...called by The Guardian "one of the 10 best around the world". We'd all be grateful for a pipeline, a channel, a link, from your world into all of this... Truth of the matter is, this is your world too.
Bio:
Terrace Martin is a notable musician, rapper and producer from the city of Los Angeles and from the beginning of his career he has lent his skills to artists such as Kendrick Lamar, Quincy Jones, Snoop Dogg, 9th Wonder, Talib Kweli and many, many others.
Shattering the acknowledged rules of hip-hop production, he samples everything from funk to jazz to classical to create fresh and original tracks. His productions have made him one of the most sought after producers from the streets of Los Angeles to across the country. His father was a jazz musician, while his mother was a gospel singer, destining him for a life in music.
“I grew up in the middle with only hip-hop,” Martin says. “My parents taught me that there’s only good and bad music.” He began playing the piano at the age of six and at age 13, a friend encouraged Terrace to take up the saxophone and he did, finding one for $150 and learning to play it by himself. His Godfather Stemz Hunter, also a saxophonist, suggested Terrace enroll at Santa Monica High School to sharpen his musical chops. He walked in not knowing what a scale was and soon found himself practicing up to seven hours a day.
Martin made a decision to transfer to Locke High, an LAUSD school with a tough reputation within an earshot of gang-ridden Watts where the artistically-inclined gravitated. While attending Locke High, under the auspice of Reggie Andrews, Martin became first chair of the All-State jazz band.
As a child prodigy, Martin gained the interest of talk show host Jay Leno who provided a $30,000 scholarship and purchased Martin’s first professional saxophone. Fresh out of high school, Martin attended Cal Arts but decided school was not for him and opted, instead, to go professional. Martin was not only recognized by Hollywood and music industry elites, he also found favor in the jazz world where world-renowned jazz musician, Billy Higgins made Martin a member of his World Stage All-Stars playing in the historic Leimert Park. From World Stage, Martin began touring with Puff Daddy and God's Property, presented by Kirk Franklin.
“I didn’t believe in suffering to play, like why do musicians gotta suffer to play? Eating Top Ramen isn’t cool. I wanted to be mainstream.” With that mentality guiding him, Terrace worked hard to get his beats placed for major artists’ albums. He scored a minor hit with 213’s “Joystick,” and went on to land beats on the Doggfather’s “Rhythm and Gangsta: The Masterpiece” and “Ego Trippin” albums.
Martin came from behind the board when he released his first project, The Demo and since has released a number of critically acclaimed masterpieces.
Martin’s projects feature many guest appearances from the peers and mentors he has worked with who have lent their expertise to encourage the budding artist’s career. That includes verses and production from the likes of Snoop Dogg, Kendrick Lamar, Wiz Khalifa, Pete Rock, DJ Quik, Kurupt, and plenty of others. In late 2010, Terrace Martin and radio personality Devi Dev released the EP "Here, My Dear”, inspired by Marvin Gaye's critically acclaimed 1978 album of the same name. The EP has appearances from Snoop Dogg, Charlie Wilson, Kurupt, Problem, Kendrick Lamar and pianist Kenneth Crouch.
In 2010, he executive-produced Kurupt’s “Streetlights” album and formed a group called Melrose with LA underground rap hero Murs that put out a self-titled album in early 2011. In 2012, Martin released a number of highly regarded projects, and in 2013 he graced the airwaves with his first highly anticipated independent release, 3 Chord Fold, a fusion project that brings together some of music’s best, hitting fans with a vibe reminiscent of his 2009 release Hear, My Dear. 3ChordFold: Remixed was subsequently released at the end of 2013 and the three chords were completed with the release of 3ChordFold: Pulse in Spring 2014, which featured many live performances with guest appearances by Robert Glasper, Thundercat and more. Pulse also included new original tracks. Martin released his latest project, Velvet Portraits in April of 2016 and has launched a supergroup, The Pollyseeds, whose album, Sounds of Crenshaw Vol 1 will be released on July 14th.
