Date/Time
Date(s) - 04/03/2021
8:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Location
Soapbox Gallery
Category(ies)
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A truly beautiful voice.
— Dermot Hussey, Sirius RadioA singer and composer blessed with wide-ranging vocals and a post-bop sensibility, through which she filters sounds from West Africa, South America, the Caribbean and Andalusian Spain.
— London Evening Standard, Jazz Album of the Week
A protégé of jazz vocal legend Mark Murphy, who called her a “true musician,” “very moving” and “an extraordinary talent,” Anglo-Trinidadian vocalist, Tessa Souter has established herself as an uncommonly creative vocalist and songwriter in the past two decades. Heralded by KQED Arts as “a beguiling artist who infuses everything she interprets with voluptuous intelligence and keen emotional insight,” ever since the release of her flamenco-tinged debut, Listen Love, she has cast an increasingly wide net, from contributing original lyrics to instrumental jazz standards, and re-imagining classic British rock on Obsession (Motéma, 2009) to her all-star Third Stream project, Beyond the Blue (Venus-Motéma, 2013). Featuring Steve Kuhn and spotlighting Souter’s own “exhilaratingly mature lyrics” (Chicago Examiner) set to classical gems, it was a London Sunday Times Jazz Record of the Year. Her follow-up album, Picture in Black and White, inspired by the discovery of her Trinidadian black birth father, was also picked as a London Sunday Times Jazz Record of the Year. It is a riveting journey tracing the artist’s “musical DNA” from Africa, the Caribbean, Andalusian Spain and Celtic Britain, via the music of Wayne Shorter (who granted her shared writing credit on ‘Ana Maria’), Ornette Coleman, Milton Nascimento, Ayub Ogada, U2 and more. Jazzwise magazine gave the album 4 out of 4 stars, saying: “It is impossible not to be transfixed by the inventiveness and potency of Souter’s artistry.”
Tessa Souter Birthday Quartet
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- Tessa Souter – vocals
- Luis Perdomo – piano
- Yasushi Nakamura – bass
- Billy Drummond – drums