Maurice O.

Maurice was born in Harlem, New York City. It is said his appreciation of music began with the Apollo Theater, where his mother would often catch a matinee while still pregnant with him. He grew up on Staten Island in a musical neighborhood where inspiration was everywhere. There were the sounds of conga drums in the parks in summer and gospel music at church on Sundays. He learned to love jazz from his dad. Through junior high and high school Maurice played drums and orchestral percussion and began to perform with professional musicians. For many years he lead rock, blues and jazz bands, performing around the East Coast in clubs, festivals & cultural events. At The Julliard School of Music In Manhattan, Maurice studied orchestral percussion, majoring in tympani. At The New School of Social Research he studied with such great artists asLake, Sam Rivers, Karl Berger and Jimmy Guiffre. He studied electronic composition with John Watts, founder of The Composers Theatre in NYC. In the 1980's Maurice received grants from the New York State Council for the Arts, and The New York Urban League, as well as The Composer's Award and the New York City Council for the Arts Grant for percussion workshops in public schools. Living in Amsterdam for a few years provided Maurice an opportunity to perform and write music in other genre and collaborate with musicians from around the world. He learned to play West African drums, such as talking drum, djembe and baliphone with master drummer Babatundi Olatunji, and studied Afro-Brazilian rhythms with Airto, Ciro Baptista and Nana Vasconcelos on traditional instruments such as the quica, agogo, caxixi and berimbau. Jo Papo Dadiego brought expertise in Afro-Cuban music as well. Maurice founded the band, Rhythm Method, with his brother Steve. The band featured live percussion, keyboards and guitar and performed in such renowned venues as the Melkweg/Milky Way in Amsterdam and Exit and Tressor in Berlin. Rhythm Method was one of the first American bands to perform live at the Love Parade in Berlin. In New York City the band performed regularly at The Limelight, The Shelter, The Ritz and The Roxy. Under Maurice's leadership, Rhythm Method released "The Future EP" on Adrenalin Records in 1993. In 1996, the album "Dream Wanderers" was released with C&S Records. He wrote the song, "But You Must" for the Killing Zoe soundtrack, Milan Records/BMG.