Destiny Muhammad: Jazz Harpist and Composer and her inspiring personal story
03/25/23 • 93 min
I was so honoured to have this opportunity to talk with the inspiring Destiny Muhammad, who is a California-based jazz harpist and composer. You’ll get to hear inspiring stories from her life as well as her music. She had a dream to play the harp but didn’t have the opportunity until she was 30 years old. She speaks openly about the challenges in the 1980s due to the crack cocaine trade, her success as a barber, her determination and mentors including John Handy, and her unique perspectives in celebrating the legacies of Dorothy Ashby and Alice Coltrane. When we recorded the episode, I experienced an incredible private concert including several of her original tunes. However, after we listened to the tracks, we agreed it would be even better if she were to record the music separately to have the best possible harp sound, which she generously agreed to do.
Like all my episodes this is available as both as a video and a podcast, with transcript: https://www.leahroseman.com/episodes/destiny-muhammad-jazz-harpist
Destiny Muhammad website: https://destinymuhammad.net/
Buy me a coffee? https://ko-fi.com/leahroseman
Timestamps:
(00:00) Intro
(03:29) Algorithms (harp)
(05:18) Destiny’s start on the harp, Stephanie Kaufman Osborne
(09:55) learning jazz, Dorothy Ashby, Alice Coltrane, Khalil Shaheed
(15:22) John Handy
(20:16) Alice Coltrane tribute concerts SF Jazz
(26:45) Dorothy Ashby
(31:37) If it’s magic (harp)
(36:06) Shirley Muramoto, San Francisco Symphony
(37:00) Amateur Music Network, SF Jazz community jam sessions,
(40:37) Teaching jazz, teaching music
(53:14) creative process
(59:15) tribute to Rosie Lee Tompkins
(01:08:40) lessons learned from running a barbershop
(01:21:20) growing up in the projects, dealing with bigotry
(01:25:51) compositions for orchestra, Matt Wong arranger
(01:29:06) Coltrane (harp)
I was so honoured to have this opportunity to talk with the inspiring Destiny Muhammad, who is a California-based jazz harpist and composer. You’ll get to hear inspiring stories from her life as well as her music. She had a dream to play the harp but didn’t have the opportunity until she was 30 years old. She speaks openly about the challenges in the 1980s due to the crack cocaine trade, her success as a barber, her determination and mentors including John Handy, and her unique perspectives in celebrating the legacies of Dorothy Ashby and Alice Coltrane. When we recorded the episode, I experienced an incredible private concert including several of her original tunes. However, after we listened to the tracks, we agreed it would be even better if she were to record the music separately to have the best possible harp sound, which she generously agreed to do.
Like all my episodes this is available as both as a video and a podcast, with transcript: https://www.leahroseman.com/episodes/destiny-muhammad-jazz-harpist
Destiny Muhammad website: https://destinymuhammad.net/
Buy me a coffee? https://ko-fi.com/leahroseman
Timestamps:
(00:00) Intro
(03:29) Algorithms (harp)
(05:18) Destiny’s start on the harp, Stephanie Kaufman Osborne
(09:55) learning jazz, Dorothy Ashby, Alice Coltrane, Khalil Shaheed
(15:22) John Handy
(20:16) Alice Coltrane tribute concerts SF Jazz
(26:45) Dorothy Ashby
(31:37) If it’s magic (harp)
(36:06) Shirley Muramoto, San Francisco Symphony
(37:00) Amateur Music Network, SF Jazz community jam sessions,
(40:37) Teaching jazz, teaching music
(53:14) creative process
(59:15) tribute to Rosie Lee Tompkins
(01:08:40) lessons learned from running a barbershop
(01:21:20) growing up in the projects, dealing with bigotry
(01:25:51) compositions for orchestra, Matt Wong arranger
(01:29:06) Coltrane (harp)
Previous Episode
Matt Zimbel
Matt Zimbel is a percussionist with the band Manteca, and also an award-winning writer, producer, documentary filmmaker, artistic director, broadcast executive and radio and tv host. In this fascinating episode he shares his insights gained from a wealth of experience across the music industry. We speak near the beginning about his father the photographer George Zimbel, who died this past January 2023, after we recorded the episode. We talk about the beautiful documentary film, “Zimbelism” that Matt made with director Jean-Francois Gratton. Matt offered that the trailer for Zimbelism, which features the music of Manteca, could be used in this episode. He has also generously let me weave in a pre-release of a fantastic new percussion piece with Art Avalos which will appear on Manteca’s upcoming Offspring Project.
