I Knew You When
I Knew You When
Avery Sharpe
Avery Sharpe
I Knew You When. Dementia and Alzheimers are issues that most families have to deal with and are at epidemic proportions. My own family is an example of this. My musical interest and profession were inspired by my musical mother. My mother was a piano player and directed choirs in the Church of God in Christ. She had been playing piano since she was 13 years old and was able to play and perform well into her late 80s and 90s. She was unable to really perform very well, near the last year or two of her life. Her memory was failing as she got closer to the end of her life. She was able to remember some songs she sang, but was losing the ability to accompany herself on the piano. Also during this time my two oldest sisters, were losing their memory, the oldest of the two, passed away during and because of Covid, my second eldest sister is still alive but is in stage 6 of dementia.
Some scientists have concluded that music was actually our first language, which is why people with dementia are often able to retain the memory of music. I will go into homes and facilities of people at all stages, with dementia, who were involved in music as a composers, musicians, singers and elicit ideas from each person. I will bring my double bass and keyboard to the facility, recording elements of sounds and songs from each person, that they were able to retain. I will take these sounds and I will create a composition using the sounds and themes the individual dementia persons have imparted. This will create a unique piece of music. The composition will be a piece for chamber orchestra, reeds, brass, piano, double bass, drums, balafon/African percussion. A second series of concerts, with excerpts from the final composition, will be performed with a sextet in the facilities where some of the musicians are housed.
This entire process will be filmed and photographed and some of the footage will be used in the live performance, and be projected in video slide show, during the performance. My experience as a composer/musician has been using elements from genres of jazz, classical, gospel, solely improvised music and spoken word. This will be a 7 movement piece (representing the 7 stages of dementia) of 75-90 minutes in length.
Jazz, Multimedia Performance, Music, Performing Arts
2026
About Avery Sharpe
Plainfield, MA
Avery Sharpe is a prolific composer and bassist. Sharpe wrote the soundtrack for the movie An Unremarkable Life, starring Patricia Neal and Shelly Winters. The Springfield Symphony Orchestra, commissioned Avery to write several large pieces that combined full orchestra, choir and Jazz ensemble. His latest commission, “400: An African American Musical Portrait”, was premier with the SSO on Juneteenth 2024 Avery was commissioned by Chamber Music Plus to write a musical portrait for the touring stage production of Raisin’ Cane, that features the actress Jasmine Guy (from TV’s, “A Different World”) and Sharpe’s Trio. Avery Sharpe attended the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA and studied bass with bassist Reggie Workman, and was soon performing with Archie Shepp and Art Blakey. Sharpe joined McCoy Tyner’s and was with him for 20 plus years, and appeared on 25 plus recordings with Tyner. Avery Has performed and recorded with Jazz Greats from Dizzy Gillespie to Wynton Marsalis. Sharpe is considered a major force of his generation In 1994 he started his artist owned record label JKNM Records. He has more than 13 titles as a leader for JKNM Records, that includes his latest recording, Avery Sharpe Double Quartet-“I Am My Neighbors Keeper”
Avery Sharpe is a prolific composer and bassist. Sharpe wrote the soundtrack for the movie An Unremarkable Life, starring Patricia Neal and Shelly Winters. The Springfield Symphony Orchestra, commissioned Avery to write several large pieces that combined full orchestra, choir and Jazz ensemble. His latest commission, “400: An African American Musical Portrait”, was premier with the SSO on Juneteenth 2024 Avery was commissioned by Chamber Music Plus to write a musical portrait for the touring stage production of Raisin’ Cane, that features the actress Jasmine Guy (from TV’s, “A Different World”) and Sharpe’s Trio. Avery Sharpe attended the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA and studied bass with bassist Reggie Workman, and was soon performing with Archie Shepp and Art Blakey. Sharpe joined McCoy Tyner’s and was with him for 20 plus years, and appeared on 25 plus recordings with Tyner. Avery Has performed and recorded with Jazz Greats from Dizzy Gillespie to Wynton Marsalis. Sharpe is considered a major force of his generation In 1994 he started his artist owned record label JKNM Records. He has more than 13 titles as a leader for JKNM Records, that includes his latest recording, Avery Sharpe Double Quartet-“I Am My Neighbors Keeper”