Kip Hanrahan (born December 9, 1954) is an American jazz music impresario, record producer and percussionist. Born to an Irish-Jewish family in the Bronx, New York.Hanrahan has an unusual role in the albums released under his name, one which he has analogized to that of a film director.

He assembles players and materials, combining modern/avant-garde/free jazz figures like Don Pullen and Steve Swallow, Latin jazz players such as Milton Cardona and Horacio "El Negro" Hernandez, and occasionally rock singers like Sting and, most notably, Jack Bruce.

Hanrahan produced a number of significant recordings the Nuevo Tango master Astor Piazzolla in the last decade of Piazzolla's life, as well as recordings by Latin music figures Jerry Gonzalez, Milton Cardona, and others.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kip_Hanrahanyelloo's journal | dramatizing latin jazz | 21 Jan 2008, 05:22Kip Hanrahan is a man of talent and skill. He can bring a wide range of instruments, vocals (both spoken and sung), and musical genres together while keeping a very concrete stylistic integrity.

I like the avant-garde spin that brings a hint of mystique and a lot of drama. No wonder he sees himself as a kind of stage director. His albums are a play without actors, a script without dialogue. His music can overcome potential clashes in meaning, instruments, and the culture that each musical genre represents by invoking listeners' imagination.

http://www.last.fm/user/yelloohttp://www.last.fm/user/yelloo/journal/2008/01/21/b7y5v_dramatizing_latin_jazzAmerican Clave Biography of Kip Hanrahan:A producer, a composer, a percussionist and facilitator, Kip Hanrahan has an uncanny ability to assemble remarkable musicians and apply their talents in interesting ways.

The results are often magical.Kip Hanrahan started out as a percussionist, a fairly left-field occupation for an Irish-Jewish boy, even if he did grow up in a Puerto Rican neighborhood of the Bronx, New York.

After gaining a fellowship in sculpture at the Cooper Union Arts in New York, Kip began collect several musical hats: those of producer, director, writer/arranger and conductor. However, his most apt role would be one of facilitator, for Kip has the knack of being able to connect artists to his musical ideas.

Drawing on a myriad of influences and genres, from rock, funk, jazz and blues, as well as the Latin sounds of his formative years, Kip conjures a distinctive meld of music.Passion for the music and an uncontrollable verbal volubility gives Kip's personality an irascible edge.

http://www.americanclave.com/1-kip.html