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Kenneth Keshavan Maslak, who also performs under the stage name Kenny Millions (born February 26, 1950), is an American jazz multi-instrumentalist, avant-garde performance artist, poet and restaurateur.
Kenneth Keshavan Maslak was born in downtown Detroit, Michigan, United States, to a family of Ukrainian immigrants, [1] who worked at the Ford Motor Company. Kenny began studying music from his grandfather at the age of five on the mandolin, and then started on the clarinet and saxophone at the age of six. He began working professionally from the age of 12. While attending Cass Technical High School, Kenny became a student of Larry Teal and Donald Sinta. After high school Maslak studied music and psychology at the University of Michigan, Eastern Michigan University and North Texas State University, where he studied music composition with Martin Mailman in the late 1960s. Following this he played with Motown touring bands and many other jazz and R&B bands.
After two years living in San Francisco and playing with Charles Moffett, Ray Anderson and David Murray, Maslak moved to New York City in 1972 and participated in the New York loft scene during the 1970s, performing his compositions frequently at Studio Rivbea, Ladies' Fort, Maslak Gallerxy, The Kitchen, Five Spot Cafe, Village Vanguard, CBGB, Museum of Modern Art and at the Charlotte Moorman avant-garde festivals. At The Kitchen he performed with experimental musicians such as Garrett List, Rhys Chatham, Philip Glass, and Laurie Anderson, and associated with John Cage. During that period he developed his conceptual style of musical performance which he refers to as Multiplexmulti. Maslak also invented the Hum Ha Horn, which he recorded with on some of his early LPs.
From 1978 to 1981, Maslak lived in Amsterdam, Netherlands, where he played in avant-garde jazz circles with groups such as Instant Composer's Pool and recorded several titles for Leo Records, Black Saint Records and various other European labels with his trio. He also formed a punk rock-free jazz group, Loved by Millions, in which he began to use the pseudonym Kenny Millions. He returned to New York City in 1981 then first moved to Miami, Florida, in 1987. From 1988 to 1989, he lived in Brussels, Belgium, and in Moscow, The Soviet Union. Moving back to Miami in 1989, he and his wife became restaurateurs and opened up Sushi Blues Cafe and then afterwards Cafe Jamm in Florida, which they retired from in 2011.
Maslak has also collaborated with Hannibal Lokumbe, Abbey Rader, Paul Bley, Jack DeJohnette, Katsuyuki Itakura, Kazutoki Umezu, Sergey Kuryokhin, Sam Rivers, Sunny Murray, Frank Wright, Rashied Ali, Curtis Fuller, Marty Cook, Otomo Yoshihide, Toshinori Kondo, Roland Kirk, Misha Mengelberg, Han Bennink, Peter Brötzmann, Derek Bailey, Roscoe Mitchell, John Tchicai, Dr. John, Mick Taylor, Bobby Keys, The Rolling Stones, Larry Coryell, Stan Getz, Chet Baker, Eddie Kirkland, Thurston Moore, Otto von Schirach, Blowfly, Kool Keith, Tatsuya Nakatani, Weasel Walter, Frank "Rat Bastard" Falestra, and others.
Derek Bailey was an English avant-garde guitarist and an important figure in the free improvisation movement. Bailey abandoned conventional performance techniques found in jazz, exploring atonality, noise, and whatever unusual sounds he could produce with the guitar. Much of his work was released on his own label Incus Records. In addition to solo work, Bailey collaborated frequently with other musicians and recorded with collectives such as Spontaneous Music Ensemble and Company.
Otomo Yoshihide is a Japanese composer and multi-instrumentalist. He plays guitar, turntables, and electronics.
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Misha Mengelberg was a Dutch jazz pianist and composer. A prominent figure in post-WWII European Jazz, Mengelberg is known for his forays into free improvisation, for bringing humor into his music, and as a leading interpreter of songs by fellow pianists Thelonious Monk and Herbie Nichols.
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Henry Kaiser is an American guitarist and composer, known as an idiosyncratic soloist, a sideman, an ethnomusicologist, and a film score composer. Recording and performing prolifically in many styles of music, Kaiser is a fixture on the San Francisco Bay Area music scene. He is considered a member of the "second generation" of American free improvisers. He is married to Canadian artist Brandy Gale. He is the son of Henry J. Kaiser Jr. and the grandson of industrialist Henry J. Kaiser.
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Sergey Anatolyevich Kuryokhin was a Russian composer, pianist, music director, experimental artist, film actor and writer, based in St. Petersburg, Russia. Former keyboardist for the rock band Aquarium.
Roy Sinclair Campbell Jr. was an American trumpeter frequently linked to free jazz, although he also performed rhythm and blues and funk during his career.
Marion Brown was an American jazz alto saxophonist, composer, writer, visual artist, and ethnomusicologist. He was a member of the avant-garde jazz scene in New York City during the 1960s, playing alongside musicians such as John Coltrane, Archie Shepp, and John Tchicai. He performed on Coltrane's landmark 1965 album Ascension. AllMusic reviewer Scott Yanow described him as "one of the brightest and most lyrical voices of the 1960s avant-garde."
Jimi Tenor is a Finnish musician. His artist name is a combination of the first name of his youth idol Jimmy Osmond and the tenor saxophone. His band Jimi Tenor & His Shamans released its first album in 1988, whilst Tenor's first solo album appeared in 1994. "Take Me Baby" became his first hit in 1994. He has released albums on Sähkö Recordings, Warp Records and Kitty-Yo record labels.
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Sergey Fyodorovich Letov, is a Russian musician and composer, known for his improvisational style. He is the founder of the recording label Pentagram. He has collaborated with numerous jazz, avant-garde, modern classical, rock and electronic music artists, including his younger brother Yegor Letov, composer Sergey Kuryokhin, and cult Soviet art punk band DK. Letov has written music for movies and plays, collaborating with Russian, Italian and Austrian theatres, the German non-profit cultural association Goethe-Institut, and the Moscow Institute of Journalism and Literature.
Abbey Rader is an American avant-garde jazz drummer. Throughout his childhood and early career, he worked in New York City where loft jazz, bebop, and free jazz influenced him. He played and taught across Europe in the 1970s and 1980s and then returned to North America to create music that combines free jazz, martial arts, and Buddhism. He has recorded over twenty-five albums as a leader and has worked with Dave Liebman, John Handy, Billy Bang, Dr. L. Subramaniam, and Mal Waldron in a career spanning over four decades.
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