I was accepted into the 2nd cohort of the Mutual Mentorship for Musicians (a platform created by Jen Shyu and Sara Serpa). In January 2021, I began attending regular meetings with an inspiring group of women from around the world where we talked, listened and created music together. I was paired with the incredible Fay Victor (vocalist/composer in Brooklyn) to collaborate with. Fay and I chose to each write a piece for us to play, that would be presented together. I had a lot of firsts creating this new work – it was the first time collaborating with someone that I didn’t see in-person, my first time writing lyrics and my first time recording at my new home studio set-up. Mariana Merez created a stunning video for the music. I am thrilled to show this work to you all, I really hope you enjoy it!
Monthly Archives: June 2021
Alchemy Sound Project’s New Album “Afrika Love” Is Out Now!
Alchemy is defined as “a seemingly magical process of transformation, creation, or combination” (Oxford English Dictionary). It’s hard to imagine a word that more aptly suits Alchemy Sound Project, a collective in which five esteemed composers and bandleaders — pianist Sumi Tonooka, woodwind players Salim Washington and Erica Lindsay, trumpeter Samantha Boshnack, and bassist David Arend — form a potent ensemble greater than the sum of its parts. A synergy that seems almost supernatural, especially given the far- flung home bases from which these artists converge, is evident throughout Afrika Love, the band’s third album, out May 14, 2021 via Artists Recording Collective.
Alchemy Sound Project formed in 2014, two years after the group’s members met in Los Angeles at the Jazz Composers Orchestra Institute, where, over the course of a week, they learned to utilize Western classical music concepts and orchestration techniques. “We were five friends and colleagues who had all these similar connections,” Tonooka recalls, “and I wanted us to be able to extend what we do together musically, instead of leaning on other projects or other commissions — to set up our own small chamber group to play and record.” What resulted is a diverse, eclectic group that makes powerful, original music meant to blur the boundaries between notated composition and improvisation.
Sessions for Afrika Love took place in January 2018 in Conshohocken, PA. But the album’s title, borrowed from the composition that Washington contributed to the album, reflects the band’s keen awareness that this recording arrives in the wake of one of the most tumultuous years in recent U.S. history — a pivotal period in which race relations and social justice protests have taken center stage.
According to Tonooka, the band found the title “appropriate in terms of what’s happened with the Black Lives Matter movement, and with what the country still has to deal with in terms of conversations about racism and the aftermath of slavery, and the fact that we still haven’t gotten it together to really heal, because no one seems to talk about it in a way that is healing.” Seen in that light, the multi-gendered, multi-racial makeup of Alchemy Sound Project in itself offers an understated, buoyantly positive example of cooperation and mutual regard.
Given that each Alchemy member is so distinguished individually, it’s no surprise that their collective effort shines. Tonooka, who presently makes her home in Philadelphia, was a 2020 Painted Bride Composer Grant recipient, a 2019 Chamber Music America New Jazz Works Grant winner, and a 2018 Philadelphia Jazz Legacy awardee, among other accolades. Seattle resident Boshnack issued a debut album with her band, Seismic Belt, in 2019, and led the group in appearances at Winter Jazzfest, the Festival of New Trumpet Music, and Seattle’s Earshot Jazz Festival.
Arend settled in Los Angeles in 2018, just in time to see local screenings of Changyou’s Journey, a short film for which he served as composer and co-producer. After making his debut as acting principal bassist of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, he completed his first major orchestral score. Lindsay, based in upstate New York, is an artist-in-residence at Bard College, teaching jazz composition and arranging as well as leading a contemporary-music ensemble, and in 2019 she was an artist-in-residence at Philadelphia’s Kimmel Center. Washington, based in Durban, South Africa, leads a busy performance career with several respected groups — the newest, a quartet he leads jointly with piano prodigy Afrika Mkhize, in whose honor Washington penned the album’s title track.
Completing the lineup on Afrika Love are two versatile colleagues, trombonist Michael Ventoso a student of Lindsay’s who plays in both classical and jazz settings, and drummer Chad Taylor, a dynamic solo artist and bandleader, and cofounder of the renowned Chicago Underground Duo.
Mutual Mentorship for Musicians (M³) Festival: Duo World Premieres & Conversations
Experience six world premieres born from the new initiative Mutual Mentorship for Musicians (M³), a revolutionary model of mentorship created in March and launched in June 2020 at the height of the pandemic. Hosted by M³ Editor-in-Chief Jordannah Elizabeth, each premiere will be followed by a Q&A with the audience about its creative process.
Part One: June 12, 2021, 2:00 p.m. ET
- Michele Rosewoman – piano/voice + Malika Zarra – voice
- Camila Nebbia – sax/electronics/film + Monnette Sudler – guitar/voice, secondary bass/drums
- Ganavya Doraiswamy– voice/bass + Shanta Nurullah – sitar/mbira/voice
Part Two: June 13, 2021 at 2:00 p.m. ET
- Cleo Reed – music producer/artist + Richie Seivwright – voice/trombone
- Miriam Elhajli – voice/guitar + Chloe Kim – drums/percussion
- Samantha Boshnack – trumpet + Fay Victor – voice
This event takes place on ZOOM. You must RSVP to receive ZOOM link.
Samantha Boshnack 