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Kip Hanrahan

Kip Hanrahan - producer,arranger,composer,

A producer, a composer, a percussionist and facilitator, Kip Hanrahan has an uncanny ability to assemble remarkable musicians and apply their talents in interesting ways. The results are often magical. His records are as enigmatic as he is, and maybe that heightens the attraction and expectation. The results of his American Clavé productions have garnered a cultist reputation, yet a lot of people have heard them or at least of them. He chooses to remain in the shadows, an obscure figure that turns the knobs and brings it all together. Hanrahan’s recorded legacy speaks volumes of his knowledge and abilities to bring out the best of musicians that accompany him on his fantastic sojourns.

Kip Hanrahan started out as a percussionist, a fairly left-field occupation for an Irish-Jewish boy, even if he did grow up in a Puerto Rican neighborhood of the Bronx, New York. "I don't know where I am in a sense. People tell me that I am a Latin musician. But at the same time, it's not my music. I grew up with it and through it, and I learned it at the same time as everyone else around me learned it. And I think of Latin music as being my first music. But I'm not a Latin musician. I'm not from that culture."

After gaining a fellowship in sculpture at the Cooper Union Arts, in New York, Kip began collect several musical hats, those of producer, director, writer/arranger and conductor. However, his most apt headgear would be one of 'facilitator', for Kip has the knack of being able to connect up people and music together.

Kip Hanrahan now has numerous albums to his name. His discography reads like chapters of a book, or betters still, an anthology of short stories, each album reflective of a different phase in his life. “All Roads Are Made of the Flesh,” (1995) is probably his best known work, a compilation of musical vignettes from Jelly Roll Morton to full on avant-garde. Kip has also produced three albums for the late accordion master Astor Piazzolla, the best known of which is “Tango Zero Hour.”

Drawing from a rich vein of rock, jazz and blues influences, as well as the Latin influence of his formative years, he has devised a distinctive meld of music, a dialogue between the two hemispheres of north and south, which is informed by the American Clavé. (The clavé is the internal rhythmic pulse around which all Latin music is based.)

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Album Review

Kip Hanrahan: Crescent Moon Waning

Read "Crescent Moon Waning" reviewed by Vic Albani


Dopo tre anni di gestazione, crowdfounding e il classico perfezionismo che lo ha sempre contraddistinto (il disco è stato in realtà registrato da luglio 2015 a dicembre 2016) con uno strano scadenzario di pubblicazione si può finalmente dire a dicembre 2018 che il nuovo lavoro discografico di Kip Hanharan è finalmente disponibile in tutto il mondo. C'è chi è dal maggio scorso che gode della bellezza dei nuovi venti brani del nostro e c'è invece chi è solo da pochi ...

Book Review

Il Grande Incantatore

Read "Il Grande Incantatore" reviewed by Angelo Leonardi


“Il Grande Incantatore" A cura di Giorgio Rimondi 159 pagine ISBN: 978-88-98922-26-0 Agenzia X 2016 Ishmael Reed è uno dei massimi scrittori e poeti afroamericani, noto anche in Italia per il fondamentale “Mumbo Jumbo" e autore prolifico con all'attivo nove romanzi, cinque raccolte di poesie, vari testi teatrali e saggi. Stimolato dal conferimento del premio Alberto Dubito a Venezia nel maggio scorso, Giorgio Rimondi ha curato questo volume che raccoglie approfonditi ...

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Album Review

Kip Hanrahan: Pinero

Read "Pinero" reviewed by John Eyles


This is the soundtrack album to Leon Ichaso's biopic of Puerto Rican street poet Miguel Pinero, maybe best known for his play about prison life, “Short Eyes. The film itself was described this way in a New York Times review: “The movie, a flashy montage, which jumps around in time and alternates between color and black & white, lacks narrative cohesion. But its agitated style mirrors Pinero's streetwise pre-rap poetry...

Given all of the above, it is no surprise that ...

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Recording

Kip Hanrahan And American Clave Launch Crowdsourcing Campaign To Record Album Due In October 2015

Kip Hanrahan And American Clave Launch Crowdsourcing Campaign To Record Album Due In October 2015

Source: Michael Ricci

An Icon for the Iconoclasts, legendary producer KIP HANRAHAN is planning a new release for October 2015 on his label, american clavé, which released its first album in 1980. Like the rest of his label american clavé’s catalogue, this record will be, as The Independent (London), has said “...rich beyond compare.” Hanrahan’s music has been described by the New York Times, “There is nothing quite like Mr. Hanrahan’s music—a steamy blend of rhythmic and melodic tensions, drawn from musicians of ...

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Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Crescent Moon Waning

American Clavé
2018

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At Home In Anger...

American Clavé
2011

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Beautiful Scars

American Clavé
2008

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Pinero

American Clave
2006

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Original Music From...

American Clavé
2004

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