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Myra Melford
"From her first album in 1991, it was clear that this pianist and composer would stay around," the New York Times said of Myra Melford. Melford has not only stuck around, but she has flourished. She has appeared on more than 20 recordings, including nine as a leader , performed in more than 30 countries, won major awards for composition and piano performance, and worked with some of the world's most innovative musicians. Melford's staying power is the product of ceaseless musical travels; she's always going somewhere. As Francis Davis noted , "Myra Melford is the genuine article, the most gifted pianist/composer to emerge from jazz since Anthony Davis."
At the keyboard, Melford recasts the blues and boogie- woogie of her Chicago hometown, folds in elements of the music of Eastern Europe and India, and blends them with the rangy, percussive avant-garde stylings she cultivated in studies with Don Pullen and Henry Threadgill. This personal musical vocabulary is further enriched by a lush lyricism and organized by an architectural sense of composition that she derived from classical training.
Melford's remarkable breadth is ordered by a thoughtful, expressive sensibility, evocatively described by Coda Magazine: "Myra Melford is at once a dancer, a romantic and a savage suckerpuncher at the bench . . . beating all hell out of the piano and making it beautiful."
In the early '90s Melford toured and recorded extensively with her acclaimed trio featuring Lindsey Horner on bass and Reggie Nicholson on drums. Their 1993 recording Alive in the House of Saints was reissued by hat Art in 2001. In the late '90s, she led a quintet, The Same River, Twice, which featured trumpeters Dave Douglas or Cuong Vu, reedist Chris Speed, cellist Erik Friedlander, and drummer Michael Sarin. They recorded two albums, their self-titled debut on Gramavision (1996) and Above Blue (Arabesque, 1999).
Melford currently leads or co-leads four groups, all of which have recorded in the past several years.
Melford's ongoing search for new sounds and new directions in her music led her to the harmonium, a small hand-pump organ traditionally used in Indian and Pakistani classical and devotional music. Melford was awarded a Fulbright scholarship to study North Indian music on the instrument with Sohanlal Sharma in Calcutta, where she was in residency from September 2000 through May 2001. The fruits of her studies are heard in some of her compositions for her groups The Tent and Be Bread.
In addition to leading her own ensembles for more than 15 years, Melford appears as a special guest on Jenny Scheinman's Shaligaster (Tzadik), Joseph Jarman's Lifetime Visions and Jarman's and Leroy Jenkins' Out of the Mist (Ocean Records); Butch Morris' a Move (Sony) and Songs Out of My Trees (Soul Note); and Leroy Jenkins' Themes and Improvisations on the Blues (CRI).
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It's (Never) the Final Countdown, Part Deux
by Patrick Burnette
Join our intrepid but grumpy explorers Mike and Pat and they continue their journey through the New York Times Top Ten list of Best Jazz Albums from 2023. The boys look at three more albums off the list and once again have questions about the selections. Then they discuss an album from 2023 not on the list, and, naturally, emit rainbows. We don't recommend you make a game of drinking whenever one of them calls “category error" unless you have ...
read moreMyra Melford's Fire And Water Quintet: Hear The Light Singing
by John Sharpe
Pianist Myra Melford's blue chip Fire And Water quintet assuredly sidesteps second album syndrome. Hear The Light Singing stands very much the equal of the band's superlative eponymous debut. The only change is that Lesley Mok takes Susie Ibarra's place behind the trapset, otherwise the triumvirate completing the starry squad remains Ingrid Laubrock on saxophones, Tomeka Reid on cello and Mary Halvorson on guitar. In the liners Melford explains that the five pieces titled “Insertions" here were ...
read moreNew Music From Myra Melford, Jérôme Descamps, Mayra Dómine & Rodrigo González, And More
by Bob Osborne
On this show we present new music from Myra Melford's Fire and Water Quintet , Jérôme Descamps, Mayra Dómine & Rodrigo González, George Colligan , Gordon Lee, Dan Balmer, Mark Solborg and Sunny Kim with Vardan Ovsepian & Ben Monder. In addition, a look at Australian based label 4000 Records who release live recordings from venues in Brisbane/Meanjin. Playlist Show Intro 00:00 Myra Melford's Fire and Water Quintet “Insertion One" from Hear The Light Singing (RogueArt) 00:59 Jérôme ...
read moreMyra Melford Fire and Water Quintet at SFJAZZ Center
by Roy Strassman
Myra Melford's Fire and Water Quintet SFJAZZ Center San Francisco, CA November 6, 2022 The Free jazz pianist and composer Myra Melford made the trip across the Bay Bridge to the SFJAZZ Joe Henderson Lab to bring her Fire and Water Quintet to an eagerly expectant audience. The quintet's name derives from the abstract artist Cy Twombly's “For the Love of Fire and Water retrospective at MOMA. The musicians are all creative forces in their ...
read moreMyra Melford: For The Love Of Fire And Water
by John Sharpe
Inspired by artist Cy Twombly, pianist Myra Melford has produced a superb album which combines notated signposts with unbridled exchanges. She's helped by an all star agglomeration comprising some of New York's most accomplished instrumentalists: guitarist Mary Halvorson, saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock, cellist Tomeka Reid and drummer Susie Ibarra. As might be expected of the city's brightest talents, their paths have crossed on multiple occasions, but never in this particular permutation until they appeared as part of a Melford residency at ...
read moreSarah Wilson: Kaleidoscope
by Angelo Leonardi
Il percorso musicale di Sarah Wilson—molto diverso da quello dei colleghi trombettisti—ha formato una personalità eclettica, che il suo terzo disco mostra con chiarezza e fa della singolarità una ricchezza. Come sintetizza il titolo, il percorso musicale è un caleidoscopio di situazioni diverse, che ruotano attraverso alcune costanti: delicate folk ballad, estroversi quadri calypso o brani jazzistici di sapore country. Anche grazie ai notevoli partner che le sono vicino, il risultato è ricco e accattivante. Con la Wilson ...
