AARON HENRY MUSIC
BIOGRAPHY
Born in California, transplanted in the East via the Berklee College of music, Aaron resides in Southern Maine after years in New York City as a performer and teacher. Globally influenced, locally focused, Aaron is a saxophonist, multi-instrumentalist, performer-producer-educator who combines improvisation and electronics to create fresh, unique, high-energy live compositions.
He is a member of Grammy-nominated Mehmet Ali Sanlikol's What'sNext? Orchestra, who's acclaimed 2020 release entitled The Rise-Up features guest saxophonist David Liebman. Tours have included the Istanbul Jazz Festival, Lincoln Center, and South Korea's Jarasum Jazz Festival with Macedonian soul-jazz artist Vladimir Cetkar.
He has performed and recorded with Maine musical artists such as Lyle Divinsky, Anna Lombard, and Adam Agati, and is currently a performing, recording, and teaching artist at schools in the Greater Portland area, including the Breakwater School, Scarborough High School, and Maine Academy of Modern Music, in addition to his online and in-home private lessons. His dream is to build a music studio in his garage attic space so his two lovely young boys can make all the noise they want without driving their father crazy.
ALBUM REVIEWS
Aaron Henry maintains the spell when taking over on sax for the final section, so it's a bit of a cruel ending when the track flows into "Silverlake"—an '80s gloom and doom artifact, but without the weakness and self-pity so often portrayed back in the day. There are hints of introversion, evocative of gut-felt homesickness, just before Henry's distant sax appeals to an earlier loss of bite and appetite that suddenly finds gratification when least expected.
"Patient Roark" feels, at times, like debris from "Rocket Science"—one of Tribal Tech's purest gems—but in the most poised and positive meaning of the word as Baker really tears it up. Henry's role as a shadow player is absolutely brilliant.
"Jazz-infused art rock with humanist aspirations? High-concept indie that somehow manages to connect rather than feel pretentious? You just might be listening to the Heartbeats EP from the Hudson Valley's own FM Blanket. This trio melds a lot of '80s-'00s influences seamlessly."
