Biography
Influenced by the community, culture, and sounds of the Northern California Bay Area, Rafa Selase's music, art and songwriting aspires to speak to people across the globe on all levels of the musical, poetic and artistic spectrum. A proud native of Vallejo, California, he has been quietly building a career as a multi-talented artist.
His first album, an improvisational piano collection that lives up to its name, “Meditation Music,” highlights Selase’s smooth, rhythmic piano style. The story of this first release is an independent artist's dream with its debut at #8 on Billboard's New Age Relaxation Music Chart.
Selase immediately went to work in an entirely different musical direction, venturing into a socially conscious alternative hip hop infused acid jazz album he called, "Red Blooded American.” With social change igniting worldwide, the Red Blooded American album feels like a protest song album, but rather it is a philosophical take on freedom and what we can learn from our nation’s history.
Rafa Selase a jazz fusion artist, pianist, poet, and author. Rafa Selase has put together a beautiful and thoughtful collection of work that crosses many genres and artistic borders.
"Reflecting the musical adventurousness and eclectic artistic brew of his Bay Area roots, Selase has a stunning body of work that encompasses everything from spoken word to acid jazz to New Age." - The Journal of Roots Music - No depression
"It also echoes the pioneering spoken-word music of Gil Scott-Heron in its real and vivid poetry. As one can interpret from the title, Selase reflects on the social and political environment of living in America now. If Public Enemy was the CNN of inner cities, Selase is its literary observer." - All About Jazz
"Selase persistently soaks you in the truth of the moment - it's provocative, thoughtful, and eye-opening, all at once." - Stereo Stickman
"There is a crazy power that emanates from this music. However, the atmosphere is serene, it advances without arms, hatred, or violence." - ANOTHERWHISKY FOR MISTERBUKOWSKI
Crediting musical influences that include Gil Scott-Heron, Donny Hathaway, Nina Simone, Fela Kuti, Lauryn Hill, Tupac Shakur, E40, Hugh Masakela, and Public Enemy; Selase continues to innovate, mixing his stylistic jazz music and performance art with African funk, jazz fusion, latin, blues and R&B/soul. He endeavors to take fans through a journey of mental activism on a poet's journey through life.
Be not conformed to this world; but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind