September 23, 2015 | By Curtis Killian Latin Grammy-nominated Cuban tenor saxophonist Carlos Averhoff, Jr is a contemporary Afro-Cuban Jazz composer and educator described by All About Jazz as "a dynamic fresh new voice on the saxophone." Born in Havana, the son of legendary saxophonist Carlos Averhoff was classically trained in some of Cuba's best music schools, and after completing extensive academic studies at Berklee and beyond, now holds faculty positions in the Berklee woodwind department ...
Sep 23, 2015•6 min
October 30, 2013 | Adam Renn Olenn Originally from Groningen, Holland, 2010 alumna Femke Weidema met Brandon James in Los Angeles after leaving Berklee. The two quickly discovered that their shared interest in combining Americana and pop music came alive in the haunting, irresistible combination of their blended voices, and Cotton Wine was formed. They wrote their first song on the road and recorded it on Brandon’s iPhone. Several thousand views later, they launched the Cotton Wine "Song A Week"...
Sep 21, 2015•4 min
October 23, 2013 | Rob Hochschild It's been a great year of collaboration between Berklee students and Latin music superstar Alejandro Sanz. Back in February, students recorded a cover version of his hit, "La Música No Se Toca" and produced a stirring video of their version, all with his stamp of approval. For the students involved with the project, it generated a critically important credit for their resumes; after all, Sanz has won 3 Grammy Awards, and 16 Latin Grammys. Sanz will work even clo...
Sep 21, 2015•5 min
October 10, 2013 | Adam Renn Olenn Berklee College of Music, Heavy Rotation Records (HRR), and Berklee Alumni Affairs present the seventh annual CMJ Music Marathon showcase of alumni and student artists on Thursday, October 17, from 8:00 p.m. to 1:00 a.m. at Sullivan Hall in New York City. The show features rock, Americana, funk, reggae, and Latin music by the Hello Strangers, Shun Ng, Sylvana Joyce + the Moment, Sirma (HRR), Red Oblivion (HRR), Miko and the Musket, and Numasbala. The lineup is ...
Sep 21, 2015•4 min
September 15, 2015 | By Curtis Killian Described by the New york times as “forthright and flexible, eager and full-toned,” jazz clarinetist Felix Peikli is one of several Berklee alumni coming to Beantown Jazz fest Saturday, September 26 in Boston. Born in Norway, Peikli has toured the globe with Ralph Peterson Jr’s renowned jazz quartet, the Berklee Global Jazz Institute, and his mentor and Berklee professor Harry Skoler in homage to their shared idol Benny Goodman. This past May Peikli release...
Sep 15, 2015•6 min
Rob Hochschild | October 8, 2013 These are heady times for Chile-born saxophonist Melissa Aldana. She moved to Manhattan after graduating form Berklee in 2009; began making a name for herself in that competitive and overpopulated scene; and just a few weeks ago, achieved something that no woman instrumentalist has ever done: she won the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition. It was the first time a female had ever won first prize in a non-vocal Monk competition since the birth of the aw...
Sep 10, 2015•8 min
Rob Hochschild | September 25, 2013 Students in the Berklee Global Jazz Insitute are among some of the most innovative and talented young musicians on the planet. "We are not just challenging our students to become stronger, more creative, and imaginative musicians. We want to inspire them to become mature, socially aware people who actually make a difference in our world," says BGJI faculty member John Patitucci. On "Tres Arañas," a composition penned by student violinst Alex Hargreaves, the BG...
Sep 10, 2015•6 min
Adam Renn Olenn | September 17, 2013 Belgian bassist Sebastian Jasinski moved to Paris after graduating from Berklee in 2003 and gigged for several years before committing himself to producing his own music. Under the moniker Lenox, Jasinski produced, composed, and played all of the instruments on his Lenox debut, Opening Act, and collaborated with a panoply of vocalists to create a record that is both varied and cohesive. Jasinski’s single "Colorblind" is in rotation on Virgin Radio France, as ...
Sep 10, 2015•3 min
Rob Hochschild | September 10, 2013 As talented a songwriter as student Molly Tuttle is, music fans who have seen her perform live are immediately impressed as well with her virtuosic skill as a flatpicking guitarist and her ability as a clawhammer and fingerstyle banjo player. But for Tuttle fans, it always comes back to the song and the voice. She's been performing on stage since she was 11, and recorded her first album at age 13. She’s appeared at Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, Strawberry Music F...
Sep 10, 2015•5 min
Adam Renn Olenn | September 3, 2013 Before alumnus Lucky Diaz ’97 founded his nationally acclaimed Family Jam Band, he wrote and performed as a singer-songwriter. Emily Herndon of May Stands Still had been covering one of his songs during her live shows, and audience pressure led her to ask Diaz’s blessing to record it. Herndon recorded the song with alumni bassist, producer, and mix engineer Wes Switzer ’08, who then invited other Berklee alumni to add parts. He asked Scott Bauer ’07 to play gu...
