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Maria Grand
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Maria Grand website for biography, discography, video, audio, photos and press.
AKAMU representation: European exclusivity
For info and costs please contact Paolo Locatelli
Maria Grand & Maya Keren
Maria Grand - saxophone and vocals
Maya Keren - piano and vocals
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.
Maria Grand Quartet
Maria Grand - saxophone and vocals
Joel Ross - vibraphone
Rashaan Carter - double bass
Jeremy Dutton - drums
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 Marķa 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.
Maria Grand "Devotion"
Maria Grand - saxophone and vocals
Ohad Talmor - saxophone
Marta Sanchez - piano
Joel Ross - vibraphone
Kanoa Mendenhall - double bass
Kayvon Gordon - drums
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.
quotes
"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 Marķa 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 Marķa 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 Marķa 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
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