Roland P. Young
Twelve Elements
© 2005 Is Music 2005 (634479146589)
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Ambient Electronica Broken Beat Acid Meditative Jazz Comprovisations which float from yesterday through today toward tomorrow.
tracks
- 1 Golden Onyx
- 2 Take Me
- 3 Life Like
- 4 Cycle
- 5 Complete Nothingness
- 6 Ramah
- 7 One Piece
- 8 Mystery
- 9 Calling
- 10 Beets
- 11 Exhalation
- 12 Glaze
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albums you will love
- ROLAND P. YOUNG: Istet Serenade
- ROLAND P. YOUNG: ISOPHONIC NATION
- INFINITE SOUND/ROLAND P. YOUNG: Regeneration
genres you will love
By Location
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notes
Roland began studying classical and jazz clarinet at age 9 under the tutelage of his Grandfather, the renowned virtuoso clarinetist and conductor, Lawrence Denton. At 14 he formed a vocal group and produced his first vinyl as Roland Young and the Velveteers. The following year he formed an improvising jazz woodwind trio with Roland on bass clarinet and two high school classmates, one on alto saxophone and one on baritone saxophone. He performed with both his vocal and woodwind groups at local Kansas City venues.
After high school Roland joined the U.S. Navy. With his clarinet faithfully by his side he would play on the ship at night as he sailed through out the Pacific on various military assignments. Upon his discharge from the Navy he settled in San Francisco, California. It was the 1960s and creativity and exploration permeated all aspects of his life. It was during this period that Roland began playing saxophone and exploring sounds from the infinite source. Africa, Asia, Europe, and Native America became the source material, space and silence became the structure, and composing, improvising and the continued development of instrumental facility became the tasks.
During this period Roland also became a top rated disc jockey on the premier San Francisco underground FM radio station, KSAN. He was one of the originators of the mix of musical genres segued in seamless flows and undulations of sounds. Demonstrating the oneness of music and the fallacy of strict musical categories.
He was fired from KSAN for his radical political commentaries on the hot social issues of the day. After a stint at radio station KMPX, also in San Francisco, Roland then joined the first free speech listener-sponsored radio station in the U.S., KPFA in Berkeley. It was during this period that he perfected his concept of eclectic cross-genre universal acoustic and electronic music mixes. He, simultaneously, incorporated this concept into his own music compositions. This concept has become the integral aspect and defining characteristic of his music.
Roland formed the acoustic/electronic ensemble Infinite Sound and they recorded a ground breaking synthesizes of Jazz, Chamber, and Electronic music in 1974 for 1750 Arch Records entitled Infinite Sound.
While performing with Infinite Sound and participating in experimental projects with various musicians Roland developed a unique ground breaking jazz based world inspired acoustic/electronic solo concept which helped create the genre now known as Jazz/Electronica. This concept was first documented on Isophonic Boogie Woogie, a solo album he composed, performed, and produced for Flow Chart Records in 1978, and the year he left California and moved to New York. It was released in 1980 and will be re-released on the Japanese label, EM Records in July, 2005.
In New York Roland initially worked on the avant-garde jazz and cultural scene performing with many renowned composers, performers and dancers. However, he was interested in incorporating other concepts into his music as the 1970s loft jazz scene wound down and other exciting things were beginning to happen in music. The 1980s in New York had some of the vibrancy of the 1960s in California but with a different twist. Music and people from various cultures and artistic concepts began to collaborate. These juxtapositions led to some very creative performance possibilities that encouraged Roland to express his then current concept more completely.
It was during this period that Roland joined the Ska New Wave band the Offs, with whom he toured the U.S., record and produced a classic album for 415 Records entitled First Record. After leaving the Offs he continued to perform as a solo artist releasing two more self composed, performed, and produced albums on Flow Chart Records: I-Land with his wife Risa on vocals, and Hearsay Evidence (two excursions into New Wave vocal territory). He then returned to his instrumental based solo concept while expanding the inspirations from the Infinite Source.
Roland's concept did not fit in to the accepted confines of "new music" of the moment. He was shunned by booking agents for being a solo artist and not having a "band," and rejected by record executives for creating a sound that they believed to be unmarketable. He was, nonetheless, committed to his concept and to the dictum that perseverance furthers. To Roland this was a decisive period, the test of his artistic commitment to his inner self and source. The sounds within his soul and the concepts within his mind drove him to continue vigorously on his creative path. A jazz that is acoustic, electronic, and world bound and which aspires to the transcendent.
During the 1990s, Roland sought the solace of his Isophonic Studio in Brooklyn, New York where he worked on new concepts, rehearsed, composed, and recorded hundreds of tracks. Fortunately the climate for jazz based acoustic/electronic music performed by 1, 2 and 3 people began to change for the better in the late 1990s and 2000s. Larger segments of the public now embrace many of the concepts that Roland has been developing for these past years. Consequently, he emerged with an Electronica based Regeneration from Infinite Sound. This is a solo project he composed, performed and produced in 2003 for Flow Chart Records.
Roland's latest cd is entitled, Twelve Elements, on Flow Chart Records. It features Roland on clarinet, bass clarinet, and soprano saxophone. This is one of his most definitive releases to date. It is a combination of cool, acid, electronic, and atmospheric jazz.
Stay turned for the continuation of a long series of creations from ROLAND P. YOUNG. Please listen, enjoy, and respond!