News: Scoring PBS: American Masters • Roberta Flack Documentary

It’s official- I’m the composer for this documentary which I think you will love. Roberta Flack is a true Diasporic citizen and trailblazer and down low revolutionary.

American Masters: Roberta Flack is a production of La Lutta Productions in association with American Masters Pictures. It is produced, directed and written by Antonino D’Ambrosio, and produced by Mike Tyner, Yrthya Dinzey-Flores and Axel Caballero. George Sampas, Charlie Cohen, and Andrew Herwitz are executive producers, and Michael Kantor serves as executive producer for ‘American Masters.’

As of this post I’m nearly at the finish line with composing, recording and editing. Stay tuned. Read more here: https://themusicuniverse.com/pbs-announces-roberta-flack-american-masters-film/

Summer 2022

Happy belated summer solstice from the Bay Area. I am spending my days parenting, walking the flats and hills of the East Bay, trying to find clean water to my kid to swim, picking stone fruits (plums, loquats, apricots) which are just coming into season, and scoring two big pieces for PBS.

Antibalas continues to bring our new repertoire throughout Europe and North America this summer and we’ll be recording all this for a new album this fall or early next year. There’s a feature on us and our back catalogue in the recent Songlines Magazine June 2022 issue.

Hmm…what else. Reading Joan Didion “Salvador,” B.W. Higman “Jamaican Food”, working on some musical / nature prototypes and a big Fire Wedding collaboration at the end of this month with Earth Lab at UCSC, Annie Sprinkle, Beth Stephens, Guillermo Gomez-Peña, Courtney Desiree Morris and other artists.

Now back to the lab. Love to whoever’s reading this.

My kid and I making music at our friend’s desk.

New Music: Martez "Shattered" (Lamentos Vol. 3)

Over the past two years, I’ve continued a practice of sonic mourning rituals in a musical container called LAMENTOS. Here is the latest in the series called “Shattered”, a collection of melancholy, raw and plaintive pieces on woodwinds, piano and other assorted instruments. Recorded February-April 2022 in Oakland, California.

New Music: Toro y Moi “MAHAL”

This new Toro y Moi record just came out. You can hear my saxophones and flutes on the songs “Goes By So Fast” and “Clarity”. You may see me onstage with the group later this year. Fun times!

bone black: a ritual for bell hooks

This polyphonic choral reading happened at SFMoAD on April 13, curated and conducted by my partner Courtney Desiree Morris. I did sound design and live recording, and a bit of bells during the ritual. It was a joy to work with a beautiful team of friends as both part of the performance and the documentation. We are sorting through and editing all the footage. Stay tuned.

New song: Ocote Soul Sounds "Blues for Ukraine"

How to fully express the deep grief in watching the slow motion buildup of aggression, the growing carnage, the racism that seems to emerge even within crises that should unite? Sometimes peace feels like further away than ever. Yet we persist.

New album: Martez "Shadow Work"

The second in a series of works initiated in the beginning of the pandemic to sonify the overwhelming feeling of loss. Let the grief wash over you.

Collab: Sopera de Yemaya with Courtney Desiree Morris

Three short films (and counting) with my favorite person on the planet, Courtney Desiree Morris. I do music and sound design (among other duties) on her ongoing series “Sopera de Yemaya” for the Gallery TBA21 in Madrid. Click the image below to view the series .

New Music: Chris Gabo "Price of Anarchy"

I spent a month of early morning sessions with singer / MC Chris Gabo engineering vocals and adding a sparing amount woodwinds and keyboards. The sessions were a lot of fun and we got to become good friends. He’s a great lyricist and gets into a vast amount of emotional territory and never fails to crack me up. In his other life, he’s an accomplished playwright and screenwriter: you can his work on HBO’s “In Treatment,” “Parasite” and more to come.