Thursday, March 21, 2019
Performance 8pm / Doors 7pm
What: Composer and saxophonist María Grand gives the first concert of her 2019 Roulette residency featuring new compositions exploring a system of music similar to a user’s manual.
When: Thursday, March 21, 2019
Where: Roulette, 509 Atlantic Ave Brooklyn, 2/3/4/5/A/C/G/D/M/N/R/B/Q trains & the LIRR
Cost: $18 presale, $25 Doors
Info: www.roulette.org / (917) 267-0368
Tickets: https://roulette.org/event/maria-grand-music-as-a-users-manual/
Brooklyn, NY – For the first concert of her residency, María Grand performs Music as a User’s Manual, a series of compositions that seek to functionalize the rituals that make up a concert experience. It asks what is there to take home after one goes to a concert – is there any real change that happens, and are there any actual tools offered to listeners that they can implement in their lives? Grand strives to create self-contained music that is not a means to an end, rather is the means are the end – where sound illustrates, concretely and abstractly, something everyone can do. She will be joined by Ganavya Doraiswamy on vocals, Joel Ross on vibraphone, and Rajna Swaminathan on percussion.
FIRST SET:
María Grand solo, vocals and saxophone
SECOND SET:
Ganavya Doraiswamy, vocals
María Grand, tenor saxophone
Joel Ross, vibraphone
Rajna Swaminathan, mridangam
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, among others. Grand writes and performs her original compositions with her ensemble, DiaTribe; her debut EP TetraWind was picked as “one of the 2017’s best debuts” by the NYC Jazz Record. The New York Times calls her “an engrossing young tenor saxophonist with a zesty attack and a solid tonal range”, while Vijay Iyer says she is “a fantastic young saxophonist, virtuosic, conceptually daring, with a lush tone, a powerful vision, and a deepening emotional resonance.” Grand is a recipient of the 2017 Jazz Gallery Residency Commission, 2018 Roulette Jerome Foundation Commission, and 2019 Roulette Jerome Foundation Residency. She is a member of the Doug Hammond quintet, has toured with Antoine Roney, and performs regularly with her own ensemble, as well as with RAJAS, led by Carnatic musician Rajna Swaminathan, and Ouroboros, led by Grammy Award winner alto saxophonist Román Filiú. She has toured Europe, the United States, and South America, playing in venues and festivals such as the Village Vanguard in NYC, La Villette Jazz Festival in Paris, Saafelden Jazz Festival in Austria, Millennium Park in Chicago, the Blue Whale in LA, IloJazz in Guadeloupe (FR), and many others.
