.jpg)
Biographies
Rebecca
A southerner at heart, Rebecca was actually born in Massachusetts, but raised in West Virginia and Charlotte, North Carolina. She played the violin at age four, piano at six, and choose flute at age 11. After developing her exceptional talent in Youth Symphonies, Gospel Churches, and Appalachian folk music sessions, Rebecca pursued a bachelor's degree at the prestigious Indiana University School of Music. A big fan of commitment, she entered IU as a Classical Flute and Environmental Science Major, and emerged with degrees in Jazz and Spanish.
Rebecca is a fearless traveler and has steeped her ears in corners of the world ranging from Jazz clubs in NYC to Flamenco gatherings in Spain, pubs in Ireland to European symphony halls, and music festivals in California to dance parades in Brazil. She brings these diverse elements together in her musical life, naturally bouncing from Jazz to Brazilian music, Flamenco, Tango, Classical Music and dabbling in Indian and Celtic music. Rebecca learns from and collaborates regularly with the greatest artists in these genres.
Rebecca currently maintains a busy traveling schedule as a performing and recording artist. In her Santa Barbara, California home of five years, she leads a full teaching studio, attracts a large fan base and is a well-known and well-loved face in the community. It is here that Rebecca explores her penchant for concert promotion and the organization of fund-raisers for causes close to her heart, which include the Sierra Club and the Red Cross.
As a band leader, Rebecca is constantly evolving and experimenting. In her debut album "Raio de Sol" ("Sun Ray" in Portuguese), she brings together her diverse musician friends and heroes to create an acoustic World-Jazz soundscape. For a full list of the musicians on the album please see www.cdbaby.com/kleinmann
Tobias
Tobias Roberson is a virtuoso percussionist specializing in Middle Eastern and Balkan music. His innovative approach and style have been well documented on a plethora of recordings, from movie soundtracks to the Bellydance Superstars DVD. He can even be heard on good old fashion vinyl, as well as his several cds.
Tobias has worked with many belly dance performers including Rachel Brice, Fat Chance Belly Dance, Ultra Gypsy, Suhaila Salimpour Dance Company, and Hahbi'Ru. He is also a member of The Toids and Stellamara and has worked with the Eastern European vocal ensemble Kitka as well as the Arabic folk ensemble Helm.
In addition to offering weekly classes in the Bay Area, Tobias travels extensively in order to perform and teach workshops. His dynamic teaching style combines theoretical meticulousness with pure fun. His patient approach, combined with plenty of tough love, ensures that everyone, no matter how experienced or inexperienced, transcends a boundary or two during his class.
Tobias Roberson grew up poking under rocks in the mountains of Santa Barbara. He began his percussion training at age 14 with the UC Santa Barbara Middle Eastern Ensemble and has since studied in Egypt and Turkey. In addition to music, Tobias practices yoga and contemplates his navel.
Myra
Myra Joy set down the violin at the age of six, demanded (politely, I'm sure) a cello, and has been playing and performing ever since. She has a B.M. in cello performance from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music where she studied with Jean-Michel Fonteneau and a background in varied performance genres.
Since her graduation, Myra has continued her explorations of cellistic possibilities playing New Traditional Music with Babes in the Woods and recently completed her debut album of original works: Myrajoy, violoncello, with much help from the Babes.
Myra loves exploring different musical genres and performs regularly with Irish musicians: The Black Brothers, Melanie O’Reilly and Aisling; and singer-songwriters including David Serotkin, and a new collaboration with Hans York.
Past credits include the Walter Thompson Sound Painting Orchestra in New York, Djerdan folk ensemble, MERCH, and the pickPocket Ensemble as well as chamber ensembles and the orchestra at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.
Myra currently teaches private cello lessons and enjoys leading the cello class for Starr King After-School Strings, a program put on by the YMCA and San Francisco Conservatory of music.
Miles
Miles Jay’s strong musical foundation in Jazz and Classical music, combined with his extensive performance experience in the musical traditions of the Middle East, have made him one of the most uniquely qualified double bassists in the World Music scene today. At age 26, his performance experience has taken him around the world, from Cairo to Oslo, Dubai to Dakar, Carnegie Hall to the Kennedy Center. These performance credits include Youssou N'Dour, Fathy Salama, Naser Shama (Iraq), the Cairo Symphony Orchestra, Ross Daly (Greece), Trygve Seim (Norway), Omar Faruk Tekbilek, and 'Weird' Al Yankovic.
Miles began playing the electric bass at an early age, and picked up the double bass in his high school jazz band. In 2002 he studied North Indian Classical Music at Ustad Ali Akbar Khan’s college in San Rafael, California. At the same time, he joined the touring ensemble of Lebanese violinist Georges Lammam, beginning his professional performance experience in Arabic Music. In 2004 he graduated from the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he received a BA in Ethnomusicology.
Immediately after graduating, he moved to Cairo to broaden his experience in Egyptian music traditions. In the 2 1/2 years he lived in there, Miles worked full time with numerous local and international artists in musical styles ranging from traditional Nubian / Sudanese, Political theater, cabaret, and Arabic Jazz. In order to bring these influences to the double bass, he is working to develop a more fluid arco technique, allowing him to express the subtle nuances and minute intonation found in these traditions.
“I began listening to as much traditionally rooted Arabic music as possible,” Miles says, “and was heavily influenced by early Egyptian composers Mohammed El Qasabgi, Zakaria Ahmed, Sayyid Darwish, 60's political singer Sheikh Imam, and current Munshid (Sufi Singer) Sheikh Yasseen Al Tuhamy. This listening and learning process really opened my ears to the depth of expression in their melodic and improvisation styles. To hear melodies of such depth, color, and suspense, crafted out of such small bodies of notes completely amazed me. I imagined that the contrabass could sing this subtle language as well, and started exploring ways of applying traditional Arabic string instrument and vocal techniques to the instrument's larger playing scale."
Miles has been increasingly active in various production roles. In 2005 he was the associate musical director / contractor / bassist for Youssou N'Dour's US tour. This opportunity enabled Miles to use his experience in both Classical and Arabic music to create a 15 member ensemble fluent in both styles, to recreate the unique sound of Youssou’s 2005 Grammy winning release Egypt.
In Cairo, 2006, Miles co-founded, co-produced, and recorded 2 unique ensembles called Bakash and Masar. Both albums are executive productions of the Lebanese record label Incognito, are distributed throughout the Middle East, and will be available online for purchase in the US in July 2007.
As a working composer, Miles’ credits include the 2002 surf film “Natural Expressions” featuring world champion Joel Tudor; several Public Service Announcements featuring Edward James Olmos, the “Math, Who Needs It?” series for PBS; 2 episodes of the Futures Channel educational DVD series for Harcourt Textbooks; and the 2007 “Yoga for Swimmers” soundtrack. His composition “Zeffit Shaheed” is about to appear in the newest film from Egyptian Director Ahmed Abu Saada. In addition, he is an active composer for most of the ensemble projects in which he is involved.
In Classical music, beginning 2002, he has performed with the Santa Maria Symphony, the Cairo Symphony and Opera Orchestras, the Alexandria Chamber Ensemble, and currently with the Bakersfield Symphony.
In addition to his touring schedule, Miles is composing an album of compositions for bass and percussion ensemble at his home in the mountains outside Los Angeles.
Dusty
Dusty is an awesome guitarist whose credits include lead guitar for Cerro Negro. and he'll hopefully send me a bio soon.
