Kazemde George Universal

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Name: Kazemde George
City/Place: Brooklyn, NY
Country: United States
Hometown: Berkeley, California

Current News

What's Up? "What is most successful about I Insist is an insistence of music as not simply technical proficiency, but as a spiritual plane to consider what is at stake in imagining and remembering who we are."
★★★★
— Joshua Meyers, Downbeat

“For the young, Brooklyn-based tenor saxophonist Kazemde George, to insist doesn’t necessarily mean raising the volume or pushing idiosyncrasy … what George insists upon most — from himself and his bandmates — is clarity: Melody is never sacrificed to flair or crossfire, even as the momentum builds.”
— Giovanni Russonello, New York Times

"This is a strong debut from a musician and composer who has a lot of potential."
— Mike Shanley, JazzTimes

"Each piece deserves attention as does the playing of these musicians, all new to me, temperate in style here but each with an undertow of intriguing creativity."
— Peter Vacher, Jazzwise

“Kazemde George is a tenor saxophonist, composer and scholar presently poised for a breakthrough with the jazz public … His soulful new debut … combines an easy grasp of melody and a swinging foundation with some jostling ideas about cultural identity in the Black diaspora.”
— Nate Chinen, WBGO, Take Five

"An extremely poised and assertive statement by the Brooklyn-based saxophonist ... an exceptionally well-crafted collection of contemporary jazz compositions and performances."
— Textura

"What a pleasant surprise that the artist who also gives tribute to the wide ranging likes of John Coltrane and Joao Gilberto creates an album that is filled with a Lester Young-toned tenor and sublime modern sounding soulful themes. ... This is an album that is both timeless and modern."
— George W. Harris, Jazz Weekly

“George holds everything together through the consistency of his writing, the melodic flair of his improvisation, and his ability to execute a vision through a core group of musicians. An auspicious debut, I Insist deftly shifts George from the status of valued sideperson to confident leader.”
— Michael Toland, The Big Takeover

"The music, often swinging even as it smolders, conveys something about George’s bond with the jazz tradition, as well as his firsthand research in Afro-Cuban traditions. And it introduces a smart young band with Sami Stevens on vocals, Isaac Wilson on piano and Wurlitzer, Tyrone Allen II on bass and Adam Arruda on drums.”
— Nate Chinen, WBGO Fall Preview

"Beautifully engineered, these mellow pieces form a crystal clear pond of dive-right-in ambiance. George is definitely a sax player to watch, as his terrific soloing attests, and vocalist Sami Stevens is a treasure, scatting and crooning her way around most elegantly and with an original, unstressed sound. I’d recommend this to anyone." A+
— Hippo Press

“Closely shadowing one another, voice, like-an-instrument, and tenor saxophone in a winning togetherness is the fresh and piquant combination that you hear on the lightly swinging ‘Things Line Up’ … The fine arrangement with its serpentine bebop-esque melody trajectory opens into a George solo timbrally akin to the style of Joshua Redman backed by a piano trio rhythm section.”
★★★★
— Stephen Graham, Marlbank.net

“The band acts as one cohesive unit throughout the album, and it is no surprise that the pieces presented have been performed live time and time again prior to entering the studio. Enjoy I Insist now and expect to hear more great things in the future from George!”
— Sam Dickinson, The WholeNote

All the way, we get brilliant tenor saxophone playing from Kazemde George, and he has brought with him musicians who know the history of jazz, and who help to make this a brilliant record, which helps to inherit the great masters from the 60's on into the future.
— Jan Granlie, Salt Peanuts

“ an incredibly rock-solid record, and one that will definitely put the name of tenorist Kazemde George on the map!”
— Dusty Groove

Life & Work

Bio: Kazemde George is an African American jazz saxophonist, composer, and beat-maker based in Brooklyn who exhibits a gift for streamlined, emotionally direct melodies, articulated with a warm tone and a certain guiding restraint. Raised by Caribbean parents in Berkeley, California, Kaz was exposed to a wide range of musical styles, and has been playing Piano, Saxophone, and Percussion from an early age.

During high school, Kazemde developed a passion for Jazz while studying the oral tradition under the tutelage of Khalil Shaheed, Charles McNeal and Susan Muscarella. He also began to make electronic music under the moniker “KG,B”. KG,B’s beats are inspired by Hip-Hop producers such as J Dilla, Madlib, and Flying Lotus, who he sees as modern the counterparts of early Jazz innovators.

In 2007, Kazemde moved to Boston to attend school, and in 2014, Kazemde completed the Harvard/New England Conservatory (NEC) Joint program, receiving his Bachelors in Neurobiology (Harvard) and his Masters in Jazz Composition (NEC). At NEC, Kazemde studied privately with Jerry Bergonzi, Cecil McBee, Donny McCaslin, John McNeil, Jason Moran, Danilo Pérez, and Miguel Zenón. In 2012, he received Harvard’s George Peabody Gardener Fellowship to study traditional music in La Habana, Cuba for ten months. Through his travels, Kaz has expanded his focus from Hip-Hop and Jazz to the full spectrum of musical styles which blossomed from the African Diaspora, including Afro-Cuban, Afro-Caribbean, Afro-Brazilian, and African-American traditions. As he sees it, the study of these musical styles serves as a way to regain cultural histories that where lost through the processes of African-American Slavery.

Today, his focus is aligned towards music, but Kazemde is also a biologist at heart, and his quest to understand this wide breadth of styles is driven by an analytical mind with a scientific approach.

In October 2021, Kazemde released his debut album, I Insist, on Greenleaf Music by Dave Douglas.

Kazemde has performed with Solange Knowles and Saint Heron, David Murray, Román Filiú, and Jason Moran, at venues and festivals such as, Dizzy's Coca-Cola Club, Zinc Bar, The Jazz Gallery, Irving Plaza, Yoshi's, Black Cat, Cafe Stritch, The David Rubinstein Atrium at Lincoln Center, Panama Jazz Festival, Made In America Festival, AfroPunk, and Panorama NYC Music Festival

My Mission
My goal is to establish my own style as a creative innovator of African-American music, and to help in elevating communities of underprivileged youth through music and other cultural education. I will travel and immerse myself in American communities heavily influenced by African musical traditions in order to study, teach, and perform. I also hope to have the opportunity to explore places like Brazil, The Caribbean, West Africa, and the American South as part of my journey.