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Volume 30 - December 2020
December 01 2020
Notes on LMJ30 audio tracks
Zachary James Watkins,
Zachary James Watkins
As a composer and founding member of experimental music ensemble Black Spirituals, Oakland-based ZACHARY WATKINS crafts work in pursuit of psychedelic experience, where sonic and compositional focal points are self-guided by the listener and acoustic phenomenon is at the center of the narrative. Zachary has received commissions from Kronos Quartet, Cornish College of The Arts, The Microscores Project, the Beam Foundation, Somnubutone Radio Series free103point9 .org, sfsound and the Seattle Chamber Players. Zachary releases music on the labels Sige, Cassauna, Confront (U.K.), The Tapeworm and Touch (U.K.). Novembre Magazine (Germany), ITCH (South Africa), Walrus Press and the New York Miniature Ensemble have published his writings and scores. Zachary has been an artist in residence at the Espy Foundation, Djerassi Resident Artists Program and the Headlands Center for the Arts.
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Davia Spain,
Davia Spain
DAVIA SPAIN is an electronic, free jazz and blues artist. Greatly influenced by her background in chamber music, Spain strives to blend the new with the old. Steeped in Afro-futurist traditions of nonlinear time, Spain seeks to reimagine the past, make predictions of the future and pull possible outcomes into the present through her music. While she is grateful for a traditional foundation in classical voice, dance and acting training she also values the room for experimentation afforded her in California's underground performance art and club scene. Recently she has shown work at Berkeley Art Museum, REDCAT, The Regent (LA) and The Broad Museum, where she played music from her debut album, Dawning. A forthcoming visual work that accompanies her music will be available soon.
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Raven Chacon,
Raven Chacon
Originally from the Navajo Nation, RAVEN CHACON is a composer of chamber music, a performer of experimental noise music and an installation artist. Chacon's work explores sounds of acoustic handmade instruments overdriven through electric systems. As an educator, Chacon has served as composerin- residence for the Native American Composer Apprentice Project, teaching string quartet composition to hundreds of American Indian high school students living on reservations in the Southwest U.S. His work has been presented at the Whitney Biennial, documenta 14, REDCAT, the Kennedy Center and the San Francisco Electronic Music Festival.
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Leroy F. Moore, Jr.,
Leroy F. Moore, Jr.
JKLM is a collaborative poetry/hip hop/electronic music project with words by Leroy F. Moore Jr. aka The Black Kripple and music by Juba Kalamka aka Joe Louis Milk.Born in 1967 with cerebral palsy in New York City, LEROY F. MOORE JR. was blessed to have a conscious, activist father and mother who instilled a strong sense of identity as a Black and disabled youngster. Moore is founder of the Krip-Hop Nation (a movement that addresses ableism, or discrimination against disabled artists, especially Black musicians marginalized because of racism AND ableism internationally) and the cofounder of Sins Invalid. Moore is an activist, writer, poet, rapper, feminist and radio programmer. Moore wrote for I.D.E.A.L. Magazine, and since the 1990s, has written the column “Illin-N-Chillin” for POOR Magazine.
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Juba Kalamka,
Juba Kalamka
JKLM is a collaborative poetry/hip hop/electronic music project with words by Leroy F. Moore Jr. aka The Black Kripple and music by Juba Kalamka aka Joe Louis Milk.Although his recording career began in 1988, bisexual artist/activist JUBA KALAMKA is most recognized for his more recent work with queer POC performance troupes Sins Invalid and Mangos with Chili, as a member of “homohop” group Rainbow Flava, cofounder/producer of Deep Dickollective (D/DC) and his development of the microlabel Sugartruck Recordings. Kalamka's personal work centers on intersectional dialogues on race, identity, gender, disability, sexuality and class in popular media. He received a 2005 Creating Change Award from the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force (NGLTF) for his activist work in the queer music community.
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Ava Mendoza,
Ava Mendoza
Web: www.avamendozamusic.com.
