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| Acute Inflections - Jazz & Luxury - The Brave  Elasea Douglas is a gifted singer, songwriter, dancer and actress. Like many other singers, she started singing in church as a young child. For a short time as a toddler, she believed she was the reason everyone attended the services and took advantage of quiet moments like the choir's pauses to let her voice be heard. When she was a little older, she humbled herself by singing with others in her schools' glee clubs, choruses and musicals. In her teenage years, she attended Bayside High School Academy of Music where she primarily received classical vocal training. She also fell in love with jazz and was heavily involved in dance and theatre during her time there. Because singing was her forte, Elasea decided to double major in dance and theatre at Hunter College while continuing to do her fair share of singing with worship groups throughout the country.After graduating from Hunter College, Elasea performed in several Off-Broadway shows including Dreamgirls and most impressively, a one-woman show called A Role Once Played. She made her Broadway debut as part of the original cast of the Tony Award winning show, FELA!. Even though she enjoyed theatre, she somehow still felt unfulfilled. She was advised to channel her creativity into her own art and began working with producers and writing and recording her own music. She's performed these jazzy and soul stirring originals at numerous venues including The Knitting Factory, Groove Café, Nuyorican Poets Cafe, Cafe Wha? and the Iridium Jazz Club. Though she still loves to dance and act and looks forward to opportunities to utilize these talents again, creating and singing her own music has been the second most rewarding experience of this flourishing star's young career…obviously her legendary church performances as a toddler will always be first! Sadiki Pierre is a talented upright bass player who is uniquely capable of playing and fusing almost any style of music including classical, jazz, latin, reggae and R&B. When he first started playing the upright bass, he had no interest in actually learning the instrument and instead was only looking for a way to get out of his sixth-grade class. Fortunately, he chose the right distraction from his schoolwork. It soon became apparent that he was quite musically adept. Although his parents could not initially afford to buy him his own instrument and pay for private lessons, he was still chosen to perform with the New York State School Music Association's All-State Orchestra in addition to performing with another prestigious student orchestra throughout Europe. Despite the encouragement of those closest to him to study at a school like Juilliard or Berklee and become a full-time musician, Sadiki chose to attend an aviation college and achieved his dream of being a professional pilot. He still enjoyed playing in his spare time and continued to perform with community orchestras and string ensembles including the Greater Newburgh Symphony Orchestra. He also occasionally took lessons from esteemed double bass teachers including a member of the New York Philharmonic. His focus on classical music inadvertently created a longing for musical freedom that drove him to teach himself jazz and discover a talent for improvising. Since then, he's performed at numerous jazz clubs throughout New York City, the Hudson Valley, Boston and New England. While Sadiki became a promising classical and jazz bassist, he still wasn't musically satisfied. He tried his hand at several other styles by playing with blues, gospel, R&B, funk and latin groups but they all limited his freedom to move fluidly back and forth between the styles as he saw fit. Because of this, he stopped playing the bass shortly after graduating college. After a ten-year hiatus, he met Elasea and rediscovered his love for music. Acute Inflections allows him to freely mix the different styles that he loves and form the percussive, melodic and groovy bass lines that he will surely be known for. Acute Inflections, NYC's latest contribution to jazz, is a chic duo of singer Elasea Douglas and bassist Sadiki Pierre. Their intoxicating, sultry and funky sound has made them beloved by the high-end private event community. Since they started performing together in 2013, they have been repeatedly asked when they will release a CD. Fortunately, their debut EP, The Brave, is finally here. Acute Inflections' The Brave is a collection of a few of their most popular renditions of well-known songs including classics like "Over The Rainbow", Amy Winehouse's "Back to Black" and their epic take on "The Star-Spangled Banner" called The Brave. Elasea Douglas - vocals Sadiki Pierre - bass 1. L-O-V-E 2:56 2. Latch 5:56 3. Kiss 5:57 4. Back to Black 7:25 5. No Ordinary Love 6:27 6. The Brave 2:55 7. Over the Rainbow 4:00 write your comments about the article :: © 2017 Jazz News :: home page |