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Shlomo is a human beatbox artist from Leeds. He has worked with artists such as Björk, Martha Wainwright, DJ Yoda, Mad Professor, Damon Albarn, Mr Scruff, Nitin Sawhney and toured the world with UK hip hop crew Foreign Beggars.
He is of Israeli, Iraqi and German descent and can speak Hebrew, Aramaic and Arabic.[1] Shlomo grew up in the village of Bourne End in Buckinghamshire, and went to the Royal Grammar School, High Wycombe, before moving to Leeds at the age of 18 in 2002. His full name is Simon Shlomo Kahn.
He is known for pioneering original beatboxing techniques including his 2-mic trancebox routine which won him widespread respect in the international beatbox community.
Shlomo is also one of the key people behind the global beatbox portal humanbeatbox.com.[2].
In August 2004, Shlomo was invited by Icelandic singer Björk to beatbox on her all-vocal album Medulla. The track, Oceania, was composed as a commission by the Olympic Games Committee, and was performed at the Opening Ceremony in Athens, making Shlomo the most heard beatboxer in history (although most would not have realised that the drum sounds were vocal). The performance was also nominated for a Grammy.
Shlomo then went on to tour the UK, Europe and Canada with London Hip Hop act Foreign Beggars, before making a solo appearance on Later.. with Jools Holland in late 2005.[citation needed]
In 2006, after an appearance on the Radio 1 Rap Show, Hip Hop DJ Tim Westwood named Shlomo the 'Harry Potter of beatbox'.
Most recently Shlomo has pushed the boundaries of beatboxing by using his vocal skills as a way to collaborate with a whole range of artists from different backgrounds. He created a beatboxing choir, and has his own collaborative concert series.[citation needed]
One notable performance was at one of the world's most prestigious concert venues the Queen Elizabeth Hall, London. As a result of this concert he was invited to become an Artist in Residence at the South Bank Centre by the artistic director Jude Kelly.
In 2007 he put together the world's first beatboxing choir called the Vocal Orchestra to headline at the International Beatbox Convention. The Vocal Orchestra went on to perform at the Big Chill Festival and will headline the Park Stage at the 2008 Glastonbury Festival.
Shlomo has performed at many major festivals over the past few years, including the Montreux Jazz Festival, Glastonbury, Bestival, Womad, Latitude, Oxegen Ireland, The Big Chill (as a guest of Nightmares on Wax in 2006, in 2007 with his Vocal Orchestra and as a guest of the Mighty Boosh in 2008) and the Lovebox Weekender.
At Glastonbury 2007 Shlomo performed a live version of "A Message To You Rudy" accompanying Terry Hall and Lynval Golding from The Specials and Damon Albarn on piano. He also made a live TV appearance on BBC2.[citation needed]
At Glastonbury 2008 Shlomo and the Vocal Orchestra performed a two-hour set on the Park Stage with several guest appearances including Martha Wainwright, Martina Topley-Bird, Get Cape Wear Cape Fly, Reverend and the Makers, Portico Quartet, Lemn Sissay, Ed Harcourt, Pete Lockett and DJ Yoda.
External links
References
- ^ The diversity of Foreign Beggars
- ^ humanbeatbox.com
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