AVA MENDOZA is a Brooklyn-based guitarist, singer, songwriter and composer. Born in 1983, she started performing her own music, and as a sidewoman and collaborator in many different projects, as soon as she was legally allowed into venues. As a guitarist, Mendoza has received acclaim for her technique and viscerality. Her most ongoing work is as leader of art rock band Unnatural Ways and as a solo performer of her own music and works by contemporary composers. In any context she is committed to bringing expressivity, energy and a wide sonic range to the music. Mendoza has toured throughout the U.S. and Europe and has recorded/performed with musicians including Carla Bozulich, Malcolm Mooney (CAN), Steve Shelley, Mike Watt, Adele Bertei, Mick Barr, William Hooker, Nels Cline, Matana Roberts, John Zorn, Jamaaladeen Tacuma, Fred Frith, William Parker, Hamid Drake, Object Collection (Travis Just), ROVA, Negativland, the Violent Femmes and members of Caroliner. She has received composition commissions from film distributor Kino Lorber, new music duo The Living Earth Show and John Zorn's Stone Commissioning Series at National Sawdust. Recordings are available on labels Tzadik, Astral Spirits, Weird Forest, Clean Feed, Resipiscent and New Atlantis.
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Star Amerasu,
Star Amerasu
AH-MER-AH-SU is the music project of interdisciplinary artist Star Amerasu, whose music and art are based upon her experiences living loud and proud as a queer, Black, trans woman. Her early work was influenced primarily by folk and choral music, and she effortlessly blends her voice with synths, looped vocals and intricate live electronic percussion. She has performed in Europe, Australia and North America and her recordings—2016’s Eclipsing, 2017’s Rebecca and 2018’s Star—have garnered widespread critical acclaim.
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Sharmi Basu,
Sharmi Basu
Web: www.sharmi.info.
Born and currently based in Oakland, CA, SHARMI BASU is a South Asian woman of color creating experimental music as a means of decolonizing musical language. She attempts to catalyze a political yet ethereal aesthetic by combining her anticolonial and antiimperialist politics with a commitment to spirituality within the arts. In addition to her compositions and solo electronic performances, Basu founded and hosts MARA, a performance and improvisation collective centered around queer, trans and/or womyn of color and is building The Universe Is Lit: Bay Area Black and Brown Punk Festival.
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Chella Coleman,
Chella Coleman
YGSLRHSTFUT is a Los Angeles–based trans black GNC punk band seeking to not get famous but be part of a revolution in a punk rock way. For what the name means, ask them. The ensemble consists of Chella Coleman (vocals/bass), Maya Sage (bass/vocals) and Mateas (drums).
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Maya Sage,
Maya Sage
YGSLRHSTFUT is a Los Angeles–based trans black GNC punk band seeking to not get famous but be part of a revolution in a punk rock way. For what the name means, ask them. The ensemble consists of Chella Coleman (vocals/bass), Maya Sage (bass/vocals) and Mateas (drums).
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Mateas,
Mateas
YGSLRHSTFUT is a Los Angeles–based trans black GNC punk band seeking to not get famous but be part of a revolution in a punk rock way. For what the name means, ask them. The ensemble consists of Chella Coleman (vocals/bass), Maya Sage (bass/vocals) and Mateas (drums).
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Morgan Craft
Morgan Craft
MORGAN CRAFT is a musician, improviser, composer, and writer. Currently based in Amsterdam, Craft's compositions dialogue with the role of the performer in the interpretation and realization of improvised concert works. He founded Circle Of Light Recordings in 2001. He has played with Butch Morris, Talib Kweli, Pete Cosey, Ikue Mori, Meshell Ndegeocello, Anton Fig, Beans, Muzz Skillings, Greg Osby, Rhodri Davies, Johnny Kemp, Marc Ribot, Christian Marclay, Simon H. Fell, Nona Hendryx, Carl Hancock Rux, Daniel Carter, Vernon Reid and Greg Tate. He has released 13 solo albums as well as numerous essays and articles.
