Sounds Of Berklee

December 22, 2014 by Curtis Killian With inspiration from the likes of Hank Williams and Johnhny Cash, Girls Guns and Glory tours 250 days a year, bringing their Boston-bred Americana worldwide. Featuring Ward Haden on vocals, Josh Kiggans on drums, Chris Hirsch on guitar and Berklee alumnus Paul Dilley of H.U.M.A.N.W.I.N.E. on upright and electric bass, the band was recently named one of ten new artists you need to know by Rolling Stone Country, and the Christmas-themed video for Holiday Heartache, was featured on the rollingstone.com homepage.

December 16, 2014 by Curtis Killian The Shills have been a driving force in the Boston rock scene for the past decade, offering audiences tightly crafted grooves, powerful vocals and an expansive creative range, and were recently listed as #1 in Vents Magazine's top-ten list of Boston bands. Frontman Bryan Murphy, who is also a member of expiremental band Man Man, and guitarist Ryan Jackson are joined by Berklee grads Dave Sicilian '06 on bass and James Zaner '06 on drums. With degrees in Music Production and Engineering, Sicilian also works as a studio engineer in advertising and feature films for Soundtrack Boston, while Zaner was chief engineer at Blue Jay Recording and is now on tour as front of house engineer and production manager for pop duo Nick and Knight. Hear an excerpt from 2012's Keep Your Hands Busy Volume 1, recorded with producer Scott Riebling (Letters to Cleo, Fall Out Boy), and stay tuned for new musicand videos from the band in early 2015.

By Berklee Office of Communications August 1, 2008 Berklee alumnus Kendrick Oliver and his 19-piece New Life Jazz Orchestra has been described by Jazz Times magazine as "inventive, vital, and fresh." The group plays Count Basie-style swing with foot-stomping arrangements, high-octane rhythms, and an unrestrained brass section. Their take on "Wade in the Water" features Christian McBride on bass.

By Berklee Office of Communications July 1, 2008 The Berklee Latin All Stars are winners of the 2008 Down Beat Student Music Award for Best College Jazz Band under the name La Timbistica. Sounds of Berklee for July 2008 features the six-piece group performing "Centro Havana," a composition by Cuban flutist Oriente Lopez.

By Berklee Office of Communications June 2, 2008 Zili Misik is an all-woman band whose repertoire ranges from Haitian to blues to Afro-Cuban music and beyond. Most of the group's eight members are Berklee students or alumni. In the Sounds of Berklee podcast for June 2008, you'll hear "Praia," a song from the group's debut disc, New World Soul. You can also hear it live during Berklee's free summer concert series.

By Berklee Office of Communications May 9, 2008 Sounds of Berklee for May 2008 brings you the music of Jennifer "Nesi" Chianesi, an 18-year-old rapper from Cranston, Rhode Island. Her original, "Shake Up," made her one of two grand prize winners in Berklee and Essence magazine's Hip-Hop Songwriting Contest. The contest winners were selected by a panel that included hip-hop celebrity judges Yo-Yo, Pete Rock, and Roxanne Shante.

By Berklee Office of Communications March 31, 2008 This month's Sounds of Berklee track features the acoustic alternative folk music of student group Annie Lynch and the Beekeepers. "Dirty Laundry" is an excellent example of the band's unusual arrangements, which feature upright bass, cello, mandolin, banjo, accordion, and the occasional saw solo.

By Berklee Office of Communications February 28, 2008 Listen to "Lion's Gate," a song by the SFJAZZ Collective, an all-star ensemble featuring some of the jazz world's finest performers and composers, including Berklee alumni Miguel Zenon, Joe Lovano, and Matt Penman.

By Berklee Office of Communications January 28, 2008 "Homie," a song by a great student band—the Peasantry—is this month's podcast. The Peasantry is one of several student groups featured on the new disc from student-run Heavy Rotation Records and performing in the label's CD release concert this month.

By Adam Renn Olenn May 21, 2014 Deni Hlavinka and Chris West had never met at Berklee, even though they’d been collaborating for years. These songwriters found each other online and mailed half-finished mp3s back and forth to finish each other's songs. Together, they make up the Western Den. At Berklee they added musicians to the lineup, and perform regularly with Tim Reynolds on violin and Ro Rowan on cello. Their EP Battle Hymns was released in 2013 and was followed by Midwinter, an EP which raised more than $1,000 for victims of Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines. They opened for Melissa Ferrick on the Northeast leg of her national tour. This summer they’ll be gigging regionally, including a featured performance at Symphony Hall with the Boston Pops, and working on their first full-length album.

