Miles Okazaki is an American musician based in New York City. He is known for his technical command of the guitar, his rhythmic approach to improvisation and composition, and his work in contemporary music theory.

Perhaps best-known as a member of Steve Coleman and Five Elements, with whom he has played for the last eight years, Okazaki has also built a solid reputation for himself as one of the most adventurous composers and guitarists on the current scene. The New York Times says of Okazaki, “Even by the standard of his hyper-literate post-bop peer group, Mr. Okazaki is an unusually calculating musical thinker,” and as a guitarist, “exceedingly skilled with a head for rhythmic convolution.”

I’ve been honored to be documenting this project, from the first rehearsals to the final album recording at SYSTEMS TWO in Brooklyn.
The cover and inside cover pictures were shot during this process, as well as 2 videos featuring the group’s interviews and music.

TRICKSTER |

MILES OKAZAKI - Guitars

CRAIG TABORN - Piano

ANTHONY TIDD - Electric Bass

SEAN RICKMAN - Drums

You can find all informations on Miles Okazaki Website.
Here is an excellent NYTimes review of the Jazz Gallery concerts from January 2016.

All informations on this recording are available at PIRECORDINGS - great Creative music music label.

A musician with a unique creativity, Maciek Lasserre emerged onto the Paris and international scene, playing with contemporary jazz and experimental hip-hop projects.

Starting in 2001, he embarked on a series of tours in Africa including Senegal, Burkina Faso, Morocco, Tunisia, and across Europe.
Meanwhile, he studied the "modes of limited transposition" of Olivier Messiaen and the music of John Coltrane with P.M. Bonnafos at the Gennevilliers conservatory.

In 2006, Maciek went to New York to study the music of Steve Coleman. During a couple of months, he took part regularly in master classes at the Jazz Gallery alongside David Virelles, Jonathan Finlayson, Miles Okazaki and Jen Shyu. He discovered the avant-garde New York scene with Steve Lehman, Vijay Iyer, Tyshawn Storey, Craig Taiborn etc...

Upon his return to Europe, Maciek intensified his work writing and developing the MCK PROJEKT.

He has collaborated with numerous artists including Magic Malik, Steve Lehman, Olivier Sens, Chander Sardjoe, Alain Vankenhove, Hervé Samb, Brice Wassy, Doudou Ndiaye Rose, Ablaye Mbaye, Thionne Seck, Hamid Bouchnak, DaBrains, Disiz La Peste...

He has played in clubs in Paris, New York, Varsovie and Dakar as well as international festivals such as the Paris Jazz Festival, Gnawa Festival in Essaouira, the Francofolies and Carthage Festival.

Today, Maciek plays in many different groups, continues to teach and to develop the MCK Projekt.

GASTON AKA BANDIMIC
Rap

MAXIME ZAMPIERI
Drums

STÉPHANE EDOUARD
Percussions

I’ve been hired by Maciek while I was in NYC back in 2016, and he was playing there with Steve Lehman’s SELEBEYONE Project. I offered him to document his work with the MCK PROJEKT, an original blend of jazz and Hip-Hop.
Here are the pictures from the photo shoot we did for the album and Social Media presence.
3 videos from the release party at Café La Pêche in Montreuil are featured, all shots and edited by me a few months ago.

Recently I've been contacted by a company, they've seen 2 pics of mine that were displayed a couple months ago at an exhibition in Paris.
The pictures in question were flowers with vivid colors and a dark background, very contrasty look. They were shot in nature, not in studio though, quiet a long time ago.

They are looking for some prints of this kind, explicitly asking for "Flowers or things related to flowers, with this dark background and saturated colors type look".

For the last 2 weeks I took weather opportunities to shoot some pictures

All Images shots with the Tamron 90mm Macro /f2.8.
I've been using a Godox AD200 flash with Rogue Lighting gels as well.
All PP in Lr CC.

Black and White, or Monochrome I should say, as always been a favorite of mine since the very beginning of my journey as a photographer.

I’ve been trying to emulate the pictures I saw on Jazz album covers I grew up with. BLUE NOTE label featured great pictures of their artist as you can see HERE.

Theses pictures are a melting pot of various genre I was experimenting when I started shooting concerts, mainly B&W with some Sepia or blue’ish monochrome depending on moods or request I had from the musicians or dancers.

This gallery will evolved upon me finding some more stuff in my vaults of unreleased pictures.

Reggie Washington's Rainbow Shadow is a quartet dedicated to the memory of Jef Lee Johnson, iconic musician who passed away early 2013.

This set of pictures was shot when the band played in Paris, at the Duc des Lombards on may 6th, 2016.

Reggie Washington is a long time friend of mine, my first exposure to his talent was when he was playing with Steve Coleman and Five Elements back in 1993 and eventually we met in 2002 and 2005 when I was Steve's Road Manager during that time. This is one of the funniest cat I know and a dedicated musician.

You can check Reggie's incredible bass sound on so many recordings it's crazy ! You better check his biography at JAMMIN COLORS.

RAINBOW SHADOW

This band is performing almost constantly since about 16 months and they are pretty tight. They played some of Jef's composition as well as some of Reggie’s tunes.

The line-up is :

Reggie Washington - Leader, Woody bass

Marvin Sewell - Electric guitars

DJ Grazzhoppa - Turntables and electronics

Patrick Dorcean - Drums

I've had the pleasure to meet Jef Lee Johnson a couple times while he was touring and when I did the documentary for Reggie's FREEDOM album featuring him, Reggie and Gene Lake.
He was truly a wonderful human being and an amazing musician, you can check his work on his FaceBook Page.

I’ve also included the video teaser I did back in early 2013, featuring Jel Lee on Guitar

Ce haut lieu de la culture Indo-pakistanaise m’a ouvert ses portes fin 2012, l’occasion pour moi de jeter des regards émerveillés sur les spectacles originaux qui ont lieu chaque semaine dans un des endroits les plus secrets de la capitale.

De contes pour enfants à la danse indienne sous toutes ses formes, en passant par des chants soufis pakistanais et toute la palette des instruments indiens, j’ai pu observer des artistes au talent fou.

Mais c’est sûrement le lieu en lui même, 40 ans d’existence tout de même, qui donne à ces artistes une énergie indispensable à une performance inoubliable.

La proximité avec le public et la sonorisation exclusivement acoustique sont deux éléments que vous ne retrouverez nulle part ailleurs pour écouter et voir ces manifestations scéniques uniques.

Chaque soir donc, pendant plusieurs semaines, je me suis engouffré dans une salle sombre sans savoir exactement ce que j’allais y trouver mais toujours avec la certitude que mon imagination serait nourrie de sons, couleurs, gestes et parfums d’un autre monde…et l’envie d’y retourner est à chaque fois un peu plus forte.

La directrice artistique, Milena Salvini a passé sa vie, littéralement, à promouvoir les arts du spectacle traditionnels et contemporains du sous continent Indien, elle est la garante d’une longue tradition de concerts et récitals de qualité qui remonte à 1975, date d’ouverture du Centre Mandapa.