From my new album, "Dawning of The Light Ages II: Moment of The First Ray" available on http://tinyurl.com/DawningStore 

Featured Guest: Simon Lau on Bass, from Labuan,  Malaysia

For details about my new album: http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150120802426756

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Everything Changes  Max Vasquez ft Simon Lau, bass

Recorded the weekend of Jan 29 - Feb 3, 2014, at Peter Redman's lovely mountain studio and Produced by Peter Redman and Max Vasquez. The wind and rain that weekend were the inspiration for the title. This is my first song that features me on jazz vocal improvisation soloing, though I've been doing it for 40+ years. Incidentally, I strongly dislike the U.S. term "Lounge" for this type of Latin Jazz, as it is much more difficult to perform than 3 chord rock and folk. No lounge about it, no sir! Enjoy, my little lounge kitties!


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Viento Y Lluvia - Max Vasquez ft Peter Redman

How Kongor &amp; I Met:
In 1995 I was hired to record a strange new voice never heard before in this land, so they told me. The session was inside the top dome of the Pasadena City Hall! So I haul my DA-88 digital recording machine up as my partner got the mikes, mixers etc. up these tiny winding long and treacherous stairs. I say treacherous because the steps were covered in pigeon droppings.
One slip and my $5,000 tape machine would go down into the abyss maybe to connect with a State Representative's head and create an international incident. But all went well, luckily, and we set up the gear, placing mikes in every corner of, well, not corners per se - it was a dome.
The moment I heard this man, this, what i instantly knew was a holy and sacred spirit, i knew I was in for as deep as it got. The red pill was in full effect.
Once my levels were set and all was perfect, my head phones caught all the reflections and I went into space out of my body for an instant brief moment! I used no effects at all to capture him- none were needed I could not believe my ears- This small man of Asian appearance was singing 3 notes at once! A drone, not unlike the Buddhist monks. A middle tone, and these beautiful wispy birdlike whistling tones oscillating harmonically. All simultaneously. We all looked at each other around the room as if we just discovered an ancient treasure with Indiana Jones in a secret lair!
I later found out that Kongor-Ool Ondar was a Tuvan Throat Singer, a high priest from Anatola Tuva, or Tuva, for short. Tuva is a region in Russia which is famously underground for people who live a simple austere life revolving around the Alesh River, one of the biggest rivers near the Steppes. They regard their horses as status like we hold our cars- the best horses were like BMWs.
Professor Ralph Layton -who hired me through a friend who had overbooked his studio and needed a man on the spot (there are no accidents)- teaches at California Institute of Technology, or, Cal Tech, which I often frequented for lectures, concerts, and making recordings in some of their rooms and general loitering. Prof. Layton told us after the session, over lunch, that he was Richard Feynman's dearest, best friend til Richard passed away. Most people in the know, respected Dr. Feynman for his groundbreaking physics work on the Los Alamos Project. He's one of my inspirations as a brilliant contributor to the advancement of human knowledge.
Richard had a dream he could never achieve during the Cold War- to visit these wondrous people he learned about through a stamp! Yes, a stamp which led him to other stamps and more info on the Tuvans, which was little to none. Just as the Iron Curtain was lifted and Richard could safely travel, Richard fell deathly ill and asked Ralph to promise him he would carry out his dream, his mission to go to tuva. Ralph of course agreed. Having spent time with him I can say I've rarely met a kinder, more good humored brilliant physicist. I've met a few...
Ralph undertook the journey as Dr. Feynman had charted, and came across a Shangrila haven that instantly appealed to him. The people were loving, friendly and generous with hospitality. After a while he asked Kongor to return to the U.S. on an ambassadorial tour, and had met and performed with many talented musicians/artists such as blind bluesman Paul Pena all across this great and creative nation of ours. I got him on the last leg of his tour and we became instant friends and made a fine recording he released later.
He was so appreciative of my efforts on his behalf that he said, through his translator and Raplh that as a gift he wanted me to have any part of his solo unaccompanied throat solos for whatever I choose to use it. I picked a phrase that he instantly beamed such a pure and magical smile and told me that is one of his alltime favorites- about the river that sustains his people.
Long story longer, I got my friends Chris Mancinetti on sitar and some tom-toms programming; and Paul Marshal Reeder to lay down some great soprano sax work on my creation. Paul, a well respected astrologer in his own right, taught me basic yoga and how to meditate. He recently passed and I miss him dearly. How fortunate we are to have his beautiful performance on this recording!
This piece definitely had it's own rules for us because, after we finished, Chris's Sitar broke quite by accident and was the only recording made with that particular sitar he JUST got! We all cried. And sadly, the masters have burned up in my '98 fire that took most of my life's work. But that's a tale for another time...
When I finished it, I played it for Ralph, Kongor and his wife. They were just floored! Having no knowldege of Electronic Music, He jumped on board fast! Now you can hear him on many dance and hip hop recordings as well as movie scores but I was the first bloke who pioneered with him into uncharted waters, and that is a blessed memory I will keep in me for as long as I live..
But just to make sure I'm not over-romanticizing the moment from replaying it in my head for the last sixteen years, I found the Professor online, and we had a long chat so I could fact check and reminisce with him. Ralph's words- "print it all, Max. It's a beautiful story to a beautiful song!"
This one made it on my "Butterfly Garden" album, which began in 1993 and was completed in 2006!


