nine things to know about mwalim
Mwalim has been studying music since the age of 10, starting with the viola. He is formally trained in both classical and jazz. He is a fourth generation musician on his mother’s side.
Mwalim’s first instrument was the viola. He performed at Carnegie Hall with an orchestra before the age of 14. He started studying piano and composition with his grandfather, the noted jazz arranger, band leader, and producer for Southern and Decca Records, Allan Nurse.
Mwalim is a graduate of Music & Art High School (LaGuardia) in New York City. He earned his BA in Music and MS in Film from Boston University. He earned an MFA in Writing from Goddard College.
Mwalim started doing studio session work in 1985 at age 16, playing viola and violin on a project for EMI Records; and a year later doing keyboards for some projects at Jazzy Jay Recording Studio. Having done session work throughout the eastern sea board, he appears on over 400 released and unreleased recordings.
Mwalim released his first solo project, “Her Groove” in 1990 on his own Midnight Groove Recordings label after turning down offers from three independent labels that offered ‘shady’ contracts. Mwalim’s 2000 release of “Thief in the Night” and his follow-up E.P. “Jazzy-Soul Club Grooves” led to a major record deal in 2002 that Mwalim eventually walked away from due to the ‘creative and financial constraints of the deal.’
Mwalim co-founded the soul-funk jam band The GroovaLottos in 2009 with veteran Motown session player, James Wolf, and veteran touring drummer, Eddie Ray Johnson (passed away in June 2020) as a way back to into the music business on their own terms. He wrote all of the songs on the band’s 2017 debut album, “Ask Yo’ Mama” -co-produced with the late Mr. Johnson- and received 6 Grammy nominations and airplay throughout the USA and Canada.
Mwalim opened Polyphonic Studios in 2020 as a recording studio and content creation company. He and his team have cultivated the basis of the Southcoast Thump & Soul sound in this studio during the COVID-19 lockdown.
Mwalim is also a writer with over 25 produced plays and performance pieces, a short-story collection (A MIXED MEDICINE BAG), a novel (LAND of the BLACK SQUIRRELS), and numerous anthologized poems, short stories, and essays to his credits. His writings have earned him numerous grants and fellowships.
Mwalim is a tenured professor of English & Communications and Black Studies at UMass Dartmouth and has been a teacher of the performing arts and creative writing for over 32 years.
