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Musician, Producer, Recording and Performing Artiste,
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Profile Information
- What is your profession?
- Musician, Songwriter, Singer, Producer, Composer
- What Instrument Do you Play?
- Electric & Acoustic Basses ,Electric & Acoustic Guitar, Keyboards , Trombone, Baritone ,Trumpet ,Tuba.
- Where Are you located?
- Kingston ,Jamaica
- How did you find out about TGJN?
- Djinn aka Qyot'I invited me to join The Global Jazz Network
- About Me:
- Musician, Vocalist, Producer, Arranger, Songwriter, Recording and Performing Artiste
“A fine line separates musicians who play music to live and those who live to play music. I live to play music…it is my life” Benjy Myaz
Benjy Myaz was born in a little town called Haddington, Hanover, on the island of Jamaica. He and his other seven musical siblings were exposed to music at an early age, playing with the band in their father's church. Benjy quickly learned the guitar and was always eager to play at devotions in primary school and do rehearsals with the church groups. He went on to study music at Herbert Morrison Technical High School in Montego Bay. After leaving school in 1984, Benjy taught music for two years at the high school level and began further studies with private tutors earning tertiary accreditation from the London Royal School of Music.
Benjy’s professional musical career began when he started working in Jamaica’s tourist industry, playing in most of the north-coast hotels for nearly eight years. During that time, Benjy applied and received a scholarship to Berklee School of Music in Boston, Massachusetts. Faith, in its divinity, wouldn’t have it that way. He, however, went on to develop skills in bass playing, arranging, songwriting, and music production; and his career as a musician is credited to his vast knowledge about music.
This musician has command of at least seven instruments, with his first love being the Bass. This he owes to diligent studies and an innate love for music. According to Benjy, “When a musician is formally trained, it allows him or her to appreciate the origin and growth of music. It gives you deeper perspective about your craft.”
As a producer, he got his first big break in 1986 when he arranged and produced a remake of Brooke Benton's classic, “So Many Ways”, performed by Dennis Malcolm, which went to the number one position in Jamaica, England, and New York. With hopes of touring as a bassist, Benjy became a member of the Rhythm Kings Band, touring with several artistes including: Jimmy Cliff, Culture, Toots and the Maytals, Shinehead, and J.C. Lodge. His other credits include appearing as a bassist for the chorale, Sounds of Blackness and also Jimmy Cliff.
During this period, he realized his other dreams: singing, writing, and arranging music. The nineties afforded him the opportunity to produce, write, arrange, and collaborate with top Reggae/Latin/Pop/Gospel/Folk/Urban recording artistes such as: Third World, Garnet Silk, Ken Boothe, Joan Myers, Joanna-Marie, Pam Hall, Michael St. George, Bankie Banx, Freddie McGregor, and Jazz Pianist Onajae Allan Gumbs. Myaz has written and co-produced several projects with ace producer, Bobby Digital, including tracks on Sizzla’s album, “The Real Thing” and Capleton’s “Reign of Fire”, among others. He has also produced several musical projects for Fyah Wyah.
As a solo act, he performed alongside international artistes: Jeffrey Osbourne, James Ingram, Gladys Knight, Angie Stone, Kevon Edmonds, Bankie Banx and Peabo Bryson at the Buzz Production’s “To Mom With Love” concert series held in Jamaica. He performed at “World Food Day” (Nov. 2000) at James Bond Beach, Ocho Rios; “Reggae Sumfest” (Jamaica’s premier music festival); and the “Jamaica Jazz Festival”.
Benjy says one highlight of his career, was performing his first single, a cover of “Love You Higher” at the Prime Minister's Ball in 2000, alongside international recording artiste Randy Crawford (who had originally recorded the song) to her surprise and delight. Prior to that memorable performance, having released the cover in 1995, it had been receiving massive airplay and has become a classic in the annals of Reggae music.
On the international scene, Benjy toured Japan following the launch of his album “Time Together” to promote its release. He also performed at “Midem ‘97” (France); and Anguilla's annual “Moonsplash”, held in March 2007, where he appeared as bassist and musical director for Bankie Banx, and has been since 1997; taking a break in 2008 and 2009. In 1999, he received a Nomination Medal & Certificate from the Grammy Committee for being a part of Toots and the Maytals Grammy-nominated album.
To date, Benjy has released four albums. His debut album, “Intimate Relationship” was released in the U.S. in 1997. “Time Together” was released in Jamaica and Japan in 1998; and the U.S. in 2000 (VP Records). His own label, My’ Werks Music, released “Long Story Short”, the third vocal album, in November 2005.
