Results for "vocoder"

Athanas Gounov

Born: April 6, 1967

Athanas N. Gounov, also known as Vocoder Man, is a Bulgarian jazz composer, improvising pianist and bandleader. A philosopher, author and interdisciplinary artist, he has worked across music, writing, visual art and film, with jazz remaining a central thread throughout his creative life.

He emerged on the Bulgarian jazz scene in the late 1980s, founding a trio and later a quartet devoted primarily to original music. He performed at prominent Sofia concert venues, including Bulgaria Chamber Hall and the National Palace of Culture (NDK), and at festivals throughout the country. He also appeared abroad on occasion, including in Austria, France and Germany. During the 1990s, he developed a distinctive harmonic language within the contemporary national jazz landscape, through repertoire built largely around his own compositions. In 1997, he released The End of History, an original album recorded with prominent Bulgarian jazz musicians, including Antoni Donchev, Rumen Toskov and Vassil Parmakov. The album is still remembered within Bulgaria’s jazz community as a representative recording of the period.

Aris Chalin

Born: May 17, 2001

Aris Chalin is an award-winning jazz pianist and keyboardist at Western Michigan University. He has performed with the renowned vocal jazz ensemble "Gold Company" at WMU since 2021. He has performed and played alongside world-class jazz musicians, such as in masterclasses and guest artist vists from Chris Potter, Dave Holland, säje, Christian McBride, Johnaye Kendrick, Jesus Molina, and the Emmet Cohen Trio. Aris is based in Kalamazoo MI, and travels around Michigan to perform in different venues around the area. He has performed at venues such as the NAMM 2023 show, Hill Auditorium, Blue LLama Jazz Club, Cliff Bells, and the North American International Auto Show COBO Center in Detroit. 

Casey Benjamin: EclectRic Expressionism

by Barbara Ina Frenz
March 6, 2019

Casey Benjamin aka Stutzmcgee--all-through New Yorker with Caribbean roots, born in 1978--grew up in the borough of Queens in a musical household. Despite economically rough conditions that his mother, a single parent, heroically managed, he started with piano around six, added the alto saxophone around ten, and the vocoder and talk-box around fifteen. At sixteen, he ...