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onyx ashanti
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London, United Kingdom  |   Member since April 30, 2007
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My Songs

Avg. Rating: 3.0 / 5

I can't find the words to say

Avg. Rating: 4.0 / 5

Bliss-onyxashanti horny blip(live improv)

Avg. Rating: 4.0 / 5

The Itis

Avg. Rating: 4.67 / 5

Avg. Rating: 5.0 / 5

Off the Cuff-OnyxAshanti horny Blip

Avg. Rating: 5.0 / 5

Break It Down

Avg. Rating: 4.75 / 5

Avg. Rating: 5.0 / 5

Wish-OnyxAshanti Horny Blip

Avg. Rating: 4.67 / 5

lets get down tonight

About Me

Craft:
sound designer, musician, recording engineer
Instruments:
ewi (electronic wind instrument), alto saxophone, tenor saxophone, baritone saxophone, flute, trumpet, trombone, electric bass, synthesizer
Genres:
nu jazz, rhythm and blues (r&b), house, breakbeat, hip hop, funk (all)
Influences:
Bugz in the Attic, Basement Jaxx, Bjork, Timbaland, Gerald Albright, Kirk Whalum, David Sanborn, Parliament-Funkadelic, Stevie Wonder, The Neptunes, Reel People

Onyx Ashanti is of a generation of musician/artist born into a world samplers, hip hop, internet, cell phones and personal computers. Although his formative musical education was traditional (learning to play saxophone in a primary school music program), he has since transferred this aestetic into the present world of 21st century music performance. An amalgam of tradition and futurism he calls Beatjazz.

“Beatjazz is, in my mind, the natural offspring of jazz and electronic music. The devil is in the details though. When I say "jazz", I mean the concept of jazz. In my mind (all of this comes from my own personal artistic perspective unless otherwise noted), jazz is the art of improvisation. The ability to extrapolate abstract concepts with only minor guides; key, chord progression, tempo, style, etc. it is the ability to convey oneself in any artistic circumstance. side note; IMHO, jazz has been hi jacked, abused, raped and robbed of its power over time by various HWI's (hacks with instruments),

I view jazz as a technical concept rather than the stylistic one it has been saddled with for the last 40 years or so.

Now, when I use the term "Beat", I mean Rhythm, or rather computer generated rhythm. I do not mean to insinuate a stylistic connotation by its use. In other Words, by beat, I don’t mean hip hop OR drum n Bass OR house OR Breakbeat OR....I mean the common aspects of all of them.

"Beatjazz" therefore is a technical concept of rhythm-centric improvisation.”
“What struck me first was that, unlike say jazz, where you have a group of musicians who are extremely well synced with each other, or electronic music where a machine of program is playing preprogrammed parts, beatjazz was able to follow very odd tangents because each element is relative to each element that comes before it. All the parts became glued together much more intimately. But it also became a much more intensive style of music to create and play.

So now Beatjazz has reached a pinnacle where it is now a completely improvised artform, the artifacts of which i call "Blips" (unplanned arrangements from recordings of live improv performances), hopefully eventually becoming a recognized artistic tangent in itself.”

Extended

Band or Group:
Onyx Ashanti
Day Job:
full time digital media artist
Website:
www.myspace.com/onyxashantisinterstellarribshack

Working With Others

How I Work:

I try to be as helpful as possible. although i dont do sessions for free as a rule, I'm not expensive, i am up for the occasional public collab because this thing look really dope. so let see what we can create.

NOTE: all the sounds I use and create, are synthetic. please save all the stuff about "real" vs "synthetic". inquire based on liking my style of playing, arranging and mixing and wanting said style in your production. its a new world!!

Experience:

I have spent the last 10 or so years playing with various mostly house music artists, in clubs and in the studio and [yay for me...]have one grammy winning album on my list of accomplishments.
Soul II Soul
Basment Jaxx (grammy winning Kish Kash album)
Sir Piers
Julius Papp
Blacktroniks
Jaswho?
Ron Carroll
Samba La Casa
and a whole bunch of other artists that i am WAY too lazy to type...

Equipment:

yamaha WX5,
KRK rp5 monitors,
Reaper 64bit DAW (everyone should check this out! amazing amazing quality),
VL70m Physical modelling synth,
and a brand new core duo with a whold bunch of well used, well earned, software gadgetry.

Payments:
This user accepts PayPal for session payment

Comments

Kem kemgmel wrote on March 9, 2009:

Very refreshing! Amazing tracks you got here Onyx!!! Thanks!


SUNNY TUFF wrote on February 18, 2009:

Big up ONYX! Good sounds here...I'm vibin' on "let's get down tonight."....Keep up the Great work bredren!!
Sunny Tuff


Definitley sounds like Funk, House, Miami Bass.


Duane Abner wrote on August 30, 2008:

Onyx Man...you are playin' that wind with some serious. Your approach is so about your performance that I listen to you tell the story. Off The Cuff and My Inspiration have such great melody flights. I love how you take off in your solos like a seagull. Very satisfying and especially from your live approach.

Glad I listened to your current repertoire of music. Best of success to you Onyx.

Keep it up, Brah!!!
/-duaneea


Duane Abner wrote on August 30, 2008:

Wouch!!! I just got The Itis. I got "Itis-cized. Love that breakbomb ending O. A.!!!
I'll be checking you out for sure. Cool shot too.
P&E/ -duaneea


Duane Abner wrote on August 5, 2008:

Hey Onyx!!! You were one of the first players to collaborate with me when I joined Indaba over a year ago!!! Much continued success. You are an awesome player...note 4 note, solid style, and rank N file rhythms.
Thanks for the initiation.
Peace&Creativity/ -duaneea


CJ Lawrence wrote on July 20, 2008:

i really like what you are doing over there, its very nice music. please feel to stop through and check me out when you have a chance.- CJ Blow Musick


Allan L. wrote on June 15, 2008:

Wow this is great. Awesome sounds / playing / everything.


Brad Electro wrote on May 15, 2008:

So you use this site huh? What are my chances of finding a decent male West Indian reggae vocalist?? Can your wind controller do that? ;-)


Jussi S. wrote on May 12, 2008:

Hot and cool playing in "Changes". Great track, man.
--jussi


ANNE COZEAN wrote on September 27, 2007:

Let's Get Down Tonite - delicious!
amazing that all your sounds are "synthetic."
my socks are blown off and are across the room now.
nice work.
anne


DREAD DAZE peacein wrote on May 19, 2007:

great sounds

check us at
http://www.myspace.com/dreaddaze


Stan Furtovsky wrote on May 16, 2007:

Salut, Onyx
C'est Cool Music :) I like your tracks:) I'll post to you PM