Keshavan Maslak
b. 26 February 1947, Detroit, Michigan, USA, into a Ukrainian family. As a child, Keshavan ‘spoke Ukrainian around the house, and Russian and Polish to the neighbours’ and was regularly beaten up by his all-American contemporaries at elementary school for being different. He started playing saxophone at the age of eight. An early enthusiasm for polkas and mazurkas was soon replaced by an obsession with John Coltrane's music, and some of Coltrane's yearning, burning passions infuse Maslak's best work (eg BIG TIME). The saxophonist has been a stylistic jack-of-all-trades, having performed with Philip Glass, the Temptations, and Sam Rivers, and rechristening himself Kenny Millions in a futile attempt to crack the punk/rock market. He has toured and performed extensively in Eastern Europe and Russia: ‘I'm like Mick Jagger over there, I'm telling you.’