Kai Narezo

Finished my first solo CD, “Vueltas,” last year. It was a lot of the material I’d been writing over the years of playing dance shows and working with a lot of amazing dancers and singers. I started out old school, studying with Dennis Koster and playing nothing but Sabicas, Montoya and Ricardo for four years while Jose Molina screamed at me at Fazil’s because I could play Solea but not Sevillanas. Then I was lucky enough to play for Antonia Amaya’s (Carmen’s sister) dance classes in Mexico city for few months before moving to Spain. In Spain I studied with some guys you’ve heard of (Miguel Angels Cortés and Enrique Melchor), but the guy who really kicked my ass was Juan Fernandez, a gypsy in Granada. We’d have these four and five hour lessons, and he just made me play Buleria compás until he was happy with it. We did that for about a year. In 1997 I decided to go to music school and wound up at Berklee in Boston, where I was music director for the Ramon de los Reyes Dance Theatre for five years and hung out with a lot of amazing musicians from all over the world. That’s also where I started working with singer Fernando De Malaga. We recorded a CD last year, “Tradición,” and have been to Japan a couple of times and played all over the place. Now I’m in L.A., still playing lots for dance and writing. This being L.A. I just worked on my first movie and I run a little studio called Universal Exports, where I’ve been recording mostly Flamenco but also a little bit of everything. You can check out the CD on iTunes or at www.KaiNarezo.com. I hope you like it.