HENRY JOHN KAISER Biography - Bussiness people and enterpreneurs

 
 

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HENRY JOHN KAISER

Widely recognized as one of the most creative and innovative guitarists,               
improvisers, and producers in the fields of rock, jazz and experimental music,         
California-based musician Henry Kaiser is one of the most extensively recorded         
as well, having appeared on more than 140 different albums. A restless                 
collaborator who constantly seeks the most diverse and personally challenging           
contexts for his music, Mr. Kaiser not only produces and contributes to a               
staggering number of recorded projects, he performs frequently throughout the           
USA, Europe and Japan, with several regular groupings as well as solo guitar           
concerts and concerts of freely improvised music with a host of diverse                 
instrumentalists. Evidence of his exceptional musical breadth and versatility           
can be found in a partial list of the extraordinary artists with whom he has           
recorded and/or performed: Herbie Hancock, Richard Thompson, David Lindley, Bob         
Weir, The ROVA Sax Quartet, Elliot Sharp, John "Drumbo" French, Raymond Kane,           
Michael McClure, Bill Laswell, Steve Lacy, Fred Frith, Barbara Higbie, John             
Abercrombie, Leo Smith, moe., Negativland, Michael Stipe, Terry Riley, Jim O'Rourke,   
Ryuichi Sakamoto, Sergei Kuriokhin, Zero, Critters Buggin', Diamanda Galas,             
Sonny Sharrock, Hans Reichel, Chris Cutler, Henry Cow, John Zorn, Andy West,           
David Torn, Bill Frisell, Joey Baron, Davey Williams, Eugene Chadbourne, Evan           
Parker, Sang-Won Park, Material, The Golden Palominos, Victoria Williams, Jin-Hi       
Kim, John Oswald, Glenn Phillips, Toshinori Kondo, John Stevens, Tom Constanten,       
Kiyohiko Senba, Bruce Anderson, Sang-Won Park, Yuji Takahashi, John Medeski,           
Zoogz Rift, Ngoc Lam, Dama Mahaleo, Merl Saunders, Freddie Roulette, Mari Kimura,       
Harvey Mandel, Danny Carnahan, Robin Petrie, Rakoto Frah, Rossy, Alan Senauke,         
John Tchicai, George Lewis, Kazumi Watanabe, Peter Brotzmann, Zero, Bob Bralove,       
Greg Allman, Billy Kreutzman, Jerry Garcia, Miya Masaoka, Miroslav Tadic, Cecil         
Taylor, and Amos Garrett.                                                               
                                                                                       
As one of the "first generation" of American free improvisers, born in Oakland,         
California, on 19 September, 1952, Mr. Kaiser has helped unfetter the guitar           
from the conventions of genre-bound techniques, but his instrumental virtuosity         
and technological breakthroughs are always deployed in the service of deep and         
immediate personal expression. Likewise, he has developed a highly individual,         
inimitable style from an uncommonly varied range of influences. Some of his             
musical sources include traditional blues, East Asian, Classical North Indian           
and Hawaiian music, free jazz, free improvisation, American steel-string concert       
guitar, and 20th century classical, but like any probing artist he also draws           
creatively from other abiding interests, which for Mr. Kaiser include                   
Information Theory, experimental cinema, mathematics, experimental literature           
and SCUBA diving. (He was employed for the last 15 years as a senior instructor         
in Underwater Scientific Research at the University of California at Berkeley.         
Sadly, Berkeley's excellent scientific diving program was terminated in the             
summer of 1996.)                                                                       
                                                                                       
Since taking up the guitar in 1972, Mr. Kaiser has built an ever-mounting               
reputation as one of the foremost musicians of his time. The respect of his             
peers has earned him membership on the advisory board of Guitar Player Magazine,       
and the appreciation of his creativity by the music, film and television               
industries has kept him in command as a composer and producer. He scored the           
weekly television series, Secrets & Mysteries, and has assisted dozens of               
artists from Ali Akbar Khan to Richard Thompson with their recording projects.         
                                                                                       
Guitar players and devoted fans can delve deeper into Mr. Kaiser's instrumental         
and philosophical approaches to music via Eclectic Electric, Exploring New             
Horizons of Guitar and Improvisation a very unusual 97 minute guitar                   
instructional video released by Silver Eagle/Backstage Pass/Music Video Projects.       
                                                                                       
Mr. Kaiser returned from the island of Madagascar in 1991, where he and his             
friend David Lindley recorded 6 CDs for the Shanachie label, in collaboration           
with various Malagasy musicians. The first of these CDs to be released, A WORLD         
OUT OF TIME, HENRY KAISER AND DAVID LINDLEY IN MADAGASCAR, is, perhaps, the most       
successful of all American World Music releases of all time! VOL. 2 of A WORLD         
OUT OF TIME was nominated for a Grammy award. Two more Madagascar releases have         
also been recently produced by Mr. Kaiser in Madagascar and Louisiana. Kaiser &         
Lindley's second project, THE SWEET SUNNY NORTH VOLs. 1 & 2, were recorded in           
Norway and features collaborations with most of Norway's greatest musical               
artists, as well as many surprising "discoveries". Henry and David are planning         
several new series of collaborative recordings that may someday take the duo "on       
the road" to Korea. Richard Thompson and Henry are presently considering               
preparation of a similar type of collaborative project for the Islands of Fiji.         
                                                                                       
Another recent and very successful project is Wadada Leo Smith's and Henry's YO         
MILES!, a tribute to the mid 70's works of Miles Davis. A live version of this         
project will debute on Oct. 21, 1999 at the San Fancisco Jazz Festival.