Sep 10, 2015•4 min
Rob Hochschild | August 26, 2013 The music of Unlimited Perception is as diverse as the countries its bandmembers hail from, including Turkey, Colombia, and Israel. The musicians met as Berklee students in 2012 and released its debut recording, Awakening, earlier this month. "Unlimited Perception makes fusion music in the best sense of the word—a wide variety of musical ideas and cultures woven into a seamless tapestry of fresh and interesting sounds," says Matthew Nicholl, Berklee's chair of co...
Sep 10, 2015•6 min
Rob Hochschild | August 23, 2013 Moira Lo Bianco '12 is a bona fide triple threat as a composer, arranger, and pianist. Taking an organic approach to transcending genre, Lo Bianco has explored a range of musical traditions, including Indian, Middle Eastern, flamenco, classical, and jazz. Hailing from Italy, Lo Bianco studied at conservatories in her home country before graduating from Berklee last year. Her musical collaborators include Simon Shaheen, Marco Pignataro, Kinan Azmeh, and Arooj Afta...
Sep 10, 2015•6 min
Rob Hochschild | August 15, 2013 The three members of We Avalanche met as Berklee students in the past few years and continue to make Boston their base of operations. Guitarist and vocalist Brady Custis and mandolinist Zach Baldwin-Way first encountered each other while on a Berklee study abroad trip in Athens in 2010. Cellist Eric Law rounded out the band, which cites a wide range of influences, including Hank Williams, Paul Simon, Pete Seeger, Elliott Smith, Sonic Youth, and Joanna Newsom. We ...
Sep 10, 2015•4 min
Adam Renn Olenn | August 5, 2013 After a decade singing opera, Berklee alumna Kim Logan traded the proscenium for the recording studio and the barroom stage. As the fourth generation in family to work in the entertainment industry, Logan is comfortable on both sides of the board and in the board room. Now based in Nashville, this Sarasota native is performing in support of her eponymous LP, writing as a guest blogger for Lockeland Springsteen, and collaborating with filmmaker Trilbee the Hooliga...
Sep 10, 2015•3 min
Rob Hochschild | July 31, 2013 Ali Amr was one of Berklee's first Palestinian students when he enrolled at the college in 2008. Amr—who is from Ramallah, West Bank and now lives in New York—is a vocalist who accompanies himself on a 72-string lap harp, the qanun. He leads the Ali Amr Experiment, a five-piece group that fuses jazz, Latin, and Arabic music. Amr's quintent will play the mainstage of the Newport Jazz Festival on Saturday, August 3, 2013. One of the tunes they'll perform is "Najat 19...
Sep 10, 2015•9 min
Rob Hochschild | April 26, 2013 Jazz pianist Caili O'Doherty—a native of Portland, Oregon—has received national awards for jazz piano performance and composition from DownBeat magazine and an ASCAP Foundation Young Jazz Composer award. She will graduate from Berklee in May 2013 with a degree in performance. As a member of the Berklee Global Jazz Institute (BGJI), O'Doherty has worked closely with jazz greats, such as Danilo Pérez, Joe Lovano, Terri Lyne Carrington, and John Patitucci. She perfor...
Sep 10, 2015•6 min
March 6, 2013 Berklee College of Music, the only college to host an official party at the SXSW Music and Media Conference—one of the music industry’s biggest events—presents its SXSW Party on Friday, March 15, 12:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m., at Brush Square Park (East Tent), 409 East 5th Street (Neches and 5th), Austin, Texas. Berklee’s eighth SXSW party is the college’s first at an outdoor all-ages venue. Also for the first time, the lineup is curated by The Red Room at Cafe 939, Berklee’s all-ages ni...
Sep 10, 2015•6 min
Rob Hochschild | March 6, 2013 Spanish student guitarist Javier G. F. Escudero came to Berklee a few years ago after studying classical music at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Madrid, but the music he's making in Boston is a far cry from what you'd expect to hear at the average conservatory. Escudero and his band provide the leadoff track on the latest disc—Ripple Effect—from Berklee's student-run jazz label, Jazz Revelation Records, and it stands out as a hard-hitting fusion of straight-up ...
Sep 10, 2015•5 min
Adam Renn Olenn | February 25, 2013 Vocalist Farah Siraj’06 grew up in Amman, Jordan and Spain. At Berklee her studies in world music led her to combine her loves of Middle Eastern modes, flamenco singing, and bossa nova grooves into something new and mesmerizing. Sung in Jordanian Arabic over a samba, and supported by Arabian instruments like the qanun and darbuka, “Min Ghairak” is a song of love and longing from a distance with a hope of being reunited. Siraj performs internationally in suppor...
