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Katisse Buckingham

Katisse is neither your average jazz musician, nor your average MC. A saxophone and flute virtuoso, he combines musicianship and poetry to create a flow that leaves every listener in awe. Growing up in Los Angeles studying jazz performance, he cites John Coltrane’s A Love Supreme and Run DMC’s Sucker MC’s as equally important influences. In the words of multi-Grammy-award winning pianist Billy Childs, “Nobody's doing any shit like this." “I just want to say how much I dug this record!” he says.

Widely recognized for his talent, Katisse has recorded for some of the world’s greatest musicians, including Prince, Lionel Richie, Dr. Dre, Yellowjackets, Billy Childs, Herbie Hancock, Andy Summers and Vanessa Paradis among others, and participated in the soundtracks of numerous major motion pictures: he is indeed the man behind the epic “Flute Scene” in the Will Ferrell film Anchorman.

Gear

Katisse plays Rico Reeds


Tags

4
Album Review

Lauren White: Making It Up As We Go Along

Read "Making It Up As We Go Along" reviewed by Nicholas F. Mondello


With this, her fifth album, Los Angeles-based Renaissance lady, Lauren White offers eleven intriguing selections across a range of styles and sources, backed up by some of the city's best. While shrewdly avoiding the tried, true and over-recorded, White uses her subtle skills with taste and maturity. Interestingly, the album plays sequentially as if it were a performance. That is one of its attractions. Launching things, Steely Dan's “I'm Not the Same Without You" is a coy ...

11
Album Review

Connie Han: Secrets of Inanna

Read "Secrets of Inanna" reviewed by Mike Jurkovic


If, when first pressing play on Connie Han's charismatic Secrets of Inanna, you think you have stumbled upon a previously unheard Chick Corea tune with Hubert Laws at its heart and soul, it is okay, calm down, relax. It is just pianist Han (with the help of soulful alto flute and piccolo by Katisse Buckingham ) setting the feisty vibe of drummer/producer collaborator Bill Wysaske's “Prima Materia," and getting her head primed for the meteor's tail to follow.

10
Album Review

Marilyn Scott: The Landscape

Read "The Landscape" reviewed by Jim Worsley


Some artists feel obligated to put out a new record every one-point-three years, or whatever their factory warranty calls for (mileage may vary). Others are more interested in quality than quantity. On her first record since Standard Blue (Prana, 2017), jazz vocalist Marilyn Scott has something to say about The Landscape. More than the title track, Scott's concerns with our landscape is the scope and focus of seven original compositions, all co-written with pianists Russ Ferrante or Scott Kinsey. Scott ...

12
Album Review

ARC Trio and the John Daversa Big Band: ARCeology: The Music of MSM Schmidt

Read "ARCeology: The Music of MSM Schmidt" reviewed by Jim Worsley


What would happen if fusion, already a hybrid of musical genres, was compounded with the sound of big-band? Further, that both genres were stretched well outside the box? An ensemble of bright musical minds came together on just such a project. The results could have been the disastrous soup of too many cooks in the kitchen or, perhaps, something special and creative. Fortunately, they served up an entree which is very much the latter. It starts with quality ...

25
Album Review

Adrianne Duncan: Gemini

Read "Gemini" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan


It started out for Adrianne Duncan with classical piano. Then—as it happens so often—she fell in with a jazz crowd. On her Gemini, the vocalist/pianist/composer proves herself an adept and compelling artist in the jazz genre, one who isn't afraid to take some chances. And she has a way with words, penning lyrics in an off-the-beaten-path style on three of her songs—one offering is an instrumental—while throwing in Sting's “Roxanne" as a closer, a familiar tune than isn't initially recognizable, ...

