Maria Grand

Maria Grand website

The music, a mix of song, fiery duo interactions, and complex through-written music, effortlessly weaves technique with a direct connection to transcendent sound. Most of all, it is music that is focused on the heart, on what is human, true, and openly vulnerable.

This music is mostly based on the relationship between subject, object, what it means to have two or more entities relating to each other, and the interaction between instruments/people/places. Saxophonist, vocalist and composer María Grand presents a new repertoire written during a composing retreat in Guatemala. This band, including longtime friends and musical collaborators Joel Ross on vibraphone and Jeremy Dutton on drums, seeks to open up infinite possibilities and birth a long medley of highly energetic and precise improvisations, coupled with edgy and sensitive vocal melodies.

In 2022, the Swiss-Argentinian saxophonist, composer and singer Maria Grand celebrated the premiere of her piece "Devotion" at the Polish JazzToPad Festival in Wroclaw. The work is nothing less than a musical meditation on life and death, an attempt to bring the physical and the abstract world closer together and to overcome the boundaries between inner life and the outside world through dancing. Grand brings her compositions to the stage with a sextet, poised to accompany her on a deep and adventurous journey.

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"Excellent on the tenor horn, Geneva saxophonist Maria Grand who shared the stage with US pianist Maya Keren astounded the audience in the large hall, especially as an unpretentious and incredibly soulful singer. In general, this duo knows how to entertain each other in a magically intimate and touching way. With quiet, calm, interweaving sounds that make the audience in Schaffhausen fall completely silent and listen attentively."
- JazzWise

"Reciprocity, the impressive new album by tenor saxophonist María Grand, embraces a notion of generative potential in more ways than one. Informed by her personal experience of pregnancy and childbirth, and partly inspired by mythic archetypes of the Tree of Life, Grand set out to create music that folded its ample intricacies into a human narrative. A good portion of the album consists of the suite she calls "Creation."
Nate Chinen, Take Five - WBGO

"Swiss-raised, New York-based tenor saxophonist María Grand's second album is a gem, the product of a nimble working trio that includes bassist Kanoa Mendenhall and drummer Savannah Harris. The 13 originals manage an artful balance of the cerebral and the visceral, moving gracefully between free rhythms, pulses and pronounced grooves, often within the same piece."
JazzIs Magazine

"Grand is a mesmerising new voice on the tenor sax."
JazzTimes Magazine

"Reciprocity unfolds in a programmatic manner as the compositions ebb and flow in a cyclical fashion. Throughout, Grand casts a ceremonial vibe that imbues the music with an enticing sense of mystery."
Downbeat Magazine

"..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 1843

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 Revelation!"
-Jazz Magazine