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Max Vasquez - Kongor-Ool Ondar ft. Tuvan Throat Singer Ondar, Chris Mancinetti & Paul Marshal Reeder

I made this in 1994 in my studio in Sierra Madre We were sitting around trippin' with the groove and messin with sounds to put in. I pulled out a stack of old 78s &amp; 33.3 vinyls from the back of the closet.
Then it just happened. A Lester Young pressing kept coming back to the turntable. the very first intro to "I Wish I Knew" was an improvised lick that I liked a lot so I placed it on the beat. After more tweaking and arranging, this is the result. Thus "Lester Leaps Out!"
If you're not a Traditional Jazz initiate, Lester Young was a founder of Modern Swing and Bebop, who was famous for backing Billie Holiday and Count Basie.
Special thanks to Mike A. for providing our sessions with flowing spirits- by that I mean beer&amp;wine!
Featured are the incredible Chris Mancinetti on guitar and Gary Lenk on bass. The trumpet and piano parts and beats are, of course me. 
It was like being in a hot tub time machine, playing my harmonies to Lester Young's hot tenor sax chops. In the studio that week, fun was had by all! 
The track made it to my album, "Buttefly Garden", a collection of homages to my favorite Electronica genres. Though I didn't release it during the Rave Movement, I did perform it quite often live with Bassland and on my own solo shows.


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Lester Leaps Out - Max Vasquez

From 1994 At Maxx Vaxx Music Studio in Sierra Madre. Featuring, Stuart Breidenstein, Alex Xenophon and Max Vasquez.

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Bassland - Empty Sea Of Nothingness

Made in 1996 at my studio in Hollywood, in the Corn Palace. Features myself on trumpet,Eric Dreyer on sound designs and Chelsea Kipp on vocals. Released in album, "Beauty All Around" on Maxx Vaxx Music on 4/20/2006

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420 with special guest Chelsea Kipp

Made in 1996-7 by Bassland lineup Stuart Breidenstein, Alex Xenophon and Max Vasquez(trumpet). Exclusive unreleased track!


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Bassland   Crazy Motherf*#%@r feat. Max Vasquez, trumpet

Love & Light
by Max Vasquez
From the new album “Dawning of the Light Ages II: Moment of the First Ray”
on Maxx Vaxx Music available at http://tinyurl.com/DawningStore

This composition is an original in the Downtempo/ Shoegaze/ Acid Jazz Ambient hybrid fused with modern Electronic Music styles. The inspiration for “Love & Light” came from Joe Zawinul and Weather Report, Miles Davis and Hugh Masakela and Electronic Music groups like Banco De Gaia and Enigma.

