Keshavan Maslak

Keshavan Maslak ( born February 26, 1947 in Detroit ), who also performs under the name Kenny Millions, is an American saxophonist, clarinetist and guitarist of Modern Creative Jazz.

Life and work

Maslak is derived from the second generation of Ukrainian ancestors and grew up in Detroit. His grandfather introduced him to the Eastern European folk music and European classical music. At age six, he began music lessons at age twelve he had first appearances, where he played polkas and mazurkas in Slavic immigrant community of Detroit.

During his time in high school he became interested in jazz and to interest the Rhythm & Blues. In the second half of the 1960s he studied at the University of Michigan and North Texas State University, where he studied classical saxophone, among other things, with teachers such as Larry Teal, and Donald Sinta and theory of composition with Martin Mailman, After his studies, he went with a revue Motown Records on tours. He moved to San Francisco where he studied yoga and worked with the drummer Charles Moffett Sr., who took a big influence on Maslaks musical development. He then moved to New York City, where he plays in the experimental music scene. In the 1970s he worked with about Philip Glass and Laurie Anderson and with musicians of the free jazz. In 1978 he moved to Europe for several years, he lived mainly in Amsterdam. During this time he played with Loek Dikker, Burton Greene and other musicians of the Dutch scene. It produced some albums for smaller labels such as Circle Records or Leo Records, 1981, he founded the formation Loved By Millions, with which he free jazz and rock rhythms ( Free Funk ) merged with which he on the Moers Festival under the pseudonym Kenny Millions with Rhys Chatham, Pamela Lyons, Charles and Charnett Moffett occurred. In music, this group he worked a variety of musical styles. "Wolf Kampman keeps him therefore even for the" first significant representatives of a radical post-modern jazz ".

Maslak 1982 returned back to New York and moved to Florida, where he opened a sushi restaurant with his wife Junko Maslak 1986.

Then Maslak took continue to albums; Most recordings were made for his own HUM HA label. In his career, Maslak worked with musicians such as Paul Bley, Sam Rivers, Sunny Murray, Ray Anderson, Misha Mengelberg and Chet Baker.

Chris Kelsey in All Music Guide calls Maslak as an eccentric, avant-garde saxophonist, the entertainment includes moments in his game. The jazz critic Richard Cook and Brian Marton count his Duoaufnahmen with pianist Paul Bley to his most important albums.

Disco Graphical Notes

• Structures - Narada Burton Greene Trio with Keshavan Maslak (Circle, 1978)
• Budhha 's Hand (Circle, 1978) with Mark Miller ( b ) & Sadiq Abdu Shahid (dr )
• Humanplexity ( Leo, 1979) with Misha Mengelberg, Han Bennink
• Blaster master ( Black Saint, 1981) with Charles Moffett Sr.
• Loved By Millions ( Leo 1980) with John Lindberg, Sunny Murray
• Not To Be A Star ( Black Saint, 1992) with Paul Bley
• Mother Russia ( Leo, 1991) with Vladimir Tarasov, Mikhail Alperin, Anatoly Vapirov
• Romance in the City ( Leo, 1993) with Paul Bley