Alix Brown
This Brazilian cultural matrix positions Alix Brown globally...
Curation
CURATION
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from this page:
by Matrix
The Integrated Global Creative Economy
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Name:
Alix Brown
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City/Place:
NY/LA
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Country:
United States
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Hometown:
Atlanta, Georgia
Life & Work
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Bio:
Alix Brown is a Music Director, Supervisor, Curator, DJ and Musician living between LA & NYC.
Born and raised in Atlanta, Georgia, Alix forged her path at a young age collecting records, playing bass in bands and booking live shows while spending time scouring the shelves at local movie rental stores before moving to Memphis, Tennessee. Her time there was spent recording music, touring internationally and running cult famed label Shattered Records.
Alix’s evolution eventually took her to New York City, where her career as a DJ began to take off, mixing soundscapes for designers like Chanel, Fendi, Valentino and playing alongside legends like Mark Ronson, James Murphy, Paris Hilton, Jellybean Benitez and Keb Darge.
While DJing at Soho Grand, she caught the eye (and ear) of President of GrandLife Hotels, Tony Fant. He recognized not only Alix’s DJ talent but also her diversity of music taste, and offered her a job as the Music Director of Soho Grand and the Roxy Hotel New York - which included creating playlists for the many spaces, booking DJs and live performances, overseeing the social media, marketing and keeping up the brand awareness for over 11 years.
Her wide-reaching knowledge of music and film led her toward working in Music Supervision. It was a natural evolution; her early days of working in record stores and digging internationally have amassed her with an enviable record collection and a sonic understanding shared by few.
Her days are spent searching for new sounds that may be used for film soundtracks or to add to the sonically branded playlists she makes for luxury brands like Longchamp, hotels like Goldeneye in Jamaica and restaurants like Keith McNally's Pastis in Miami. She takes a personal approach to each project, considering the space and audience to elevate each experience.
With her carefully developed taste for sound and style, it’s no wonder that she now wields an encyclopedic knowledge of music and film history.
More
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Quotes, Notes & Etc.
FILM
Music Supervision is the melding of the aesthetic between moving image and sound. It can create underlying emotion and shape tonality. This fusion in it's greatest form, unifies a Director's vision with a Musician's artistry, allowing audiences a window into the heart and soul of the story.
SCOPE OF WORK:
Script consultation and project approach
Outline music budget, including licensed songs, original song creation and on camera cues
Facilitate hiring of additional music team members including composer, music editor & music producer
Create and update of cue sheet
Oversee original song production from sourcing talent and artist relations to delivery of final master recordings
Negotiation, clearance and licensing of songs
DJ CLIENTS
Chanel, Fendi, Valentino, Gucci Beauty, Longchamp, Giorgio Armani, Bally, Cartier, Bergdorf Goodman, CFDA, Alber Elbaz, Guess, Maje, Adriano Goldschmied, Levi's, Alice + Olivia, RVCA, Alexa Chung + Maje, Kendra Scott, Cole Haan, BCBG, Surfrider Foundation, Playboy, Jill Stuart, Ralph Lauren, What Goes Around Comes Around, Andre Saraiva, American Express, Hudson Yards + James Murphy, Samsung, St. Germain, Campari, Ilegal Mezcal, Juicy Couture, Debbie Harry & Blondie, Helmut Lang, Pamela Love, Mara Hoffman, Eddie Borgo x Target, Pam Hogg, Sony Music + Beatles, Eden Fine Art Gallery NYC & Miami, The Andy Warhol Foundation, The Whitney Museum, Aperture Foundation, Vogue Magazine, Vanity Fair, Flaunt Magazine, Paper Magazine, Interview Magazine, BlackBook Magazine, Miami Swim Week, Art Basel Miami, Lost Village Festival, Petit Bain, Le Bain Douche, La Mano, Hotel Grand Amour, Soho Grand Hotel, The Roxy Hotel, The Moxy Hotel, Surf Lodge, Don Hills, Kenmare, Paul’s Baby Grand, Paul’s Casablanca, The Standard Hotels, and No Vacancy.
CURATION
Music curation is all about enhancing an experience, whether it's a hotel, restaurant, retail store or even a dinner party.
Song selection is an art form that requires good taste as well as musical knowledge.
Next to design, music can help elevate a space to another level.
SOHO GRAND HOTEL
Soho Grand is Manhattan's first luxury boutique hotel which offers an authentic NYC experience in the heart of downtown. When creating Morning, Afternoon, Brunch, Dinner and Late Night playlists for the space, Alix took this into consideration, pulling tracks from her favorite classic NY artists and mixing in some Disco and New Indie to give a more modern feel.
