María Grand
This Brazilian cultural matrix positions María Grand globally...
Curation
CURATION
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from this page:
by Matrix
The Integrated Global Creative Economy
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Name:
María Grand
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City/Place:
New York City
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Country:
United States
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Hometown:
Geneva, Switzerland
Life & Work
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Bio:
María Grand is a saxophonist, composer, educator, and vocalist. She moved to New York City in 2011. She has since become an important member of the city’s creative music scene, performing extensively in projects led by or including musicians such as Nicole Mitchell, Vijay Iyer, Craig Taborn, Mary Halvorson, Jen Shyu, Aaron Parks, Fay Victor, Joel Ross, etc.
María writes and performs her original compositions with her ensemble, DiaTribe; her debut EP “TetraWind” was picked as “one of the 2017’s best debuts” by the NYC Jazz Record and her full-length album Magdalena was praised by major publications such as the New York Times, Downbeat, JazzTimes, Billboard, JazzIz, and others. The New York Times calls her “an engrossing young tenor saxophonist with a zesty attack and a solid tonal range”, while Vijay Iyer says she is “a fantastic young saxophonist, virtuosic, conceptually daring, with a lush tone, a powerful vision, and a deepening emotional resonance.”
She is a recipient of the 2017 Jazz Gallery Residency Commission, the 2018 Roulette Jerome Foundation Commission, and the 2019 Roulette Residency. She was Best New Artist for the 2018 Extended Jazz Times Critics Poll; she was also nominated for the Jazz Journalist’s Association Up-And-Coming Musician of the Year 2018 and named the 2018 Newcomer Musician for the El Intruso 11th Annual Internation Critics Poll. As an activist in the performing arts, María is a founding member of anti-discrimination group, the We Have Voice Collective. María performs regularly with her own ensemble; she is also a member of Joel Ross’ Parables, has toured with Antoine Roney, as well as with RAJAS, led by Carnatic musician Rajna Swaminathan, and joined Mary Halvorson’s Code Girl in 2019.
She has toured Europe, the United States, and South America, playing in venues and festivals such as Dizzy's Club, the Jazz Gallery and the Stone in New York City, AngraJazz in Azores Islands, the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia, Roulette in Brooklyn, Porgy and Bess (Austria), Bird's Eyes (CH), MassMoca in New Hampshire, JazzJantar Festival in Poland, Le Guess Who Festival in Utrecht (Netherlands), etc...
More
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Quotes, Notes & Etc.
María Grand's debut "Magdalena" was named #6 best Jazz Album of 2018 by Billboard; she was named Best New Artist of 2018 by the JazzTimes Readers Poll, #4 Artist to Watch in 2019 by JazzIz Magazine, was chosen one of the Promoter Picks Artists to Watch for 2019 by JazzFuel.com, was nominated for Best Up-And-Coming Musician of 2018 by the Jazz Journalists Association Awards, and was elected Best Newcomer Musician by the 11th Annual Critics Poll of El Intruso!
"..the way Grand has grown as a singer in balance with her skills on the reeds is unparalleled”
- Downbeat Magazine
"On Magdalena, Ms. Grand unspools a constant flow of ideas, serene and deftly paced..."
- The New York Times
"There’s a sense of interior mystery in Magdalena, the full-length debut of María Grand. The 26-year-old Swiss native uses her tenor saxophone like a truth-illuminating candle, her haunting lines exploring every crevice of her equally somber and arresting compositions. No matter how rapt the improvisations, an itch of unknowing pervades the search."
- JazzTimes
She plays with a rare combination of warmth and conviction, and has just released Magdalena, an angular, stripped-down album. {..}With song titles like “Isis”, “Maria” and “Magdalena”, this project is a tribute to powerful women, and should be compulsory listening for inside the jazz world and out.
- The Economist
Her full-length leader debut, Magdalena, was released on Biophilia Records in 2018. Featuring her dauntless ensemble Diatribe and tackling subjects ranging from mythology to family relationships, the album positioned Grand as an improviser of piercing insight and a composer of vast ambition.
- JazzIz
“Luckily, most jazz fans were savvy enough to hear the genius of the 26-year-old’s new direction in modern bop with the excellent Magdalena. Backed by her core rhythm section of bassist Rashaan Carter and drummer Jeremy Dutton (with guest turns from guitarist Mary Halvorson and pianists David Bryant and Fabian Almazan), Magdalena presents a more confident, assured performer and composer than who first emerged on her self-released 2017 debut EP, Tetrawind. She exhibits tremendous growth as both a singer and a reedist.”
