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Jenny Maybee

Jenny Maybee is “equally talented as a vocalist and pianist.” Her “piano playing and vocals…are altogether eloquent and heart-stopping…her voicing is expertly balanced… and her phrasing sings wonderfully throughout the repertoire.” Her vocals have been described as “exquisite,” “hauntingly beautiful,” and “in the same league” with Billie Holiday — music that “you could close your eyes to and nod out blissfully in a deep groove…” Her piano style has been compared to Keith Jarrett, Chick Corea, McCoy Tyner, and Cecil Taylor. Jenny “make(s) beautiful music expressing the sheer joy of being alive. You sense it in the augmented chords that Maybee plays on her piano, then leaping like a mad gazelle to catch its essence with her voice.” As a classically trained jazz pianist and vocalist, Jenny’s “unique style seems fairly sedate on the surface, but is capable of sudden intensity whenever the music demands.” This mixture of sensitivity and boldness weaves through her original compositions and interpretations of jazz standards. Drawing inspiration from her studies of the martial and healing arts and the vast sonic landscape of jazz and world music, her playing reflects her range of exploration, dancing from stunning open space and intricate use of silence to powerful rhythmic intensity. Based in the San Francisco Bay Area, Jenny leads a piano trio and is continually exploring new music landscapes. Active in the Bay Area jazz/improv scene since 2002, she has performed and recorded with Noertker’s Moxie (2002-2012), the Empty Chamber Ensemble, her own trio, and many other great Bay Area musicians. HAIKU, Jenny’s nationally charting latest album, was released in January 2016. Jenny co-produced and arranged the album with veteran GRAMMY®-recognized jazz producer and trumpet player Nick Phillips (Karrin Allyson, Nnenna Freelon). HAIKU was lauded in the press as "a thrilling, intimate, very delicate dialogue...close to perfection," and Jenny’s composition “Winter Butterflies” was selected as one of the Top 10 New Songs of 2016.

Jenny Maybee/Nick Phillips: Haiku

by Dan Bilawsky
January 7, 2016

Trumpeter Nick Phillips established himself as a great believer in the power of toned-down art when he released the attractively mellow Moment To Moment (Self Produced, 2014) with pianist Cava Menzies. That album retained a magically hushed aura from start to finish, showing Phillips to be a less-is-more artist focused on tracing the curves of a song and setting the mood with his economical trumpet work. Haiku, an album that shines a spotlight on the newly established partnership between Phillips ...

Haiku is "an 11-track rarity of pristine playing, beautiful vocals and original compositions...Billie Holiday and Chet Baker, to name but two, are jazz legends whose music you could close your eyes to and nod out blissfully in a deep groove without actually having to use heroin (as they did). Haiku is in the same league....The confluence of these originals, the languid Phillips style, the poly-rhythmic pianists of Maybee, and the totally organic groove, makes one what to, yeah, just nod out in an appreciative swoon.” — Mike Greenblatt, Classicalite.

"Much like the poetry from which it takes its name, there's a minimalist gravity to Haiku...The album specializes in moments of fragile tension, with forlorn trumpet whispers and delicately rendered vocal runs...A lush sonic landscape that captures the music's nuance while allowing for ample acoustic space." — Brian Zimmerman, DownBeat.

"...a thrilling, intimate, very delicate dialogue...close to perfection." — Leonid Auskern, Jazz Quad.

“...eloquent and heart-stopping...an otherworldly simpatico...there is a superb and almost balletic dancing that takes place. It’s as if the music melts into dance and this results in a dizzying and beautiful interplay that is riveting...among the most sincere and poised accounts of song that a duo have produced in a long time.” — Raul Da Gama, Jazz Da Gama.

"[Nick Phillips'] albums as a trumpeter show that he is a thoughtful improviser with a unique approach to creative music...What makes this album [Haiku] different is his collaborator, Jenny Maybee, who is equally talented as a vocalist and pianist. Maybee sings on seven of the album’s eleven tracks, and her unique style seems fairly sedate on the surface, but is capable of sudden intensity whenever the music demands. These qualities make Maybee a great partner for Phillips, whose moody trumpet improvisations frequently take unexpected turns...[Haiku's] understated mix of vocals and instrumentals should appeal to jazz fans of both genres." — Thomas Cunniffe, Jazz History Online.

HAIKU “wouldn’t be totally out of place on an ECM record, as thoughtfully curious piano, full-bodied bass, and warm-toned trumpet embrace the art of unhurried exploration.” Overall, Haiku is “an album that values heart over head and beauty over brawn, pointing to the fact that Nick Phillips has found an artistic soul mate in Jenny Maybee.” — Dan Bilawsky, All About Jazz.

The album is "loaded with art while avoiding pretentiousness. The kind of set you want to listen to late at night when you aren't in a melancholy mood, it certainly brings a new kind of special sauce to the proceedings. Intimate in a 50s kind of old school way where there's just three players kicking it out in real time, the target audience for this set will really take it to heart." — Chris Spector, Midwest Record.

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