Biography
Kitty Brazelton approaches music as an experimental vocalist, composer, and flutist who willingly incorporates free jazz and classical elements into art rock, avant-garde rock, and alternative rock. Her output over the decades has remained eccentric and left-of-center, reflecting a deep appreciation for avant-garde currents in rock, jazz, and classical music alike. At the same time her writing stays melodic and structurally sound; even when far removed from mainstream expectations, the work never veers into self-indulgent territory that alienates listeners.
Born and raised in Cambridge, Massachusetts, as the daughter of a pediatrician, Brazelton initially intended to pursue sculpture during her teenage years, yet ultimately centered her energies on music. At age seventeen she relocated to the Philadelphia suburbs to enroll at Swarthmore College, where she committed herself fully to a music-oriented path. In 1970 she joined the short-lived psychedelic and acid rock band Phaedra as singer and flutist; the group opened once for the Velvet Underground and should not be mistaken for the early-2000s ensemble named Phaedrus. Two years later she departed Phaedra and established the Philadelphia art rock group Musica Orbis, which sustained a modest underground following for seven years without achieving major commercial success. The ensemble recorded its debut album, To the Listeners, for Longdivity/Rounder in 1977 and disbanded in 1979.
During the 1980s Brazelton settled in New York, appearing both as a solo performer and as leader of several ensembles, among them Hide the Babies and V. One biographical note records a brief period in which she worked as a topless go-go dancer in Manhattan, although that occupation proved temporary. In 1990 she assembled Dadadah, one of her most ambitious projects; the band fused art rock, avant-garde rock, and alternative rock with avant-garde jazz while cultivating a small cult audience on the Lower Manhattan club circuit. Dadadah issued its first album, Rise Up!, on Accurate/Distortion in 1994 and followed with Love Not Love Lust Not Lust on the Buzz label in 1999; the two releases differ markedly, the former leaning more abstract and dissonant, the latter comparatively accessible.
Throughout the 1990s Dadadah remained only one of Brazelton’s activities. She also served as lead singer for the alternative rock band Camp, founded in 1996 by orchestral composer Randall Woolf, and led several New York-based groups including What Is It Like to Be a Bat?, Bog Life, and Hildegurls. The all-female Hildegurls, whose name playfully references both riot grrrl rock and composer Hildegard von Bingen, applied an unorthodox late-twentieth-century perspective to von Bingen’s music; the lineup additionally featured composers Elaine Kaplinsky, Eve Beglarian, and Lisa Bielawa. Bog Life, active from 1991 to 1994 and co-founded with harpist Elizabeth Panzer, concentrated on experimental chamber music; its album Bog Life: New and Unusual American Chamber Music, recorded in 1991 and 1992, appeared on Longdivity, with Panzer also contributing to both of Dadadah’s 1990s releases.
Like Dadadah, the projects What Is It Like to Be a Bat?, Bog Life, and Hildegurls functioned as part-time endeavors. In 1994 Brazelton earned a doctorate in music from Columbia University and married jazz critic Howard Mandel, president of the Jazz Journalists’ Association. She began teaching at both Columbia and New York University during the 1990s. Her solo album Chamber Music for the Inner Ear was released by Composers Recordings, Inc. in 2002.
Born and raised in Cambridge, Massachusetts, as the daughter of a pediatrician, Brazelton initially intended to pursue sculpture during her teenage years, yet ultimately centered her energies on music. At age seventeen she relocated to the Philadelphia suburbs to enroll at Swarthmore College, where she committed herself fully to a music-oriented path. In 1970 she joined the short-lived psychedelic and acid rock band Phaedra as singer and flutist; the group opened once for the Velvet Underground and should not be mistaken for the early-2000s ensemble named Phaedrus. Two years later she departed Phaedra and established the Philadelphia art rock group Musica Orbis, which sustained a modest underground following for seven years without achieving major commercial success. The ensemble recorded its debut album, To the Listeners, for Longdivity/Rounder in 1977 and disbanded in 1979.
During the 1980s Brazelton settled in New York, appearing both as a solo performer and as leader of several ensembles, among them Hide the Babies and V. One biographical note records a brief period in which she worked as a topless go-go dancer in Manhattan, although that occupation proved temporary. In 1990 she assembled Dadadah, one of her most ambitious projects; the band fused art rock, avant-garde rock, and alternative rock with avant-garde jazz while cultivating a small cult audience on the Lower Manhattan club circuit. Dadadah issued its first album, Rise Up!, on Accurate/Distortion in 1994 and followed with Love Not Love Lust Not Lust on the Buzz label in 1999; the two releases differ markedly, the former leaning more abstract and dissonant, the latter comparatively accessible.
Throughout the 1990s Dadadah remained only one of Brazelton’s activities. She also served as lead singer for the alternative rock band Camp, founded in 1996 by orchestral composer Randall Woolf, and led several New York-based groups including What Is It Like to Be a Bat?, Bog Life, and Hildegurls. The all-female Hildegurls, whose name playfully references both riot grrrl rock and composer Hildegard von Bingen, applied an unorthodox late-twentieth-century perspective to von Bingen’s music; the lineup additionally featured composers Elaine Kaplinsky, Eve Beglarian, and Lisa Bielawa. Bog Life, active from 1991 to 1994 and co-founded with harpist Elizabeth Panzer, concentrated on experimental chamber music; its album Bog Life: New and Unusual American Chamber Music, recorded in 1991 and 1992, appeared on Longdivity, with Panzer also contributing to both of Dadadah’s 1990s releases.
Like Dadadah, the projects What Is It Like to Be a Bat?, Bog Life, and Hildegurls functioned as part-time endeavors. In 1994 Brazelton earned a doctorate in music from Columbia University and married jazz critic Howard Mandel, president of the Jazz Journalists’ Association. She began teaching at both Columbia and New York University during the 1990s. Her solo album Chamber Music for the Inner Ear was released by Composers Recordings, Inc. in 2002.
Albums
