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G. F. Mlely

G. F. Mlely, original thinker in music and the musical...

About Me

Francis Mlely is an internationally acclaimed Jazz pianist and composer, as well as a lyricist, literary and musical theatre auter, specializing in Jazz and its aesthetic expansion. Besides performing as a jazz pianist, he composes songs and instrumental pieces meant for musical theater, for which he also creates the story, writes the book, lyrics, and dialogue. His work is, in its totality, like no other of its kind.

PROFILE: Francis has been featured artist and composer in concert, festival, and club venues throughout Europe and the United States.

His songs and compositions have been produced and recorded by artists diverse from one another as Freddie Hubbard, George Harrison, (guitarist) John Tesh, Phil Perry, The Cunninghams, the latter on a Grammy-nominated album.

He is a creator of avant-garde multidisciplinary works. His choral compositions have premiered in Hawai'i and in Los Angeles. His one-act musical theater piece ran 4 months onstage in San Francisco, and “Jazz Piano,” his video series, ran over 2 years on Olelo Television of Hawai'i.

Author of essays and commentaries on the art, field, and politics of jazz and songwriting, of a book, “New Music And The American Christian - A Critical Look,” and of “The 8-Tone Quarto-Modes Concept” (www.jazcraft.net/8tone.html), a theoretical work which introduces his chord symbol “oM” and name he proves out as the “diminished major.”

Also, see journalist Nathan Gold's article, “G. F. Mlely, A Trail Of Endurance” (http://jazzusa.com/default.cfm?FILE=http://jazzusa.com/stories/gfmlely.asp)

Schooling includes classical composition and piano at Danmark Musikskole in Copenhagen, Denmark; orchestration and composition at Sherman School of Music in Los Angeles; political science and psychology at Rutgers University in New Jersey; and jazz piano and improvisation in private studies with Lennie Tristano in New York.

He has taught courses in theory, improvisation, and songwriting in San Francisco (S.F. Community Music Center), Los Angeles, Honolulu (Pacific Songwriters Workshop), organized student jazz ensembles in New York City (Neighborhood House), Honolulu (Holy Family Catholic Academy), and in Honolulu started the nation's first accredited secondary-school Songwriting Workshop (Kaimuki High School). See Susan Essoyen's article, (http://starbulletin.com/2003/03/23/news/story4.html)

Memberships, prior and current, include the National Association of Recording Arts and Sciences, the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, the Songwriters Guild of America, the Music Teachers Association of California, and the American Federation of Musicians.

Between travels, G. F. Mlely resides in Long Beach, CA with his wife, who is a choreographer and kumu hula, where he continues to write and record.