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To all my friends, old and new, I am so excited that you have made it here. This webpage is just part of a new project that I am launching to help share my music with you and everyone else who might appreciate it. For those of you who know me, you know I have been playing music most of my life, and over the past thirty years or so, I have been composing and recording music. But, no one, besides me, has ever heard any of this stuff. So here we are, after years of creating, I find myself with all this work and I have decided to share some of what I have written and we will see where it takes us.
About Me: I am a sax player. I was trained early in classical music, and when I was eight years old, I asked my mother to buy me the record Wendy Carlos’ Well-Tempered Synthesizer, because my third-grade music teacher, Ms Russo, played a copy of Switched on Bach, and it blew my mind. Wendy Carlos was a pioneer in electronic music (wrote the soundtrack for Stanley Kubrick’s Clockwork Orange) and this album really expanded my concept of music and instilled within me, the quest to own my own synthesizer one day (we've come a long way). As I grew older, I had heavy influences from many Blues based rock groups like Humble Pie, prog rock groups like Genesis, ELP, Pink Floyd, etc., Fusion based groups (e.g., Return to Forever), the eclectic Frank Zappa, George Clinton, New Orleans Jazz and more traditional and contemporary blues like Muddy Waters, Buddy Guy and Stevie Ray Vaughan. When composing[, I don’t try to emulate any one of these genres and I am not sure that what I do could be technically affixed to any one of those musical forms, but I am sure that all of what I have listened to, has shaped what I do. Its some blues, some rock, some classical and I guess mostly a fusion of these. Each piece is a sonic slice of where I was emotionally, at the moment I wrote it and captured in that recording.
About the Music: The work, as a collection, is a reflection of my life, its ups and downs, ins and outs. As such, it fuses the music I have listened to and loved: Blues, N.O. jazz, funk, rock, classical and R&B. In some cases the work is about something in particular, in other cases, it is just a feeling that came to life. Some of these are quiet and somber, others more rocking, some busy with multiple voices playing off each other. Rough and grungy, this music carries the thoughts and feelings that I hope to share with you, that you might find in them, interest and enjoyment.
About the Plan: In the coming months and over the next year, I am planning on selecting some of my compositions and posting themon the Kevin Maher Sketchbook website (with links to Youtube, Facebook, etc.). I call it Kevin Maher Sketchbook, because the pieces I am presenting there are sketched-out ideas of what I think the song might be. Each recording was captured with the equipment and technique that I possessed at the time. I see in many of them, alternate arrangements and would love to hear what other people can do with them, or even see them scored for film. Since recording them, I have been able to do some additional production work on them, but they are all original recordings. I hope that with your help, I can move these pieces to the next phase of this project, where I can hook up with some collaborators and finish these properly. The Sketchbook is one step down that path.
About Your Role: I hope you’ll enjoy what I am doing and can join me on this path. If you do, I ask you to please help me by sharing it with anyone you think might be interested. Join the email list below, and I will send you updates as I post each new piece (around monthly) so you can come check them out. If you know someone who might enjoy this, please share it where you can, to help me build some presence and increase the likelihood I will cross paths with the right people and opportunities. If you see other ways to help me move the music along, let me know. The purpose here, is to put my music out there, to engage with people who like this kind of music, and to connect with producers, engineers and musicians who may be interested in helping to bring these works to where they can be.
Just sign up now and I’ll see you next time.
-Peace
-Kevin