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Kam Falk
Kam Falk is a composer from Fort Lauderdale, Florida. He plays bass and keyboards and loves all genres of music, especially jazz.
About Me
Instrumental music of all styles has been Kam Falk's lifelong passion.
His sensibilities as a
composer have been shaped by years of performing abroad and
establishing a rapport
with people and music of diverse cultures. As a child growing up in the
midwestern U.S.,
Kam developed a passion for jazz during the height of the fusion era.
Artists like Jaco
Pastorius and Stanley Clarke were showing the world that bassists
could play an integral
role as both composers and performers, and Kam set out to do the
same.
After years of performing, recording and developing his craft with some
of today's most
respected musicians, such as Elliott Randall (Steely Dan, Doobie
Brothers), Delmar Brown
(Sting, Miles Davis), and Gerry Brown (Stanley Clarke, Stevie Wonder),
Kam delivered
his own brand of jazz with his debut offering entitled NATIVE TONGUE.
Produced with no
compromises over a ten-year span, Native Tongue is a cd with much to
offer - ten songs
with twelve special guests, along with a multimedia enhancement that
includes a full-
length video, liner notes, session photos and weblink to Kam's site.
My Jazz Story
I love jazz because it is an art form that emphasizes both compositional structure and improvisation, and its harmonic language is more sophisticated than those of other genres.
I was first exposed to jazz when the high school jazz band performed in my elementary school's gymnasium.
I met Jeff Lorber at a Ft. Lauderdale jazz club called O'Hara's. I brought a letter he had written me about 20 years prior to our personal acquaintance. The letter was a reply about a cassette I had left with one of his crew after a concert
he had performed at my college, the University of Florida in Gainesville. I had transcribed one of his songs and solicited his honest opinion. The letter was so encouraging and inspirational that I was compelled to let him know what an
incredible impact he had made upon me and my decision to pursue a career in music. He smiled and said, "I still have the word processor I used to write that."
The best show I ever attended was a Weather Report concert in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, that began with Jaco playing drums. Due to a diversion on the way to the concert, I was late in arriving, so I was quite upset about the likelihood of
missing any part of the show. There were two surprises when I arrived—first, the concert hadn't yet started, which gave me a huge sigh of relief. Then the usher unexpectedly guided me and my party to front row center seats. I think my
bass instructor finagled that for me but, to this day, I haven't been sure.
The first jazz record I bought was Weather Report's Heavy Weather.
My advice to new listeners is to pay attention to all styles and approaches to music. Learn and honor history and tradition. Then try to take what you've learned and use it to develop your own unique voice and create a new legacy.
