Ken - ProfilesArchive

About Me

Up to this point in my life, I've think I've been the classic wandering soul. In the last ten years I've lived in Illinois, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Florida, Japan, New York City, on cruise ships and tour buses, and presently Washington, DC. After a national tour two years ago with the musical "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes," I decided to return to the relative comfort of the DC area and actually try to stay in one place for a bit... we'll see how long that lasts. For the record, I'm a musician, singer, and songwriter who plays all the saxophones, plus the guitar, flute, clarinet, and piano.I think there are a couple of reasons why I've spent the last ten years traveling: one, I needed to scratch a huge traveling itch. Two, I wanted to recapture the passion for music that I had with my first original band several years ago. In the time since that band, I've racked up all kinds of experience- playing with and opening for some big names (Carlos Santana, Modern English, Ben Vereen, Frankie Avalon, The Platters, Maureen McGovern, 5th Dimension, among others) playing in gospel church, doing national broadway tours (Grease, with Frankie Avalon, and Gentlemen Prefer Blondes) doing time in Las Vegas casino bands, and playing jazz, rock, funk, blues, and anything else you could think of in more bands and situations than I can remember.So now I'm in DC, performing often on both guitar and saxophone. I'm focusing more on my own songs, and on getting them up and out for people to hear.

My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 5/4/2005
Influences: This is by no means a comprehensive list, and is in no particular order: Mike Brecker, Branford Marsalis, Stan Getz, Paul Desmond, Johnny Hodges, Paul Gonsalves, Cannonball Adderley, Sonny Rollins, Kenny Garrett, Clifford Scott, Johnny Griffin, John Coltrane, Pat Metheny, Keith Jarrett, Duke Ellington, Chet Baker, Joni Mitchell, Paul Simon, Ani DiFranco, Ryan Adams, Jeff Buckley, Chris Whitley, Wilco, Prince, Sting, The Police, Led Zeppelin, Steely Dan, U2, The Cure, DMB, Van Morrison, Underworld, Elliot Smith, Tom Waits, Foo Fighters, Steely Dan, Bruce Springsteen, The Beatles, etc...
Sounds Like: Straight No Chaser Solo- at 2004 Montreux Jazz Festival

Add to My Profile | More Videos Afro Blue Solo - at 2004 Montreux Jazz Festival

Add to My Profile | More Videos Nothin' But The Blues - at 2004 Montreux Jazz Festival

Add to My Profile | More Videos
Type of Label: None

My Blog

New Song: Hands Off

I'm frustrated that it's taken me so long to put up new material. It's not that I haven't written- I have several tunes in the works. But a couple have had to be sort of shelved for a bit, as they wer...
Posted by Ken on Fri, 23 May 2008 08:16:00 PST

American Standard

Well here it is, my first blog of 2008. I had no intention of waiting this long to post, but whatever. Life happens. I've got a new song up- it's called "American Standard", and it's my second politic...
Posted by Ken on Sun, 17 Feb 2008 04:22:00 PST

3 New Songs

Morning Light: I'm just a musician, in a dying tradition& I've conquered my calling, but failed in my mission Aurora Borealis: Fall into an aurora borealis dream& you ca...
Posted by Ken on Thu, 02 Aug 2007 11:13:00 PST

My New Best Friend

My new best friend is Japanese- and we're just now, after several months of going out on casual dates and movies, getting to really know each other. The shine is wearing off, our true colors are comin...
Posted by Ken on Mon, 05 Mar 2007 07:20:00 PST

Home For The Weekend - my song featured on PBS!!

I wrote this song about four years ago or so, and didn't really do anything with it. I was living in Los Angeles at the time, and this song makes me think a lot about those years. My friend Larry Marc...
Posted by Ken on Sat, 13 Jan 2007 09:37:00 PST

Breaking the blog ice for 2007

This is my first blog in, like, eight months or so. Where the hell have I been? I don't even know the answer to that question& I finished a tour, and moved back to the DC area. What should hav...
Posted by Ken on Tue, 09 Jan 2007 11:55:00 PST

Smaller Ponds

So I guess I've been off tour for close to a month-and-a-half now. It doesn't seem like that much time, but you know how that goes. In those 1.5 months, I've been to Philadelphia, Baltimore, Charlott...
Posted by Ken on Fri, 16 Jun 2006 11:21:00 PST

New Song!! Wither On The Vine...

I just spent four days in my old haunt, the city of angels, or at least the city of convenient demos... I'm still on this train wreck of a 1920's era musical, and goddamn was it nice to just check the...
Posted by Ken on Sun, 02 Apr 2006 01:26:00 PST

The Simple Life

I'm in the southwest right now, just having visited Taos, New Mexico for the first time. What a very Shangri-la-ish sort of place& the artists and musicians I talked with seemed pretty happy there. Wh...
Posted by Ken on Wed, 08 Mar 2006 11:20:00 PST

Olympics and Music

I love watching the Olympics. I always have. I love the idea that the world's greatest athletes, and the eyes of the rest of the world, converge upon one city in a peaceful, festive spirit, for the be...
Posted by Ken on Sat, 18 Feb 2006 09:56:00 PST