User:Camarakambon

Camara Kambon (born February 4, 1973) is an American film composer, songwriter, pianist, music producer and educator. Kambon has composed for Oliver Stone, Tyler Perry, Mara Brock-Akil, written songs for Mary J. Blige, Dr. Dre, Eminem, Jay Z, Ice Cube, Xhibit, Macy Gray, Sara Bareilles, Busta Rhymes, Snoop Dogg, Esthero, amongst others. Kambon has recorded with artists Nelly Furtado, William Orbit, Perry Farrell, Eve, Angie Stone and Herb Albert, to name a few.

Early Years
Camara Kambon was born on February 4, 1973, in Baltimore, Maryland. He grew up in Northwest Baltimore, between the Pikesville and Mt. Washington communities. Early on he displayed prodigious musical talents as a young child. He began playing music when he was 10 months old, starting with drums and, at age 4 switched over to piano exclusively. At the age of 6, Kambon was introduced to jazz music and also began creating his own compositions.

At age 10, Kambon received a scholarship to attend the Peabody Preparatory of the Johns Hopkins University to study classical with Nancy Roldan, jazz with Charles Covington and musicianship with Carol Thomas. He also attended the Walden School for Young Composers for 3 years and the Eastern Music Festival, during the summers.

Although he had a strong interest in composition from a young age, it was in his teens that he became interested in composing for tv and film. While working at a local clothing store, Kambon met Stu Gardner, long-time music director and Bill Cosby collaborator. Kambon has said about this encounter, “I remember meeting Stu, who was initially stand offish, until he noticed a treble-clef charm I had around my neck. Being a strong advocate of youth and education, he asked me if I was a musician, to which I replied, ‘Yes’. Then he asked, ‘Are you any good?’ I hesitated to answer, concerned I’d seem full of myself. Then he replied, ‘First lesson. When someone asks if you’re good or not. Tell ‘em. It’s a yes or no question. Well, ‘yes’ I said. Stu, invited me down to the studio where he recorded the music for “The Cosby Show” and “Living Single”. It blew my minds. I was like a kid in the candy store. Soon thereafter, I’d write music for the shows while still in grade school. This encounter changed my life, opening my eyes to a possibility I’d never considered; writing music for tv and film.”

Although Kambon was eager to make a life as a film composer, he didn’t stop playing piano. He competed in many competitions both in classical and jazz piano, and composition. He also performed in clubs in the local area. In one of those clubs he recounts meeting Jack Pastorius, father of legendary bass player, Jaco Pastorius. “I used to sit in at this bar called, ‘The King of France’ and after playing a few tunes, one of the players in the band introduced me to Jack, who would come down from Philadelphia quite often. We developed quite a friendship after that day. He always had great things to say. After I told him I planned a career as a film composer, he did his best to convince me the world needed to hear me as a piano player. He would always comment on the lyricism of the melodies in my tunes and how strong they were, but the playing was key in his eyes. We would go back and forth and then it would always resolve with me telling him composition was in my heart. When we would say our goodbye’s he’d always end with, ‘Okay, now who loves ya, Babe?’ To which I’d respond. You do.”

After graduating from, Friends’ School and the Peabody Preparatory of the Johns Hopkins University with honors in jazz/classical piano and musicianship he received a scholarship to attend the Berklee College of Music in Boston, majoring in Film Scoring and Music Production and Engineering. While there, Kambon also composed music for the Emmy-nominated PBS film Dancing: New Worlds, New Forms, for which he collaborated with the Roy Hargrove Quintet, featuring Marc Curry, Gregory Hutchinson, Rodney Whittaker and fellow Baltimorean, Antonio Hart. Shortly thereafter, at the tender age of 19, Kambon composed the music for the feature length Emmy-winning PBS documentary, Malcolm X: Make It Plain, for which he collaborated with then 18-year-old drummer, Adonis Rose, and bassist, Reuben Rogers, Charles Craig, Taku Hirano and legendary saxophonist Billy Pierce. During these years Kambon would compose music for several PBS documentaries, Frederick Douglass: When the Lion Wrote History and HBO’s Emmy-Winning TV movie Sonny Liston: The Mysterious Life of a Champion, beginning a creative relationship with producer, Kirby Bradley (REAL SPORTS w/ Bryant Gumbel), which has lasted over 20 years and garnered Kambon is first Emmy nomination and award, making him, at age 23, the youngest composer to receive the prestigious award.

