers," Ritenour became a sought-after session player in the mid-70's. Starting in 1976, at the age of 24, he began his own solo career which now includes over 30 albums and collaborations. Although heavily influenced in his early days by the relaxed styles of Wes Montgomery, Joe Pass and Barney Kessel, he now has his own distinctive sound and fluid style. His list of session work is awesome (some 3,000 sessions), but some of his most notable performances were with Herbie Hancock, Steely Dan, Dizzy Gillespie, Sonny Rollins and Pink Floyd. Since the mid-80's, Ritenour has been strongly influenced by Brazilian music.

Along the way, Ritenour has received 17 Grammy nominations, earned several gold albums, numerous #1 spots in guitar polls and the prestigious "Alumnus of the Year" award from USC. In 1981, he scored the pop15 hit "Is It You," featuring vocalist Eric Tagg, which has also become a smooth jazz radio classic. He joined GRP Records in 1985 after recording for Electra the previous 7 years. At that time, he recorded the magnificent "Harlequin" album with GRP co-owner Dave Grusin. It was nominated for 4 Grammy’s and won 1 that year.

REBECCA "Butterfly" VAUGHNS

Rebecca "Butterfly" Vaughns has been married to poetry since the age of ten. There are no words that can explain the passion and love Rebecca has for poetry. She holds Langston Hughes accountable for turning her into a fiend. Rebecca leaves audiences amazed at her ability to freestyle poetry leaving one to think its been inked for awhile.

She impressed Bruce George ~ Co-Founder of Def Poetry Jam in 2002 at the 2nd Annual Spoken Word Expo held in St. Louis, MS when she came hard from the dome in the midst of a cipher out in the parking lot after an open mic session. Rebecca has tapped many of mics on various stages from elementary schools to high schools to colleges to jails to festivals and is in high demand for weddings, funerals, baby christenings, retirement parties, church galas and everything else in between.

She's an International Spoken Word Artist with people appreciating her work in Canada, The Bahamas, Jamaica, Belize, Africa, and Argentina just to name a few. She's appeared on internet and mainstream radio as well as underground radio. She's done live broadcasting performances on Haitian and Spanish television locally and has appeared on various radio stations and television in other cities throughout the USA . Her work is supported and loved by the likes of Shang~comedian/ poet, Betty Wright ~ singer/songwriter, Floetry, MC Lyte, Joss Stone, and Robert Townsend just to name a few. Rebecca has truly made a name for herself in the arena of spoken word and poetry since taking the stage May, 1997. Rebecca holds several accolades for her craft to include 2003 Spoken Word Artist of The Year, two slam wins, and her work is featured on compilations in New york, Chicago, and Miami just to name a few as well as appearances in anthologies to include Drumvoices Revue ~ spring,summer, fall 2004 issue with a tribute to Katherine Dunham.

She's released three cds My Voice, Your Ears being her current project as of April 2, 2005 and a book of poetry under the title of Gypsy Poet: A Journey of All Roads That Lead to Poetry. She's in rotation on MusicChoice ~ digital cable ~ Smooth R&B channel Spoken Word Music & The Lounge that airs on Saturdays 6:00pm-8:00pm, Sundays 9:00am-11:00am and Tuesdays 3:00pm-5:00pm. Rebecca's most memorable moments date back as far as January 1995 when she was given the opportunity to open up for and introduce Dave Chappelle to April 27, 2005 as she was one of five poets selected to perform for Nikki Giovanni at the closing reception for the Pan African Book Fest ~ April 16-27 ~ Ft. Lauderdale, FL..

SONNY ROLLINS

Sonny Rollins was born in New York City, in the Sugar Hill section of Harlem, on September 7, 1930. As a very young child, he tried his hand at piano, but switched to alto sax at age 11. Rollins became part of a Harlem-based nucleus of young musicians, which included drummer Art Taylor and pianist Kenny Drew, who were regularly called on to perform and record with larger lights.

At just 19, Sonny had spent several months rehearsing with Thelonious Monk and had already recorded with trombonist J. J. Johnson and trumpeter and pianist Bud Powell Monk. Alto saxophonist Louis Jordan and tenor saxophonist Coleman Hawkins -- whose saxophone case the young Sonny would dutifully carry to and from gigs -- were key early influences for Sonny.

In 1951, Rollins began a professional and personal friendship with trumpeter Miles Davis, with whom he collaborated on the latter's Dig album. While Rollins' career track was on the rise, his personal life was sadly, slowly taken over by heroin, with his first drug possession arrest coming in 1950.

But Rollins fought back and successfully preserved his growing reputation in the mid-1950s as one of the jazz scene's most innovative improvisers. His resume included work with pianist Thelonious Monk and trumpeter Clifford Brown. At the decade's end, Rollins and drummer Elvin Jones recorded the classic Night At The Village Vanguard album.

Rollins shocked the jazz world in 1959 when he took the first in a number of self-imposed exiles. During this hiatus, he practiced on New York's Williamsburg Bridge, and delved into a number of Eastern philosophies. Alto saxophonist Jackie McLean often practiced with him on the Williamsburg Bridge.
His return in the 1960s saw intense creative development, especially in his growing string of landmark concert and studio efforts. Rollins became particularly celebrated for his live performances, well documented on collections like 1974's The Cutting Edge.

Rollins continues to perform and record, but he's increasingly drawn to the solitude found on his upstate New York farm, which he shares with his wife and manager, Lucille. Though he frequently notes that "It's four in the afternoon for me", age has only further sweetened Rollins' ever-soulful invention and sound.