Kali Z. Fasteau (1947-2020)

 

Kali Z. Fasteau

Multi-instrumentalist Kali Z. Fasteau passed away this past November. Fasteau was from a musical family and traveled far from her native Paris, living for a while throughout the world, before settling in New York. Fasteau was an active musician, writer, and educator and released a number of albums, including 2014's Piano Raptures, which was reviewed here on the blog. Fasteau also worked with the pianist Bobby Few, who passed away this past week, on the recordings Making Waves (Flying Note, 2004) and Expatriate Kin (CIMP, 1997).

Arts for Art founder and Vision Festival organizer Patricia Nicholson wrote a short tribute in an email shortly after Fasteau's passing:

"Kali Z. Fasteau was a strong independent voice in the FreeJazz movement. She was one of the few women who played a part of the musical revolution in the '70s performing on seminal recordings with her husband Rafael Garrett. After his passing she went on to perform and collaborate with many of the legends of this music."

In a Facebook post, ESP-Disk wrote:

"We are shocked and saddened by the sudden death of Kali Fasteau. She and then-husband Donald Rafael Garrett, as Sea Ensemble, released a profound album on ESP-Disk’ in 1974 and made two more great albums for Italian label Red Records in the same era. As a leader, she formed the label Flying Note to release her music, first on cassette tapes and then CDs, and was prolific. A superb saxophonist, pianist, and singer, she also played flutes, viola, cello, drums, and instruments from around the world."

ESP-Disk made a recording from their 50th Anniversary Concert (11/17/0213) available for download via Bandcamp.