Nick Rosen

Nick Rosen and Miles Bonny

I had the pleasure of meeting singer Miles Bonny through Anthony Valadez, I immediately connected with him as a person and artist. We ended up doing a impromptu concert with him on vocals and trumpet and me on cello the day we met for some of the KCRW in Anthony’s living room. Miles then stayed at my place the next day and we worked on some new songs and listened to vinyl/talked about life for a long time. We have been e-mailing a bunch and are getting ready to work on some new material once Miles settles in the new house he is building off the grid in New Mexico. The other day Miles was coming back form Australia and had a three hour lay over in LA so I met him and Anthony at Venice Beach and we had a little jam session and made a video of it. I am looking forward to working with Miles way more this year and it is always such a blessing to be able to connect with and be inspired by people such as him. Below are videos of the concert and the video we made. Enjoy.

http://antvala.wordpress.com/2013/03/04/miles-bonny-live-on-the-venice-boardwalk/

http://antvala.wordpress.com/2012/09/03/live-from-my-living-room-miles-bonny/

Some stuff I’ve played on

I did a lot of recording last year for various projects, most of the material is slated for release later this year. Here are a few of my favorites of stuff that came out last year:

Matt White-Peter Pan (electric bass)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-sY2Oe7IYQ

Anthony Valadez-Looking Backwards (upright bass/keys/guitar)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EM8FrCM_pGI

Kris Allen-Fighters (produced/bass/guitar/keys/backing vocals)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nfrhfpw1VBw

LP-Halo (upright bass/arranger)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6X0PqIWfzQ

Roots

I have been blessed to have worked with some really amazing artists and people in my youth and to have been mentored by so many of them. One of the experiences that shaped me most was getting to be a member (the 2nd white member ever) of the Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkesrta. The Ark had been founded by Horace Tapscott in Watts in the 1960s to promote community and the music of African-American composers and to play for the communities and people that needed it the most. The group played all original music and arrangements and was truly a band of the people for the people. Many of my favorite musicians such as Sonship Theus, Azar Lawrence, Nate Morgan and Al Hines all were long time members of the Ark. I fell in love with the music of Horace and the Ark when I was about 15 and I was lucky to get to study with Roberto Miguel Miranda, one of the founding members and bassists, while I was in high school. Through Roberto I learned most of the music that the Ark played and studied everything about the group. When I started college, Jesse Sharps who was another one of my mentors and a pivotal band leader and composer for the Ark, asked me to come play with the Ark. For the next 5 years I played with them every week rehearsing on 112th and Hoover at the home of Kafi Roberts. I got to meet so many incredible people and play so much great music and had to grow up musically and personally to be able to hang with this kind of crowd. I will forever cherish being a part of the Ark and its amazing community of people. Below is clip of a show we did for the LACMA Friday jazz series.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7lfSqNN4nIE

musical inspirations

As 2013 starts I am thinking about how lucky I am to have had so many amazing musical mentors throughout my life to help raise me as a artist and a person. One person that forever changed my life was the incredible Henry Grimes. I met Henry in 2002 and was lucky enough to be a part of his comeback to the musical community after a 35 year absence. I studied with Henry for a little over a year, he would stay with me and my mom, come to school with me, I’d go to his place by Skid Row, but we were always talking about life, improvising, building strength, balance, and many other topics. The year that I spent with Henry forever changed me and helped shape who I am today and no matter what kind of music I am involved in I will always take to heart what he taught and remember all the amazing moments that I was able to have with him. One of the highlights was for my senior project in High School my school paid for me to go with Henry to NYC to make his debut playing in the city again after his break being the featured guest with the William Parker big band. At the rehearsal William heard me play and asked me to play with the band at the show. It was my first time playing in NYC and I got to play and meet so many amazing people. WIlliam also became one of my mentors over the next few years. I will never forget this concert, Billy Bang has now passed as have some of the other musicians in the band and it really was a very magical concert for all involved.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOnXEJjNQfA

2012 Recap

2012 was a truly incredible year,

looking back at all the amazing moments from the past year here are a few of my favorites:

Musical director/arranger/upright bass for LP grammy foundation performance:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hfrldVSgx1Q

I’ve had the pleasure of doing a ton of work with LP over the past few years and this was a really special show that we did back in Feb, 2012. I arranged the Radiohead tune “Creep” for her and a all-star band and we got a standing ovation. Thanks to Darrell Brown for making this happen.

Performing with Feist at Coachella:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onG7GL_eTPE

Feist is one of my all time favorite artists and it was such a pleasure to play bass with her at Coachella 2012. It is looking like I will be doing some more with her this year and I couldn’t be more excited 

musical director/bassist for KES at Sayers Club show:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6-KkK711oQ

KES is a really amazing artist from Trinidad and I got to put a band together/play bass for him for a very special show we did at Sayers. His energy is incredible and Im hoping to do lots more with him in the future.