- Billboard
"On “TetraWind,” an EP released this year, Ms. Grand, 25, unfurls a teetering logic. She conjoins the spiky rhythms of Rashaan Carter’s bass with tilting sheets of harmony, built by her tenor saxophone, David Bryant’s keyboard and Roman Filiu’s alto saxophone. As an improviser, the Swiss-Argentine Ms. Grand is both measured and frank, often venturing into gentle provocation."
- The New York Times, Giovanni Russonello
"..a dynamic, Colemanesque solo from saxophonist María Grand.."
- the Chicago Tribune, Howard Reich
"Tenorist María Grand takes center with an expressive and stimulating soliloquy.."
- All About Jazz, Hrayr Attarian
"...Grand's tenor riding the whip as the team galloped to the finish line..."
- Jazz Weekly, George W. Harris
"A Revelation!"
- Jazz Magazine
"The two "finds" of the [Newport Jazz] festival for me were coincidentally both women: Maria Grand, tenor player with Steve Coleman, and Kris Davis, pianist with Eric Revis' group. Grand navigated the always tricky Coleman music with a big, broad sound and tremendous melodic acuity."
- Pat Donaher, Visionsong
"Une réplique déroutante [...] émanant de la saxophoniste María Grand, une sorte de "ténor en mi bémol" (ainsi qualifiait-on celui de Warne Marsh qui tendait à sonner comme un alto et pourrait-on qualifier aujourd'hui celui de Mark Turner) improvisant dans le sillage du leader dans un esprit de continuité déconcertant."
- Jazz Magazine, Frank Bergerot
"[María Grand] is an excellent, exploratory saxophonist you should all know. I first encountered her at a Steve Coleman and the Five Elements show in NYC last year. As you're aware, that is not exactly an easy gig to get. She contributes to Steve's 'Synovial Joints' album, if you want to hear her in that context. [...] Grand's pieces are full of wild twists, turns and time signatures, yet hang together in a compelling way. This is stuff for adventurous listeners. There's excellent interplay between Grand and alto saxophonist Román Filiú.
- Anil Prasad, found of innerviews.org
Clips (more may be added)
There are certain countries, the names of which fire the popular imagination. Brazil is one of them; an amalgam of primitive and sophisticated, jungle and elegance, luscious jazz harmonics — there’s no other place like it in the world. And while Rio de Janeiro, or its fame anyway, tends toward the sophisticated end of the spectrum, Bahia bends toward the atavistic…
It’s like a trick of the mind’s light (I suppose), but standing on beach or escarpment in Salvador and looking out across the Baía de Todos os Santos to the great Recôncavo, and mindful of what happened there (and here; the Bahian Recôncavo was final port-of-call for more enslaved human beings than any other place throughout the entirety of mankind’s existence on this planet, and in the past it extended into what is now urban Salvador), one must be led to the inevitable conclusion that one is in a place unique to history, and to the present:
Brazil absorbed over ten times the number of enslaved Africans taken to the United States of America, and is a repository of African deities (and their music) now largely forgotten in their lands of origin.
Brazil was a refuge (of sorts) for Sephardim fleeing an Inquisition which followed them across the Atlantic (that unofficial symbol of Brazil’s national music — the pandeiro — was almost certainly brought to Brazil by these people).
Across the parched savannas of the interior of Brazil’s culturally fecund nordeste/northeast (where wizard Hermeto Pascoal was born in Lagoa da Canoa — Lagoon of the Canoe — and raised in Olho d’Águia — Eye of the Eagle), much of Brazil’s aboriginal population was absorbed into a caboclo/quilombola culture punctuated by the Star of David.
Three cultures — from three continents — running for their lives, their confluence forming an unprecedented fourth. Pandeirista on the roof.
That's where this Matrix begins:
Wolfram MathWorld
The idea is simple, powerful, and egalitarian: To propagate for them, the Matrix must propagate for all. Most in the world are within six degrees of us. The concept of a "small world" network (see Wolfram above) applies here, placing artists from the Recôncavo and the sertão, from Salvador... from Brooklyn, Berlin and Mombassa... musicians, writers, filmmakers... clicks (recommendations) away from their peers all over the planet.
This Integrated Global Creative Economy (we invented the concept) uncoils from Brazil's sprawling Indigenous, African, Sephardic and then Ashkenazic, Arabic, European, Asian cultural matrix... expanding like the canopy of a rainforest tree rooted in Bahia, branches spreading to embrace the entire world...
Recent Visitors Map
Great culture is great power.
And in a small world great things are possible.
Alicia Svigals
"Thanks, this is a brilliant idea!!"
—Alicia Svigals (NEW YORK CITY): Apotheosis of klezmer violinists
"Dear Sparrow: I am thrilled to receive your email! Thank you for including me in this wonderful matrix."