THE ROXY HOTEL NYC
When the TriBeCa Grand was rebranded as The Roxy Hotel, Alix was approached to create the playlists for the spaces, as well as curate the in room vinyl record program.
The Roxy has mid-century modern / deco feel with a stage that features some of downtown's most talented jazz trained musicians. It seemed only appropriate to feature Soul deep cuts, 60's and 70's classics, under the radar B-sides, and rare funk.
GOLDENEYE JAMAICA
Alix collaborated with famed luxury resort, GoldenEye in Jamaica, owned by Island Records founder Chris Blackwell. She was asked to create three playlists, one for Button Beach,
which featured classic and deep cut reggae daytime jams. Second, for Sunset Cocktails vibe which has a mix of dub and Island Records favorites. Third, a Rum Drinkin' playlist featuring all of the above just up'd the RPMs!
ROCHAMBEAU BOSTON
Rochambeau in Boston's Back Bay neighborhood is a French Brasserie that spans two floors, with a full service cafe attached. When asked to curate playlists for the restaurant's Morning, Afternoon, Brunch, Dinner and Late Night service, Alix put together a mix of classic and modern French songs, 60 through 80's classic pop and rock tracks, mixed with new hip hop and dance.
SOHO DINER
Soho Diner is a modern American diner that pays homage to the neighborhood’s rich history by blending the simple pleasures of a New York five & dime with the spirit of the city’s current dining scene. When approached to curate playlists as well as the 45rpm jukebox, Alix felt the most appropriate tunes would be from bands that got their start in NYC like Liquid Liquid, Grandmaster Flash, and Patti Smith mixed in with other tunes that fit the vibe.
KEITH MCNALLY
In a recent collaboration, Alix teamed up with renowned restaurateur Keith McNally to craft playlists for the recently launched Pastis in Miami, the established Morandi in NYC, and the upcoming Minetta Tavern in Washington D.C. Below, you can listen to the playlist specifically created for Late Night at Pastis Miami, featuring a captivating fusion of French, Latin, jazz, reggae, soul, and classic tunes that blend seamlessly in perfect harmony.
Clips (more may be added)
There are certain countries, the names of which fire the popular imagination. Brazil is one of them; an amalgam of primitive and sophisticated, jungle and elegance, luscious jazz harmonics — there’s no other place like it in the world. And while Rio de Janeiro, or its fame anyway, tends toward the sophisticated end of the spectrum, Bahia bends toward the atavistic…
It’s like a trick of the mind’s light (I suppose), but standing on beach or escarpment in Salvador and looking out across the Baía de Todos os Santos to the great Recôncavo, and mindful of what happened there (and here; the Bahian Recôncavo was final port-of-call for more enslaved human beings than any other place throughout the entirety of mankind’s existence on this planet, and in the past it extended into what is now urban Salvador), one must be led to the inevitable conclusion that one is in a place unique to history, and to the present:
Brazil absorbed over ten times the number of enslaved Africans taken to the United States of America, and is a repository of African deities (and their music) now largely forgotten in their lands of origin.
Brazil was a refuge (of sorts) for Sephardim fleeing an Inquisition which followed them across the Atlantic (that unofficial symbol of Brazil’s national music — the pandeiro — was almost certainly brought to Brazil by these people).
Across the parched savannas of the interior of Brazil’s culturally fecund nordeste/northeast (where wizard Hermeto Pascoal was born in Lagoa da Canoa — Lagoon of the Canoe — and raised in Olho d’Águia — Eye of the Eagle), much of Brazil’s aboriginal population was absorbed into a caboclo/quilombola culture punctuated by the Star of David.
Three cultures — from three continents — running for their lives, their confluence forming an unprecedented fourth. Pandeirista on the roof.
That's where this Matrix begins:
Wolfram MathWorld
The idea is simple, powerful, and egalitarian: To propagate for them, the Matrix must propagate for all. Most in the world are within six degrees of us. The concept of a "small world" network (see Wolfram above) applies here, placing artists from the Recôncavo and the sertão, from Salvador... from Brooklyn, Berlin and Mombassa... musicians, writers, filmmakers... clicks (recommendations) away from their peers all over the planet.
This Integrated Global Creative Economy (we invented the concept) uncoils from Brazil's sprawling Indigenous, African, Sephardic and then Ashkenazic, Arabic, European, Asian cultural matrix... expanding like the canopy of a rainforest tree rooted in Bahia, branches spreading to embrace the entire world...
Recent Visitors Map
Great culture is great power.
And in a small world great things are possible.
Alicia Svigals
"Thanks, this is a brilliant idea!!"
—Alicia Svigals (NEW YORK CITY): Apotheosis of klezmer violinists
"Dear Sparrow: I am thrilled to receive your email! Thank you for including me in this wonderful matrix."
