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Seneca Village 15:090:00/15:09
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Clair De Lune 10:120:00/10:12
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Freedom Steps 4:260:00/4:26
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In God We Trust 10:490:00/10:49
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0:00/5:35
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Notary 7:100:00/7:10
“If you take care of the music, it will take care of you.” - Roy Hargrove
IAMKHEMESTRY
Know Thyself
IAMKHEMESTRY BIO:
When you think about Iamkhemestry the word Maverick may come to mind. Not because he’s a rebel, but because he embodies pure and unfiltered musical and artistic expression. From the way he approaches his trumpet to the way he writes and composes music, IamKhemestry is in a class of his own endeavoring to push the edge a little further than it was. Growing up in New York City his mother kept him off the streets and out of trouble by putting a trumpet in his hands and making him practice. It wouldn’t be long before he was sitting in Wynton Marsalis’s living room getting his first Jazz lesson over Thelonious Monk’s “Blue Monk”. This was the beginning to the path that ultimately led to getting accepted into The Juilliard School for Jazz trumpet. It was here that Iamkhemestry really started to find his unique artistic identity that incorporated Hip-Hop, Afrobeat, Gospel, Funk, classical and R&B. Shortly after that he would go on to perform with stars like Jon Batiste, TLC, Fantasia, Kirk Franklin, Travis Greene, Solange, Pharoahe Monch and R&B legend Kem.
In 2019 he started The Harlem Society Orchestra which is now THE IAMKHEMESTRY JAZZ ORCHESTRA and the IAMKHEMESTRY small group as an ode to the great Duke Ellington and the black excellence that came out of the Harlem Renaissance. He composed his first big band compositions that where greatly inspired by the work of Jean-Michel Basquiat” that became a four movement suite entitled “Where’s my Basquiat?”, a rhetorical question meant to arouse personal creativity and artistic contribution to the community. Iamkhemestry sat in front of four different paintings of Jean-Michel Basquiats' studying the brush strokes and palettes used and began to hear music, harmonies and Melodies coming from the paintings. This began to use of staff paper as a canvas to paint and illustrate the sound of Basquiats' painting on his canvas with the brush.
Since 2020, Iamkhemestry has relocated to the Atlanta Georgia area where he focuses on his wife and raising their three children together. Music is a huge part of the culture of their family and all three of their children play music making their home a mini conservatory. Family and Community are at the core of his music career and inspires him to give back not just to his children but to other children in the community as well. Teaching and giving back are deep passions of his so when he isn’t on the road touring or performing, he spends his time enriching the artistic culture of the Communities through music education and mentorship. Speaking of community and collective effort, he is currently in the process of releasing a new music suite that is in celebration of the legacy of the historic “Seneca Village”, which epitomized the concept of community. The residents of Seneca Village persisted and fought to keep their community together; however, in 1857, the city used eminent domain to forcibly remove them and the village was eventually vacated and the city demolished Seneca Village, leaving little trace of the stories and people who had occupied it. Iamkhemestry debuted his suite on June 19, 2023 for the Juneteenth holiday celebration with his sextet group in the same place Seneca Village once stood. IAMKHEMESTRY is, also, working on building up his music mentorship program that will culminate into a summer Music camp in the Atlanta area and will help young students learn more about their instruments, the arts and different genres of music.
TRUMPET MASTERCLASS AT STILLWELL ARTS SCHOOL
JAZZ BAND WORKSHOP AT STILLWELL ARTS SCHOOL