—Susan Rogers (BOSTON): Director of the Berklee Music Perception and Cognition Laboratory ... Former personal recording engineer for Prince; "Purple Rain", "Sign o' the Times", "Around the World in a Day"
"Dear Sparrow, Many thanks for this – I am touched!"
—Julian Lloyd Webber (LONDON): Premier cellist in UK; brother of Andrew (Evita, Jesus Christ Superstar, Cats, Phantom of the Opera...)
"This is super impressive work ! Congratulations ! Thanks for including me :)))"
—Clarice Assad (RIO DE JANEIRO/CHICAGO): Pianist and composer with works performed by Yo Yo Ma and orchestras around the world
"We appreciate you including Kamasi in the matrix, Sparrow."
—Banch Abegaze (LOS ANGELES): manager, Kamasi Washington
"Thanks! It looks great!....I didn't write 'Cantaloupe Island' though...Herbie Hancock did! Great Page though, well done! best, Randy"
"Very nice! Thank you for this. Warmest regards and wishing much success for the project! Matt"
—Son of Jimmy Garrison (bass for John Coltrane, Bill Evans...); plays with Herbie Hancock and other greats...
I opened the shop in Salvador, Bahia in 2005 in order to create an outlet to the wider world for magnificent Brazilian musicians.
David Dye & Kim Junod for NPR found us (above), and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (he's a huge jazz fan), David Byrne, Oscar Castro-Neves... Spike Lee walked past the place while I was sitting on the stoop across the street drinking beer and listening to samba from the speaker in the window...
But we weren't exactly easy for the world-at-large to get to. So in order to extend the place's ethos I transformed the site associated with it into a network wherein Brazilian musicians I knew would recommend other Brazilian musicians, who would recommend others...
And as I anticipated, the chalky hand of God-as-mathematician intervened: In human society — per the small-world phenomenon — most of the billions of us on earth are within some 6 or fewer degrees of each other. Likewise, within a network of interlinked artists as I've described above, most of these artists will in the same manner be at most a handful of steps away from each other.
So then, all that's necessary to put the Brazilians within possible purview of the wide wide world is to include them among a wide wide range of artists around that world.
If, for example, Quincy Jones is inside the matrix, then anybody on his page — whether they be accessing from a campus in L.A., a pub in Dublin, a shebeen in Cape Town, a tent in Mongolia — will be close, transitable steps away from Raymundo Sodré, even if they know nothing of Brazil and are unaware that Sodré sings/dances upon this planet. Sodré, having been knocked from the perch of fame and ground into anonymity by Brazil's dictatorship, has now the alternative of access to the world-at-large via recourse to the vast potential of network theory.
...to the degree that other artists et al — writers, researchers, filmmakers, painters, choreographers...everywhere — do also. Artificial intelligence not required. Real intelligence, yes.
Years ago in NYC (I've lived here in Brazil for 32 years now) I "rescued" unpaid royalties (performance & mechanical) for artists/composers including Barbra Streisand, Aretha Franklin, Mongo Santamaria, Jim Hall, Clement "Coxsone" Dodd (for his rights in Bob Marley compositions; Clement was Bob's first producer), Led Zeppelin, Ray Barretto, Philip Glass and many others. Aretha called me out of the blue vis-à-vis money owed by Atlantic Records. Allen Klein (managed The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Ray Charles) called about money due the estate of Sam Cooke. Jerry Ragovoy (Time Is On My Side, Piece of My Heart) called just to see if he had any unpaid money floating around out there (the royalty world was a shark-filled jungle, to mangle metaphors, and I doubt it's changed).
But the pertinent client (and friend) in the present context is Earl "Speedo" Carroll, of The Cadillacs. Earl went from doo-wopping on Harlem streetcorners to chart-topping success to working as a custodian at PS 87 elementary school on the west side of Manhattan. Through all of this he never lost what made him great.
Greatness and fame are too often conflated. The former should be accessible independently of the latter.
Yeah this is Bob's first record contract, made with Clement "Sir Coxsone" Dodd of Studio One and co-signed by his aunt because he was under 21. I took it to Black Rock to argue with CBS' lawyers about the royalties they didn't want to pay (they paid).
Matrix founding creators are behind "one of 10 of the best (radios) around the world", per The Guardian.
Across the creative universe... For another list, reload page.
This list is random, and incomplete. Reload the page for another list.
For a complete list of everybody inside, tap TOTAL below:
TOTAL
Ex Terra Brasilis
Susan Rogers
Julian Lloyd Webber
Clarice Assad
Kamasi Washington
Randy Brecker
Matt Garrison
RÁDIO MATRIX