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KENNY MILLIONS has recorded many many LP's and CD’s of his songs and played many many gigs in many many musical styles: be-bop, swing, blues, classical, funk, punk rock, free jazz, turntablism, avant-garde and the blah blah. He has performed throughout America, Canada, Western and Eastern Europe, Japan, Africa, Russia and the former Soviet Union, and Central Asia. He established his reputation as a virtuoso performer of the sax, clarinet, flute and the mini guitar, AS WELL AS being a concert producer, poet, and restaurateur of a four star restaurant, the world famous Sushi Blues Cafe, which opened in 1989. Kenny was born and raised in a working class neighborhood on the West Side of Detroit to a family of Russian emigrants who worked at the Ford Motor Company. After graduating from Cass Tech High School and studying with Larry Teal and Donald Sinta on woodwind instruments, Kenny attended a few universities (Eastern Michigan Univ., Univ. Of Michigan, N.Texas State Univ.) with a major/minor in music and psychology, studied composition with Martin Mailman and went on the road. He lived for a short time in Dallas and San Francisco, then moving to New York City and becoming one of the original pioneers of the New York loft scene during the '70’s & '80's. Kenny also lived in Europe for five years and he now lives in Florida with his wife Junko Maslak. Over his many years of experience, Kenny has collaborated with many famous artists: Sam Rivers, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Curtis Fuller, Chet Baker, Stan Getz, Paul Bley, Mick Taylor, Lou Rawls, Eddy "The Chief" Clearwater, Dr. John, The "Original" Motown Stars, James Jamerson, Jon Hendriks, Steve Swallow, Larry Coryell, Derek Bailey, Fred Frith, Sunny Murray, Charles Moffett, Han Bennink, Misha Mengelberg, Rashied Ali, Frank Wright, John Lindberg, Akikazu Nakamura, Katsuyuki Itakura, Otomo Yoshihide, Dr. Umezu, Sergey Kuryokhin, Perry Robinson, Peter Brotzmann, Bill Laswell, Laurie Anderson, Philip Glass, Ray Anderson, Richard Davis, Jack DeJohnette, Rhys Chatham, Federico Britos, R.J. Spangler, Mr. Entertainment, Rat Bastard, Loved By Millions, Avant Polka Boys, etc... PRESS - "Burning guitar improvisations, loops and distortion, tenor sax skronk, an ululating clarinet, general insanity and a Las Vegas ending." "Poker-faced and rocking on his heels, Millions laid down a wall of electronic distortion, which he looped on a sampler and over which he then blew sax and clarinet. The sound was simply HUGE, as Millions reveled in the sonics he pulled from the guitar, activating various distortion pedals and creating industrial-grade grunge with a whammy bar. Always an intuitive and feel-motivated performer, Millions was obviously feeling the guitar...Of course, the horns did come into play, as Millions blew with tremendous force and utilized techniques he had honed playing alongside heavy avant-garde jazz cats such as Rahsaan Roland Kirk and Sam Rivers. But also ingrained in his sensibility are the examples of the great blues and R&B honkers he had seen and heard growing up in Detroit, the ones who put a premium on keeping audiences entertained. And certainly, Millions did just that, as he dropped to his knees, mumbled obscenities into his mouthpiece, rhythmically beat the guitar slung at his side, spat water onto the concrete floor in front of the stage and ultimately collapsed into a catatonic heap on the lip of the stage, his eyes glassy, his guitar buzzing." "I'm torn between the mini-guitar and the sax. Both were obliteratingly awesome." "At one point Millions played a tiny guitar, hooked up to sound like crashing cymbals. After he put the instrument down, he continued to torture it, even shooting rubber bands at the strings to produce still more sounds. In the often deadly serious milieu of jazz, it's refreshing to hear a player whose wit surpasses his ego...an Absurdist, a Dadaist, a Beatnik, sure. But most of all a punk. And even though that voice can be somewhat schizophrenic, lovely and passionate, then discordant and mocking, it's ultimately the voice of a creative soul. And that creative soul is having a helluva good time." New Times Magazine "Kenny Millions believes that modern jazz must have a sense of humor. His outsider status in the avant community (probably self-imposed) comes from his utter lack of musical sobriety. His music, like that of Han Bennink, Misha Mengelberg, and Willem