EP 51: 2023 Retrospective
In this episode of MFM Speaks Out, Dawoud Kringle comes out of retirement to present a 2023 retrospective. We will share some of the content we brought to you in 2023, and enjoy a few other surprises as well.
Our guest for the January episode was Haana. Haana is a violinist, vocalist, electronic music artist, visual performer, and entirely self-contained as a one-woman orchestra. She played with Kanye West, and Alvin Ailey, as well as festivals such as Joshua Tree Festival and Coachella and others in the US, Canada, UAE, and Australia, Barack Obama's inaugural ball, and at Michael Jordan's wedding. Haana has endorsement deals with Ableton, Native Instruments, Even Headphones (manufactured by Blue Microphones), and Realist Violins. She appeared in ads for Intel, Harvey Nichols, Nike, Ferrari, and Apple Computers. In addition, she has experience as a film composer and does artist mentorship/marketing, branding, and production consultation.
In February, MFM board member and co-producer of this very podcast Adam Reifsteck joined us for a very fascinating discussion. Adam is a New York-based composer, electronic music artist, producer, entrepreneur, and music activist. He writes for small ensembles, produces electronic music, and performs improvised group compositions on Wi-Fi-connected laptops. He has collaborated with string quartets, university choirs, and visual and electronic artists. His approach to composition includes elements of improvisation. He is a recipient of grants from the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, the Irving S. Gilmore Foundation, and the Kalamazoo (MI) Community Foundation. His music has been performed by the Attacca Quartet, Amernet String Quartet, Cadillac Moon Ensemble, Duquesne University Chamber Singers, Flutronix, Gaudete Brass Quintet, Mana Saxophone Quartet, Western Michigan University Chorale, and many other ensembles. Adam is also an active recording engineer and producer whose studio alias SONIC FEAR has become synonymous with lush, genre-bending sounds—from dance floor-ready tracks to downtempo meditations. He is the founder and CEO of Teknofonic Recordings, an independent record label and artist development platform providing electronic musicians with learning resources, networking opportunities, and career support. Adam holds a master’s of music degree in composition from Western Michigan University and a bachelor’s of music in music technology from Duquesne University. He is a member of Broadcast Music Inc., the Society of Composers and Lyricists, the Recording Academy, the Audio Engineering Society, and Musicians for Musicians.
Our March episode was a landmark. We interviewed Keyna Wilkins, the first MFM member from Australia. Wilkins holds a Master of Music Composition at Sydney Conservatorium, studied composition, classical and jazz piano, and classical flute with several prestigious instructors, and intuitive conceptual improvisation with Tibetan Buddhist musician Tenzin Cheogyal. holds an MA in Flute Performance at Bristol University (UK) in 2008. She is known as a soloist and leader of cutting-edge ensembles and has written over 60 compositions, including 4 major orchestral works. Her works have been commissioned and/or performed by ensembles such as The Metropolitan Orchestra, Syzygy Ensemble, Elysian Fields, The Sydney Bach Society, and many others. She has released 9 albums of original music on all streaming platforms including 4 solo albums. Wilkins is also an Associate Artist with the Australian Music Centre and has five tunes in the Australian Jazz Realbook. She also writes music for films and theatre including the short film "Remote Access" which won Best Short Film at the Imagine This International Film Festival in New York in 2019 and her works are featured on ABC, Triple J, Fine Music FM, Cambridge Radio, SOAS London and many more. Her music is published by Wirripeng and she is a member of Musicians for Musicians.
MFM member Sylvian Leroux was our guest in April. Sylvian is a flutist, saxophonist, guitarist, composer, arranger, bandleader, educator, inventor, and prominent member of Musicians for Musicians. Sylvain Leroux grew up in Montreal where he studied classical flute at Vincent d’Indy; and improvisation and composition in New York at the Creative Music Studio where he attended classes by luminaries Don Cherry, the Art Ensemble of Chicago, Karl Berger, Cecil Taylor, and many others. A pioneer of African/Jazz collaborations, Sylvain is a foremost player of the Fula flute, the traditional flute from Guinea. He was selected as “Rising Flute Star” by the Downbeat Magazine Critics’ Poll for many years, achieving the #2 spot in 2019. As a bandleader, he brought traditional West African music to Zankel Hall with his Fula Flute Ensemble and held the fort for more than a decade at New York City’s Zinc Bar with his African Jazz group “Source”. His 2002 CD “Fula Flute" achieved cult status, and stimulated a worldwide interest in the instrument. His 2012 album “Quatuor Creole” was hailed as “a perfect contemporary music release.” He curated New York’s “Griot Summits” which featured performances by 25 West African griots from five countries. He has performed and recorded with Emeline Michel, Adam Rudolph, Karl Berger, Hassan Hakmoun, Billy Martin, and many West African stars. As a maker and seller of Fula flutes around the world, he invented and patented the Qromatica, a Fula flute capable of chromatic functionality. This led him to initiate "L'ecole Fula Flute", a music literacy project that graduated many excellent young flutists who are now re-energizing an endangered flute tradition.
Our May 2023 episode featured Mark Chimples, a.k.a. Mark C. Mark is the guitarist and synthesizer player with Live Skull. Formed in 1982, Live Skull is considered by many aficionados to be the quintessential New York City noise band. Rising concurrently with bands such as Sonic Youth and Swans, Live Skull helped define the post-No Wave underground "noise rock" in the 1980s music scene in New York City. Over the following decades, Live Skull released five albums and three EPs with a rotating cast of 11 members, all of whom added new ideas to the group’s evolving sound. Themes of struggle and chaos permeated and inspired their music. Their constant progression inspired New York Times critic Robert Palmer to call them “as challenging, as spiritually corrosive, and ultimately as transcendent as Albert Ayler’s mid-’60s free-jazz or the implacable drone-dance of the early Velvet Underground. It’s one of the essential sounds of our time."
Music on this episode:
Haana - Bison Rouge
Adam Reifsteck / Sonic Fear - Aurora
Keyna Wilkins - Floating in Space
Sylvain Leroux - In Walked Bud
Live Skull - Party Zero
Spaghetti Eastern - Jungle Blue
Arturo O’Farrill and the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra - Amidst the Fire and Whirlwind
Dave Liebman - Journey Around Truth
SoSaLa - Dadada Dadada Daa
Dawoud Kringle - Keep Trying
Credits
Producer and host: Dawoud Kringle
Publisher: Musicians For Musicians (MFM), Inc. and Sohrab Saadat Ladjvardi
Technical support: Adam Reifsteck
Links
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