Search for other works by this author on:
Zachary James Watkins
As a composer and founding member of experimental music ensemble Black Spirituals, Oakland-based ZACHARY WATKINS crafts work in pursuit of psychedelic experience, where sonic and compositional focal points are self-guided by the listener and acoustic phenomenon is at the center of the narrative. Zachary has received commissions from Kronos Quartet, Cornish College of The Arts, The Microscores Project, the Beam Foundation, Somnubutone Radio Series free103point9 .org, sfsound and the Seattle Chamber Players. Zachary releases music on the labels Sige, Cassauna, Confront (U.K.), The Tapeworm and Touch (U.K.). Novembre Magazine (Germany), ITCH (South Africa), Walrus Press and the New York Miniature Ensemble have published his writings and scores. Zachary has been an artist in residence at the Espy Foundation, Djerassi Resident Artists Program and the Headlands Center for the Arts.
Davia Spain
DAVIA SPAIN is an electronic, free jazz and blues artist. Greatly influenced by her background in chamber music, Spain strives to blend the new with the old. Steeped in Afro-futurist traditions of nonlinear time, Spain seeks to reimagine the past, make predictions of the future and pull possible outcomes into the present through her music. While she is grateful for a traditional foundation in classical voice, dance and acting training she also values the room for experimentation afforded her in California's underground performance art and club scene. Recently she has shown work at Berkeley Art Museum, REDCAT, The Regent (LA) and The Broad Museum, where she played music from her debut album, Dawning. A forthcoming visual work that accompanies her music will be available soon.
Raven Chacon
Originally from the Navajo Nation, RAVEN CHACON is a composer of chamber music, a performer of experimental noise music and an installation artist. Chacon's work explores sounds of acoustic handmade instruments overdriven through electric systems. As an educator, Chacon has served as composerin- residence for the Native American Composer Apprentice Project, teaching string quartet composition to hundreds of American Indian high school students living on reservations in the Southwest U.S. His work has been presented at the Whitney Biennial, documenta 14, REDCAT, the Kennedy Center and the San Francisco Electronic Music Festival.
Leroy F. Moore, Jr.
JKLM is a collaborative poetry/hip hop/electronic music project with words by Leroy F. Moore Jr. aka The Black Kripple and music by Juba Kalamka aka Joe Louis Milk.Born in 1967 with cerebral palsy in New York City, LEROY F. MOORE JR. was blessed to have a conscious, activist father and mother who instilled a strong sense of identity as a Black and disabled youngster. Moore is founder of the Krip-Hop Nation (a movement that addresses ableism, or discrimination against disabled artists, especially Black musicians marginalized because of racism AND ableism internationally) and the cofounder of Sins Invalid. Moore is an activist, writer, poet, rapper, feminist and radio programmer. Moore wrote for I.D.E.A.L. Magazine, and since the 1990s, has written the column “Illin-N-Chillin” for POOR Magazine.
Juba Kalamka
JKLM is a collaborative poetry/hip hop/electronic music project with words by Leroy F. Moore Jr. aka The Black Kripple and music by Juba Kalamka aka Joe Louis Milk.Although his recording career began in 1988, bisexual artist/activist JUBA KALAMKA is most recognized for his more recent work with queer POC performance troupes Sins Invalid and Mangos with Chili, as a member of “homohop” group Rainbow Flava, cofounder/producer of Deep Dickollective (D/DC) and his development of the microlabel Sugartruck Recordings. Kalamka's personal work centers on intersectional dialogues on race, identity, gender, disability, sexuality and class in popular media. He received a 2005 Creating Change Award from the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force (NGLTF) for his activist work in the queer music community.
Ava Mendoza
Web: www.avamendozamusic.com.
