2006 Winner ""Best Jazz Album of the Year"" and ""Best Lounge Artist of the Year"" by The Los Angeles Music Awards!
A composer since 1978, Max embraces all styles of music with a keen instinct for the nuances of each genre he excels in. At the age of nine, he performed with choirs, in musicals and plays, taught himself how to read and write music by the time he was 13, and by age 14 he worked professionally playing trumpet in horn sections of bands all over L.A. and bass with members of punk band Verbal Abuse, whom Rodney Bingenheimer loved He also played with Black Flag members Sam and Henry and met and hung out with The Doors Ray Manzarek and John Doe of X and others at the Whiskey Agogo. He is somewhere in the mosh pit shots from Penelope Spheeris' ""Decline of Western Civilization- The Punk Years"". In 1984, Jim the Poorman and Swedish Eagel played his demo tape on KROQ when it was easier to give cool DJs your band's tape without needing to sign a mile of legal stuff! Legendary giant Doc Severinsen was amazed and encouraged him to pursue music. Upon having looked over Max's first orchestral jazz arrangement for Big Band, it astounded him that Max was only sixteen when he wrote it! With further training from some of the leading jazz educators/studiomen in Los Angeles, Max went on to play and study with Gary Foster, Clare Fischer, Alan Broadbent, Bobby Bradford, Freddie Hubbard, and even wrote for the Count Basie orchestra! Dick Grove School of Music and Berklee Music Institute taught him greatly the art of writing/arranging and recording engineering respectfully, and Max was among the first pioneers in MIDI and electronic music. In 1982, He joined a group of excellent musicians and called themselves ""Water Colours"", playing in all the Jazz venues of the day. His performance strengths are trumpet, voice, keyboards, guitar, bass - and the studio, of course. An internship at Group IV Reording Studios led to working on ""Who Framed Roger Rabbit"", The Abyss, and Back To The Future Pt 3 among many more sessions including Will Smith, Sly&Robbie, Joe Pass, Ray Brown, and Jon Hassell's Grammy nominated ""Cityscapes"". He has also performed with Oingo Boingo members, Mel E Mel&Whipple Whip(Grand Master Flash), The Jazz Crusaders' Stix Hooper and Joe Sample, War and tower of Power sidemen, etc. The list of luminaries Max has worked with is long and accomplished. Manhattan Transfer comissioned one of his pieces. The TV show ""Latin Lifestyles"" currently uses one of his pieces as its theme song. The latest shows his music is on is ""My Name Is Earl""(thank you Mr. Garcia!), and the Spearmint Rhino Amateur Stripper Competition on Pay-Per-View, and TV1 History Special.
Max says, ""Performing has always been fun and a great way to connect with my fans and new listeners. However, composing will always be my first love"". Max Vasquez has written music for the indie film October 22(Jay Mohr, Amanda Plummer), The 1999 SuperBowl, Levar Burton's Reading Rainbow, and most recently ""Judging Amy""(Amy Brenneman) on CBS, and ""My Name Is Earl"", on NBC, and ""Robbie Knievel's Stunt Show"" on A&E. His song Jalapeno Girl was chosen to be the theme song for ""Latin Lifestyles"" on UPN. On each piece he composes, the styles are as varied as Rock, Jazz, Electronica, Classical, Country and Latin. He's been seen on MTV's ""Abducted"", local cable shows in L.A. and had his own hit cult favorite radio show in Panama, Central America, where he took the opportunity to educate a new audience in electronic music. A master producer, he is skilled in ProTools, Cubase, Wavelab, Nuendo, Reason, and many others as well as running the boards and playing his heart out.
As a ""Rave"" performer and promoter he played to tens of thousands at a time in huge Dance events such as Narnia and We Are One, and was part of a collective called Moontribe. This group was famous for throwing full moon desert raves in the Mojave Desert every month for twelve straight years! He also recorded, performed with and mentored Carl A. Craig, Treavor Walton, Bassland and several gifted others, as he feels it is important to pass the torch to other dedicated young artists. His newest Boy Wonder is Tim White, and toghether they are ""The Magnus Project"". Their CD ""Vintage Vibrations"" will be out early next year.
His first release was on Priority Records' Vox Lumania ""Luminescence"" in 1994. He also released a few ""white label"" undergroung EPs for DJs in the Electronic Dance Movement of the 90s. ""Pacific Rhythm"" on Harthouse Records, Lord Runningclam's ""Fun For The Whole Family"" on Moonshine Records, Tribe Music.com's ""Hell To Tha Heavens And Beyond"" and Transition Music's Box Set enjoy his tracks and performances as well. His own releases, ""Butterfly Garden"", ""Beauty All Around"", ""While The City Sleeps"", ""Dawning of the Light Ages"" and ""Return of the Phoenix"" on www.maxxvaxxmusic.com have been received with praise. All the new releases can now be downloaded now on e-music and iTunes as well as many other download sites!
As event producer he had success with Moontribe events, ""Area 51"", ""Beauty All Around"", which was an Art Rave featuring over 400 artists and sculptors, and repeat performances at the legendary ""Magic Wednesdays"" weekly club in Hollywood. As a distributor he helped gain exposure for his friends The Crystal Method, Electric Skychurch, Q and Rabbit On The Moon. Now, as a music publisher he has been placing his songs on TV,etc on a regular basis. Ten other writers have recently joined Maxx Vaxx Music (BMI) and the catalog is adding up to almost 300 original compositions!
Born in East Los Angeles in 1963, Max Vasquez, the artist formerly known as Maxx Vaxx, continues to run his music publishing business not far from his birthplace, Montebello.
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