Ras Moshe
Theodore Burnett III, who performs under the name Ras Burnett, is a composer, multi-instrumentalist specializing in saxophone and flute, musicologist and educator.
Ras comes from a musical family. His paternal grandfather, Theodore Burnett played tenor and alto saxophone with bands led by Lucky Millinder, Earl Bostic, Don Redman, Louis Armstrong, and others. Ras's father, Theodore Burnett II, also played saxophone.
"The name Ras came when I was around the Rastafarian community and playing in some reggae bands," he said in a 2014 interview. "Moshe is a name given to me when I was a little younger based on a religious conversion in the family."
Career
After high school graduation, Burnett performed with African drummers and a Rastafarian band called the Drums of Freedom Troupe. He became a full-time musician in 1987.Moshe has recorded and performed with Dafna Naphtali, Juma Sultan, The Zodiac Saxophone Quartet, Janice Lowe, Kyoko Kitamura, Melanie Dyer, Gwen Laster, Emily Lanxner, Althea SullyCole, Erika Dagnino, Amina Baraka, William Hooker, Karl Berger, William Parker, Bill Cole's Un-tempered Ensemble, Marc Edwards, Rashid Bakr, Lisette Santiago, Matt Lavelle's 12 Houses, The Red Microphone, Kali Z Fasteau and other contemporary jazz artists.
He leads the Music Now Unit, The Ras Jazz Unit and "Get Up with It", a Calypso-Jazz-Funk band.
He has recorded for the Unseen Rain, Ayler, Utech, Straw2gold Pictures, KMB, and 577 labels.
In 2005 and 2006, he released four albums on the Utech label, entitled Live Spirits, Vols. 1, 2, 3 and 4. The album Transcendence, by the Ras Moshe Quartet, was issued on the KMB Jazz label in 2007. In 2013, under his own name, he released the album Outsight, culled from three live New York City performances, on the Straw2Gold label.
In 2000, Ras founded the Music Now series at The Brecht Forum in Brooklyn, then at The Brooklyn Commons. The series still exists at Scholes Street Studio in Brooklyn. In the same year he joined the Neues Kabarett Collective at The Brecht Forum, presenting monthly performances of free jazz and new music.
He is a member of Bill Cole's Untempered Ensemble, for eighteen years. Also Matt Lavelle's 12 Houses Orchestra and The Red Microphone.
Ras writes and lectures about free jazz, writing liner liner notes for: "Al-Fatihah" By The Black Unity Trio and "Pharoah Sanders Quartet".
In June 2018 Ras received his BA in Music Studies at SUNY/Empire State College;and in August 2023, a MFA in Music Composition from Vermont College of Fine Arts. He currently teaches Free Jazz History at The New School for Social Research.
Discography
Ras Burnett"Horizon Motion"
Althea SullyCole
"Due West"
Ras Burnett
"Celebration Conference"
Ras Burnett-JD Parran-James Ilgenfritz-Nava Dunkelman-Payton MacDonald
"Museum of Invisible Things"
With William Hooker
"Flesh and Blood"
Ras Moshe Burnett Ensemble
"50 Shades of May"
With Dafna Naphtali
- Fusebox
"Invocation"
With The Red Microphone
And I Became of the Dark, A Bleeding In Black Leather, The Red Microphone Speaks, Amina Baraka and The Red Microphone
Ras Moshe Burnett and Music Now!
"Live at Scholes St. Studio"
Circle 4-Ras Moshe-Rocco John Iacovone-Tom Cabrera-Philip Sirois
"Rhombus" "Instinct" "Spheres" "Plexus"
Ras Moshe-Rocco John Iacovone-Philip Sirois-Tom Cabrera
"Connoisseurs of Chaos V"
Nora McCarthy-Dom Minasi-Ras Moshe
"Manna For Thought"
with Michael Moss' Accidental Orchestra
"Helix"
With Amina Baraka and The Red Microphone
"Amina Baraka and The Red Microphone"
With Jesse Dulman Quartet
"Live at Downtown Music Gallery"
Ras Moshe Burnett-Paula Shocron-Pablo Diaz-Matt Lavelle-Daniel Carter-Hill Greene
"Cooperative Sound #3"
With Rocco John Iacovone's Improvisational Composers Ensemble
"Peace and Love:A Tribute To Will Connell"
With Stefan Christoff
- Rêves Sonores À Alwan
"Solidarity", "End Times", "The Crop Circles Suite Part 1"
With Bill Cole's Untempered Ensemble
"Untempered Ensemble", "Politics-For Jayne Cortez", "SunSum" "Margaret and Katie"
as Ras Moshe Burnett
- Outsight
"Signs"
with Dom Minasi Septet
The Bird, The Girl and The Donkey
With William Parker's Essence of Ellington Big Band
"Essence of Ellington-Live In Milano"
With John Sinclair and Hollow Bones
Honoring The Local Gods
With Marc Edwards/Weasel Walter Group
"Mysteries Beneath The Planet"
With Dave Ross, Federico Ughi
- RED RIVER FLOWS
"Transcendence"
With Steve Swell's Nation Of We
"This Business Of Here-Live at Roulette"
Ras Moshe-Matt Lavelle-Todd Capp
"Spark Trio! Short Stories In Sound"
With Walden Wimberly and His Musical Friends Octet
"What The Pyramids Told Me
With Dom Minasi
'"The Vampire's Revenge"'
as Ras Moshe Music Now Unit
- Live Spirits vol 1-4
"Allemansratten"
Ras Moshe Music Now Ensemble
"Schematic"
With Matt Lavelle Quartet
"Handling The Moment"
as Ras Moshe Music Now Unit
"Into The Openness"