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Lisa Marie Simmons

Lisa Marie Simmons is a multi-disciplinary storyteller raised in Boulder Co. based in Italy. She is a singer/songwriter (Ropeadope Records), essayist (Huffington Post, Boston Globe, Family Stories Project, Kweli Literary Journal), and published poet. Simmons was a speaker & performer at the 70th Conference on World Affairs at the University of Colorado in April 2018. In November 2019, she presented NoteSpeak (Amore e Tragedie in Musica) in Europe. In January 2020, Simmons presented NoteSpeak in India on the Jaipur Music Stage. Ropeadope Records released her poetic/musical album NoteSpeak (Amori e Tragedie in Musica) in March 2020, which received a four-star review from the iconic Downbeat magazine. In October 2021, she flew to Florida searching for her birth father with Angela Tucker and her Emmy Award-winning husband, Bryan Tucker. They shot a documentary that premiered in June 2022. Ropeadope Records also released her jazz standards album, Lisa Meets Gianni, with the legendary Gianni Cazzola in June. Angela and Lisa co-wrote an essay advocating for the rights of Black fathers for the Harvard Law Bill of Health digital symposium in May 2022. Lisa was invited to perform at the Biennale in Venice in October 2022 for artist Simone Leigh's Loophole of Retreat. Her poem “Last Supper” was shortlisted for a Creators of Justice Literary Award in November 2022. Her new album NoteSpeak 12, was released in 2023 by Ropeadope and was on Downbeat Magazine’s list for Best Albums of 2023. Lisa and her writing partner Marco Cremaschini were invited to be inaugural Artists in Residence at SUNY Oneonta in October and November of 2023 and won a travel grant from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation and Italia Music Export in support of their American debut of NoteSpeak 12 allowing them to tour on the East coast in the US in support of the album in November 2023. In 2024 NoteSpeak 12 won Best Spoken Word Album of 2023 from the World Entertainment Awards and “Transcend” has been shortlisted for Best Jazz Song by the International Songwriting Competition. "The Last Supper" and "Can We Agree" won Best Spoken Word singles in the One Earth Awards and NoteSpeak 12 is a finalist in 4 categories in the ISSA Awards.“Transcend” from NoteSpeak 12 was a 2024 nominee in the Jazz (Fusion/Bebop) category of the Hollywood Independent Music Awards. “Can We Agree” is a semi-finalist in the American Songwriters Song Contest. In 2024, Simmons collaborated with artist Phoebe Boswell on Sentient I - VI, a selection of drawings from Boswell’s ongoing Sentients series, recently exhibited in Wentrup Gallery’s 20-year anniversary show.

Simmons provided a sonic response in the form of an ekphrastic poem, Portraits in Paradox, accompanied by pianist Marco Cremaschini. The NoteSpeak trilogy will conclude with its third and final album, set for release in the summer of 2025. Lisa’s Website

Awards

Awards and Accolades:

Debut at the Zee Jaipur Literature Festival in Boulder Co. with NoteSpeak (2017)

Speaker and performer at the 70th Conference on World Affairs University of Colorado (2018)

Release of NoteSpeak (Amori e Tragedie in Musica) by Ropeadope (2020)

Four-star review of NoteSpeak (Amori e Tragedie in Musica) in Downbeat magazine.

Premiere of the documentary by Emmy-winning director Bryan Tucker Lisa & Isell: A Story about Adoption and the Ghost Kingdom (2022)

Co-wrote an essay advocating for the rights of Black fathers for the Harvard Law Bill of Health digital symposium (2022)

Release of Lisa Meets Gianni album on Ropeadope (2022)

Performance at the Biennale in Venice for artist Simone Leigh’s “Loophole of Retreat” (2022)

Shortlisted for a Creators of Justice Literary Award for the poem "Last Supper" (2022)

Release of NoteSpeak 12 album by Ropeadope (2023)

NoteSpeak 12 listed on Downbeat Magazine's Best Albums of 2023

NoteSpeak 12 wins Best Spoken Word Album of 2023 from the World Entertainment Awards

"Transcend" from "NoteSpeak 12" was shortlisted for Best Jazz Song by the International Songwriting Competition (2024)

Can We Agree" and "The Last Supper" from NoteSpeak 12 won Gold and Silver respectively for Best Spoken Word single in the One Earth Awards and NoteSpeak 12 was a finalist in 4 categories in the ISSA Awards. (2024)

Marco and Lisa were the inaugural Artists in Residence at SUNY Oneonta to begin writing NoteSpeak (In a Word) (2023)

Marco and Lisa were awarded a Travel Grant from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Italia Music Export in support of the American debut tour for NoteSpeak 12 (2023)

“Transcend” from NoteSpeak 12 was a 2024 nominee in the Jazz (Fusion/Bebop) category of the Hollywood Independent Music Awards. “Can We Agree” is a semi-finalist in the 2024 American Songwriters Song Contest.

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Lisa Marie Simmons: Notespeak 12

Read "Notespeak 12" reviewed by Chris May

by Chris May
March 3, 2023

Poetry & Jazz has a checkered history. When combined, the two art forms are not so much a marriage made in heaven as an obstacle course. The biggest danger is that one of them is verbal and the other is non-verbal and at its best transcends words. The second danger is that the better the poetry and/or the jazz in question, the more intrusive may be their competing demands for the listener's attention. Notespeak 12 is top-end poetry ...

