Camara Kambon

Music composer and music producer Camara Yero Kambon was born on February 4, 1973, in Baltimore, Maryland to Anana Maisha Kambon, a preschool teacher, and Kwame Sietu Kambon, an artist. At the age of two, Kambon started studying drums. He moved to the piano at age four and composed his first musical riffs by the age of six. While living in Baltimore, Maryland, Kambon attended Cross Country Elementary and attended Fallstaff Middle School where he began to play other instruments besides the piano. After graduating from middle school, Kambon attended St. Paul's School for Boys in Lutherville, Maryland. In 1983, Kambon enrolled in the Peabody Preparatory School in Baltimore, studying jazz, classical piano and composition. Kambon graduated from Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts in 1994 where he studied music production, music engineering and film scoring. While there, he composed music for the Emmy nominated films, Dancing: New Worlds, New Forms and Malcolm X: Make it Plain.

In 1996, Kambon won an Emmy Award for the music he composed for the HBO film, Sonny Liston: The Mysterious Life and Death of a Champion. At the age of twenty-three, he was the youngest composer ever to receive a national Emmy Award. Kambon then became head of Inflx Entertainment, a musical production company in Hollywood, California, specializing in film, television and records. Kambon has worked as the composer for two television series, A Different World and Living Single. He has also worked as a keyboard player for producer and rapper, Dr. Dre. In addition, Kambon composed Korikabaya, which was performed by the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra.

In 1998, Kambon received his second Emmy nomination for the HBO documentary, Where Have You Gone Joe DiMaggio? Kambon received three Grammy nominations in 2001 for co-writing the Mary J. Blige hit, Family Affair; for his keyboard work on Nelly Furtado’s Whoa, Nelly!; and for his contribution to Eve’s album, Scorpion. Two years later, Kambon received another Emmy nomination for A City on Fire: Tigers of ’68.

Camara Yero Kambon was interviewed by The HistoryMakers on September 18, 2008.