All sounds including trumpet and piano solo by Max Vasquez. The methods used to make this song include plugin virtual synthesizers, some commercial, some custom made. Absolutely no presets were used in the making. All sounds are individually reprogrammed or made from scratch, even the trumpet and piano were “tweaked”. This tune was begun in 2007, put aside for a bit, and completed in 2011. Written, arranged, mixed mastered and performed by Max Vasquez in its entirety.

As the song kept growing, I started hearing more Zawinul in it and added the piano solo towards the end of the sessions. The trumpet parts were also added near completion, and EQ’d to simulate a flugelhorn sound. I like to think, or at least hope that Miles is smiling wherever he may be, as I carry the torch into expanding his vision of where Jazz sub-genres are going. All the while, expanding the Electronic Dance Music’s influence on Jazz and vice versa.

The rest of the songs on “Dawning of the Light Ages II: Moment of the First Ray”, http://tinyurl.com/DawningStore, are ecclectic and mind expanding journeys into imagination through sound. I hope readers will click on the play button below and enjoy “Love & Light”, from my first solo album in almost six years! I wish you peace and joy…

For details about my new album: http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150120802426756

<a href='https://theartistunion.com/tracks/d2d73c'>Download for free on The Artist Union</a>

Love & Light

This is the lead track from my most recent album, "Dawning of The Light Ages II: Moment of The First Ray", It was inspired by early spiritual pipe organ music, Edgar Froesse, Atticus Ross, Portishead and other inluences in the New Age movement. This is my tribute to the late Edgar Froesse of Tangerine Dream, who was a big influence on me.


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Ballet Of The Spheres

Max Vasquez and Treavor Walton, featuring special guest: Mark Maxwell, didjgeridou

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Tribal India - Max Vasquez and Treavor Moontribe ft Mark Maxwell, didgeridou

Dream Medley

solo piano piece by Max Vasquez from the new album “Dawning of the Light Ages II: Moment of the First Ray” 
on Maxx Vaxx Music available at http://tinyurl.com/DawningStore

This composition is an original in the neo-classical style inspired by Erik Satie, Debussy and Rachmaninoff.

The rest of the songs on “Dawning of the Light Ages II: Moment of the First Ray”, http://tinyurl.com/DawningStore, are ecclectic and mind expanding journeys into imagination through sound. I hope readers will click on the play button below and enjoy “Bridge To Your Heart”, from my first solo album in almost six years! I wish you peace and joy…

For details about my new album: http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150120802426756

Bridge To Your Heart - Max Vasquez, piano

Just for the heck of it. Never released Drum&Bass track I did with special guest sax master Jimmy Street.

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Beast - Max Vasquez ft. Jimmy Street

http://tinyurl.com/DawningStore - Happy dancing song with Saskia S vocals, Max V music trax. Collaboration on lyrics by both. Get up and GROOVE!! Just Stoppin by to show you some love because you shine! You sparkle!!

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Show U Sum Luv feat. Saskia S



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All Alone & Blue

It pays to be my neighbor. He came over 'bout a month ago bored, with beers, and just put it out there, "Let's make some music." The studio was on, and in 5 hours of hangin with my buddy and got a basic start while having a blast. Later, the pc crashed before we could save, and I felt so bad for him, (I'm used to these crashes), that I rebuilt the song from scratch by memory. Hewent home and I worked it up over the week and finished it with my Waves mastering tools... good times..., good times...
NE Ways, this was made purely for fun &amp; pleasure. I'm not always a mercenary-whore looking to get my mortgage &amp;DWP bill payed (how dare I?)! lol


Max & Chris's Excellent Adventure (M.Vasquez/C.Malter)