The video version of this episode, with the transcript is here: https://www.leahroseman.com/episodes/mattzimbel
Matt Zimbel website: http://mattzimbel.com/ Manteca: https://manteca-music.com/ Busking in Deadwood video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBtrn8Mob5s Manteca albums on Bandcamp: https://mantecamusic.bandcamp.com/music
Buy me a coffee? https://ko-fi.com/leahroseman
Timestamps:
(00:00) Intro
(02:30) early influences: Osibisa, jazz on CBC radio
(05:38) dropping out of school at 14, percussion studies Jim Farety, Dido Morris, John Ruddell, Armando’s Orchestra, forming Manteca
(08:30) intro Hit Record percussion piece with Art Avalos pre-release for Manteca’s The Offspring Project
(09:20) Hit Record
(10:31) learning percussion, playing diferent styles, recording disco
(12:30) early influences: Eddie Harris
(13:11) creating the film Zimbelism
(14:38) clip from trailer for Zimbelism
(16:03) making of Zimbelism, Elaine Sernovitz and George Zimbel
(21:03) adoption of Jodi from Korea, racism
(23:27) immgration to Canada to a farm on PEI
(26:00) Matt’s family’s reaction to him dropping out of school, living the freelance life as an artist
(27:59) orchestra life
(29:22) Manteca, Colleen Allen and memorizing music, Will Jarvis
(31:21) Road Stories with Manteca
(34:06) Manteca’s The Offspring Project
(44:46) Leonard Cohen, Miles Davis
(48:42) Canada Day show, PanAm Games
(58:41) publicity, finding new audiences, Canadian culture
(01:07:28) Doug Wilde creative process Manteca
(01:09:17) clip from Miss Météo from album Augmented Indiference,
(01:12:23) story about Miss Météo
(01:15:33) problem with streaming music, Busking in Deadwood video
(01:18:09) dealing with the pandemic through creativity, livestream with Lyne Tremblay, Matt’s sons
(01:21:45) the importance of good food
(01:23:01) Rick Tait
(01:24:59) crowdfunding and challenges for performers
(01:28:44) lessons learned from his parents
(01:32:05) Matt’s perspectives on a varied career
Next Episode
Milind Date: Bansuri player
1 RecommendationsI’m delighted to feature the master bansuri player Milind Date, who joined me from his home in Pune, India, and played his flutes as well as shared his perspectives from his life in music. As always, check the timestamps below for both the music and the many topics we covered. Milind spoke to me about his studies with the legendary Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia, of his fusion projects especially in South Korea, he had a great story about a memorable concert he played in Toronto, he talked about his extensive travels in India and internationally. He has a large and varied discography, and has composed music for many films: https://www.milind.date/
Like all my episodes, this is available both as a podcast and video, with a transcript all linked to my website: https://www.leahroseman.com/episodes/milind-date-bansuri-player
Please help me continue this series! https://ko-fi.com/leahroseman
Timestamps:
(00:00) Intro
(01:46) bansuri flute
(03:28) Sunand Bhairav
(04:50) early rock music influences, fusion music Hariprasad Chaurasia
(11:01) Korean tours and collaborations
(17:59) solo 6 month trip in India 2021
(26:11) folk tune from Uttarakhand region
(30:01) different folk traditions in India
(32:18) Milind’s collection of flutes in different keys
(35:01) differences between Hindustani and Carnatic music
(38:09) system of gharanas, studies with Hariprasad Chaurasia
(55:49) Zakir Hussain
(01:05:31) writing film music, notation, Western classical musicians
(01:11:31) around the world tour 2013
(01:12:58) performances in Canada
(01:20:00) music as meditation
(01:23:14) teaching and learning
(01:29:56) flute performance
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