Prior to completing “Long Story Short”, Benjy produced an instrumental album titled, “You’ve Got Me”…the first of its kind ever produced in Jamaica - featuring the sound of the Bass as the lead instrument up front. “You’ve Got Me” – also on his My’ Werks Music label – was officially released, in Jamaica, in October 2009.
Music lovers are going to love experiencing this side of Benjy Myaz. In order to accomplish the variations, he utilized his knowledge of other instruments to transform the bass’s melodies. He states, “The Bass was always an accompanying rather than a lead instrument and the concept was to create melodies and not make them sound repetitious or monotonous.”
This instrumental album he says, “was strongly inspired by fusion musicians like: Herbie Hancock, George Duke and, in particular, bass players Stanley Clarke, Marcus Miller and Jaco Pastorius.” It has international appeal, but does not leave out the ‘Reggae feel’, which, Benjy says “…brings back the album to its grass roots."
Benjy continues to tour and perform in Jamaica and on the international scene, always creating new music and recording new sounds. According to Benjy, “I am about chasing creativity, not the competition."
Other Websites:
www.myspace.com/benjymyaz
www.linkedin.com/in/benjymyaz
http://TheBeat.fm/bands/530/
http://www.sonicbids.com/BenjyMyaz1
http://www.youtube.com/user/benjymyaz
www.TheBeat.fm " Supporting Independent Music" Click play to hear songs
VISIT Benjy Myaz
- Website:
- http://www.benjymyaz.com
'Smile Jamaica' Its Morning Time(Live on Television of Jamaica..tvj)
Benjy Myaz's Blog
BENJY MYAZ RIDING THE CHARTS ON THEBEAT.FM
August 11, 2009
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Benjy Myaz has, consistently, been on the charts of TheBeat.FM (www.thebeat.fm) Internet Radio for the past year. He now occupies numbers one through five on their “Top 20 Singles Chart”; and is holding down the number three spot on the “Top 10 Artists” list. Based in San Diego, California, USA, TheBeat.FM boasts a listenership of approximately seven million persons, worldwide.
Occupying the number 1 spot is the ever-green hit “Love You Higher”; followed b… Continue
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Benjy Myaz has, consistently, been on the charts of TheBeat.FM (www.thebeat.fm) Internet Radio for the past year. He now occupies numbers one through five on their “Top 20 Singles Chart”; and is holding down the number three spot on the “Top 10 Artists” list. Based in San Diego, California, USA, TheBeat.FM boasts a listenership of approximately seven million persons, worldwide.
Occupying the number 1 spot is the ever-green hit “Love You Higher”; followed b… Continue
Posted on August 12, 2009 at 2:01pm —
LIVE MUSIC AT ITS BEST FROM BENJY MYAZ AND FRIENDS
ENTERTAINMENT
http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/magazines/Entertainment/html/20090619T000000-0500_153756_OBS_LIVE_MUSIC_AT_ITS_BEST_FROM_BENJY__MYAZ_AND_FRIENDS_.asp
LIVE MUSIC AT ITS BEST FROM BENJY MYAZ AND FRIENDS
Basil Walters
Friday… Continue
http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/magazines/Entertainment/html/20090619T000000-0500_153756_OBS_LIVE_MUSIC_AT_ITS_BEST_FROM_BENJY__MYAZ_AND_FRIENDS_.asp
LIVE MUSIC AT ITS BEST FROM BENJY MYAZ AND FRIENDS
Basil Walters
Friday… Continue
Posted on August 12, 2009 at 1:59pm —
BENJY MYAZ STRIKES THE RIGHT NOTE FOR AUTISM
By Basil Walters Observer staff reporter
Friday, March 20, 2009
http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/magazines/Entertainment/html/20090319T210000-0500_147855_OBS_BENJY_MYAZ_STRIKES_THE_RIGHT_NOTE_FOR_AUTISM.asp
With an increasing number of local entertainers becoming more caring and reaching out to the less fortunate among their fellowmen, recording… Continue
Friday, March 20, 2009
http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/magazines/Entertainment/html/20090319T210000-0500_147855_OBS_BENJY_MYAZ_STRIKES_THE_RIGHT_NOTE_FOR_AUTISM.asp
With an increasing number of local entertainers becoming more caring and reaching out to the less fortunate among their fellowmen, recording… Continue
Posted on March 31, 2009 at 6:00am —
"You've Got Me" -
Over the years, musical geniuses such as Jaco Pastorious, Stanley Clarke, Marcus Miller, John Pattatucci to name a few have advanced the technique of utilizing the bass, not only as a root instrument, but also to hold together the melody of a song. With this influence, I was challenged to do so within the genre of my own musical accomplishments.
