“The jazz supergroup of the year is right here – SHEROES!”
Howard Mandel – Author, Jazz Journalist
The timing couldn’t be better for the release of this remarkable recording. SHEROES, created and led by pianist/composer Monika Herzig, features an international cast of virtuoso players - all women, all first-call talents - including Jennifer Vincent (bass, USA), Rosa Avila (drums, Mexico), Mayra Casales (percussion, Cuba/USA) Leni Stern (guitar, Germany/USA), Jamie Baum (flutes, USA), Reut Regev (trombone, Israel/USA), and Ingrid Jensen (trumpet, Canada/USA) rounding out the lineup extending the group’s serious pedigree on its second Whaling City Sound release.
Ably supported by this great band, pianist Herzig is its catalyst. As a Doctor of Music Education at Indiana University, she serves as a Senior Lecturer in Arts Management. Named the 2015 Jazz Journalist Association Jazz Hero for the city of Bloomington, she has also authored two critically praised books, Dr. David Baker – A Legacy in Music, foreward by Quincy Jones (IU Press 2011) and Experiencing Chick Corea – A Listener’s Companion (Rowman & Littlefield 2017).
As an ensemble of empowerment, SHEROES is a musical force, operating with deftness, invention, enthusiasm and ambition. Herzig does much of the writing and arranging, but Regev, Baum, Vincent, and Stern all contribute compositions alongside covers, including “House of the Rising Sun” and “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough,” prompting Valerie Simpson, its composer, to write “I honestly really really liked it,” and jazz phenom Terri Lyne Carrington to write “a brilliant project…soulful and thoughtful, it captures the spirit of this group because there’s no stopping great artists from making great music as demonstrated by this stellar recording.”
Says Herzig of her colleagues, “these are all incredibly accomplished musicians, often sacrificing other opportunities, family time and resources to perform in this group. They are my idols in terms of tenacity and accomplishment and should be more widely heard and appreciated." In a sense, SHEROES also heralds an era of greater and deeper consideration for women in jazz. Says Jazz Journalist Association President, Howard Mandel in his liner notes, “That’s exactly what Monika and company does: Present a model of empowerment with results that are good for everyone. Wherever you are on the gender continuum, you’ll like it. SHEROES make music!
Jazz critic Bob Blumenthal agrees: “Female musicians are now prominent practitioners on all instruments. They win competitions and polls, lead bands large and small, and set new trends in improvised music. Herzig herself is a visionary artist and educator, a true jazz warrior with an already fascinating career.”
Each song is engaging, the playing accomplished and inspiring - JAZZIZ
Extraordinary stuff that deserves your attention.
March 23 2018 Release
From Whaling City Sound, New Bedford, MA
Distribution: NAXOS of America Inc.
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