Breuker relies heavily on entertaining smiles and surprise, a concept not foreign to jazz. Louis Armstrong was known go into an alternative character and tell jokes during a show, as did Dizzy Gillespie who was possessed with a lifetime of physical comedy on stage. But like all things in this puritanical American society jazz began to suffer from the serious art form syndrome, and it's serious young men rejected Satchmo in favor of higher art." All About Jazz "There's no doubt that Millions can play his ass off. He is a badass saxophonist with a wicked sense of humor". All Music Guide "This saxophonist, who's more R & B terrorist than avant-garde extremist, blows hot enough to peel paint." Tower Records.com "Maslak hates predictability, so he always hopes that a live performance won't reflect any of his album work. His solo playing throws diverse raw materials into an exhaustively linear chewing-over process, his logical lines uncoiling like a giant's intestine, his atonal practices filtered through a wailing blues haze". Birmingham Post (England) "Kenny is Loved By Millions". Miami Herald "His music is creative terrorism, with an eclectic style that charms the metropolis". Swing Journal (Japan) "I have never talked to someone quite as outspoken as Kenny Millions, once known as Keshavan Maslak. Whatever he is Millions is two things, honest and one hell of a saxophone player. He plays other instruments too, but they are of little interest to me. His resume is impressive, including Paul Bley, Charles Moffett, Misha Mengelberg and Han Bennink, easily proving my point. He is about as anti-establishment as possible and that just wins him over more in my book. He does it all on his own, own label, own club, own website, own way. I like". www.jazzweekly.com "Millions' penchants for sound generation are almost beyond parallel. You might say this is one of free jazz's best possible directions today. It ís not overhyper or madly caterwauling. It shows enormous thoughtfulness for the partnership at hand. Millions' clarinet is as serene as his tenor sax is blunt and blustery. Take this in fearlessly." Victory Review "An eccentric, avant-gardish saxophonist who undertakes to actually entertain rather than alienate". All Music Guide "Kenny Millions has that twisted sense of humor..." Downtown Music Gallery "Kenny, you are one of the kind. Most of the "free" music bores me but yours don't. It's because you don't fake, you don't pretend and do shit on people's head". Yoko Noge, Nikkei Shinbun News "Like his music, Kenny Millions is sunny without being sun-baked, open minded without being empty headed". Perfect Sound Forever Magazine "Maybe one day this massive talent will give audiences in his own back yard a little taste". Miami New Times Magazine "...an inspirational foil to Maslak's sometimes touching, sometimes bombastic forays...It's the kind of kaleidoscopic music that subtly shifts on each hearing...musical Americana meets Lenny Bruce?" Downbeat Magazine "Maslak has the spirit of the avant-garde dadaist...brilliant and hilarious". Orkhestra International (France) "Maslak is not beyond wacky histrionics to augment the music. This year he alternately 'sang in tongues' and donned a blue pillowcase over his head, while playing a miniature electric guitar, for that special hypnagogic-avant garde effect". Orlando Reporter "He's pulling out lounge and noir jazz clichs and turning them into soulful expressions of sax savvy. His tone is rich and full on the alto; his scalar knowledge is such that he could play "Cherokee" in all 12 keys; and the cat's arpeggios are in the pocket, tight and soaring." All Music Guide "Sometimes Kenny played the role of a rock star and shouted in the microphone, also he made gymnastic exercises with his guitar and hit it with a towel". Prospect Mira (Russia) "...determinedly idiosyncratic..." The Times of London "...The Nicholas Payton Quintet just suffered in comparison to saxophonist Kenny Millions’ fresh and witty Mad Giants Of Jazz the night before..." City Link Magazine "Keshavan doesn't seem to worry about the ponderous intellectual issues of Art, he's having a great time mixing it all together..." Jazz Forum (Poland) "Maslak is a master of the saxophone". Jazz Now Magazine (Holland) "Maslak was a revelation". Jazz Journal International (England) "Back in January, the Birmingham Jazz AGM was followed by the year's strangest gig, a solo performance from Keshavan Maslak. Also known as the enigmatic