EP 45: MFM Salutes 2022! - a podcast by Musicians For Musicians, MFM

"You inspire us to work hard to improve the service we do for the music community." 

In this episode of MFM Speaks Out, Dawoud Kringle offers a retrospective of the progress of the MFM Speaks Out podcast in 2022. The guests mentioned, and / or whose music was included, include Ken Butler, Ariel Hyatt, Neel Murgai, Banning Eyre, Baba Don Eaton Babatunde, William Parker, Bruce Lee Gallanter, Jeff Slatnick, Hubert Howe, and April Centrone.

The progress and accomplishments of MFM as a whole during the year 2022 were also briefly discussed. 

Topics discussed:

Our guest for episode 35 in January was musician, experimental musical instrument builder, and visual artist Ken Butler. He builds hybrid musical instruments and other artworks that explore the interaction and transformation of common and uncommon objects, altered images, sounds and silence.He is internationally recognized as an innovator of experimental musical instruments created from diverse materials including tools, sports equipment, and household objects.

February's episode 36 featured Ariel Hyatt. Ariel is a digital marketer, writer, and teacher who assists independent musicians in career development. She is the author of Music Success in 9 Weeks, Cyber PR For Musicians, Crowdstart, and other books. Hyatt worked at New York City's WNEW-FM, and the What Are Records? record label. She moved to Boulder CO, where she managed and handled publicity for the funk band, Lord of Word. She is also the founder and owner of the New York-based public relations firm Cyber PR. Her clients included the Toasters and George Clinton.

Neel Murgai was our 37th guest in March. Neel is a sitarist, overtone singer, percussionist, composer, teacher, and Co-Artistic Director of the Brooklyn Raga Massive, a raga inspired musician's collective.

Banning Eyre is a writer, guitarist and producer, and the senior editor and producer of the public radio program Afropop Worldwide.  He has traveled and done music research in over 20 African countries, as well as in the Caribbean, South America and Europe. His latest initiative is the launch of Lion Songs Records, an independent label dedicated to uplifting overlooked, mostly acoustic music from the African universe. He is the author of several books, and the co-author of AFROPOP! An Illustrated Guide to Contemporary African Music. Eyre is a contributor to National Public Radio’s All Things Considered, and his writing has been published in Billboard, Guitar Player, Salon, the Boston Phoenix, College Music Journal, Option, The Beat, Folk Roots, Global Rhythm, and other publications. He also has a background in technology, and worked for 10 years as a software technical writer. Eyre is also on the Advisory Committee of Musicians for Musicians.  

Baba Don Eaton Babatunde. He is a percussionist and master of African Drumming and the rhythms of the African Diaspora in the Americas. Baba Don has performed and recorded with Abidun Oyewole and The Last Poets, Pattie Labelle, Joe Henderson, Donald Brown, Jason Linder, Tyrone Jefferson, Tevin Thomas, James Spaulding, Ron Carter, George Clinton, Pharaoh Sanders, the Metropolitan Orchestra, Bill Laswell, and Philycia Rashadto name a few. His work with dance companies and choreographers includes The Dance Theatre of Harlem, Alvin Ailey Dance Theatre, Maurice Hines, Gregory Hines, Andy Williams, Chuck Davis Dance theatre, Frank Hatchet, Geoffrey Holder, Louis Johnson, and Pyramid Dance Company.

Episode 40 featured free jazz bass master William Parker. He has also performed and recorded with Cecil Taylor, Peter Brotzmann, Derek Bailey, John Zorn, Hamid Drake, Anthony Braxton, Milford Graves, Oliver Lake, Daniel Carter, Billy Bang, Andrew Cyrille, Matthew Shipp, Roy Campbell, Warren Smith, Joe McPhee, Roscoe Mitchell, Jemeel Moondoc, Joe Morris, Steve Swell, David S. Ware, Leena Conquest, and many others. He was the leader of the Little Huey Creative Music Orchestra and In Order to Survive, a member of the Other Dimensions in Music cooperative, and co-founder of the musician's non-profit organization Arts For Art. 

Our guest for episode 41 was Bruce Lee Gallanter, the owner and proprietor of Downtown Music Gallery (DMG), a Manhattan based music store that specializes in new, used, hard to find, and out of print CDs, Vinyl, DVDs, and books. DMG was started in 1991 by David Yamner & Steve Popkin, with Gallanter working for the store. They remained in their first location on east 4th street in Manhattan for 12 years until 2003, and started having weekly free concerts, an idea that Gallanter had started with Manny Maris when they worked at Lunch For Your Ears. Gallanter became the owner in 1997. Around the time. he and Emperor Mike started the DMG newsletter, In 2003, they moved into a new store on the Bowery, not far from St. Marks Place, Tower Records, and Other Music.

Jeff Slatnick was our 42nd guest. Jeff has been an employee and later the owner of Music Inn for over 54 years. Music Inn is one of the oldest music stores in New York City (second in longevity only to Sam Ash). It is a landmark music store in the West Village of NYC specializing in imported world and western instruments, rare and exotic music items, and records. Music Inn has been described as “a museum, rich with music history from around the world.” Music Inn is also the headquarters of Limulus, a company that designs and manufactures unique solid body string instruments. 

Hubert Howe graced the annals of our podcast as our 43rd guest. Hubert was one of the first researchers in computer music, and became Professor of Music and Director of the Electronic Music studios at Queens College in New York, where he was also Director of the Aaron Copland School of Music from 1989 to 1998, 2001 to 2002, and Autumn 2007. He taught at the Juilliard School from 1974 through 1994. In 1988-89 he held the Endowed Chair in Music at the University of Alabama. He has been a member of the Society of Composers, Inc. , President of the US section of the League of Composers / International Society of Contemporary Music, a member of the International Computer Music Association, and directed the International Computer Music Conference at Queens College, a member of Society for Electro-Acoustic Music, a member of BMI, and the American Composers Alliance since 1974 and served as their President from 2002 to 2011. He is a member of the New York Composer's Circle and has served as Executive Director since 2013. In 2009, he founded the New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival, and he continues as Director.

Our final guest for for 2022 was April Centrone. April Centrone is a multi-instrumentalist (specialising in the riqq, darbuka, frame drum, trap drum, and oud), co-founder of the New York Arabic Orchestra, teacher, composer, film producer and director, and music therapist. She is a Carnegie Hall World Explorer musician and educator, business owner and founder of 10PRL, arts/film/event space on the Jersey Shore. Shehas performed in venues such as the United Nations, NYC Opera House, Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, and has toured throughout Europe, the Americas, Middle East and Far East.

Music on this episode:

"Aurora" by Adam Reifsteck / Sonic Fear

"Building a Desert Blizzard" by Ken Butler

"Bagheshri Unbound" by Neel Murgai

"Today is a New Day" by Voyagers

"25 Years" by Abiodun Oyewole, featurning Baba Don Eaton

"Give Me Back My Drum" by William Parker

"Warm Arms to Hold You" by Dawoud the Renegade Sufi (a.k.a. Dawoud Kringle)

"Inharmonic Fantasy No. 7" by Hubert Howe

"New Moon" by April Centrone

"Welcome New Iran" by SoSaLa (a.k.a. Sohrab Saadat Ladjevardi)

(All music used by permission)

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