Album Review

Viktor Haraszti: Equanimity: A Futuristic Jazz Tale

Read "Equanimity: A Futuristic Jazz Tale" reviewed by Chris May

by Chris May
February 17, 2022

Equanimity: A Futuristic Jazz Tale is the debut album from Viktor Haraszti, a Hungarian-born, Dutch-based tenor saxophonist and composer. It is a solo project, recorded in isolation in 2021, on which Haraszti also plays clarinet, EWI, flute and keyboards. Bad Plus drummer Dave King helps out on one track, drummer Marshall Curtly on another three, and poet Lisa Marie Simmons adds spoken word to a further two. As the title suggests, the music is a suite. It ...

Interview

Lisa Marie Simmons: New NoteSpeak in Ya Ear

by Chris M. Slawecki
April 8, 2020

From their homebase in Lombardia, on the coast of Lake Garda in Italy, Lisa Marie Simmons and Marco Cremaschini share complementary creative skills as the lyrical and musical souls behind NoteSpeak: Poet, singer and songwriter Simmons crafts and delivers the lyrics while Cremaschini directs the sounds swirling around her as co-composer, pianist, and musical director. Their full-length debut NoteSpeak: Amori e Tragedie in Music (2020, Ropeadope) lands in your ear with a unique sound. NoteSpeak plays funk and ...

Crowdfunding Campaign

For Notespeak, Peace Is The Word

Source: Lisa Marie Simmons
May 16, 2016

Lisa Simmons and Marco Cremaschini have announced that they are raising funds on IndieGoGo for NoteSpeak, a unique collaboration that intertwines poetical and musical forms to raise awareness of real-life triumphs and struggles around the world. NoteSpeak will explore creative paths formerly established by such artists as The Last Poets, Gil Scott-Heron, and Brian Jackson, but venture down contemporary avenues to address current topics of which many remain unaware. Based in Garda Lake, Italy, Simmons and Cremaschini are primary forces ...
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“Poetry and Jazz have been influencing each other for a long time. Lisa Marie Simmons, a poet, singer and composer, draws on that rich history for NoteSpeak 12... As with her previous efforts with the NoteSpeak ensemble, Simmons flows freely between singing and speaking/reciting, blurring the lines between poetry and music." 5 Stars J. Poet Downbeat Magazine April 2023

“Poetry and Jazz have been influencing each other for a long time. Lisa Marie Simmons, a poet, singer and composer, draws on that rich history for NoteSpeak 12... As with her previous efforts with the NoteSpeak ensemble, Simmons flows freely between singing and speaking/reciting, blurring the lines between poetry and music." 5 Stars J. Poet Downbeat Magazine April 2023

"Lisa Marie Simmons - Notespeak 12 A storyteller, an essayist and an impressive singer/songwriter, equipped with an expressive speaking and singing voice. The conclusion and the highlight of this Soul Voices!" 5 Stars Olaf Maikopf JAZZTHETIK Magazin, Münster DE

"NoteSpeak 12 finds Lisa Marie Simmons settling into a very relaxed groove with her partner, Marco Cremaschini. The interplay of the two, between poetry and music, feels like a dance with no need for choreography. Rather than poetry set to music or music that follows poetry, this is a conversation - about life, about love, about EVERYTHING - between the artists and the band. The words and the individual instruments all blur into a landscape of human experience, like sauntering through a cafe as conversations come and go." Louis Marks CEO Ropeadope, Director at The Ropeadope Cultural Center

"Beautiful and Powerful" - Giuseppe Saulo Rai Radio 3 "Battiti"

“Notespeak 12 is a lyrical album and an ensemble of centuries of the sonic lifeworlds of Black people. I walked away, hearing new articulations of jazz that sounded like Zora Neal Hurston's words on the page. It's an ode to the sounds we make in community and punctuated by theatrical curiosity and professional knowledge expressed through well-attended craft. It travels to many places and takes the listeners with it. Notespeak 12 is a well-choreographed journey." DJ Lynnée Denise Artist, Scholar, Writer

“Notespeak 12 is top-end poetry and top-end jazz, so poet Lisa Marie Simmons and composer Marco Cremaschini set themselves a high bar. But they have succeeded, just like they did on the earlier album Notespeak: Amori e Tragedie In Musica (Ropeadope), a succès d'estime and something of a cult hit following its release in 2020.” 4 Stars Chris May- All About Jazz

Lisa Marie Simmons, NoteSpeak 12 (Ropeadope): Multidisciplinary storyteller Lisa Marie Simmons reunites with long-time collaborator Marco Cremaschini to present the sophomore outing of their NoteSpeak project, released on February 24 on Ropeadope. The album renews Simmons’ lyrical prowess in the form of sonnets and free verse, while Cremaschini’s compositions seek to survey the distance between Western Classical and pan-African traditional music by combining complex large-scale arrangements with freedom, improvisation and spontaneity. Matt Micucci - Jazziz

“Lisa Marie Simmons has a powerful magnetizing voice for our time- for all time. Authentic and deeply committed.”- Anne Waldman, author of Trickster Feminism (Penguin Poets).

"Lisa Marie Simmons uses arresting lyrics and warm vocals to co-create the NoteSpeak 12 album with inventive artists and music director Marco Cremaschini. The music of this Italian-based band, billed as “global jazz hybrid,” defies category. Each eclectic song is its own galaxy within the Cremaschini-Simmons universe." Regina Harris Baiocchi - Composer, Author, Poet

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