AVA MENDOZA is a Brooklyn-based guitarist, singer, songwriter and composer. Born in 1983, she started performing her own music, and as a sidewoman and collaborator in many different projects, as soon as she was legally allowed into venues. As a guitarist, Mendoza has received acclaim for her technique and viscerality. Her most ongoing work is as leader of art rock band Unnatural Ways and as a solo performer of her own music and works by contemporary composers. In any context she is committed to bringing expressivity, energy and a wide sonic range to the music. Mendoza has toured throughout the U.S. and Europe and has recorded/performed with musicians including Carla Bozulich, Malcolm Mooney (CAN), Steve Shelley, Mike Watt, Adele Bertei, Mick Barr, William Hooker, Nels Cline, Matana Roberts, John Zorn, Jamaaladeen Tacuma, Fred Frith, William Parker, Hamid Drake, Object Collection (Travis Just), ROVA, Negativland, the Violent Femmes and members of Caroliner. She has received composition commissions from film distributor Kino Lorber, new music duo The Living Earth Show and John Zorn's Stone Commissioning Series at National Sawdust. Recordings are available on labels Tzadik, Astral Spirits, Weird Forest, Clean Feed, Resipiscent and New Atlantis.
Star Amerasu
AH-MER-AH-SU is the music project of interdisciplinary artist Star Amerasu, whose music and art are based upon her experiences living loud and proud as a queer, Black, trans woman. Her early work was influenced primarily by folk and choral music, and she effortlessly blends her voice with synths, looped vocals and intricate live electronic percussion. She has performed in Europe, Australia and North America and her recordings—2016’s Eclipsing, 2017’s Rebecca and 2018’s Star—have garnered widespread critical acclaim.
Sharmi Basu
Web: www.sharmi.info.
Born and currently based in Oakland, CA, SHARMI BASU is a South Asian woman of color creating experimental music as a means of decolonizing musical language. She attempts to catalyze a political yet ethereal aesthetic by combining her anticolonial and antiimperialist politics with a commitment to spirituality within the arts. In addition to her compositions and solo electronic performances, Basu founded and hosts MARA, a performance and improvisation collective centered around queer, trans and/or womyn of color and is building The Universe Is Lit: Bay Area Black and Brown Punk Festival.
Chella Coleman
YGSLRHSTFUT is a Los Angeles–based trans black GNC punk band seeking to not get famous but be part of a revolution in a punk rock way. For what the name means, ask them. The ensemble consists of Chella Coleman (vocals/bass), Maya Sage (bass/vocals) and Mateas (drums).
Maya Sage
YGSLRHSTFUT is a Los Angeles–based trans black GNC punk band seeking to not get famous but be part of a revolution in a punk rock way. For what the name means, ask them. The ensemble consists of Chella Coleman (vocals/bass), Maya Sage (bass/vocals) and Mateas (drums).
Mateas
YGSLRHSTFUT is a Los Angeles–based trans black GNC punk band seeking to not get famous but be part of a revolution in a punk rock way. For what the name means, ask them. The ensemble consists of Chella Coleman (vocals/bass), Maya Sage (bass/vocals) and Mateas (drums).
Morgan Craft
MORGAN CRAFT is a musician, improviser, composer, and writer. Currently based in Amsterdam, Craft's compositions dialogue with the role of the performer in the interpretation and realization of improvised concert works. He founded Circle Of Light Recordings in 2001. He has played with Butch Morris, Talib Kweli, Pete Cosey, Ikue Mori, Meshell Ndegeocello, Anton Fig, Beans, Muzz Skillings, Greg Osby, Rhodri Davies, Johnny Kemp, Marc Ribot, Christian Marclay, Simon H. Fell, Nona Hendryx, Carl Hancock Rux, Daniel Carter, Vernon Reid and Greg Tate. He has released 13 solo albums as well as numerous essays and articles.
Online ISSN: 1531-4812
Print ISSN: 0961-1215
©2020 ISAST
2020
ISAST
Leonardo Music Journal (2020) 30: 121–124.
Citation
Zachary James Watkins, Davia Spain, Raven Chacon, Leroy F. Moore, Juba Kalamka, Ava Mendoza, Star Amerasu, Sharmi Basu, Chella Coleman, Maya Sage, Mateas, Morgan Craft; Notes on LMJ30 audio tracks. Leonardo Music Journal 2020; 30 121–124. doi: https://doi.org/10.1162/lmj_a_01106
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