Background
Gazaway was born in Nashville, Tennessee on November 9, 1985. He is the son of internationally known jazz trumpeter Gary “El Buho” (the Owl) Gazaway from the Ozarks and United States-Brazilian vocalist Tatiana Mindlin.
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Amerigo Gazaway
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He is best known for his documentary style conceptual collaboration albums which have incorporated the music of A Tribe called Quest, The Pharcyde, Fela Kuti, De Louisiana Soul, Marvin Gaye, Yasiin Bey, James Brown and others In 2014, his Yasiin Bey/Marvin Gaye remix You Are Undeniable was used in an Apple iPad commercial. and charted on Billboard’s best-selling singles. Gazaway has said that he was influenced by radio growing up including the local WRVU radio station which introduced him to many old Jazz tunes as well as Hip Hop.
As a teen, Gazaway worked at computer shop which introduced him to programming.
Under The Soul Mates project, Gazaway’s work has been called “legally iffy” and often uses more than a dozen unauthorized samples from different artist. Frequently facing legal challenges for his work, Gazaway has lectured on what he describes as "overly restrictive and unconstitutionally long copyright laws." at the University of Southern California and a Google Technical Talk: “Redefining the Remix with Amerigo Gazaway”.
Gazaway’s first full-length instrumental album, Selective Hearing Volume 1, was released in 2010 on the Cold Busted label and charted on Beatport’s top-selling Chill-Out sales Chart.
Gazaway released his sophomore project, Fela Soul, in 2011.
This was a mixture of the music of Afrobeat artist Fela Kuti and Hip-Hop group De Louisiana Soul. In December of 2011, the album took top 5 ranking on both National Public Radio and Soul Train’s year-end “Best of 2011” list. One year later, Gazaway released his third album, Bizarre Tribe: A Quest to the Pharcyde.
Again Gazaway mixed the music of two significant music acts — this time A Tribe Called Quest and The Pharcyde.
Bizarre Tribe earned early praise from the Los Angeles Times, New York (magazine), and Okayplayer. In 2014 Gazaway produced the album Yasiin Gaye, in which he presented an imaginary collaboration between Yasiin Bey and Marvin Gaye.
Gaining Marvin Gaye’s original multi-tracks, Gazaway was able to deconstruct and rebuild the samples to re-orchestrate the instrumentation into new arrangements. The album earned Gazaway a five star review from Black Entertainment Television. and praise from Marvin Gaye’s widow Janis Gaye.
As an emcee, Gazaway has released several singles, including I Can"t Get Office of the Facebook, in 2011 which was reviewed by Time Out (magazine).
