Sounds Of Berklee

Iggy talks about personal and professional development at Berklee.

By Adam Olenn October 31, 2011 Field Trip, featuring Ryan Fleming '03 and Tim Paul Weiner '03 Photo by Ben Meyers Instrumental funk-jazz quartet Field Trip has just released their debut album There's Shag on Jupiter. The 10-song disc features 2003 alumni Ryan Fleming and Tim-Paul Weiner on guitar and bass respectively, and recalls some of the groundbreaking collaborations between John Scofield and Medeski Martin & Wood. Field Trip is supporting the album with a tour in Sweden before returning to the United States to promote it throughout the Northeast.

By Adam Olenn October 6, 2011 Alumnus Marc Muller has seen and done just about everything. He's played the Super Bowl with Shania Twain and backed up household names in every genre of music, from Branford Marsalis to the Backstreet Boys. On October 22, Muller comes to the Berklee Performance Center with his team of cracker-jack musicians who perform note-for-note renditions of the Grateful Dead's finest recordings under the moniker "Dead On." Listen in as Marc Muller '83 and Dead On perform "Till the Morning Comes."

By Adam Olenn August 22, 2011 Composer, pianist, and vocalist Neara Russell '10 grew up singing to cows in her home state of Wisconsin, but she didn't stay in the cornfield long. While still in high school, she was featured on National Public Radio for her achievements as a classical pianist. She then went on to win a prestigious full-tuition Presidential scholarship to Berklee, where she majored in composition and performance. Russell has won an ASCAP Plus award for her original music and recently moved to Los Angeles to pursue her career as an artist and studio musician. She is a keyboardist and background singer for Sony/JRecords pop star BC Jean, with whom she has appeared on The View and Access Hollywood. Her eclectic, self-produced release Noise and Silence has garnered rave reviews in the press.

By Berklee Office of Communications August 26, 2011 Emerging artist Katrina Bello '11 is a Nigerian-American soul/R&B vocalist and songwriter from the Washington DC metropolitan area. Bello performed from a young age in school choirs, and her talents earned her a host of accolades, including the 2005 Washington Post Music and Dance Scholarship Award. She began writing songs at the age of 16. After high school, Bello went on to study nursing at the University of Pittsburgh while pursuing music on the side. In 2007, SlicethePie.com awarded Bello a prize to create her debut album. She attended a Berklee summer workshop, earned a scholarship, and later enrolled in the full-time program. At Berklee, songwriting sparked an interest in music publishing, which led to her focus on music business/management as a major at Berklee. Ultimately, Bello says she would like to write for artists in almost every genre. She recently digitally released her first EP, entitled The Boiling Point, and is continuing to hone her craf

By Adam Olenn July 25, 2011 Originally from Blue River, Kentucky, guitarist Dave Reffett '06 is catching fire in the metal world. His Grammy-nominated album The Call of the Flames is packed with metal heavyweights like George Lynch (Dokken, Lynch Mob), Chris Poland (Megadeth), Michael Angelo Batio (Nitro), Joe Stump (Holy Hell), Mike Mangini (Steve Vai, Extreme, Annihilator), and Glen Drover (Megadeth, King Diamond) and was mixed by Mudrock (Alice Cooper, Godsmack, Avenged Sevenfold) and mastered by George Marino (KISS, AC/DC, Metallica, Ozzy Osbourne, Led Zeppelin, Jimmy Hendrix). He has been repeatedly featured in the pages of Guitar World magazine and on their Lick of the Day iPhone app. Reffett also appeared at the 2011 NAMM conference to help Esoterik Guitars showcase their Dave Reffett signature series guitars.

By Rob Hochschild July 18, 2011 Photo by Douglas Levy Photography Award-winning composer Omar Thomas, a faculty member in Berklee's Harmony Department, leads an 18-piece band showcasing some of Boston's finest young jazz players. The Omar Thomas Large Ensemble also features several Berklee faculty members. The group's repertoire includes Thomas's original compositions and arrangements, several of which will appear on his forthcoming album, I Am. Tenor saxophonist Tucker Antell solos on the Thomas track featured in this episode of Sounds of Berklee, "And When It Rains." Catch the Omar Thomas Large Ensemble performing at the Berklee Performance Center on July 27.

