User:Iman jarrett
Staying within the margins is not what singer-songwriter-producer Iman Jarret is about. He is about crossing borders and breaking boundaries of artistic and geographic expressions. He is a quintessential musical hyphenate (singer-songwriter-keyboardist-producer) who creates music that synthesis both hip-hop and classic rock, and is both brilliant and remarkable.
Yet, simply to say that Iman's music or the musician himself is a blend of two genres is far too limiting, and well, too much within the margins. Iman Jarrett's life experiences have taken him far beyond the cultural and artistic fences most people stay within.
Iman Jarrett was born and raised in San Francisco, the son of two ambitious and successful business entrepreneurs. His boundary breaking family environment consistently fostered independence and nurtured persistent thinking outside of the box. He began classical music training on the piano at age six. When Iman wanted to learn Spanish as a second language, his parents not only sent him to class but to Costa Rica as well. Iman then spring boarded to Washington, DC where he attended and graduated from prestigious Howard University. After traveling and living in Cuba for a while he returned to San Francisco and at the young age of 22 took over the family owned restaurant and orchestrated it to even greater prosperity. However, the artistic roots and musical training that had been planted in Iman began to bloom. He sold the restaurant and moved to Brazil. In South America, Iman not only learned fluent Portuguese but also deeply immersed himself into the culture, climate and history of the world music scene. And it was there that his musical style was born.
Iman says, “It's one thing for a person to travel, but it's all together different to become a part of the people and culture of where you have arrived. When I am in Brazil, people think I'm Brazilian. When I am in Fiji, people think I'm Fijian. When I am in France, people think I'm French. It is a tremendous honor to be accepted in that manner." After living on three continents and having traveled to six; Iman not only absorbed a great deal of culture and creativity, but he learned how to express it too. Iman's inaugural album, “Hot Damn” is an artistic explosion—an amazing compendium of music produced by a sustained burst of inspiration. Whether the song on “Hot Dam” is a hip-rock groove, dance tempo tune, or a slow love ballad, it reflects Iman's international exposure as each cut effortlessly melds his hip-hop, rock & roll, blues, R&B, Jazz, Brazilian funk and classical music inspirations.
The messages in Iman's lyrics reflect his ponderings on the interrelationship between life, love and sex as he nimbly negotiates the tightrope that stretches between the sexes and continents. He is an American born artist but creates world reaching music that demonstrates a very clear perspective of the world and how culture has influenced it. And yet, under and over the message is a music and sound that is consistently playful and seductive.
Without a doubt, Iman Jarrett is an artist who paints within the cultural canvas and outside of it too. It is his reaching ambition and willingness to stretch as an artist that characterizes his vision. He is a smart, sexy musician who is not a Kinko-copy of anybody that has come before him. He is an original. “When you inspire a million people, that's music.”
And that's Iman Jarrett.