Musical director/bassist for Midian:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmwjDJ66oq8

Midian is a new artist that came out in 2012, I put a band together for her and produced and wrote some tunes for her. She is starting to get a nice buzz and I hope she does a lot of big things. This was from a live video shoot for vh1.com we did, her band is so much fun to play with and I love this tune.

Musical director for Rumer Willis for SLS Miami opening:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXRURmkB1bE

Rumer is a artist I am working on developing and will be doing a ton of stuff with in 2013. I brought her and her really incredible band to Miami to perform at the opening of the SLS hotel on south beach. The crowd was blown away by her and I think everyone is excited to hear more from her in 2013.

Other highlights that I couldn’t find videos for were shows with Stevie Wonder and Prince at Sayers Club, performing on Jimmy Kimmel as MD/bassist with LP and getting to work with a ton of amazing artists in the studio. I can’t wait to see what 2013 brings,

peace,

Nick 

Update

Been awhile since updating this blog, Ive been pretty busy with tons of sessions MDing a few new artists and still doing tons at the Sayers club and with Jason Scoppa. I have been doing tons of fun studio work lately with some really great artists and writers, one of my favorites being Liz Rodrigues (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AplMICLMdr4), so many new tracks that I can’t wait to release into the world. I have a good amount of cuts that should be seeing the light in 2013 with some great albums. Coming up in the next month I will be in the studio a lot with Jamie Cullum and Mocky (Feist producer, overall person and artist), excited to see what we can come up with.

One new artist that I have been helping produce and MD is Midian (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mRkC0idlts). Midian has a great buzz going on right now and Im beyond happy with how her band is sounding. Also helping develop the incredible Rumer Willis and have been writing a ton of new stuff with her that we will be premiering very soon with her new band that I am putting together at some very special Jason Scoppa presents events.

Anyways, back to work, always trying to improve and grow,

Nick

Some fun sessions

I have been very lucky to have been able to work in the studio with some great artists over the past few months and I am so excited to have all this new music be released into the world soon.

One of my favorite singers I have worked with is Eliza Doolittle. Eliza is based in the UK and has a incredible voice and brings really fun lyric ideas to the table. We did one song together for her upcoming album and then I worked on two more track with her and Brian Kidd. Check out this old video of hers:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oud4oMWqfLY

I also got to spend a few days with Andreya Triana and Leddra Chapman, two more UK based artists who both have incredible voices and we were able to come up with some great songs for both of their respective upcoming albums. Check them both out:

Andreya:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvp7CAe7j1k

Leddra:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rd7rJJb6-B4

Lastly, I have been working on a ton of new stuff with Anthony Valadez and we are planning to release a duo EP in the next few months. The stuff we are doing is sounding so incredible and I am really proud of this project. Check out a song Anthony and I did for his latest release “Just Visiting” on Plug Research.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EM8FrCM_pGI

More soon,

Nick

My own gig!!

I am so excited to be playing a gig of all my own music this Sunday at the Byrd Series at Le Petit Ermitage Hotel in West Hollywood. I will be playing music from my first album “Into the Sky” and my recently released second album “Violet” as well as a few new tunes (both albums are available and can hear samples at www.porterrecords.com). The evening will feature some special guests and I can’t wait to perform all this music. I spend most of my time creating songs or putting together bands for other artists and I rarely get to do my own thing and this should be a very special gig; I will also be singing a lot on this gig which is a extremely rare occurrence. I hope you all can make the gig on Sunday and please check out my new album and let me know what you think,

Thanks so much,

Nick

www.nickrosenmusic.com

LP “halo” cover/Feist

Just saw that you can now download a really cool version of “Halo” that I did with LP live at East West studios last November. I really love the way we do this tune and I think it showcases how amazing LP is and how great the band is sounding. 

download it here:

http://emailunlock.com/whoislp/lp-halo

Also, just found out that my set time with Feist it 8:45pm on Sat so if you are going to Coachella come check it out and say hi. I’m starting rehearsals with her in the morning and have been practicing around the clock to get the music right. I am excited to work with her and play at the festival for my first time, I will be posting videos and pics next week!!

Nick

LP on iTunes/Cool videos

Today you can get the live version of the first single from LP on iTunes:

http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/into-the-wild-live-single/id505556092

This is part of a whole live show/recording that we did at East West studios. The whole EP will be out shortly and I couldn’t be happier about how it sounds. For this album I had the pleasure of being musical director and arranger and played basses and percussion and sang.

Also a few videos of shows I have done with LP have surfaced recently, the first is from a Grammy foundation show we did at the Saban theater where LP brought all 2000 people to their feet, and the second is from my home away from home behind the weenie joint.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hfrldVSgx1Q

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZgIDtia55s

Looking forward to many more shows and recordings with this special lady in 2012.