Fundamentally, the bass was always the instrument that held together the root of a song. It has been the manipulator of music by simply standing out wit… Continue
Fundamentally, the bass was always the instrument that held together the root of a song. It has been the manipulator of music by simply standing out wit… Continue
Posted on December 18, 2008 at 5:30am — 1 Comment
Benjy Myaz' 'Werks' delight at RedBones
published: Wednesday | October 8, 2008
Mel Cooke, Gleaner Writer
Benjy Myaz (left), saxophonist Courtney Fadlin and Alex Martin-Blanken perform at the RedBones Blues Café last Friday night. - Colin Hamilton/Freelance Photographer
At times Benjy Myaz relaxed on a high stool and led with his guitar, at other points he came front and centre and led with his voice, still with plucking the strings. Sometimes his voice stood on its own, at one point it alternated with special guest A'lisa, at o… Continue
Mel Cooke, Gleaner Writer
Benjy Myaz (left), saxophonist Courtney Fadlin and Alex Martin-Blanken perform at the RedBones Blues Café last Friday night. - Colin Hamilton/Freelance Photographer
At times Benjy Myaz relaxed on a high stool and led with his guitar, at other points he came front and centre and led with his voice, still with plucking the strings. Sometimes his voice stood on its own, at one point it alternated with special guest A'lisa, at o… Continue
Posted on October 10, 2008 at 8:30pm —
About
The thing that is making jazz healthy today is that people are coming out of other backgrounds - from rock, folk, from ethnic music. It's changing the music, and for the better.~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Billy Taylor
Dear Tamm E:
Just a note to tell you that it is nice to read about you!!!
You share so much great info about others and about the music, but nice to know that you are WAILIN' yourself and getting appreciation!!
Global Jazz Network is a really important way for all of us to keep hooked up and informed and to SLOWLY BUT SURELY SPREAD THE MESSAGE AND THE PHILOSOPHY of what Jazz is in its many different forms and what the styles are/is all about.
Just played for Paquito's honoring and received gold medal
John Faddis, save Brubeck, James moody and a bunch of KILLER YOUNG players and we all played and spoke about Paquito and jazz and all fine music
and Roberta Gamborini, who was excellent.
wish you had been there!
Through you, Donald Harrison hooked me up with Pittsburgh Jazz info and I feel like i am living there just reading about all the great happenings.
As Fall is here, I am back to my normal insane schedule, but wanted to write you back BEFORE The STATUTE OF LIMITATIONS goes into effect. I am my own secretary, so I am dedicated but SLOW!
And I can't fire myself as my own secretary or I might get hit with an Age Discrimination Lawsuit (in case I decided to sue myself for clerical incompetence).
As of this moment, a new documentary film is being made about me, to be released a few months after my 80th birthday, which is coming up next year Nov. 17, 2010. (12 months from now).
The film will end with the videoing of the big 80th birthday bash at Symphony Space in NYC and then have snippets of films from the past, with all kinds of fun stuff from the 50's thru today.
It will be called "David Amram: The First 80 Years"
Fortunately, I don't have to edit the hundreds of hours of footage or do new music the score, since the film maker, Larry Kraman is also the founder of Newport Classics recordings and knows all my symphonic as well as operatic, theater, film and jazz and world music work, so I am in good hands!!
The same people at Newport Classics Recordings are also making a Spoken Word series for I-Tunes, with me reading from my three books Vibrations, Offbeat: Collaborating with Kerouac and Upbeat: Nine Lives of a Musical Cat.
And they are also recording some of my chamber music compositions and a new jazz record,
Next Spring my opera "12th Night", with libretto by Joe Papp (all words of Shakespeare), is having its eighth production and being FILMED!! Even most dead composers aren't that lucky!!!
This last five weeks I have appeared all over the country at concerts of my music, conducting and playing, doing spoken word with music, jazz, folk and world music festivals, film festivals and readings from my books.
Just the first week of October, I played Lowell Celebrates Kerouac festival in Lowell Mass, then the at midnight , following my last concert there , drove all night to Lagaurda Airport to catch the early Sunday mornng flight for the annual Farm Aid Concert in St Louis, where i played with Willie Nelson's band. The next morning (Monday the 5th , I flew bck to NYC in tme for my monthly concert at Cornelia Street in Greenwich Village.
The next night (Tuesday the 6th) the memorial at Symphony Space for Frank Mccourt, and the next day Wednesday the 7th) the celebration of the new authorized biography of Thelonious Monk with members of his family and musicians I have known since I first arrived in NYC in 1955!!
The 11th i flew off to Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates,( i got at least get a few hours sleep) and tried to catch up on over 200 e-mails during the 13 hour flight, before arriving there and performing a concert of global music in conjunction with the score I composed for Teri McLuhan's new documentary feature film The Frontier Ghandi.
