Kip Hanrahan


Kip Hanrahan is an American jazz music impresario, record producer and percussionist.

Biography

Hanrahan was born in a Puerto Rican neighborhood in the Bronx to an Irish-Jewish family. He 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 musicians like Sting, Jack Bruce, Grayson Hugh, and Fernando Saunders.
He produced a number of significant recordings by the nuevo tango master Ástor Piazzolla in the last decade of Piazzolla's life, as well as recordings by Latin music figures including Jerry Gonzalez. Hanrahan also worked with the poet Ishmael Reed on three recordings with the Conjure Ensemble, featuring Taj Mahal on the first release. These side projects were not the only poetry-based discs: Darn It from 1994 celebrates the work of Paul Haines.

Selected discography

The list includes recordings released under Hanrahan's own name, as well as those released under the name Conjure.

Studio releases