MIMI JONES - BALANCE
Genre-blending is a hallmark of Mimi Jones's music - on both her
2009 debut A New Day and her brand-new Balance. The disc features seven of her
own compositions, one by band member Marvin Sewell, and striking arrangements
of tunes by Adele ("Someone Like You"), Roy Ayers ("Everybody
Loves the Sunshine"), and Bob Dorough ("Nothing Like You") as
well as the children's favorite "The Incy Wincy Spider." She plays
acoustic bass on nine tracks and electric bass on three and sings on six (Jones
added singing to her bass playing seven years ago).
Born in
New York City (in 1972) and raised in the Bronx, Mimi attended Fiorello
LaGuardia High School and earned a B.A. in music at the Manhattan School of
Music Conservatory. She missed her graduation, however, because she'd been
hired to tour Japan with saxophonist Masa Wada and drummer Denis Charles. It
was the first of numerous overseas tours that would take her to Africa, Europe,
Asia, and the Americas, some under the auspices of the U.S. State Department.
In addition to leading her own groups, Jones has worked with jazz artists
including Kenny Barron, Joanne Brackeen, Terri Lyne Carrington (who chose Jones
to play on her Grammy-winning The Mosaic Project), Ravi Coltrane, Lizz Wright,
Lionel Hampton, Roy Hargrove, and many more.
CAMILLE THURMAN - ORIGINS
On her Origins CD, Camille Thurman performs 11 original
compositions, plus one apiece by Fats Waller ("Jitterbug Waltz") and
Saul Chaplin/Sammy Cahn ("Please Be Kind"). Thurman has major chops
on all four of her instruments -- tenor and soprano saxophone, flute, and voice
-- and an abundance of imagination to go along with them. She's also an
outstanding writer, two of whose tunes, "In Duetime" and
"Origins" -- both on the new CD -- were recognized by the ASCAP
Foundation with Herb Alpert Young Jazz Composer awards, in 2012 and 2013
respectively.
Thurman
was born in St. Albans, Queens, NY in 1986 and was introduced by her mother
early on to the great vocal artists. She began playing flute at age 12, alto
saxophone at 13, and switched to tenor at 14 after hearing Dexter Gordon. She
went on to earn a B.A. in Geological and Environmental Sciences from Binghamton
University before deciding to become a full-time musician. Currently a member
of Jones's group and the leader of her own quartet, Thurman has worked in the
big bands of Charli Persip, Nicholas Payton, and DIVA; recorded with Dianne
Reeves on her upcoming Beautiful Life CD; is in the all-star house band on
BET's "Black Girls Rock" award show; and was the second runner-up for
a Sassy Award in last month's Sarah Vaughan International Vocal Competition.
SHIRAZETTE TINNIN - HUMILITY: PURITY OF MY SOUL
Drummer Shirazette Tinnin debuts on Humility: Purity of My
Soul, working with her band, the Shirazette Experiment: pianists Willerm
Delisfort and Rachel Eckroth, guitarist Seth Johnson, bassist Tom DiCarlo, and
singing tenor saxophonist Camille Thurman. Seven of her compositions are
included, along with arrangements of songs by Eddie Harris ("Freedom Jazz
Dance") and McCoy Tyner ("Passion Dance"). Tia Fuller, in whose
band Shirazette has played for the past three years, and the Angolan vocalist
Afrikkanitha make guest appearances on the new disc.
Shirazette
was born in Chapel Hill, NC in 1979, the daughter of gospel singers who
performed up and down the East Coast. After getting her B.A. in Music Industry
Studies at Appalachian State University, she studied at Northern Illinois
University, earning her master's in music. Tinnin worked and recorded with
flutist Nicole Mitchell and, at a jazz festival, met trumpeter Gabriel AlegrÃa,
who invited her to come to New York (in 2009) and join his Afro-Peruvian
Sextet, with whom she has recorded and regularly toured in the U.S. and Peru.
Tinnin also reconnected in New York with Mimi Jones, whom she had met a decade
earlier in North Carolina. She has organized several bands over the years,
including Imani 7. When she's not playing music, Shirazette works as a personal
trainer.
Mimi
Jones, Camille Thurman, and Shirazette Tinnin will be performing together at
APAP, New York on Jan. 12 (DROM, 85 Avenue A between 5th/6th); and with their
respective bands at the Hot Tone Music CD release show scheduled for Tuesday,
Feb. 4, 7:00 pm, Le Poisson Rouge, 158 Bleecker Street, New York. All three release are due on Feb. 4, 2014.
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