Kenny Millions, he's a saxophonist, a drummer (usually at the same time) and all-round silver lurex jacketed provocateur. Millions held the audience captive to his showdown approach, barging from free jazz squeals to R&B honks, adding a welcome dose of bitter, bilious humour, forcing avant garde medicine down the throat of a tuxedo-ed restaurant entertainer". Martin Longley (England) "Keshavan whose tone as so intense it could make one's bridgework ache sympathetically...he underlined the pain and terror those r&b tenors testified to in the middle of their strutting...for Keshavan is attempting a synthesis as dangerous and as perversely thrilling as American immigration itself". Village Voice "Music as fervent and lyrical and fiercely comic as Maslak figures to go on making in one context or another come thick or thin is enough to make hope spring eternal in even the most disillusioned of hearts". In The Moment (the book by Francis Davis) "A talented but slightly enigmatic figure". Penguin Guide to Jazz RAVES - "A true artist only drives a Mercedes Benz." "I don't have any gigs for you and neither does anyone else. Make your own joint and give yourself a gig." "I'm a nice guy up to a point but when club owners don't show respect than I tell them all to stick it up their ass. I know both sides of this business, as a musician and as a club owner. Sometimes club owners have to try harder on their end, but with the musicians being assholes, the club owners will take advantage. It's not the musicians problem when no one shows up. It's the club owners responsibility. As a club owner and as a band leader I always have paid the agreeded upon guaranteed price with hotel and dinner included even when I couldn't afford to do so." "Life is too short to worry about what style of music I will play" question: "What kind of music will people listen to in a hundred years?" answer: "The music that appeals to people's emotions. The music that will endure will have melodic and emotional content. In the end, people want to hear a good melody. They want to feel the music. It's not just a head trip. I don't care what some musicians do on stage, how much they want to freak out. Put it this way: when you go back into human history, into early civilization, what was music about? Simple melody, simple rhythm, simple harmony. Those are the things that endure, not the intellectual, cerebral, mental masturbations." "Play music with a positive spirit and people will respond to you in a like manner. The performance of music should be a spiritual experience and not some hype-ego-career-hustle. The style of music in which one chooses to express oneself does not guarantee a spiritual experience. Any style of music can be a sincere statement coming from the heart. Jazz and all of it's derivatives does not have exclusive rights for the enlightenment of the soul, but jazz can be freedom for the soul." "At some point in our lives we all are pushed down with our faces in the mud so that eventually we will have something to say that no one can take away." "entertainment is not evil. to call oneself an entertainer is not wrong. entertainers are much needed in an increasing volatile world. the reality of any mature successful performer (including all forms of jazz performers) is to call oneself an entertainer. free yourself and transcend the self-imposed prison of titles and word games. art is self-sufficient and has no need of politics and religion. art works best alone. "I left the girl there," said the Zen master Tanzan. "Are you still carrying her?" "Great music will always survive and record companies will die away." "The more notes you play the less you will get paid." "Good music does not sell and will even sell less these days.....But I only do it for the love of it (and self therapy) and what else can I do....? So I keep on going in spite of the total lack of interest from the phoney music business world. When I was starting out on the scene over 40 years ago there was hope to have a career in the jazz world. That's changed. I'm dealing with this dilemma every day - so how do I find inspiration from this void? I keep on trying." "My story
is not
typical, but I was determined to express my one and only self. I
didn't copy anybody. One has to find oneself privately. It
hasn't been easy but it has been extremely interesting. I find
great joy in knowing that I choose to live my life not as a
cliché." 
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