C.J. Boyd

CJ Boyd (b. 1979) is a bassist and composer without a fixed home. Born in Santa Maria, California, United States and having resided in cities around the United States and Europe, he and his music are always moving. He has been touring and releasing recordings since 2001.

Equal parts ambient and virtuosic, melancholic and playful, CJ Boyd’s bass playing melts glaciers, creating a sea of low, flowing rhythms, while also supplying melodies that soar over the ocean to melt the sun itself. Waves of bass loops are garnished with harmonica drones and constant improvisational exploration. This is deep-sea-diving for the hungry and alone. While certainly following in the footstep of great bassists like Charles Mingus and Edgar Meyer, Boyd's aesthetic sensibility also seeks to wed the minimalism of Steve Reich and Philip Glass with what mightbe called the maximalism of Ludwig van Beethoven chamber music. But all this is further complicated by the presence of Boyd's improvisational prowess. Not funky, not a bassplayer's bassplayer exactly, but something refreshing and impressive - improvising with fingers that only know how to dance to the deepest tunes. One thinks Nietzsche might have had CJ in mind when he said, "Maturity consists in regaining the seriousness one had as a child at play." This is childsplay for the experienced listener.

CJ Boyd has a group called The Kirtan Choir, formerly known as The CJ Boyd Sexxxtet.

http://www.cjboyd.com

User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License and may also be available under the GNU FDL....

READ MORE