2
Album Review

Zane Carney: Alter Ego

Read "Alter Ego" reviewed by Mario Calvitti


Il mondo della chitarra jazz è in continua ebollizione, e nuovi nomi emergono quasi quotidianamente nel web alla ricerca di quel po' di notorietà che permetta loro di trovare uno spazio personale su un palcoscenico già estremamente affollato. Al di là delle facili esaltazioni e dell'hype che rappresentano materiale comune in rete, ogni tanto ci si imbatte in qualche musicista da tener d'occhio come questo Zane Carney, trentaseienne newyorchese trapiantato a Los Angeles, già attore televisivo fin da bambino (esordì ...

7
Album Review

Zane Carney Quartet: Alter Ego

Read "Alter Ego" reviewed by Friedrich Kunzmann


While guitarist Zane Carney's work as a leader may have yet to experience the hype it arguably deserves, his session work is another thing. Among other projects, he has played on Thundercat's Drunk (Brainfeeder, 2012) as well as John Mayer's folk album Paradise Valley (Columbia, 2013), the Grammy award-winning Thundercat calling him “a massive guitarist." And, in the continued spirit of name-dropping, Carney formed the band Evan + Zane with actress (and incidentally good singer) Evan Rachel Wood, who might ...

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1

Recording

Steve Weingart & Renee Jones - Observatory - Featuring Simon Phillips, Katisse Buckingham And Chris Wabich

Steve Weingart & Renee Jones - Observatory - Featuring Simon Phillips, Katisse Buckingham And Chris Wabich

Source: Stacey Horn-Spirito

With the release of Observatory, their second album in as many years, the husband and wife duo of keyboardist and pianist, Steve Weingart and bassist, Renee Jones continue to celebrate and redefine the music that has inspired them throughout their careers. Tapping into the influence of music legends like Joe Zawinul & Weather Report, Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea and Wayne Shorter, Weingart & Jones have dramatically thrust the genre in new directions by expressing a potent mixture of compositional risk, ...

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Interview

Katisse Buckingham on Odd Time Signatures, Proper Warmups...And Anchorman

Katisse Buckingham on Odd Time Signatures, Proper Warmups...And Anchorman

Source: Best. Saxophone. Website. Ever.

Taking on the tenor, alto & soprano saxophones, flute, alto flute & ethnic flutes as well as spoken word, Katisse Buckingham is one of Los Angeles' most seasoned and versatile musicians. Not surprisingly to anyone who's heard him play, Katisse's musical resume includes associations with names such as The Yellowjackets, Prince, Dr. Dre, Airto & Flora Purim, Dave Douglas, Pete Yorn, Terri Lyne Carrington, Herbie Hancock, Brian Auger, and so many others that it would make your head spin where ...

"Katisse Buckingham leads a double musical life, most often as one of the area's most sought-after woodwind players. But on the last Thursday of every month, he leads his own band in a unique mix of jazz, soul, hip-hop & rap, beatboxing his way through flutes and leaving even seasoned studio veterans often in astonishment." - Tom Meek - LA Weekly

"This is a breath of fresh air." KevinNottingham.com

"Hip Hop stays true to its origins." StrictlyHipHop

“I just want to say how much I dug this record! Nobody's doing any shit like this.” - Grammy Award-winning Billy Childs

"I've been fortunate to perform with Katisse Buckingham and experience his expertise as a musician

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Photos

Concerts

Jul 13 Sat

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Making It Up As We Go...

Cafe Pacific Records
2024

buy

ARCeology: The Music...

Blue Canoe Records
2022

buy

The Landscape

Blue Canoe Records
2022

buy

Secrets of Inanna

Mack Avenue Records
2022

buy

Alter Ego

Orenda Records
2021

buy

Brazilian Muse

Perfect Peach Music
2021

buy

Unzip

From: The Landscape
By Katisse Buckingham

Red and Gold

From: ARCeology: The Music of MSM...
By Katisse Buckingham

Roxanne

From: Gemini
By Katisse Buckingham

Gemini

From: Gemini
By Katisse Buckingham

Gary

From: The Missing Song
By Katisse Buckingham

Videos

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