kevin king regime featuring shravan raghuram
saturday, september 28
TIME: 3:30pm-4:30pm
VENUE: isac/breasted hall. 1155 East 58th St.
Shravan Raghuram (left) and Kevin King (right) standing back to back and facing the camera against a dark grey wall with artwork hanging on it. Raghuram is wearing a black hoodie with a red graphic on it, and King is wearing a black T-shirt. Photo by Kat Williams.
Kevin King and shravan raghuram
Kevin King is a woodwindist and composer from the south side of Chicago. He honed his skills on the Chicago music scene under the tutelage of Chicago legends Willie Pickens, Orbert Davis, and Diane Ellis. He is an improviser on all woodwind instruments, including oboe, bassoon, flute, clarinet, and saxophone. He has played all over the country and with countless artists, including Arturo Sandoval, Lauryn Hill, The Fugees, Wyclef Jean, The Temptations, Marcus Strickland, Marquis Hill, Joel Ross, Arturo Sandoval, Willie Pickens, The Art Ensemble of Chicago, Buddy Guy, and Adam Neely. His debut album, Call To Action, will be released this fall. Kevin King describes The Kevin King Regime as a heavy metal instrumental band with improvisation (think, “if Pharoah Sanders was the frontman to Black Sabbath).” The group is influenced by every sound known and unknown to humans, yielding a sound unlike anything heard before. King describes his original compositions as “a symbol of the values [he lives] by. An urgency to improve the world we live in with the art of sound creation, experimentation, and exploration. The music is a reflection of the world itself.”
Shravan Raghuram is a musician from Chicago. He is a multi-instrumentalist at heart, and his musical style relies on intuition and improvisation, bringing influences from various types of music to his home base, the drum set. Raghuram has played in various groups over the years, spanning a variety of genres including (but not limited to) rock, jazz fusion, metal, prog, experimental, indie, folk, hip-hop, funk, and ambient. Largely a self-taught musician, he has been able to cultivate a unique musical style by observing and listening to music compulsively and picking apart ideas and techniques used in his favorite records, of which there are many. Raghuram and his good friend Kevin King were recently reunited and have been exploring a fresh, collaborative musical idea that blends the intensity and passion of heavy music genres with the immediacy and uncertainty of musical improvisation.
The musicians:
Kevin King — woodwinds, effects
Shravan Raghuram — drums, guitar, auxiliary percussion, effects