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JESSICA LURIE
(Flute, Saxophone, Noise Makers) is a multi-instrumentalist performer, composer, producer, teaching and recording artist, based in Brooklyn, NY and Seattle, WA. She leads her own band, and co-leads the Tiptons Sax Quartet & Drums, the Living Daylights trio, Sephardic group Sofie Salonika, Ethiopian-inspired jazz group Freethiopiques and the improvising Slingshot duo. She is a Sundance Composers’ Fellow, regularly nominated in Downbeat’s “Rising Star for Alto Sax” poll, most recently in 2021.
She is known as a composer and performer for her love of exploring a wide range of musical influences, including folk, funk, rhythmic Eastern European folk music and improvisation-heavy jazz with a dose of free-wheeling avant-groove-meets-grind.
She performs internationally, and as a composer has received support from South Arts Jazz Roads; Brooklyn Jews; NEA; BRIC; Meet The Composer; Artslink; Earshot Jazz; 4Culture; MidAtlantic Foundation, including commissions from the Percussia Ensemble, Sound Symposium Festival (Nova Scotia), Circus Amok, Great Small Works, Drama of Works and Pioneers Go East. Jessica has eight solo albums with her Jessica Lurie Ensemble, fourteen albums with The Tiptons and five albums with Living Daylights as a member & lead composer, receiving critical acclaim in Billboard, Downbeat, NYTimes, Jazz Times, LA Weekly, national and international radio. Recent performances and/or recordings include international artists such as John Zorn, Devotchka, Taylor Mac, John Stewart, Sleater Kinney, Helen Gillet, Fred Frith, Bill Frisell, Henry Butler, Indigo Girls, Mark Ribot, Frank London, Allison Miller, and Nels Cline of Wilco among others. She is currently working on a new Jessica Lurie Ensemble recording for a Fall 2023 release. www.jessicalurie.comwww.jessicalurie.bandcamp.com
HELEN GILLET
Taking the cello on a joy ride
Helen Gillet is an award winning composer, cellist, polyglot singer, improviser, producer, and world class performer.
Born in Belgium, she also grew up in Singapore, Chicago and Wisconsin before moving to New Orleans in 2002. Gillet has a Master's degree in classical cello performance. She also studied with North Indian Hindustani cellist Nancy Lesh which sparked her lifelong pursuit in improvisation and Jazz. After moving to New Orleans, Gillet quickly flourished into one of the most unique, talented, and beloved artists in the Crescent City. As trumpeter Michael Ray (Cool and the Gang, Sun Ra) noted after playing together at a late night jam session at a local coffee shop in 2004, "Helen, you've got big ears."
Helen Gillet has recorded and performed with a wide array of musicians including Jason Marsalis, Smokey Robinson, Kid Koala, Dr. John, Steve Earle, Marianne Faithful, Jeff Coffin, Psychedelic Furs, Bill Summers, Cassandra Wilson, Soul Asylum, Nels Cline, Johnny Vidacovich etc. and toured Canada and North America with Iron & Wine in 2019.
Helen Gillet now tours worldwide with her solo performance which is known for its enigmatic quality, improvisational versatility and a true mastery of live looping technology. She’s known for her eclectic palette – which includes avant-garde jazz, French chansons, funk, alternative rock, and the bohemian flair of the Velvet Underground. Her right foot is so crucial to her music that she recently gave it a name: “My Pal Foot Foot.” It’s a reference to a 1969 anthem by female rock group The Shaggs, but it also gives credit where credit is due: Her mastery of the loop pedal, controlled by her right foot, makes it seem like there’s another artist on stage with her, “like it has a mind of its own,” she says with a laugh.
Her prolific career has won her many awards in New Orleans (Offbeat Best of the Beat, Gambit Big Easy Awards, featured artist at New Orleans Jazz Museum) and has twice nominated her a rising star in Downbeat Magazine.
Gillet has performed at a wide array of venues all over the world including The New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, Festival International (Lafayette, LA), Copenhagen Jazz Festival and Hindsgavl Festival in Denmark, Nikodemuskirche Festival in Berlin, Mirano Oltre Festival in Italy, the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. and MONA Mofo festival in Hobart, Tasmania and Darwin Music Festival in Australia and opened up for Jeff Tweedy with her solo performance at Lincoln Center in NYC.