Sounds Of Berklee

By Rob Hochschild April 2, 2012 Photo provided by the artist Canadian trumpeter Ingrid Jensen '89 has been a part of several recordings nominated for Grammy or Juno awards, including her debut album as a leader, Vernal Fields, which earned her a Juno in 1995. She's in several notable bands, including the Maria Schneider Orchestra and the IJQ with Geoffrey Keezer. Her name appears annually near the top of the Downbeat Critic polls in the Talent Deserving Wider Recognition category. And she's performed with a diverse number of artists, including Terence Blanchard, Eddie Henderson, Corrine Bailey Rae, and Madeleine Peyroux. She also appears on drummer Terri Lyne Carrington's The Mosaic Project, which won a Grammy Award this year. On April 12, 2012, Jensen will perform with her trio in the evening and give an afternoon clinic for students. The concert, part of NPR's The Checkout–Live at Berklee series, will be broadcast live via the web and WBGO-FM. This episode of Sounds of Berklee features "At Sea," the title

By Adam Olenn March 9, 2012 This episode of Sounds of Berklee features several of the fantastic artists showcasing at Berklee's seventh annual SXSW Party, which takes place on Friday, March 16 from 1:00–5:30 p.m. at 208 East 6th Street in Austin, Texas. The party is 21+ and open to SXSW badgeholders. Additionally, the general public can email sxswrsvp@berklee.edu to attend free of charge. Read about the artists involved here: https://www.berklee.edu/news/4257/podcast-2012-sxsw-roundup

By Rob Hochschild March 2, 2012 The Berklee Silent Film Orchestra merges the creativity and discipline of film composition and the without-a-net experience of live-to-picture performance. Faculty member Sheldon Mirowitz teaches a course—Scoring Silent Films—in which the Film Scoring Department's best students compose scene-specific cues based on original themes developed by Mirowitz. Intensive work takes place throughout the 15-week semester, continuing with rehearsals with top student musicians and culminating in a public, live-to-picture performance. This episode of Sounds of Berklee features "Rebellion," a piece composed by student Michael Oldham for a section of Sergei Eisenstein's epic 1925 film Battleship Potemkin during which shipmates launch a mutiny. "It is a thrilling part of the film, and great bit of writing," says Mirowitz. "The 10-piece band plays the demanding cue with power, excitement, and precision." The BSFO performs the newly composed score on Friday, March 9, at the Kennedy Center's Ter

By Adam Olenn February 27, 2012 1999 film scoring alumnus Kishi Bashi has toured with Sondre Lerche, Alexi Murdoch, and of Montreal, not to mention the splash he made with his previous band, Jupiter One. A versatile musician, he has found success in many roles: violinist, composer, producer, and now as multi-lingual singer-songwriter Kishi Bashi. In addition to blending English and Japanese lyrics, Kishi Bashi writes primarily on the violin, and performs all the instruments on his record 151a. A composer with a lush and cinematic sensibility, Kishi Bashi pushes the envelope beyond typical coffeehouse arrangements.

July 10, 2015 by Curtis Killian After winning a scholarship to Berklee at the Umbria Jazz Festival, Italian singer Alessandra Bosco honed her jazz and classical techniques and has since expanded into the avant-garde after discovering radical vocal improvisers like Diamanda Galas and Meredith Monk. Bosco says she was deeply changed by her Berklee experience, which she called "a beautiful sharing of thoughts, personal experiences, friendship and work opportunities.” Inspired by sacred traditions such Sufi chants and shamanic icaros, here’s a vocal extemporary composition from Alessandra Bosco.

By Rob Hochschild February 21, 2012 Voice professor Donna McElroy is one of Berklee's—and Boston's—most electrifying performers. Having commanded the stage as lead vocalist during many of the college's most memorable concerts, McElroy returns to the BPC stage on February 26 for The Great American Songbook: Music of Hoagy Carmichael and Johnny Mercer. Other performers on the bill include alumnus Julian Lage and faculty members Livingston Taylor and Matt Glaser. McElroy has worked as an arranger and/or background vocalist on several gold and platinum releases, including Reba McEntire's "Why Haven't I Heard From You," Garth Brooks's "We Shall Be Free," and Amy Grant's "House of Love." This episode of Sounds of Berklee features McElroy singing lead on Duke Ellington's "I'm Just a Lucky So and So," from Berklee's 2006 American Songbook Concert.

By Adam Olenn January 30, 2012 The punk-ska yeomen of Big D and the Kids Table have been touring almost nonstop since the nine founding members graduated from Berklee in the late '90s. Playing up to 220 shows a year, Big D and the Kids table has earned its accolades one fan at a time, with a strictly do-it-yourself work ethic. And it's paid off big-time. Big D and the Kids Table has toured with Rancid, Flogging Molly, the Suicide Machines, and the Dropkick Murphys and played every Warped tour since 2003. Kevin Lyman, founder of the Warped Tour, says of the band, "They've been around for 14 years, and each year they're still relevant."