Working with Dr. Dre
After graduating from Berklee, Kambon moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career as a composer, initially working as pianist, performing locally in clubs and doing small tours and then working as assistant music director for Fox’s The Keenon Ivory Wayans Show. In March 1996, Kambon was hired to work with Dr. Dre as his keyboardist, music director and orchestrator in residence for all recordings. This would be the beginning of a collaboration lasting 8 years during which he co-wrote or recorded hits like, Dr. Dre’s “Forgot About Dre”, “Next Episode”, Eminem’s “My Name Is..”, “Guilty Conscious”,“Who Am I?” and Mary J. Blige’s 1st #1 hit, “Family Affair”. Kambon has also recorded, wrote and/or arranged songs for such artists as 50-Cent, Nas, Busta Rhymes, Snoop Dogg, Ice Cube, George Michael, Nine Inch Nails, Eve, Gwen Stefani, Xhibit, Warren G, Mack-10, D-12, among others. TV

During this time, Kambon also composed music for the HBO documentaries, Where Have You Gone, Joe DiMaggio? and Tigers ’68: A City on Fire both which he received Emmy nominations and Family Name (Macky Alston), The Wood (Rick Fukiyama) and Oliver Stone’s, “Any Given Sunday”, for which he also co-wrote and produced the song, “Dinosaur”, featuring Macy Gray. He also composed the music for Damon Wayans’ first primetime tv sitcom, Fox’s Damon.

2000-2003
Early 2000, began with Kambon composing the theme and first season of the CW hit series, “Girlfriends” featuring Angie Stone. He would go on to compose the music for the MTV Series 2gether, HBO’s Dancing in September and Michael Jordan to the Max.

In early 2001, Kambon was hired as A&R/Producer-in-Residence by Virgin Records, working with artists, Aaliyah, Nikka Costa, to name a few. He also produced songs for Dreamworks’ artists, Kina and Jessy Moss and composed the score for the Dreamworks’ Biker Boyz and produced the song, “Soy el Baile” for Miramax’s Havana Nights. He also co-wrote and produced, “Thank Heaven for You” for Esthero’s Warner Bros release, “Wikked ‘Lil Girls”, “Ladyfingers (remix)” for Herb Alpert

2004-2007
Kambon collaborated with Tyler Perry as a music consultant, co-music supervisor on his first three films, “Diary of a Mad Black Woman”, “Madea’s Family Reunion” and “Daddy’s Little Girls”.

2008-2013
In 2008, Kambon composed the score for the Oscar-nominated, La Corona. This soundtrack was also released on Lakeshore Records becoming his first commercial release as a leader featuring, Ramon Stagnaro (Ricky Martin, Juanez), Greg Suran (Goo Goo Dolls, B-52’s, American Idol), Taku Hirano (Fleetwood Mac, Bette Midler, Lionel Richie), Sean Hurley (John Mayer, Robin Thicke). He reunited with Macky Alston to work on their third film together, the HBO documentary, “Hard Road Home”, featuring Ron Blake (Green Day, Ben Harper, Poncho Sanchez), Javier Vergara (Paquito d’Rivera), Bob Hurst (Brandford Marsalis, Geri Allen) and Trevor Lawrence, Jr. (Herbie Hancock, Alicia Keys, LeAnn Rimes). He also composed the score for the PBS’ film “NOW en Español” (Andrea Muller) and ESPN’s One Night in Vegas.

In 2013, Kambon focused on educating youth and up-and-coming composers and music producers. He has conducted master classes and seminars at Berklee College of Music, UC Fullerton, USC, UCLA, Sundance Institute, Musicians’ Institute, Duke at USC and for the Orquestra Criança Cidadã (Recife, Brasil).

Most recently, Kambon composed the music for the PBS documentary, “John Lewis: Get In the Way” and an upcoming TV movie about the life and times of the late great San Diego Charger, Junior Seau.