CURATION
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from this page:
by Matrix
Network Node
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Name:
Tarus Mateen
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City/Place:
New York City
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Country:
United States
Life
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Bio:
Tommy Hilfiger. Monica. Betty Carter. Common. Terence Blanchard. Outkast. Goodie Mob. Korn. Bernard Purdie. The Roots. Sly and Robbie. Jason Moran. Speech. Ice Cube. Milt Jackson. George Benson. Joe Clausell. Marc Cary. Sean “Puffy” Combs. Christina Aguilera.
What reads like the front-row seating arrangement at a previous year’s Grammy award show is actually a partial membership list of a very elite group. Members of this group have received international acclaim for their contributions to popular culture and music. They have transformed the way we envision, appreciate, play, and hear music. All superstars in their own right, each member of this group sought the light of Tarus Mateen so that they could shine their brightest.
Tarus’s creative genius and mastery of acoustic bass, electric bass, rhythm guitar, and piano make him one of the most sought-after musician/producers in hip-hop, house, blues, rock, reggae, soul, and straight ahead jazz. He is quite possibly the only musician to receive critical acclaim in all these musical genres at once. Since 1996, there has not been a Top 10 jazz album that didn’t feature Tarus Mateen. This is a phenomenal feat for any artist, certainly for one of only 48 years in age.
Tarus began his journey as a professional musician with his two older brothers Roy (drums) and Radji (sax) who toured Jamaica with their group, opening for Freddie Mc Gregregor, as well as Judy Mowatt, formally with the Itrees backup for Bob Marley. By the time Tarus was a teenager, he was a studio musician for some of California’s early rappers and had toured nationally with his brothers.
In 1985 Tarus moved to Atlanta, Georgia to attend Morehouse College, majoring in Music. Setting the local club circuit on fire, Tarus sharpened his skills on both the upright and electric bass. While playing in Savannah, Georgia, Art Blakey encouraged Tarus to move to New York and join his band at the recommendation of front liners Javon Jackson and Philip Harper.
Upon arriving in New York in 1988, Tarus landed a new artist’s dream gig – a one and a half-year stint with legendary jazz master Betty Carter, with whom he recorded a Grammy nominated CD. Touring in Europe and Asia with Ms. Carter afforded him an incredible experience, as well as life long lessons. The cumbersome size of the upright bass made it impossible to keep one on hand for part of the tour. So, at each stop on the tour, Tarus met a new bass. Ms. Carter responded, “It’s not the bass, dear, it’s the bassist.” At this instant, he recommitted himself to artistic mastery.
It is this early commitment to mastering his craft to which Tarus remains true. Known in the jazz world as a genius on bass, his first instrument was actually the piano. A consummate artist, Tarus isn’t afraid to explore any musical genre. His repertoire says it all. Two of hip hop’s shining southern stars, groups Outkast and Goodie Mob, can credit their critical acclaim, and platinum commercial success with Tarus’s contributions to their albums. He is consistently requested for performances and studio sessions with R&B and hip hop artists including Q-Tip, Lauryn Hill, Ghostface, Ice Cube and The Roots. Tarus was the bassist of choice for Lauryn Hill in 2002 to jumpstart her studio performances.
Tarus has also made his mark on film with trumpeter/composer Terence Blanchard on the scores for Sugar Hill, and for the Spike Lee film Malcolm X, as well as the Grammy nominated Malcolm X Jazz Suite. Tarus’s original score for the upcoming documentary film, King George: a King Runs for President, about George Weah an international soccer star, is gaining pre-screening momentum in Hollywood. As well as having featured music on RFK Goes to South Africa a documentary about Robert F. Kennedy fighting Apartied.
Playing as part of a new generation of jazz crusaders, with award winning artists such as Jason Moran, Nasheet Waits, Marc Cary and Roy Hargrove, Tarus is the world’s bestbassist. There’s no doubt that blowing up the music world would keep even the most talented musician busy.
Tarus performs and records most regularly with pianist Jason Moran He's also worked with vibraphonist Stefon Harris, as well as the New Directions band, which includes, Greg Osby and Mark Shim. In 2000, along with drummer Nasheet Waits, he appeared on two stellar piano trio albums: Marc Cary's Trillium and Jason Moran's Facing Left.
Tarus has released “Arising Saints”, The Art of Solo, and produced Brittany Tanner’s new record. Riding on a Grammy nomination, this decade looks promising to say the least.
Stay on board and enjoy the ride.
Contact Information
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Email:
[email protected]
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Management/Booking:
For booking and press inquiries, please contact Last True Love at 407-687-0140
Clips (more may be added)
When creators curate people (and entities) for what they do and where they do it, a matrix is generated.
Following human society, by the mathematical magic of the small-world phenomenon, all inside such a matrix tend to within degrees of all others inside.
And by logical extension, to within degrees of all humanity.
It is almost completely unknown that the Recôncavo of Bahia 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 it is widely unknown that Brazil — a repository of African deities now largely forgotten in their lands of origin — absorbed over ten times the number of Africans taken to the United States of America.
And that Brazil was a refuge for Sephardim fleeing an Inquisition which pursued 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.
In an Integrated Global Creative Economy, great culture is great power. And in a small-world great things are possible.
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"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...
Ground Zero for the project was the culture born in Brazil's quilombos (in Angola a kilombo is a village; in Brazil it is a village either founded by Africans or Afro-Brazilians who had escaped slavery, or — as in the case of São Francisco do Paraguaçu below — occupied by such after abandonment by the ruling class):

...theme for a Brazilian Matrix, from an Afro-Brazilian Mass by
Milton Nascimento
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.
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