Maria Grand - Magdalena (2018) [Hi-Res]

María Grand is a saxophonist, composer, educator, and vocalist. She moved to New York City in 2011. She has since become an important member of the city’s creative music scene, performing extensively in projects including musicians such as Vijay Iyer, Craig Taborn, Jen Shyu, Steve Lehman, Aaron Parks, Marcus Gilmore, Jonathan Finlayson, Miles Okazaki, etc.
Her debut EP “TetraWind” was picked as “one of the 2017’s best debuts” by the NYC Jazz Record. The New York Times says “on TetraWind, Ms Grand unfurls a teetering logic. [..] She is both measured and frank, often venturing into gentle provocation”. María is a recipient of the 2017 Jazz Gallery Residency Commission and the 2018 Roulette Jerome Foundation Commission. She can be heard on Steve Coleman’s albums “Morphogenesis” and “Synovial Joints”. She was deemed a “revelation” by Jazz Magazine in 2016; AllAboutJazz said of her saxophone playing that it is “full of passion and sophisticated phrases and turns”, while the NYC Jazz Record says “Grand’s aching saxophone has the richness of the great breathy tenors of jazz history—Coleman Hawkins, Ben Webster, Gene Ammons.” Vijay Iyer recently picked her as one of 5 musicians to watch for in 2018 in an article published on sfjazz.org - he said of her that she is “a fantastic young saxophonist, virtuosic, conceptually daring, with a lush tone, a powerful vision, and a deepening emotional resonance, María is poised to move this music forward with grace, strength, and passion.” She was featured with Steve Lehman’s quartet in 2017 as part of the Jazz Gallery Mentorship program.

As a sideman, she has toured extensively with MacArthur Awardee Steve Coleman and his small ensemble, the Five Elements, as well as Steve Coleman and the Council of Balance and Steve Coleman and Natal Eclipse. She is a regular member of free funk/avant-garde jazz drummer, composer, poet, producer and professor Doug Hammond’s Quintet and of mridangam artist and scholar Rajna Swaminathan’s RAJAS. She also performs with Grammy Award winner Román Filiú in his groups Ouroboros and Quartería. María can be heard on Steve Coleman’s latest two albums, Synovial Joints and Morphogenesis, as well as on Doug Hammond’s latest record “May Be Blue”.

As an educator, she regularly teaches private students; she was artist-in-residence at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts in Philadelphia in the fall of 2017 and she has since then become faculty at the same program, teaching ensemble and big band. She has co-led "The Science of Jazz" at Lincoln Center with physicist Stephon Alexander; she has taught workshops all over Europe, South America, and the United States, in institutions such as The Logan Center in Chicago, the Conservatory of Bologna in Italy, the Blue Whale in Los Angeles, as well as teaching informal improvisation workshops in Cuba and Colombia.

María has performed across genres, appearing with mezzo-soprano Alicia Hall Moran in her Breaking Ice piece premiered at Prototype Festival in NYC and MassMoca; she is a regular member of the Doug Hammond quintet, as well as with RAJAS, an ensemble led by Carnatic musician Rajna Swaminathan, and Ouroboros, led by Grammy Award winner alto saxophonist Román Filiu. She has performed and recorded With musical luminaries Julian Priester, Vijay Iyer, Craig Taborn, Jen Shyu, Dafnis Prieto, Matt Mitchell, Marcus Gilmore, Jeff Watts, Anthony Tidd, Aaron Parks, Greg Hutchinson, Miles Okazaki, Damion Reid, Steve Lehman, the trio Harriet Tubman, among others; she has toured Europe, the United States, and South America, playing in venues and festivals such as the Village Vanguard in New York, La Villette Jazz Festival in Paris, Saafelden Jazz Festival in Austria, the Half Note Club in Athens, Millennium Park in Chicago, Roulette in Brooklyn, the Blue Whale in Los Angeles, the Northsea Jazz Festival (Netherlands), Porgy and Bess (Austria), Bird's Eyes (CH), IloJazz Festival in Guadeloupe, Millennium Park in Chicago, etc.