—Susan Rogers (BOSTON): Director of the Berklee Music Perception and Cognition Laboratory ... Former personal recording engineer for Prince; "Purple Rain", "Sign o' the Times", "Around the World in a Day"
"Dear Sparrow, Many thanks for this – I am touched!"
—Julian Lloyd Webber (LONDON): Premier cellist in UK; brother of Andrew (Evita, Jesus Christ Superstar, Cats, Phantom of the Opera...)
"This is super impressive work ! Congratulations ! Thanks for including me :)))"
—Clarice Assad (RIO DE JANEIRO/CHICAGO): Pianist and composer with works performed by Yo Yo Ma and orchestras around the world
"We appreciate you including Kamasi in the matrix, Sparrow."
—Banch Abegaze (LOS ANGELES): manager, Kamasi Washington
"Thanks! It looks great!....I didn't write 'Cantaloupe Island' though...Herbie Hancock did! Great Page though, well done! best, Randy"
"Very nice! Thank you for this. Warmest regards and wishing much success for the project! Matt"
—Son of Jimmy Garrison (bass for John Coltrane, Bill Evans...); plays with Herbie Hancock and other greats...
I opened the shop in Salvador, Bahia in 2005 in order to create an outlet to the wider world for magnificent Brazilian musicians.
David Dye & Kim Junod for NPR found us (above), and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (he's a huge jazz fan), David Byrne, Oscar Castro-Neves... Spike Lee walked past the place while I was sitting on the stoop across the street drinking beer and listening to samba from the speaker in the window...
But we weren't exactly easy for the world-at-large to get to. So in order to extend the place's ethos I transformed the site associated with it into a network wherein Brazilian musicians I knew would recommend other Brazilian musicians, who would recommend others...
And as I anticipated, the chalky hand of God-as-mathematician intervened: In human society — per the small-world phenomenon — most of the billions of us on earth are within some 6 or fewer degrees of each other. Likewise, within a network of interlinked artists as I've described above, most of these artists will in the same manner be at most a handful of steps away from each other.
So then, all that's necessary to put the Brazilians within possible purview of the wide wide world is to include them among a wide wide range of artists around that world.
If, for example, Quincy Jones is inside the matrix, then anybody on his page — whether they be accessing from a campus in L.A., a pub in Dublin, a shebeen in Cape Town, a tent in Mongolia — will be close, transitable steps away from Raymundo Sodré, even if they know nothing of Brazil and are unaware that Sodré sings/dances upon this planet. Sodré, having been knocked from the perch of fame and ground into anonymity by Brazil's dictatorship, has now the alternative of access to the world-at-large via recourse to the vast potential of network theory.
...to the degree that other artists et al — writers, researchers, filmmakers, painters, choreographers...everywhere — do also. Artificial intelligence not required. Real intelligence, yes.
Years ago in NYC (I've lived here in Brazil for 32 years now) I "rescued" unpaid royalties (performance & mechanical) for artists/composers including Barbra Streisand, Aretha Franklin, Mongo Santamaria, Jim Hall, Clement "Coxsone" Dodd (for his rights in Bob Marley compositions; Clement was Bob's first producer), Led Zeppelin, Ray Barretto, Philip Glass and many others. Aretha called me out of the blue vis-à-vis money owed by Atlantic Records. Allen Klein (managed The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Ray Charles) called about money due the estate of Sam Cooke. Jerry Ragovoy (Time Is On My Side, Piece of My Heart) called just to see if he had any unpaid money floating around out there (the royalty world was a shark-filled jungle, to mangle metaphors, and I doubt it's changed).
But the pertinent client (and friend) in the present context is Earl "Speedo" Carroll, of The Cadillacs. Earl went from doo-wopping on Harlem streetcorners to chart-topping success to working as a custodian at PS 87 elementary school on the west side of Manhattan. Through all of this he never lost what made him great.
Greatness and fame are too often conflated. The former should be accessible independently of the latter.
Yeah this is Bob's first record contract, made with Clement "Sir Coxsone" Dodd of Studio One and co-signed by his aunt because he was under 21. I took it to Black Rock to argue with CBS' lawyers about the royalties they didn't want to pay (they paid).
Matrix founding creators are behind "one of 10 of the best (radios) around the world", per The Guardian.
Across the creative universe... For another list, reload page.
This list is random, and incomplete. Reload the page for another list.
For a complete list of everybody inside, tap TOTAL below:
TOTAL
Ex Terra Brasilis
Susan Rogers
Julian Lloyd Webber
Clarice Assad
Kamasi Washington
Randy Brecker
Matt Garrison
RÁDIO MATRIX