Dawning of the Light Ages II available at PayPal maxvasquez@maxxvaxxmusic.com for only $12.99 Buy 1 & the first Dawning’s free!
Max won Mark Isham/Sage Francis remix contest 2010 and the 2006 Best Jazz Album Of The Year by The Los Angeles Music Awards. Max has been in the music industry since 1976!
Maxx Vaxx Music Publishing BMI/Maxx Vaxx Music Productions started in 1996 as a small publishing outlet for music he's licensed to films/TV/commercials & now digital distribution, music biz consulting/business/marketing/tour plan writing, music production, online marketing, social media admin/management, SEO/Website Development, video production & more. Since 1978, Max works all styles. At 9, he performed with choirs, musicals & plays, taught himself how to read&write music by 13, and by 14 he was professionally playing trumpet in horn sections of bands all over L.A. and bass with members of punk band Verbal Abuse, a favorite of Rodney Bingenheimer. He also played with Black Flag members Sam & Henry & hung out with The Doors’ Ray Manzarek & John Doe, X and many others at the Whiskey Agogo. He is somewhere in the mosh pit shots from Penelope Spheeris' Decline of Western Civilization- The Punk Years. In 1984, Jim "The Poorman" Trenton & Swedish Eagol played his music on KROQ when it was easier to give cool DJs your band's tape without needing to sign a mile of legal stuff! 
Doc Severinsen was amazed & encouraged him to pursue music when he looked over Max's first orchestral jazz arrangement he wrote at 16 yrs old! Trained with leading jazzmen, Max played and studied with Gary Foster, Clare Fischer, Charlie Haden, Alan Broadbent, Bobby Bradford, Freddie Hubbard. Max wrote for the Count Basie Orchestra! Dick Grove School of Music and Berklee College of Music for recording engineering & writing/arranging, respectfully, and Max was among the first pioneers in MIDI and electronic music. 
From ’82-‘94 with top jazz group, Watercolours, led by Jeff Stetson, playing L.A. Jazz. Trumpet, voice, keyboards, guitar, bass and the studio are his instruments. Interning at Group IV Studios led to working on Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, The Abyss & Back To The Future Pt 3, among many more sessions including Will Smith, Sly&Robbie, Joe Pass, Ray Brown, and Jon Hassell. He has also performed with Oingo Boingo members, Mel E Mel & Whipple Whip (Grand Master Flash), The Crusaders' Stix Hooper & Joe Sample, War and Tower of Power, Tierra and Los Lobos sidemen, as well as Johnny Martinez(Celia Cruz), Kingston Ducoeur (Seabiscuit) and Master Tuvan Throat Singer Kongar-ol Ondar. Manhattan Transfer commissioned one of his pieces in the 80s. In the 1990s Max enjoyed modest success as an EDM Live Artist & DJ internationally in Latin America, Asia & The U.S. As part of Moontribe he performed in the famous underground SoCal desert Raves on many occasions. Collaborative projects with Treavor Walton on the album Luminescence (Priority Records) and Bassland on Pacific Rhythm (Harthouse Records), and co-founding member of Electric Skychurch David DeLaski's Fun For The Whole Family (Moonshine Records). Max also produced Hell To Tha Heavenz & Beyond (Tribe Music). ’98 saw tragedy in Max's life when a wild desert brush fire destroyed 3/4 of his life's work. In '99 he went to Panama and found success as a DJ and radio show producer with his hit underground program, Psychedelic Lunchbox. ‘’04, Max produced a seven CD comeback & won L.A. Music Awards Best Jazz Album and Best Lounge Artist of the Year in 2006, proving he wasn't done. Latin Lifestyles used one of his pieces for theme song along w/ My Name Is Earl, Judging Amy, the ‘99 Superbowl and Levar Burton’s Reading Rainbow & many TV bumps/commercials & video games. The film, October 22 w/Jay Mohr, Ernie Hudson & Amanda Plummer uses his songs. Max sings tenor in The Randy Van Horne Singers. He produced Jeff Stetson’s Cycle Of Life CD. Max Vasquez is also writing a novel based on his amazing adventures.

Maxx Vaxx Music BMI

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