By Rob Hochschild May 23, 2014 Founded in 2012 by Berklee student vocalist and composer Raquel Rivera, Amethyst is a septet that puts forth music influenced by contemporary jazz, acoustic pop, and various Latin genres. Rivera's bright and smooth vocal style is an ear-catching vehicle for her wide-ranging originals and the band's collaborative cover arrangements. Rivera, who is focusing on honing her performing and arranging skills at Berklee, will lead Amethyst in a free outdoor performance on June 5, 2014 at Kendall Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

By Kimberly Ashton June 2, 2014 Esther Rojas left a successful career as a performer in Colombia to come to Berklee in 2012. An established bassist who gigged with national acts like María Mulata, Rojas was playing in eight groups and had plenty of work. But she felt stuck and wanted to pursue a different path. She's now a fifth-semester student in the contemporary writing and production program at Berklee. Though her ultimate goal is to compose, arrange, and produce, Rojas remains incredibly active as a performer. Last fall she helped put together a live Latin Grammys performance featuring 30 Berklee students and Spanish star Alejandro Sanz, and in the spring she appeared at the Monterey Jazz Festival with her band, Latimbop. Recently, she sat down with Berklee to talk about these experiences. Producer: Kimberly Ashton Engineer: Ryan Walsh Recorded at the BIRN Studios (9:49)

By Rob Hochschild June 9, 2014 Sarah McKenzie is a pianist, vocalist, and composer who graduated from Berklee a few weeks ago. A native of Melbourne, Australia, McKenzie was a backup vocalist for Michael Bublé on his Call Me Irresponsible tour, and was the opening act for Grammy-winning trumpeter Chris Botti in 2011. Her second album, Close Your Eyes, won the 2012 ARIA award for Best Jazz Album. Prior to enrolling at Berklee, she studied with legendary composer Johnny Mandel. McKenzie is one of four artists—all either Berklee students or recent graduates—who will open for alumna Melissa Etheridge at Berklee Night at the Pops, at Symphony Hall, on June 12, 2014.

PODCAST: Lindsey Grey '04 By Adam Renn Olenn June 17, 2014 When Lindsey Grey graduated from Berklee in 2004, she was arguably the darling of Boston’s hip-hop scene, singing hooks for several bands and collaborating as a songwriter with a wide variety of artists. She then took several years away from the music business to get married and raise her young son, and has returned in yet another form–entrepreneur. Grey recently opened a clothing boutique called ‘Remix’ that recycles top-shelf fashion items for people with symphony tastes and roadhouse money.

By Adam Renn Olenn June 17, 2014 Brockton, Massachusetts native Mike Flanagan ’08 started playing saxophone when he was ten years old and never looked back. A high-school regular on Boston’s south shore jazz scene, Flanagan won a scholarship to Berklee and almost immediately began touring internationally. Flanagan has grown his career in multiple directions at once–as an in-demand saxophonist, as a composer and arranger, including an arrangement of The Varsity Girls’ pop hit “Be You” for the Boston Pops, and as a songwriter and producer creating his own albums. Under the name MRF, Flanagan released Elevator Music, a hybrid of straight-ahead jazz, hip-hop, and R&B, and followed that success with Mob Music, another genre-bending album that has rocketed to #1 in the iTunes jazz category and was flagged as a heat-seeker by Billboard magazine.

Matt Nakoa '06 November 14, 2014 Before winning a scholarship to Berklee, Matt Nakoa ’06 was a goat farmer in central New York state. In addition to his talent with animals, Nakoa is an accomplished classical pianist who discovered a love of singing and writing songs, and was selected to collaborate with Grammy-winner Kathy Mattea during her residence at Berklee. Nakoa’s 2014 album A Dozen Other Loves has earned him a place performing alongside folk legends like Patty Larkin, Catie Curtis, and Ellis Paul, and recently brought him a win at the Kerrville Folk Festival’s New Folk Competition.

By Curtis Killian November 26, 2014 After studying electronic music production at Berklee, Aruna Abrams got her start in EDM recording for internationally recognized producers like Roger Shah and Cosmic Gate. An accomplished singer, songwriter, DJ, and producer, she has penned a chart-topping single recored by Miley Cyrus, collaborated with dance mainstays like Armin van Buuren and Ferry Corsten, and is a fixture on the international dance circuit. Listen to the chillout mix of "Still Holding On," produced by Aruna with Conjure One for Armada Music.

By Curtis Killian December 8, 2014 Self-described "Pennsyltucky-fried sister-folk" band the Hello Strangers, led by Berklee graduate Larissa Chace Smith '01 and her sister, Brechyn Chace, has been on the rise since its 2006 formation in Austin, Texas and subsequent move to rural Pennsylvania. With a catalogue of original music comprised of American folk traditions and modern indie rock, the band won AirPlay Direct's Win an Americana Record Deal Contest in 2012, providing the opportunity to work with producer Steve Ivey of the award-winning IMI Records in Nashville, Tennessee. Hear an excerpt from the resulting self-titled debut album by the Hello Strangers.

Inside Berklee: Don Was (Part 2) by Berklee College of Music

By Rob Hochschild October 18, 2013 With influences that range from Louis Armstrong to Radiohead's Thom Yorke, trumpeter Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah '05 is not only on a jazz innovator, he's a musician whose unique vision makes him a must-listen pioneer no matter what you think your preferences are. His music combines New Orleans stomp, indie rock guitar, unforgettable melodies, and social commentary. His latest album, Christian aTunde Adjuah, is a double album so packed with ideas that you may be tempted to take a break halfway through just to absorb what you've been hearing. Only 30, Scott aTunde Adjuah has already released seven albums as a leader, and played on dozens as a sideman. He headlined at last month's Berklee BeanTown Jazz Festival, and took the time while he was in town to chat about his latest recording, the current state of the industry, and the myriad ways the culture of his hometown New Orleans is evolving these days. He also reflected on a master class and clinic he gave for Berklee stud