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Michael Mayo

Michael Mayo began forging his musical identity long before he hit the stage. The son of two successful musicians, the Los Angeles native grew up just a little more than 20 feet from the likes of Diana Ross, Luther Vandross, Earth Wind and Fire and Stevie Wonder. This proximity helped Mayo create a musical path centered around the innovative elements of R&B and Jazz.

After receiving his Bachelor’s from the New England Conservatory of Music, Mayo attended the acclaimed Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz Performance, only the third vocalist to be accepted into the 20-year-old program, where he learned from Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, and Luciana Souza.

Mayo, now living in New York City, is a veteran international performer whose highlights include singing at the White House, the Kennedy Center and Renée Fleming’s American Voices Festival, as well as the Panama Jazz Festival. Most recently he has collaborated or shared the stage with Herbie Hancock, Kneebody, Gretchen Parlato, Christian Sands, Josh Groban, Ben Wendel, Becca Stevens, and Theo Bleckmann among many others.

Whether he is performing with a full big band, a rhythm section or alone with a looper pedal, Mayo’s classic vocal style commands the attention of listeners worldwide.

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Album Review

Cory Smythe: Accelerate Every Voice

Read "Accelerate Every Voice" reviewed by Alberto Bazzurro


Un vivace, originale intreccio di voci, diremmo più di matrice contemporanea che strettamente jazzistica (questa costola respira semmai soprattutto nel pianismo del leader Cory Smythe), anima questo stimolante lavoro, in cui anche l'elettronica gioca un suo ruolo, per quanto discreto. Lo compongono otto apprezzabilissimi brani brevi (il più lungo supera di poco i cinque minuti) e uno, invece, molto ampio (diciannove), logorroico e dispersivo, che purtroppo deturpa e disperde in buona parte quanto di buono, spesso di ottimo, lo precede, ...

8
Album Review

Nate Smith: Kinfolk 2: See The Birds

Read "Kinfolk 2: See The Birds" reviewed by Mark Corroto


If there were brick & mortar establishments called record stores today, one could imagine the challenge Nate Smith's Kinfolk projects would pose for an employee trying to file his latest releases. Those familiar with the drummer's work in the bands of Chris Potter, Dave Holland, or Alex Sipiagin might place the discs in the jazz section, but then again he's worked with the jazz/pop/soul singers José James and Norah Jones and he heads up the funk/soul band The Fearless Flyers. ...

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Radio & Podcasts

Michael Mayo: Living Without Labels

Read "Michael Mayo: Living Without Labels" reviewed by Leo Sidran


Virtuosic singer-composer Michael Mayo on managing his relationship with social media, which he describes as finding the “balance between staying sane and being seen," the subtle space between practice and performance, live looping, bi erasure, the “syllables discussion" in jazz singing, generational trauma, his debut record Bones, discernment, and living a life authentically without labels. ...

24
Album Review

Ben Wendel: High Heart

Read "High Heart" reviewed by Mike Jacobs


If Ben Wendel's fifth outing as a leader High Heart shows anything, it's that the saxophonist is ever advancing. While this may seem a fait accompli for a card-carrying member of the shapeshifting collective Kneebody, Wendel's worthy solo efforts have been notably more in a traditionally-sounding vein and thus his innovations were perhaps a bit less readily evident to ears acclimated to that other side of his resume. And yes, by comparison to Kneebody, High Heart still tacks toward a ...

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Album Review

Cory Smythe: Accelerate Every Voice

Read "Accelerate Every Voice" reviewed by Karl Ackermann


Pianist/electronics artist/composer Cory Smythe's Pyroclastic Records debut Circulate Susanna (2018) was a tongue-in-cheek attribution to the inspiration of a fictional event. He returns to the Kris Davis run label with the intriguing, socially-conscious and genre-less Accelerate Every Voice. Inspired by an assortment of sources: Andrew Hill's Lift Every Voice (Blue Note, 1970), the work of Harlem Renaissance poet and early NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson, and the a cappella art form and its sociological duality. Smythe is an ...

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Performance / Tour

Acclaimed Vocalist Michael Mayo Returns To New England Conservatory For Performance With Students On November 10

Acclaimed Vocalist Michael Mayo Returns To New England Conservatory For Performance With Students On November 10

Source: Ann Braithwaite

New England Conservatory’s internationally renowned Jazz Studies Department presents acclaimed vocalist and alum Michael Mayo in concert with jazz students on Thursday, November 10, 2022. The concert features Mayo sharing his unique approach to solo performance using live vocal looping, along with NEC vocalists and instrumentalists. It’s part of a four-day residency which also includes master classes and rehearsals with students. The 8 p.m. concert takes place in Brown Hall and is free and open to the public. Tickets required; ...

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Performance / Tour

New England Conservatory Jazz Voice Alum Michael Mayo Featured On American Voices A PBS Great Performances Special Hosted By Renée Fleming

New England Conservatory Jazz Voice Alum Michael Mayo  Featured On American Voices A PBS Great Performances Special  Hosted By Renée Fleming

Source: Braithwaite & Katz Communications

“Jazz on stage is alive and it’s a very intimate exchange… You have to listen so you can respond and keep the conversation going. You do that so impeccably well!” – Dianne Reeves to Michael Mayo on PBS’ American Voices New England Conservatory Jazz Studies alum Michael Mayo (Bachelor’s of Music, Jazz Voice ’14) was recently featured on American Voices, a PBS Great Performances special hosted by Renée Fleming. This PBS show was the outgrowth of the Kennedy Center’s 2013 ...

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Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Kinfolk 2: See The...

Edition Records
2021

buy

High Heart

Edition Records
2020

buy

Accelerate Every Voice

Pyroclastic Records
2020

buy

Northern Cities Vowel Shift

From: Accelerate Every Voice
By Michael Mayo

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