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Kerwin Young a/k/a King Kasuf
SHORT & MODEST BIO:
At the dawn of the 21st century, peoples and cultures are in contact as never before. New expressive languages are being created that speak across cultures, ages, and disciplines. What music is being made out of this convergence? Composer Kerwin Young is writing music linking ritual with the concert hall, the avantgarde with ancient spirituality, and -- to the babble of the computer age -- bringing the stillness of nature. His works range from afro-beat to the teachings of Ziryab, encompass the visual and dramatic arts, and express a common humanity. Kerwin Young is an ambassador to the arts, high priest, geometric khemist (one who manipulates mensural frequencies via hertz, ohms and decibels), ethno-musicologist, instrumentalist, recording producer, recording artist, writer on aesthetics and music theory, martial artist, and naturalist. Kerwin Young's primary interest is in creating works that reach a new and diverse audience and which break the boundaries between classical and non-classical, East and West, avant-garde and indigenous art forms.
Though largely self-taught, Kerwin Young is recognised for his skill in the subtle manipulation of instrumental and orchestral timbre, drawing from a wide range of influences, in a harmonic idiom uniquely his own. Having received some instructions in composition from his father, Donald E. Young, Quincy Jones and Alvin Singleton, Kerwin has been mostly influenced by the works of William Grant Still, Halim El Dabh, Lalo Schifrin, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, J.J. Johnson, Alice Coltrane, Thom Bell, Sun Ra, Gil Evans, Claude Debussy, Maurice Ravel, and John Mackey.
Central to his body of work, Kerwin Young has composed distinct series of works which reflect his individual compositional concepts and personal ideas. Among these works are:
Symphony No. 1 "Ancient Empire", Symphony No. 2 "The City of Kasuf", Up In the Bandiagara Cliffs, 42 Thousand Feet Beneath the Sahara, Tales of a Fon Griot, Kalakuta Republic, Khepresh (Blue Crown of the Nile), Road to Wa'set, In a Kingdom Made of Glass, and Rituals of the Abominable Dr. Phibes
Presently based in Altanta, Georgia, Kerwin Young was born in New York City. It was at the tender age of three, that Kerwin began his music studies. At nine years of age, he began studying alto saxophone with Thomas Maliszewski,
at Nassau Lutheran School. By the age of twelve, Kerwin was more interested in rap music, which he had been introduced to in 1977, before rap records existed. In 1984, Kerwin began to dee-jay and sell mix tapes in school. Within the next four years, the impresario would find himself spinning records professionally, in a Long Island night-club known as the Spectrum Cafe. To top this off, in 1988, Kerwin was initiated into the production team of the infamous rap group Public Enemy, known as the Bomb Squad. This was to become the beginning of a profession that was truly meant to be.
Intertwined with his wonderful musical career, Kerwin Young has served as an assistant to the reknowned ethnobotanist Dr. Anthony Kweku Andoh (2003-2007), and has also studied advanced martial arts under the tutelege of Grandmaster Ronald Duncan, Grandmaster Shoto Tanemura, Carlos Esquilen, Felix Vasquez, Robert Hernandez, Louis Scotti, and Grandmaster Wally Jay. As a result of these great experiences, Kerwin has become somewhat of a naturalist.
Rejected by the Paris Conservatory in 2002, for reasons of being too old, Kerwin transformed his home into his own music conservatory, and has continued composing more intently, compiling an enormous body of original works. Becoming somewhat of a renegade scholar, Kewin once stated in an interview, "I don't need the consent of approval by any individual or university to validate my level of intelligence; my works are proof enough,......they are the texts of tomorrow, and as I live, I am a university."
Film and Television Credits for which Kerwin has composed original music include: Green Card (1990),
Sister Act 2 (1992), Streetfighter (1994), New York Undercover (1994), Tar (1997), He Got Game (1998),
Mixing Nia (1998), Girl Friends (2000), Ahead of the Game (2002), The Chip Factor (2006), Flavor of Love (2006), Ocean's 7-11 (2008), and Shake (2008).
A partial listing of recording artists that Kerwin has produced and collaborated with include:
Public Enemy, Angie Stone, Ashanti, Bobby Brown, Tevin Campbell, Khari Lemuel, The James Brown Band,
Bootsy Collins, George Clinton, Roy Haynes, Kenny Gamble & Leon Huff, Busta Rhymes, Ice Cube,
The Jimi Hendrix Foundation, Mobb Deep, Eric B. & Rakim, Luke Skywalker and the 2 Live Crew,
The Booze, and the list continues.
As a recording artist under the name of Kasuf and the Mazz Muvement, Kerwin has recorded and produced 6 albums. The albums are Blackopolis (1999)
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, Miles Away (1999)
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, Badder Than Evil (2000)
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, Black Gods in Space (2001)
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, My Soul Has Been Exposed (2002)
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, and Return of the Monk (coming at you in 2008). Kasuf and the Mazz Muvement are currently distributed by dPulse/Ingrooves/NEO/SONY-BMG.
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