read moreMyra Melford's Fire and Water Quintet: For The Love Of Fire And Water
by Mark Corroto
While the now infamous quote “writing about music is like dancing about architecture" may befit jazz criticism, writing music about painting is actually achievable. Proof of that is pianist Myra Melford's For the Love of Fire and Water; her quintet sets out to perform music inspired by the American painter Cy Twombly's (1928-2011) Bay of Gaeta drawings “For the Love of Fire and Water." Melford has taken inspiration from visual artists in the past, specifically on her solo ...
read moreNew Frequencies Fest: Jazz@YBCA San Francisco February 4-7, 2015
Source:
Marshall Lamm Promotions & Public Relations
Yerba Buena Center for The Arts announced programming for New Frequencies Fest: Jazz@YBCA running February 4-7, 2015 New Frequencies Fest: Jazz@YBCA is a radical exploration of jazz's future through the lense of its pioneering spirit. The entire program is dedicated to jazz in the present tense while paying homage to the legacy of visionary artists of the 1960s and 70s through their impact on contemporary jazz and improvisational music. The past, current, and future San Francisco jazz scene and New ...
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Myra Melford Presents Two Benefit Events for U.C. Berkeley Jazz and Improvised Music Fund
Source:
Marshall Lamm Promotions & Public Relations
The Department of Music at The University of California, Berkeley, today announced two special fundraiser events for the Jazz and Improvised Music Fund (JIM). The first event on Friday, April 23 at UC Berkeley's Hertz Hall will feature The Contemporary Improvisation Ensemble (CIE) comprised of UC Berkeley students, alumni and guests directed by Myra Melford followed by a performance by Trio M with Mark Dresser, Myra Melford and Matt Wilson. The second event on Saturday, April 24, “Cooking it Up-Connections ...
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Jazz Musician of the Day: Myra Melford
Source:
Michael Ricci
All About Jazz is celebrating Myra Melford's birthday today!
JAZZ MUSICIAN OF THE DAY Myra Melford
“From her first album in 1991, it was clear that this pianist and composer would stay around," the New York Times said of Myra Melford. Melford has not only stuck around, but she has flourished. She has appeared on more than 20 recordings... more
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Marty Ehrlich/Myra Melford Duo Coming to Firehouse 12 October 26th
Source:
Improvised Communications
On Friday, October 26th, the long-standing duo of reed player/composer Marty Ehrlich and pianist/composer Myra Melford will perform at New Haven's Firehouse 12 in support of its new CD, Spark! (Palmetto Records). This is the second release by this pairing of acclaimed veteran talents, who have been performed together as a duo since 2000. Critics called their 2001 debut, Yet Can Spring (Arabesque Recordings), “revelatory" (David R. Adler, All Music Guide) and “the ultimate duet recording...another triumph for two outstanding ...
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Mike Schwartz/KSJS December Guest List Includes Aaron Goldberg, Myra Melford and Reuben Rogers
Source:
All About Jazz
The weekly “Straight No Chaser" Broadcast each Sunday on 90.5FM KSJS San Jose, CA and www.ksjs.org 6-10AM Pacific/9AM-1PM Eastern times Hosted by Mike Schwartz. The Artist Feature utilizes the final hour of the program devoted to the guest 9-10AM Pacific/12-1PM Eastern. 12/03 Pianist/Composer: Aaron Goldberg new “World" CD [Sunnyside] 12/10 Pianist/Composer/Bandleader: Myra Melford new “Be Bread" CD [Cryptogramaphone] 12/17 Bassist/Composer/Bandleader/sideman extarordinaire: Reuben Rogers latest CD “The Things I ...
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Cryptogramophone Records to Release New CDs From Guitarist Nels Cline and Pianist Myra Melford September 12
Source:
All About Jazz
Los Angeles-based creative jazz label Cryptogramophone Records announces exciting new autumn releases from guitarist Nels Cline and pianist Myra Melford. Nels Cline's New Monastery is Cline's interpretation of the music of Andrew Hill; Myra Melford's The Image of Your Body features trumpeter Cuong Vu and guitarist Brandon Ross.
Nels Cline is one of the most versatile, imaginative and original guitarists active today. Combining breath-taking technique with an informed musical intelligence, Cline displays a mastery of guitar expression that ...
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Vandermark 5 + Leroy Jenkins/Myra Melford/Kahil El'Zabar at The Cinema in Philadelphia
Source:
All About Jazz
Ars Nova Workshop presents: Tonight. Thursday, February 2 | 8pm VANDERMARK 5 with Ken Vandermark, reeds; Dave Rempis, saxophone; Fred Lonberg-Holm, cello; Kent Kessler, bass; and Tim Daisy, drums
The Cinema (formerly CineMagic) | 3925 Walnut Street $12 General Admission MacArthur fellow Ken Vandermark formed the Vandermark 5 nearly 10 years ago as an outlet for the concepts he developed over the years working with NRG Ensemble, the Peter Brotzmann Chicago Tentet, and ALLY. During the ...
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Myra Melford and "be bread' at VJC on 2/14/03
Source:
All About Jazz
Myra Melford and “be bread" to perform at the Vermont Jazz Center on Friday, February 14th at 4:00 PM
Pianist Myra Melford has a voice all her own, she is a an anachronism, a musician whose compositional and playing styles embrace free music, tight arrangements and strong melodies all within the context of a single musical composition. Myra's music is deep yet playful, she creates koans of sound. Her music leaves plenty of space to encourage her fellow musicians to ...
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Myra Melford
Instrument: Piano
Born: January 5, 1957
Publicist: Fully Altered Media
