(Reprinted from the June 2022 issue of New York City Jazz Record)
Over the last two transformative years, singer/composers Jen Shyu and Sara Serpa have been hustling. In March 2020 they first imagined the Mutual Mentorship for Musicians (M3), a collective for jazz artists who buck industry gender norms—namely, those who identify as female or non-binary. Somehow the two founders managed to pull inspiration from the depths of the pandemic: since its inception, M3 has hosted three virtual jazz festivals and commissioned works by 48 female and non-binary musicians, most of whom are BIPOC. This month, Jun. 16-22, M3 goes live for the first time.
Here’s how the collective works: Each M3 season begins at a solstice, when the next cohort of accepted artists meet for the first time and get paired in a random drawing. Over the next nine months, the newly forged duos write and compose and record, benefitting from the mutual mentorship that arises out of creating beyond stereotypical identity barriers. At the end of the season, the artist pairs premier their works in a shared performance. These cooperative projects are harder than they sound: previous cohort have included remote collaborators not just from New York, but from Indonesia, Switzerland, South Africa and Argentina.
This year, The Mutual Mentorship for Musicians (M³) Festival, in partnership with NYC Winter Jazzfest, will present 19 female/non-binary bandleaders, some from previous seasons and 12 matched in new duos, across five days of performances at Greenwich House Music School. Shyu and Serpa—along with other New York fixtures like saxophonist Caroline Davis and avant gardists Fay Victor and Michele Rosewoman—will prime the stage before the crowning final event, the organization’s inaugural gala on Jun. 22.
Not only will M³ unveil the 2022 commissions that evening, but they’ll award a $5000 Lifetime Achievement Award to Chicago-based multi-instrumentalist Shanta Nurullah for her contributions to improvisational music, African-American folklore and spoken word performance. The organization’s press release provides insight into the recognition: “This award fills a gap that exists in honoring elder women in the jazz and creative music scene, whose musical contributions have been invisibilized due to racism and misogyny.” (Serpa also appears with bassist Linda May Han Oh at the Village Vanguard on Jun. 7-12.)
On his latest record, Black Radio III (Loma Vista), pianist/producer Robert Glasper used some of the most revered voices around—Lailah Hathaway, Gregory Porter, Esperanza Spalding, Jennifer Hudson, Ledisi, Meshell Ndegeocello. We can’t know who he’ll have with him when he opens the Blue Note Jazz Festival on Jun. 1 in Washington Square Park (with a free concert, by the way). But we do know that Madeleine Peyroux will sing at Sony Hall on June 2-3, followed by Harlem Gospel Choir in a Nina Simone program at the same venue on Jun. 29. Macy Gray closes out the festival at Blue Note, Jun. 30-Jul 3.
Likewise, the annual Vision Festival has invited several vocalists to participate in the celebration of two instrumental luminaries—trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith and saxophonist/poet Oliver Lake—at Roulette on Jun. 21-26. Among them poet/singer Monique Ngozi Nri; the group Justice, singing Lake’s vocal works; and emerging vocalists Chaela Harris, Ravi Seenarine, and Shanon Chua.
Beyond NYC jazz fests this month, live vocal gigs abound. First, there’s Cathy Segal-Garcia at Soapbox Gallery on June 1. Then, on June 3 at Carnegie Hall, Stacy Sullivan leads a dozen male singers in the Mabel Mercer Foundation’s tribute show, I Like Men: Celebrating 102 Years of Miss Peggy Lee. Next, saxophonist Camille Thurman sings in Burt Bacharach Reimagined at JALC Appel on June 3-4, followed by the uber-talented Brianna Thomas at JALC Dizzy's on June 8-9. Finally, the multi-talented Andrea Wolper starts a Jazz Vespers residency for four Sundays at St. Peter's on June 12. By then, not even half the month will have passed. (See NYCJR listings for further offerings.)
A note-worthy record: The latest installment of live Ella Fitzgerald recordings, reclaimed from the private collection of Verve founder, Norman Granz, is Ella At The Hollywood Bowl: The Irving Berlin Songbook—her first Songbook recording ever, it turns out. The 15-track release, featuring a full orchestra and recorded at a 1958 concert, lands on June 24. As is usual now with these historic Ella finds, a charming animated YouTube video precedes the album launch. This latest stars a cartoon Ella crooning a hot swing version of “Puttin’ On The Ritz.” Super cute.