Touring from NYC

The Kazemde George Quintet

Kazemde George, tenor saxophone
Sami Stevens, vocals
Manuel Schmiedel, keyboard
Giulio Xavier Cetto, bass
Adam Arruda, drums

$25 cover charge (cash, please); byob.

catch it in the live stream if you can’t make it to the shop.
be sure to donate to help support the musicians and the venue.
we can’t do this without you!
YouTubeFacebook

Kazemde George, an African American jazz saxophonist, composer and beat-maker raised by Caribbean parents in Berkeley and based in Brooklyn, has a gift for direct melodies articulated with a beautiful tone and “a certain guiding restraint.” He’s touring through with his New York band, with his partner Sami Stevens on vocals and local hero Giulio Cetto on bass! Welcome home, Kaz!

Kaz was exposed to a wide range of musical styles as a youth and began playing piano, saxophone and percussion at an early age. During high school, he developed a passion for jazz while studying the oral tradition under the tutelage of a rich Bay Area tradition of jazz education in the person of Khalil Shaheed, Charles McNeal and Susan Muscarella. He also began to make electronic music under the moniker “KG,B” with beats inspired by J Dilla, Madlib and Flying Lotus. Early on, Kaz committed to the concept that these and their confreres are the modern counterparts of the early jazz innovators. Kaz carries multiple traditions within his concept of the music.

In 2007, Kazemde moved to Boston to attend school, and in 2014, he completed the Harvard/New England Conservatory (NEC) Joint program, receiving his Bachelors in Neurobiology (Harvard) and his Masters in Jazz Composition (NEC). At NEC, Kazemde studied privately with Jerry Bergonzi, Cecil McBee, Donny McCaslin, John McNeil, Jason Moran, Danilo Pérez and Miguel Zenón. In 2012, he received Harvard’s George Peabody Gardener Fellowship to study traditional music in La Habana, Cuba for ten months.

In his travels, Kaz expanded his focus from hip-hop and jazz to the full spectrum of musical styles which blossomed from the African diaspora, including Afro-Cuban, Afro-Caribbean, Afro-Brazilian and African American traditions. As he sees it, the study of these musical styles serves as a way to regain cultural histories lost through slavery.

Today, his focus is aligned towards music, but he’s also a biologist at heart, and his quest to understand this wide breadth of styles is driven by an analytical mind with a scientific approach.

Kazemde has performed with Solange Knowles and Saint Heron, David Murray, Román Filiú and Jason Moran, at venues and festivals such as, Dizzy’s Coca-Cola Club, Zinc Bar, The Bitter End, Irving Plaza, Yoshi’s, Black Cat, Cafe Stritch, The David Rubinstein Atrium at Lincoln Center, Panama Jazz Festival, Made In America Festival, AfroPunk and Panorama NYC Music Festival.

We’re pleased to present Kazemde & Co. at Bird & Beckett!

And we’re overjoyed to welcome Giulio back to the bandstand!

New York and California, always joined at the hip in the face of some very un-hip realities of our times!