Kalmia

Annakalmia Clark Traver was born on a warm August afternoon in Providence, Rhode Island. By the age of four she had already mastered the arts of berry-picking, skinny-dipping, fairy-house making, and monarch butterfly observing, and was ready to move on to harmony, melody and rhythm. She began composing, singing, and whistling, and playing the piano, guitar, mandolin, penny whistle and of course, the ever-evasive and mysterious alto saxophone. Kalmia often heard her internal noises the most when she was exploring nature, drawing, speaking other languages, and dumpster diving, so she made sure to do a lot of all four. She listened to Eric Dolphy and Sonny Rollins, Sarah Vaughn and Stevie Wonder, Wagner, Scriabin and The Grateful Dead. At the University of Vermont she entered into the Jazz Studies program and began to get around town, playing with many awesome groups and musicians like Guagua; Soulvation Army; Eric, Amanda and Jeremy of Swale; Toby and Sara-Paule of Oak; The Spielpalast Band; Little Anthony and the Locomotives; Mountain Mojo Authority and many others. She and her partner, trumpeter Alex Toth formed their own twisted jazz fusion ensemble, the Lazybirds and began to play throughout the state and region, subsequently releasing two albums, "Vermont Sky Session" (2006) and "Birdhead" (2007). In January 2007 Kal relocated to Boston, MA, USA in order to join the nationally-beloved reggae group, John Brown's Body, and played with them for the subsequent 2 1/2 years. With JBB Kal toured throughout the US including Hawaii, and got to sit in with awesome acts like the Brazillian Girls, Matisyahu and Mishka to name a few. In the meantime Kal and Alex started Rubblebucket Orchestra, a 10-piece afro-beat inspired all-original euphoric trip-rock menagerie that impressed crowds across the northeast and continues to grow to this day. Kal still works in Boston as a musician, artist and web-designer. Her compositions are inspired by sounds in nature, old-time music, chorales, loud drums, shouting, dancing, and all kinds of tiny, big and ancient beats. Her saxophone playing comes from the alto sprit, quick, mischevious, and dirty at times; but fruity too, searching and emotionally exuberant. I edited my profile with Thomas' Myspace Editor V4.4