NEW ALBUM: Martez "DRONE POEMS" out 2/17/23
The Drone Poems series represents meditations, feelings and moods expressed through expansive breathy textures. These pieces reflect a radical aesthetic departure from the Lamentos series, which primarily features wind instruments (flutes, saxophones) as the primary engines of sound.
I composed and recorded Behind the Veil and the other pieces on Drone Poems over the summer of 2022 and early 2023 in Oakland and Berkeley, California during what we now call fire season, when a barbecue spark, a misguided bottle rocket, or a random lightning strike can set off a chain of ignitions to poison every breath with smoky air for days on end. Fortunately last year wasn’t that bad, but each day nonetheless began with the anxiety and dread and the question: “Is today gonna be the day?”
The daily news: Russia brutalizing Ukraine, government fuckery, ongoing plagues, colonization of space, schools shot up, cops gone wild, catastrophic storms and everyone stressing about money.
Drone Poems is the effort to bear witness to the world while remaining connected to the eternal.
ROBERTA: Theatrical Premiere at DocNYC Fest, Airs on PBS 1/24/2023
“Roberta” a documentary about Roberta Flack, had its theatrical premiere at the DocNYC fest last month and will be airing nationwide on PBS “American Masters” series on 1/24/2023 and subsequently in Europe on ARTE.
I composed and performed the score for the feature-length documentary and am now on to my next scoring project, an episode of PBS Frontline with investigative journalists Daffodil Altan and Cristina Ibarra which will air in the spring of 2023.
Thirteen New Songs with Antibalas
Last November we did ten days of writing workshop in New York, played the songs over the past year live at stages across the world, and gathered at Studio G in Brooklyn to record as many of them as were ready.
These recordings will compose the next two Antibalas albums. Expect to hear the first in a few months, around mid-2023.
New Collabs: Sopera de Yemaya with Courtney Morris: Salt to Catch Ghosts show
New original music up as part of the score of visual artist Courtney Desiree Morris’s “Sopera de Yemaya” film series, currently up at the Slash Gallery in San Francisco as part of the group exhibition “Salt to Catch Ghosts” curated by Ashara Ekundayo. That’s us Courtney and I below, holding our latest work in progress.
Ecosexual Wedding: Playing with Fire
This weekend we got married to fire with Annie Sprinkle, Beth Stephens and a coterie of artists and light workers as part of an Ecosexual ceremony in the Big Basin redwood forest on the banks of the San Lorenzo. This was not on my bingo card two years ago. Or was it?
In addition to live saxophone performances during the wedding, I created and ran the soundscape for Changó and Oyá wedding featuring Courtney Desiree Morris and Dragonfly. More on this later.
News: Scoring PBS: American Masters • Roberta Flack Documentary
It’s official- I’m the composer for this documentary which I think you will love. Roberta Flack is a true Diasporic citizen and trailblazer and down low revolutionary.
American Masters: Roberta Flack is a production of La Lutta Productions in association with American Masters Pictures. It is produced, directed and written by Antonino D’Ambrosio, and produced by Mike Tyner, Yrthya Dinzey-Flores and Axel Caballero. George Sampas, Charlie Cohen, and Andrew Herwitz are executive producers, and Michael Kantor serves as executive producer for ‘American Masters.’
As of this post I’m nearly at the finish line with composing, recording and editing. Stay tuned. Read more here: https://themusicuniverse.com/pbs-announces-roberta-flack-american-masters-film/
Summer 2022
Happy belated summer solstice from the Bay Area. I am spending my days parenting, walking the flats and hills of the East Bay, trying to find clean water to my kid to swim, picking stone fruits (plums, loquats, apricots) which are just coming into season, and scoring two big pieces for PBS.
Antibalas continues to bring our new repertoire throughout Europe and North America this summer and we’ll be recording all this for a new album this fall or early next year. There’s a feature on us and our back catalogue in the recent Songlines Magazine June 2022 issue.
Hmm…what else. Reading Joan Didion “Salvador,” B.W. Higman “Jamaican Food”, working on some musical / nature prototypes and a big Fire Wedding collaboration at the end of this month with Earth Lab at UCSC, Annie Sprinkle, Beth Stephens, Guillermo Gomez-Peña, Courtney Desiree Morris and other artists.
Now back to the lab. Love to whoever’s reading this.
My kid and I making music at our friend’s desk.
New Music: Martez "Shattered" (Lamentos Vol. 3)
Over the past two years, I’ve continued a practice of sonic mourning rituals in a musical container called LAMENTOS. Here is the latest in the series called “Shattered”, a collection of melancholy, raw and plaintive pieces on woodwinds, piano and other assorted instruments. Recorded February-April 2022 in Oakland, California.
New Music: Toro y Moi “MAHAL”
This new Toro y Moi record just came out. You can hear my saxophones and flutes on the songs “Goes By So Fast” and “Clarity”. You may see me onstage with the group later this year. Fun times!