Born: March 27, 1963 Primary Instrument: Keyboard
Keyboardist Malcolm Hunter was born in Queens, NYC, and began playing the piano at 6. He attended Ithaca College on a music scholarship, and performed as a singer/songwriter. He was highly sought out as an accompanist for hire, and subsequently wrote music for dance, film and avant-garde theatre.
After returning to New York City, he performed with the Last Band on Earth, Trancetown Road Show, and Tycoon Dog, in addition to various studio projects and his own gigs over the last 25 years.
He wrote and released “WUNDerground Radio” with Producer Steve Ward, and then, “Tryin' to Sort It All Out”, while working in the trio, CoreNYC.
A period of contemplation and soulsearching followed and the inner voices of music turned mute for a while. Familiar with life on the margins, he migrated between the flames and shadows of Hell's Kitchen and the remnants of the East Village squatters scene. Hunter escaped the lure of a blue funk and wrote “Nostalgia In My Square Head.”
An homage to Mingus' “Nostalgia in Times Square”, NIMSH is a funky, jazz-gospel record about Hell's Kitchen; a journey through the corners of alleys, crash pads and lost time, which features the Makeshift Dream Orchestra.
The Makeshift Dream Orchestra is drummer John Digiulio (from Little Anthony & the Imperials), Victor Wooten prodigy Michael Tiny Lindsey on bass, (most recently on the road with Ryan Shaw), guitarist Jamie Fox, trumpeter Michael Leonhart and guitarist Jon Herington (most notably of Steely Dan). Rounding out the stellar band is all-reed working man Tom Smith, vocalist Melissa Hamilton, blues singer Adira Amram, reggae sensation Meshach, bassist Ivan “Funkboy” Bodley, and trumpeter Rob Henke.