By Adam Olenn July 11, 2011 Bassist Matthew Rybicki '95 has performed with Wynton Marsalis and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, Nnenna Freelon, Renee Fleming, Mark Whitfield, and a host of other jazz luminaries on storied stages like the Village Vanguard and the Blue Note, and at festivals from Italy to Taiwan. Rybicki taught the inaugural bass course in the Essentially Ellington Band Director Academy at Jazz at Lincoln Center and served as musical director for Jazz in the Schools and Lincoln Center's Department of Programs and Services for People with Disabilities. His musical workshops at the Whitney Museum were included in their acclaimed Romare Bearden exhibition. His debut album, Driven, includes performances by jazz greats Ron Blake, Freddie Hendrix, Gerald Clayton, and Ulysses Owens, and showcases Rybicki's compositions.

July 5, 2011 Composer, saxophonist, and EWI player Zac Zinger just graduated from Berklee a few months ago, but he's been building a long list of credits since taking up the horn at the age of nine. His band, the Zac Zinger Group, displays influences from jazz, soul, funk, and other styles. As a composer, Zinger has written for quartet, orchestra, film, and video games. Catch the Zac Zinger Group performing for free July 11 at the Regattabar in Cambridge as part of Berklee's summer concert series. Get a preview with the Zinger original "Cerberus," a track from Octave, the latest release from Berklee's student-run Jazz Revelation Records.

May 19, 2015 By Curtis Killian In 2014, jazz percussionist Marco Pacassoni '04 of Fano, Italy and his quartet released his second album of original compositions, Happiness, featuring a duet with Grammy-award winning pianist Michel Camilo. Pacassoni, whose primary instruments are vibraphone and marimba, has studied with Gary Burton '62, Ed Saindon, and Victor Mendoza, among others, and has performed with Alex Acuna, Horacio "El Negro" Hernandez, Steve Smith and many more. Pacassoni is also on the percussion faculty at Liceo Rinaldini in Ancona, Italy and teaches harmony at the Zero Crossing Academy of Music in Pesaro and in April 2014 he released a harmony and composition book "Quasi quasi scrivo una canzone..." Pacassoni released the album Departure with the Travels Trio in April 2015 and frequently tours throughout Europe. Read more at marcopacassoni.com

By Rob Hochschild June 14, 2011 The collection of talented Berklee students and alumni in Boston rock band, Foxtrot, may be young in years, but they possess the songwriting and onstage skill of much older musicians. Foxtrot lists Radiohead, Incubus, and Mute Math among their influences, but it has crafted a sound completely its own. And Foxtrot take its concerts seriously, describing itself as "a dangerously entertaining live band that has a penchant for startling live effects and an unforgettable light show." Read a review of a recent Foxtrot show on Berklee Blogs to get more of a sense of what hearing and seeing the band in person is like. Foxtrot performs as part of Berklee's summer concert series. Get a preview with the tune "Foxtrot Hops."

By Adam Olenn June 13, 2011 Born in Cambridge, England, and raised in Johannesburg, South Africa, Adam Glasser '81 is a keyboardist, a composer, and one of the U.K.'s leading chromatic harmonica players. He has performed with a wide variety of artists, including Martha Reeves, Joe Zawinul, Sting, the Eurythmics, Jimmy Witherspoon, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, and Hugh Masekela, and filled in for Stevie Wonder. In addition to his long list of performance credits, Glasser has written and performed on many television programs and feature films. Free at First is Glasser's debut recording as a leader on Sunnyside records. From that record, this is "Mjo," Adam Glasser's tribute to late South African drummer Churchill Jolobe, with click song vocals by Pinise Saul.

