Indiegogo is committed to accessibility. If you have difficulty using our site, please contact support@indiegogo.com for assistance or view our accessibility notice by clicking here

This campaign is closed

Folk Songs, Jazz Journeys

Funding my 3rd CD of original compositions & jazz settings of melodies from diverse folk traditions.

You may also be interested in

Closed
Closed
Closed
Closed
Closed

Folk Songs, Jazz Journeys

Folk Songs, Jazz Journeys

Folk Songs, Jazz Journeys

Folk Songs, Jazz Journeys

Folk Songs, Jazz Journeys

Funding my 3rd CD of original compositions & jazz settings of melodies from diverse folk traditions.

Funding my 3rd CD of original compositions & jazz settings of melodies from diverse folk traditions.

Funding my 3rd CD of original compositions & jazz settings of melodies from diverse folk traditions.

Funding my 3rd CD of original compositions & jazz settings of melodies from diverse folk traditions.

Alex Martin
Alex Martin
Alex Martin
Alex Martin
1 Campaign |
Mount Rainier, United States
$5,905 USD 40 backers
73% of $8,000 Flexible Goal Flexible Goal
Choose your Perk

Album download

$10 USD
Est. Shipping
October 2020
1 claimed

Physical CD

$20 USD
Est. Shipping
November 2020
3 claimed

Physical CD (signed)

$25 USD
Est. Shipping
November 2020
12 claimed

Alex's Discography

$75 USD
Est. Shipping
November 2020
5 out of 40 of claimed

Guitar lesson (1)

$80 USD
Est. Shipping
November 2020
0 out of 5 of claimed

Guitar lessons (4)

$250 USD
Est. Shipping
November 2020
1 out of 4 of claimed

Record on your next CD

$450 USD
Est. Shipping
November 2020
1 out of 2 of claimed

Solo house concert

$500 USD
Est. Shipping
November 2020
0 out of 4 of claimed

Duo house concert

$1,000 USD
Est. Shipping
November 2020
1 out of 2 of claimed

Philanthropy

$2,000 USD
Est. Shipping
November 2020
1 claimed

For a society so diverse, we in the United States have a curiously constrained, and constraining, notion of folk music. My goal for my next album, Folk Songs, Jazz Journeys, is to explore beyond the limits of those conceptions, and to bring you along on the trip. As you will hear, my notion of what constitutes “folk music” is expansive, crossing many borders, so we’ll travel far.

As a jazz guitarist and composer born in Brittany, the Celtic region of western France, and raised mostly in Piedmont North Carolina, I have always been drawn to both tradition and innovation in music. The more I listen to and the deeper I immerse myself in my home traditions and others, especially those of Brazil and West Africa, the more I realize that tradition and innovation are far from opposites: traditional music, at its best, is relentlessly innovative, and jazz, a genre often thought of as pure innovation, continually renews itself by drawing on its core African and Caribbean traditions and, increasingly, those of other cultures as well.

In my musical projects and performances these days I am working not just with the familiar jazz trio of guitar, bass, and drums but also with singer-songwriters and musicians from West African and Indian classical traditions who bring instruments like balafon and tabla to my original compositions and arrangements of folk melodies. The three tracks I have already recorded for Folk Songs, Jazz Journeys—the Appalachian ballad “Wayfaring Stranger”; my setting of “Viceversa,” a poem by the Uruguayan writer Mario Benedetti; and “Postal de Bata,” which I wrote after a trip to Equatorial Guinea—are first steps in these explorations and feature vocalist and songwriter Maya Rogers, bassist Tyler Sherman, drummer Keith Butler Jr., and multi-instrumentalist Uasuf Gueye on balafon (West African marimba).

Other compositions and arrangements will cover a similarly wide range and draw on the talents of some of the Washington, DC, area’s finest musicians approaching jazz from diverse perspectives. For example, my arrangement of “Asa branca,” one of the most famous songs from the folk tradition of rural northeastern Brazil, will feature friends from DC’s Brazilian jazz and popular music scene (some of whom I recorded with on my first CD, Nostalgia da Terra Incógnita [2007]), as will my composition “Triângulo,” inspired by the same tradition of northeast Brazilian forró. My arrangement of “Le temps des cerises,” a nineteenth-century French song long associated with resistance to oppression, is an homage to my French grandmother, who learned it as a young woman in Nazi-occupied Paris. My composition “The Kudzu, the Dust, and You” is a blues ballad that recalls the dirt-road landscapes of my North Carolina childhood. I also plan to include an arrangement of a Breton Celtic melody on this recording.

I already have been blessed by many creative and supportive hands as we begin to bring this project to life. By adding yours, you will enable a unique set of musical confluences to reach a broader public, through the physical CD, streaming sites, and the increased performance opportunities that a new recording can make possible. The energy in the studio recording the first three tracks was unlike any I’d felt in my musical career. Songwriter jazz? Jazz balafon? Something new here wants to be born. Please join me in bringing it into the world.

What the Project Needs & What You Get

To help me complete this project, I am setting a flexible campaign goal of $8,000. The costs break down as follows:

  • Studio costs (musicians; recording and mixing at Sound Pool Studios in Brentwood, MD; mastering): $6,750
  • Photography and video (for CD, for song videos): $1,000
  • CD replication and distribution: $1,000
  • Design (artwork for CD): $750
  • Fees: $750

SUBTOTAL: $10,250

My own funds already spent: $2,250

CAMPAIGN GOAL: $8,000

A number of perks are available at different giving levels. These include Folk Songs, Jazz Journeys itself (as a physical CD or digital download); “complete works” packages including Folk Songs, Second Life, and Nostalgia for Terra Incógnita; guitar lessons (in person if you’re in the DC area or via Skype); and house concerts. If you would like to contribute without receiving a perk, or you would like to contribute a different amount, just click on the "Back It" button.

I am committed to completing this project even if this campaign does not reach its dollar goal. I plan to apply for a grant and have some personal savings I can draw down if necessary. Not reaching the dollar goal may delay the completion of the project (and thus the delivery of perks), but it will not prevent it.

Meet the Musicians

Here are the incredibly talented friends who recorded the first three tracks with me, in photos from the recording session:

Maya Rogers, vocals

She just finished her first CD of original songs, The Gathering. A voice that warms the soul.

 

Tyler Sherman, bass

Coproducer, with Maya, of The Gathering, and just graduated from the MFA Composition program at the Vermont College of Fine Arts! Arranger for a Marvin Gaye tribute at the Kennedy Center last year.

 

Keith Butler Jr., drums

His trio CD Greener Grasses (2019) features all original compositions. I love his playing: he paints the landscapes.

 

Uasuf Gueye, balafon (“Postal de Bata”)

Strathmore Artist-in-Residence. If you’ve never heard balafon and ngoni blended with jazz and hip hop, check out his next show. And like the West African griots he’s studied with, he makes his own instruments!

 

Sven Abow, recording engineer

We recorded at his Sound Pool Studios in Brentwood, MD. Google the German word Gemütlichkeit and that would basically be Sven: without losing his careful attention to detail, he always puts you at ease so creation can happen. Also the drummer for Proverbs reggae band and other groups in the DC area.

Looking for more information? Check the project FAQ
Need more information
Let us know if you think this campaign contains prohibited content.

You may also be interested in

Up Caret