Sep 10, 2015•5 min
Rob Hochschild | February 19, 2013 The three members of Bear Language—alumnus vocalist and guitarist Luca Buccellati, student bassist Archi Denis, and student drummer Ian Barnett—met at Berklee, coming together as a small group that packs a wallop with a big sound, memorable songs, and a powerful live set. Describing its music as "explosive Beatles-driven rock" combined with the "funky dancable grooves of Two Door Cinema Club," Bear Language was listed in Deli magazine's Top 10 New England Artis...
Sep 10, 2015•6 min
Adam Olenn | February 7, 2013 2009 alumna Ivonne Hernandez learned to play violin by ear by the time she was 3. She has released albums both as leader and sideman, and is in high demand as a session player. Cellist Eric Wright distinguished himself as one of the best young cellists in Vermont before also graduating from Berklee in 2009. Hernandez and Wright have joined up with string superstars Karrnnel Sawitsky and Trent Freeman '10 to form the Fretless, a string quartet that plays fiddle tunes...
Sep 10, 2015•6 min
Rob Hochschild | February 1, 2013 After honing his chops as a teenager in the jazz clubs of Philadelphia, alto saxophonist Jaleel Shaw studied at Berklee on a full-tuition scholarship. He graduated with degrees in music education and performance and has orchestrated an impressive and multifaceted career as a bandleader, composer, sideman, and educator. Shaw is a member of the Roy Haynes Quartet and the Mingus Big Band, has performed on a Grammy-nominated album, and released three discs as a band...
Sep 09, 2015•8 min
January 24, 2013 Guitarist and composer Stephane Wrembel ’02 learned to play in the style of Django Reinhardt in the gypsy camps of the French countryside before coming to Berklee. His command of the gypsy-inflected jazz and mastery on the guitar earned him the opportunity to score Woody Allen’s Academy Award-winning film Midnight in Paris. Wrembel recently performed at the Oscars, and is currently touring in support of his fifth album, Origins, which presents a wide range of musical textures an...
Sep 09, 2015•4 min
Rob Hochschild | January 22, 2013 Drummer Wil Tecla and pianist Kevin Clark were first-year students when they met at Berklee during the 2011-12 school year. The two musicians shared an interest in jazz and hip-hop music, and wasted littled time forming a band to explore their interest in composition and playing. They arrived at a band name—English Tom in the Bookstore—whose origin and meaning remains a mystery, at least for now. In addition to Tecla and Clark, the band features saxophonists Der...
Sep 09, 2015•6 min
Adam Olenn | December 20, 2012 2007 alumnus Joe Matzzie is a Los Angeles-based film and television composer, an accomplished classical guitarist, and an aficionado of early music. His band Moat Jumper combines medieval and Renaissance instruments–things like the hurdy gurdy, crumhorn, sackbut, and bladder pipe–with modern recording technology to produce songs with a timeless, esoteric quality. Moat Jumper’s album Christmas at the Renaissance Fair features 14 holiday songs played on arcane instru...
Sep 09, 2015•4 min
December 19, 2012 | Rob Hochschild A widely influential jazz guitarist, alumnus John Scofield is bringing one of his most exciting groups, Überjam, to Berklee to help ring in the new year. Scofield's band will kick off NPR's annual worldwide jazz broadcast of Toast of the Nation, providing one of the highlights of this year's First Night Boston festival. "Ideofunk," a Scofield composition, was recorded live at the 2006 Monterey Jazz Festival, featuring Scofield on electric guitar; Avi Bortnick, ...
Sep 09, 2015•8 min
December 11, 2012 2003 alumna and faculty member Christiane Karam is the champion of world music at Berklee. She directs the Balkan choir, the Middle Eastern Fusion ensemble, and is the founder and director of the annual Berklee Middle Eastern Festival. Her new record, Eastern Tapestries, blends musical vocabularies from India to the Mediterranean with an emphasis on Balkan and Middle Eastern styles. Of her original composition "Balkan Dance," she says, “Being part Armenian and part Lebanese, mu...
Aug 31, 2015•4 min
by Curtis Killian | August 21, 2015 Avers, from Richmond Virginia, offers an ethereal swirl of psychedelic pop, shoegaze and garage rock. Formed with Head and The Heart's Tyler Williams on drums, and James Mason, James Lloyd Hodges, Charlie Glenn, and alumni Alexandra Spalding '09 (Professional Music) and Adrian Olsen '08 (Music Business & Management / MP&E) swapping between bass, guitar, and keyboard. Olsen also serves as producer/engineer, and owns the recording studio Montrose Recordi...
Aug 21, 2015•5 min
Berklee Alumni Advice - Tower of Power Vocalist Ray Greene '96 by Berklee College of Music
Aug 18, 2015•2 min
Berklee Alumni Advice - Violinist Ben Powell '09 by Berklee College of Music
Aug 13, 2015•2 min
