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Darren Kelly

About Me

Darren Kelly: Jazz guitar(hollow-body, main instrument),fretless acoustic hollow-body(arch-top),acoustic guitar(6 string),acoustic guitar(12 string), acoustic mini-guitar, flat-body electric guitar, electric sitar, acoustic bass guitar(fretless), upright bass, fretless/headless- electric Jazz bass guitar(Dbass-I built it in 1987), acoustic piano, marimba, drums, percussion, synthesizers, drum machine(s),——JAZZ & INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC COMPOSER & ARRANGER/PRODUCER—MAKER ,PERFORMER AND RECORDER OF JAZZ AND INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC =Been a musician for = Well, I really don't remember ever not being one: I just trained myself how to do what I'm able to do over a long period of time (SINCE 1970)-I was 4 years old when I started to play the guitar; I picked it up and started playing SHAFT right away. Been playing ever since. The music that I first heared that turned me onto Jazz was the Freddie Hubbard album:FIRST LIGHT(1970/71)-my father had the album.(when me & my brother Greg use to play our little cheep guitars, we didn't just listen to Shaft and Sex Machine, but we did learn how to get down at an early age. I personally enjoyed everything from Bosa Nova to television & movie theme music-(Perry Mason, Beretta, The Good, The Bad & The Ugly,etc... I learned to compose and arrange that kind of music as well and learned to play most of it on the bass and the guitar and drums as well as other instruments, as well as come up with string arrangements to go with the stuff that I was making. I always seemed to be able to memorize things, (I DID A LOT OF THINKING). I made music before I owned an arsennal of instruments. I only had a guitar and a bass at my -disposal- (for lack of better words); AND NO AMP. The music I make is almost all instrumental, but I don't play jazz all the time. Some of it is quite rambunctious and hard BUT WITH ORCHESTRAL ELEMENTS & orchestrations, STRINGS, LOUD DRUM BEATS WITH JAZZ GUITAR SOLOS and SERIOUSLY PROFOUND BASS LINES. (THAT'S WHAT THROWDOWN IS...it's like gumbo(you put only the right ingredients in the pot and then you approach it like you intend to do some work and some damage at the same time). I CREATED THIS STYLE OF MUSIC WHEN I WAS 14 YEARS OLD-(1980)-it's quite organic. This is the kind of stuff I would hear and play in my head all during the days when I was in Junior High and High School...It kept me able to groove during the day. I was creating music in my head and teaching myself how to compose and arrange music that was as good or better than what I was hearing on the radio. That always seemed to be more important to me than learning about George Washington & Valley Forge and the periodic chart of the elements and so on and so on. (I think most musicians didn't like school very much either). I got the word THROWDOWN from an old Parliament song-(Supergroovalisticprostafunkafication)(The Mothership Connection Album 1974)the first song on the album side A . MY LATEST CD's =MARKET-PLACE-(2011) ONE PERSON (2010), BOLD CONSPIRACY 2010, NECESSITY (a double CD) I'll have them available to be purchased on line soon(via this site as well as my own)-as well as putting some stuff on YouTube so just hang tight and let me get every thing together. Darren Kelly-themasterofthrowdown email- [email protected] Google- [email protected]

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My Jazz Story

I can't get it all out at one time My advice to new listeners...Keep Listening!!! .

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