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Kenneth Keshavan Maslak, who also performs under the stage name Kenny Millions (born February 26, 1950), is an American jazz multi-instrumentalist, avant-garde performance artist, poet and restaurateur.

Biography

Kenneth Keshavan Maslak was born in downtown Detroit, Michigan, United States, to a family of Ukrainian immigrants,^[1] who worked at the Ford Motor Company. Kenny began studying music from his grandfather at the age of five on the mandolin, and then started on the clarinet and saxophone at the age of six. He began working professionally from the age of 12. While attending Cass Technical High School, Kenny became a student of Larry Teal and Donald Sinta. After high school Maslak studied music and psychology at the University of Michigan, Eastern Michigan University and North Texas State University, where he studied music composition with Martin Mailman in the late 1960s. Following this he played with Motown touring bands and many other jazz and R&B bands.

After two years living in San Francisco and playing with Charles Moffett, Ray Anderson and David Murray, Maslak moved to New York City in 1972 and participated in the New York loft scene during the 1970s, performing his compositions frequently at Studio Rivbea, Ladies' Fort, Maslak Gallerxy, The Kitchen, Five Spot Cafe, Village Vanguard, CBGB, Museum of Modern Art and at the Charlotte Moorman avant-garde festivals. At The Kitchen he performed with experimental musicians such as Garrett List, Rhys Chatham, Philip Glass, and Laurie Anderson, and associated with John Cage. During that period he developed his conceptual style of musical performance which he refers to as Multiplexmulti. Maslak also invented the Hum Ha Horn, which he recorded with on some of his early LPs.

From 1978 to 1981, Maslak lived in Amsterdam, Netherlands, where he played in avant-garde jazz circles with groups such as Instant Composer's Pool and recorded several titles for Leo Records, Black Saint Records and various other European labels with his trio. He also formed a punk rock-free jazz group, Loved by Millions, in which he began to use the pseudonym Kenny Millions. He returned to New York City in 1981 then first moved to Miami, Florida, in 1987. From 1988 to 1989, he lived in Brussels, Belgium, and in Moscow, The Soviet Union. Moving back to Miami in 1989, he and his wife became restaurateurs and opened up Sushi Blues Cafe and then afterwards Cafe Jamm in Florida, which they retired from in 2011.

Maslak has also collaborated with Hannibal Lokumbe, Abbey Rader, Paul Bley, Jack DeJohnette, Katsuyuki Itakura, Kazutoki Umezu, Sergey Kuryokhin, Sam Rivers, Sunny Murray, Frank Wright, Rashied Ali, Curtis Fuller, Marty Cook, Otomo Yoshihide, Toshinori Kondo, Roland Kirk, Misha Mengelberg, Han Bennink, Peter Brötzmann, Derek Bailey, Roscoe Mitchell, John Tchicai, Dr. John, Mick Taylor, Bobby Keys, The Rolling Stones, Larry Coryell, Stan Getz, Chet Baker, Eddie Kirkland, Thurston Moore, Otto von Schirach, Blowfly, Kool Keith, Tatsuya Nakatani, Weasel Walter, Frank "Rat Bastard" Falestra, and others.