Henry Nam

Music is a language.  Walk into any open mic or jam session and you'll see what I mean.  Musicians who would never talk to one another in their everyday life go back and forth in a discourse unlike any other.  To digress a bit, language is the key element toward creating and maintaining a culture.  At its core, language is a means of communication, but so much more comes out of it.  In addition to the series of visual depictions of symbols made to represent sounds (AKA literature), we have our verbal discourse, one that requires no visual literacy.  When you delve into topics as non-verbal forms of communication outside of literature, we're talking about cultures within cultures, a vast array of limitless possibilities to communicate with one another!

Yet, so much is yet misunderstood even withing langugages, even within cultures.  Some propose that for a unified worlds, we need a universal language.  Those who are against such action cite that selecting a single language for the world would effectively dissolve the notion of diversity and cultures.  So how about creating a universal language?  That would be quiet a daunting task!  But certainly not impossible.  However, people have been doing it for hundreds if not thousands of years!  The arts, music included, have provided a universal method of communication.  The notes played between a Beethoven or Joplin are neither from Germany nor the United States respectively.  No!  It is music!  It is immortal and transcends time.  Beatiful music is inherently and universally understood by people world wide regardless of age, race, origin, culture, socioeconomic status.  Music can make us laugh, cry, be happy, be angry, embellish a moment, help cope with another, entertain, bore, and best of all, communicate with others.
Yes, music is a language of MANY cultures.  It's a language that all cultures speak.  And thus, I embrace it!
[Downingtown, PA; August 5, 2009]

Photo taken by Liz Font. 

 [Eventually, a more complete, possibly less cheesy music bio will go here.  Possibly ...]

 Please visit the links below (the band names at the beginning of the mini-bio written in blue) for show dates and more complete bios for the respective music projects!

Sheltered Turtle is the name/umbrella term I use for my ongoing, relatively, undefined solo pet projects in music.  I try to keep the website relatively updated with when I will be performing with my various band projects (see below), the Sheltered Turtle stuff included.  As of the time I write this, it only has homebrew recordings (opening in a new window or tabbed browing recommended) of some of my early acoustic-percussion guitar material.  Once I get a chance to record some more, I hope to add piano improvisations and whatever else I end up teaching myself.  

Contact: NamArtProj (at) Gmail.com
Photo taken by Nathaniel Schwalje 

The "Markov Jazz Process" is a group whose name comes from a mathematical model for the random evolution of an event whose likelihood of a future state, at any given moment, depends only on its present state, and not on any past states. This jazz trio (which sometimes turns into a quartet) features modern jazz polyphony in its original compositions with captivating time signatures, as well as latin jazz accents, combined with the boldness of Chicago-style jazz. The soloing is intense and memorable, full of both conventional and unconventional sounds to accurately represent our vision of a song. 

Francis Bridge began as a student-run project of some friends getting together to learn and play jazz.  Fast forward a few years, and you come across a more diverse and versatile band that is seeking to expand and continue to improve and excite audiences everywhere!  We are always looking for more places to play and audiences to reach.  Take a look at the website.  Come out to see and listen to us.  If you like what you hear, drop us a line.

Contact: ENPolisar (at) Gmail.com 
Photo taken by Sierra Polisar