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| Deborah Weisz Quintet's Grace Coming September 27th On September 27th, the Deborah Weisz Quintet will release its second CD, Grace (Va Wah 002), featuring special guest, chromatic harmonica player/composer Olivier Ker Ourio. Led by veteran trombonist/composer Deborah Weisz, this longstanding New York-based ensemble includes tenor saxophonist/flautist Andrew Sterman, guitarist Sheryl Bailey, bassist Nicki Parrott and drummer Eric Halvorson. Grace, the long-awaited follow-up to 1997's Breaking Up, Breaking Out (Va Wah 001), is dedicated to Ms. Weisz's late brother Will, and features her original compositions, works by band members (Sterman, Bailey, Ourio) and Weisz mentor Jim McNeely, and the standard, “Body and Soul.” Although Ms. Weisz has been actively performing with her quintet and recording with a variety of other groups, life changes such as earning a New York University Master's Degree in Music Composition and coming to terms with her brother's death kept her from recording her own music again until recently. “I kept playing [after Will's death], but stopped composing music, ” she writes in the liner notes. “When I was finally able to write again, the result was 'Grace, ' the title track and inspiration for this CD. The music on this CD represents what I have been writing, and includes some favorites from other members of the quintet, all of which were performed at various gigs in recent years.” Ms. Weisz is one of the most prominent female jazz performers on her instrument. Her diverse career includes performances with legendary figures ranging from pioneering trombonist Roswell Rudd to the iconic Frank Sinatra, with whom she toured the world with from 1987-94. Critics called her 1997 debut, Breaking Up, Breaking Out, “one of the best new jazz releases of the last few years” (All Music Guide), “a debut to cheer” (JazzTimes), and “that rare debut that goes beyond showing promise to actually delivering the musical goods” (Cadence). As a composer, she is a former recipient of grants/commissions from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), the Afrikan Amerikan Jazz Orchestra, the Julius Hemphill Jazz Composition Award competition, and the New England Foundation for the Arts (NEFA)/Meet the Composer. Along with her performance and composing careers, Ms. Weisz is a former faculty member at Rutgers University and current private instructor and active guest artist/clinician. write your comments about the article :: © 2005 Jazz News :: home page |