Kazemde George is a jazz saxophonist, composer, and beat-maker, raised by Caribbean parents in Berkeley, California. He lives in Brooklyn, and performs and teaches around New York City. During his childhood, he was exposed to a wide range of musical styles, and has been playing piano, saxophone, and percussion from an early age. Kazemde developed a passion for Jazz as he began to recognize it as one of the most impressive and powerful cultural heritages in the US. He also makes electronic music under the moniker “KG,B”. KG,B’s beats are inspired by producers such as J Dilla, Madlib, and Flying Lotus, who he sees as modern the counterparts of early Jazz innovators. Since traveling to Cuba in 2012, Kazemde has expanded his focus from hip-hop and jazz to the full spectrum of musical styles which blossomed from the African Diaspora, including Afro-Cuban, Afro-Caribbean, Afro-Brazilian, and African-American styles. As he sees it, the study of these musical styles serves as a way to regain cultural histories that where lost through the processes of African-American Slavery. Kazemde is also a biologist at heart, and his quest to understand this wide breadth of styles is driven by an analytical mind with a scientific approach. Kazemde received his bachelors degree in Neurobiology from Harvard University, but today has aligned his focus towards music.

Kazemde started playing the saxophone at the age of 10, and at 12 he began learning the Jazz oral tradition under the tutelage of Khalil Shaheed, Charles McNeal and Susan Muscarella. In 2007, Kazemde moved to Boston to attend school, and in 2014, Kazemde completed the Harvard/New England Conservatory (NEC) Joint program, receiving his Bachelors in Neurobiology and his Masters in Jazz Composition. At NEC, Kazemde studied privately with Jerry Bergonzi, Cecil McBee, Donny McCaslin, John McNeil, Jason Moran, Danilo Pérez, and Miguel Zenón. During vacations from school, Kazemde organized and performed in youth jazz showcases at Yoshi’s Jazz Club in 2009 and 2011. In 2012, received Harvard’s George Peabody Gardener Fellowship to study music in La Habana, Cuba for ten months. The purpose of the trip was to study Afro-Cuban percussion, and to experience the social and political climate in the Communist dictatorship first-hand.

Kazemde has performed with Solange Knowles and Saint Heron, David Murray, Roman Filiu, and Jason Moran, at venues and festivals such as, Dizzy’s Coca-Cola Club, Zinc Bar, Irving Plaza, Yoshi’s, Black Cat, Cafe Stritch, The David Rubinstein Atrium at Lincoln Center, Panama Jazz Festival, Made In America Festival, AfroPunk, and Panorama NYC Music Festival.

His debut album, I Insist, released on October 22, 2021.