While spending time with numerous luminaries in the studio, Terrace is one of the few artists in hip-hop who seamlessly works with underground, emerging and established artists; often on the same song. And it’s something he’s proud of. “To me, I just bridge the dope people with the dope people,” says Martin. His position in hip-hop music is unbridled, but it is his jazz musicianship that separates his sound from his peers.
From jazz to hip-hop, Martin’s role models include Miles Davis, Charlie Parker, Jackie McLean, John Coltrane, Herbie Hancock, Sonny Stitt, Grover Washington, Jr., Dr. Dre, DJ Quik, Battlecat, Premier, Pete Rock, and 1580 K-Day. “I started producing hip-hop tracks because it was the music of my time, but I never lost my love for jazz.” Martin says.
Terrace Martin is currently a staff producer for legendary Quincy Jones, Snoop Dogg, Wiz Khalifa, Top Dawg Entertainment (Kendrick Lamar and Schoolboy Q) where he has lent his talents heavily to the critically acclaimed and highly anticipated To Pimp A Butterfly. He works closely with DJ Mustard and YG and continues to work closely with his mentor, Dr. Dre. Terrace can also be found performing with his live band for his growing fan base.
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The Matrix is pathways, originating in the sprawling cultural matrix of Brazil (Indigenous, African, Sephardic and then Ashkenazik, Arab, European, Asian...), integrating cultural matrixes planetwide.
Matrix ground zero is the Recôncavo of Bahia...virtually unknown center of gravity circumscribing Bahia's Bay of All Saints...end of voyage for more enslaved human beings than any other such throughout all of human history...birthplace of some of the most physically & spiritually uplifting music ever made. Many countries are happier than Brazil, but none are more joyous.
"Dear Sparrow: I am thrilled to receive your email! Thank you for including me in this wonderful matrix."
—Susan Rogers: Personal recording engineer for Prince, inc. "Purple Rain", "Sign o' the Times", "Around the World in a Day"... Director of the Berklee Music Perception and Cognition Laboratory
I'm Pardal here in Brazil (that's "Sparrow" in English). The deep roots of this project are in Manhattan, where Allen Klein (managed the Beatles and The Rolling Stones) called me about royalties for the estate of Sam Cooke... where Jerry Ragovoy (co-wrote Time is On My Side, sung by the Stones; Piece of My Heart, Janis Joplin of course; and Pata Pata, sung by the great Miriam Makeba) called me looking for unpaid royalties... where I did contract and licensing for Carlinhos Brown's participation on Bahia Black with Wayne Shorter and Herbie Hancock...
...where I rescued unpaid royalties for Aretha Franklin (from Atlantic Records), Barbra Streisand (from CBS Records), Led Zeppelin, Mongo Santamaria, Gilberto Gil, Astrud Gilberto, Airto Moreira, Jim Hall, Wah Wah Watson (Melvin Ragin), Ray Barretto, Philip Glass, Clement "Sir Coxsone" Dodd for his interest in Bob Marley compositions, Cat Stevens/Yusuf Islam and others...
...where I worked with Earl "Speedo" Carroll of the Cadillacs (who went from doo-wopping as a kid on Harlem streetcorners to top of the charts to working as a janitor at P.S. 87 in Manhattan without ever losing what it was that made him special in the first place), and with Jake and Zeke Carey of The Flamingos (I Only Have Eyes for You)... stuff like that.
Yeah this is Bob's first record contract, made with Clement "Sir Coxsone" Dodd of Studio One and co-signed by his aunt because he was under 21. I took it to Black Rock to argue with CBS' lawyers about the royalties they didn't want to pay (they paid).
MATRIX MUSICAL
The Matrix was built below among some of the world's most powerfully moving music, some of it made by people barely known beyond village borders. Or in the case of Sodré, his anthem A MASSA — a paean to Brazil's poor ("our pain is the pain of a timid boy, a calf stepped on...") — having blasted from every radio between the Amazon and Brazil's industrial south, before he was silenced (that's me below left, with David Dye & Kim Junod for U.S. National Public Radio) ... The Matrix started with Sodré, with João do Boi, with Roberto Mendes, with Bule Bule, with Roque Ferreira... music rooted in the sugarcane plantations of Bahia. Hence our logo (a cane cutter).