By Adam Olenn June 2, 2011 Violinist Morwenna Lasko and guitarist Jay Pun met in a class called Music of India in their last semester at Berklee in 2003. The two found a common interest in exploring musical vocabulary off the beaten path and moved to Charlottesville, Virginia to incubate their unique sound in this hip enclave at the foot of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Their iconoclastic sound has been a hit with listeners, and in addition to teaching private lessons, they have a robust gig schedule, including appearances at Floydfest and the Ocrafolk Music Festival. "One Moore Farewell" comes from their 2009 album, Chioggia Beat, and eulogizes late saxophonist LeRoi Moore. The track features trumpeter Rashawn Ross '00, who makes his living as the trumpeter for the Dave Matthews Band.

By Adam Olenn May 26, 2011 Singer-songwriter Tiana Star '03 absorbed a wide range of influences in a childhood that spanned six states, Canada, and the Ukraine. Currently living in southern California with her husband and young son, Star spends much of her time touring both nationally and throughout the Southwest. She was a featured showcase at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival and as a result has been commissioned to write music for several films currently in production. NBC's Morning Show in San Diego has licensed three of her songs, and she has donated half of the proceeds from her single "I Am My Own" to ECPAT, a charity which seeks to end child slavery and prostitution.

By Adam Olenn May 16, 2011 Before millions of television viewers knew her as the singer of "Come As You Are" on NBC's hit reality show The Voice, Rebecca Loebe paid her dues the old-fashioned way, playing hundreds of shows across the country. Her 2010 release, Mystery Prize, spent nine weeks on the Americana Top 40 chart, and she has racked up an impressive collection of awards, including the 2009 Kerrville New Folk Award, the 2010 Falcon Ridge Emerging Artist award, and the 2011 ASCAP Plus Award. Loebe has shared the stage with folk luminaries, including Mary Chapin Carpenter, Emerson Hart, Ellis Paul, and many others, and was a featured artist on National Public Radio's Folk Alley's Best New Folk playlist.

By Rob Hochschild May 11, 2011 One of the more than 900 students who graduated this month is Juliana Ronderos, vocalist for the Colombian group il abanico. The group was formed in 2010 by Ronderos (vocals) and Nicolás Losada (guitar), and includes members from places as diverse as Peru, Japan, and Argentina. In December 2010 they recorded their EP, Crossing Colors, at Studio G in Brooklyn. They perform July 14 as part of Berklee's Summer Concert Series. The latest Sounds of Berklee podcast features il abanico's "Keep Calling" from Berklee's Music Technology Division CD.

By Adam Olenn May 2, 2011 International songstress Gemma Genazzano '02 has toured and recorded with artists as diverse as Sting, Bobby McFerrin, Shania Twain, and Nine Inch Nails. The daughter of Italian actor Oswaldo Genazzano, she has claimed her own place in the spotlight, performing at European jazz festivals and American institutions like the Blue Note and Madison Square Garden.

By Adam Olenn April 8, 2011 Mark Small's music is a distinctly American blend of jazz, blues, sacred, and classical. His eighth album, Scenes, was released in February 2011. Small's pieces have placed in several international composition competitions and been recorded by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. His arrangement of Pat Metheny's "Letter from Home" was included by the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet on their Grammy-winning album Guitar Heroes. In addition to his musical pursuits, Small is a regular contributor to a range of guitar magazines and the managing editor of Berklee Today.

By Adam Olenn March 23, 2011 Songwriters Amy Heidemann '08 and Nick Noonan '08 strip their performance down to the essentials of music: melody, harmony, and rhythm. Using only their voices, an acoustic guitar, and a Peruvian box drum called a cajón, they manage to create fully realized covers of pop hits and their original songs. Their first album, Inside Out, was released in 2010, and they've garnered high praise from Maroon 5's Jesse Carmichael and the Boston Herald. Be sure to check out the dozens of cover songs they've produced on their YouTube channels!

By Adam Olenn March 18, 2011 The music of Israeli-Mexican guitarist Ilan Bar-Lavi rings with authentic globalism, blending Latin and Middle Eastern music with rock and jazz. Bliss, his 2009 album of original compositions, features saxophonist Matan Chapnizka, pianist Victor Gould, bassist Haggai Cohen-Milo, and drummer Jeffrey Fajardo. Bar-Lavi has performed on some of the jazz world's top stages and maintains a rigorous international touring schedule, performing nearly 200 shows a year.