Then back in the USA in time to do programs centered around a performance of my Saxophone concerto Ode to Lord Buckley, in Loudoun Virginia ..
Then I went off to Toronto Nov 1st for a concert and appearance at the Diaspora Film Festival .
Now i am back at home hiding out composing and writing!
I am starting my fourth book "David Amram: The First 80 Years", (the same name as the new doc film being made about me), which will be finished at the end of next year and will end, like the film, with the monstro birthday bash concert for my Big 80... 12 months from now....(Nov 17 2010) in New York.
And every day, still finding time to continue composing a new orchestral work, having been doing it while on the run, and now every minute when I can hide out at the Farm in between travels.
And performing whenever possible with my three kids, each of whom have their own bands.
So as the BIG 80 approaches twelve months from now, (2010) while I may be still shy, I am not yet the retiring type.
Most of my ever-changing my schedule info. when i can get my elderly secretary (unfortunately myself) to type it up, is posted on my web page www.davidamram.com under Upcoming Events.
And my e-mail amramdavid@aol.com is always the best way to reach me as I carry my laptop with me everywhere, and Facebook, MySpace, etc., is hard to deal with and not always reliable!
You might find it fun to access an old performance of my 1971 Rondo a la Turca on the Internet for FREE!!!
The person who is conducting the Chicago Symphony and playing the middle eastern flute (who looks like my grandson) is actually a much younger looking me in 1977, recording for a PBS network TV show about my music. Pepper Adams and Jerry Dodgion are also playing.
In 1977, most of members of the Chicago Symphony who appear on the recording of this performance had never heard, much less ever played, very much music from the Middle East, and since I write everything out on paper accurately to indicate the way it should be played, that's what they were playing, and they actually began to sound like the Radio Beirut Orchestra, and suddenly as the piece went on, they started feeling something different than they had ever felt before, as they played.
It is really fun to watch their faces as they started getting ingo the old time magical groove that Middle eastern music creates and takes you into.
During the first few minutes of the piece, you can see the musicians all playing up a storm but looking as if they were thinking that I was an alien from another planet in outer space, and had brought some extra terrestrial music with me for them to play.
And then as the piece progresses, you can see, as well as hear, that by the end of the piece, the idiom of this music got them excited enough to be actually enjoying playing it!!
And playing it really well!
That's what music, like film, novels, poetry, painting, dance, language and good HOME COOKING does for all of us.
It takes you to that place from where it comes, and makes you feel that you now have a new home in a new part of the world.
I send cheers from that endless road and wish you joy and energy for all you do
David
I was just saying that you knocked this out of the park with TGJN. We have needed something like this for so long and I am telling my friends about this. I said that it is sort of like a myspace for jazz but it is actually so much more. This is real. The people here truly love jazz and we know people like that are not your average people.
I have felt for a long time that straight-ahead jazz has been slipping away from us. I have hope now that there will be a resurgence (or shall I say an insurgency:-) to bring this baby back full force!
You just knocked it out of the park. Thanks again.
xoxo,
Janie
Music
Events
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Mel Brown Quartet
March 25, 2009 at 8pm to March 27, 2013 at 11pm – Jimmy Mak's
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New CD release
December 14, 2009 at 1pm to January 1, 2010 at 1pm – My Website
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Lezlie Harrison and Saul Rubin Two-gether
December 28, 2009 from 12pm to 9pm – The Zinc Bar
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THE LADIES SOCIAL CLUB-New Year's Eve Party!
December 31, 2009 at 7:30pm to January 1, 2010 at 1:30am – Clarion Hotel
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BACK ALLEY PLAYERS@NUYORICAN POETS CAFE
January 2, 2010 from 9pm to 11pm – NUYORICAN POETS CAFE
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BACK ALLEY PLAYERS@NUYORICAN POETS CAFE
January 2, 2010 from 9pm to 11pm – NUYORICAN POETS CAFE
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Tish Oney - The Peggy Lee Project
January 8, 2010 from 9:45pm to 11pm – The Metropolitan Room
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Tish Oney
January 9, 2010 from 7:15pm to 7:30pm – Hilton Hotel - New York Suite
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Tish Oney - The Peggy Lee Project
January 9, 2010 from 10pm to 10:15pm – Hilton Hotel - Beekman Suite
Birthdays
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Happy Holidays and all the best in 2009!
Much Love,
May
Your page is beautiful.
Thanks for joining TGJN
Tamm E Hunt
founder/publisher
TGJN
I hope all is well and you're having a wonderful summer. When you have a moment please check out my new site, it''s a follow up site to my weekly news paper column "Out & About". Please let me know what you think or if you have any ideas for improvement.
Below please find site address
roznixonoutandabout.com
Thanks
Much love
Roz