By Rob Hochschild January 24, 2012 Whether reinventing jazz standards, breathing fresh life into classical repertoire, or premiering its own original works, Tre Corda generates a compelling sound all its own. The group's three instrumentalists are Berklee faculty members, coming together in an environment where they are free to explore their own creative paths—independently and collectively—and are able to do so independent of boundaries and categories that limit musical expression. Cellist Eugene Friesen's dynamic rhythms and incredible array of bowing and plucking techniques, trumpeter Greg Hopkins's virtuosic leaps and outrageous genre-bending phrases, and pianist Tim Ray's lyric melodicism and two-fisted pyrotechnics provide a wealth of refreshing surprises to their audiences.

Bob Boilen of NPR Music, recently visited Berklee, along with cohost Stephen Thompson, to hang out with students, faculty, and staff to listen to—and talk about—music. During a conversation at Berklee with Rob Hochschild, director of communications, Boilen talked about the evolution of All Songs Considered, being at Berklee, and the fact that what makes a song good is the same thing as what makes a podcast good. berklee.edu/news/NPR-Berklee-Listening-Party

June 23, 2015 Listen to the title track from Motif by the Greg Abate Quartet featuring Berklee faculty members Tim Ray, John Lockwood, and Mark Walker, out now on Whaling City Sound Records. After graduating Berklee, jazz saxophonist, flautist and composer Greg Abate '71 played lead alto in the Ray Charles Orchestra for two years in the early '70s. In 1978, he formed the group Channel One, and later played tenor sax in the Revived Artie Shaw Orchestra directed by Dick Johnson. Abate has since ventured out as a soloist and composer in post bop, Latin and modern styles, performing jazz festivals and clubs worldwide, and since 1991 has released over 16 albums. "Berklee gave me the musical tools and foundation to become a jazz artist and educator," said Abate, who is also an adjunct professor of jazz studies at Rhode Island College. The Greg Abate Quintet featuring Phil Woods Live At Chans, a double CD, will be released this fall from a concert at Chans in Rhode Island slated for October 3, and Abate is curre

Norwegian bassist Terje Gewelt '87 has appeared on over 80 recordings by Scandanavian, European, and American jazz artists like Billy Cobham, Tommy Smith, Misha Alperin, and Michael Schrieve. Before studying at Berklee, Gewelt studied at the Bass Institute of Technology in Los Angeles and then privately with electric bass virtuoso Jaco Pastorius. Gewelt has released eight albums as a leader on his own label, Resonant Music, which has put out records by Espen Rud, Ahmad Mansour, Svein Finnerud, the Jørn Øien Trio, and others. By Adam Olenn January 5, 2012 Photo by Yann Anker

By Adam Olenn December 16, 2011 Baby Atlas is a trio from Austin, Texas that Berklee bass professor Danny Morris calls "southern-fried soul, with freshness, optimism, and joie de vivre." The band includes 2006 alumnus David Jimenez and 2008 alumna Wendy Simmons and recently released its self-titled debut album. (Photo provided by the artist) Baby Atlas: Wendy Simmons, David Carroll, and David Jimenez

By Adam Olenn November 30, 2011 Vocalist Jaime Garamella '06 attended Berklee with guitarist Lauren Stockner '08, but it wasn't until they connected with producer Tim Mitchell '05 that things really caught fire. The energetic performances of their band, the Spanish Channel, have won over wide-ranging crowds, garnering a national battle of the bands title, a sold-out CD release in New York, and a spot opening for Tim Reynolds. They've been mentioned in SPIN magazine and were commissioned to write the theme song to which the FHL hockey team the Danbury Whalers skates out.

By Rob Hochschild November 21, 2011 Photo by Phil Farnsworth Da'Rayia is a close-knit band of Berklee students and alumni that play a variety of genres, including hip-hop, jazz, soul, funk, rock, and reggae. The leader of the group—Da'Rayia Wilson—was the first winner of the Berklee and Essence magazine hip-hop songwriting contest. She subsequently was awarded a full scholarship to attend Berklee, where she is a dual major in music business/management and contemporary writing and production. Da'Rayia's cover of Gang of Four's "Not Great Men" is one of several innovative covers on the latest disc, Under the Influence, from Berklee's student-run Heavy Rotation Records.

By Adam Olenn November 14, 2011 Piano Department professor Laszlo Gardony has just released his ninth album, Signature Time, a blend of originals and ambitious reinventions of classic tunes. Hungarian-born Gardony '87 graduated from the Bartok Conservatory and the Science University of Budapest before working as a sought-after sideman in Europe. After releasing his own recordings overseas, he matriculated to Berklee on a full scholarship and subsequently joined the faculty. Of Signature Time, Gardony says, "Today's music owes a lot to the birthplace of culture and music—Africa. This album is an acknowledgment of how many genres draw upon the heritage of African music, which has enriched my own cultural experience."

Drunken Logic, "The Good News is (Nobody Gives a Damn)" by Berklee College of Music

See the full interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDGw9oOtgFA

Berklee Alumni Advice: Sound Designer Eugene Gearty '82 (Martin Scorcese, Ang Lee) by Berklee College of Music

Berklee Alumni Advice: Paul Riggio '98 (Film Scoring; CEO of Tunespring.com, Groove Guild) by Berklee College of Music

Shawna talks about the importance of nurturing contacts.