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Myra Melford
"From her first album in 1991, it was clear that this pianist and composer would stay around," the New York Times said of Myra Melford. Melford has not only stuck around, but she has flourished. She has appeared on more than 20 recordings, including nine as a leader , performed in more than 30 countries, won major awards for composition and piano performance, and worked with some of the world's most innovative musicians. Melford's staying power is the product of ceaseless musical travels; she's always going somewhere. As Francis Davis noted , "Myra Melford is the genuine article, the most gifted pianist/composer to emerge from jazz since Anthony Davis."
At the keyboard, Melford recasts the blues and boogie- woogie of her Chicago hometown, folds in elements of the music of Eastern Europe and India, and blends them with the rangy, percussive avant-garde stylings she cultivated in studies with Don Pullen and Henry Threadgill. This personal musical vocabulary is further enriched by a lush lyricism and organized by an architectural sense of composition that she derived from classical training.
Melford's remarkable breadth is ordered by a thoughtful, expressive sensibility, evocatively described by Coda Magazine: "Myra Melford is at once a dancer, a romantic and a savage suckerpuncher at the bench . . . beating all hell out of the piano and making it beautiful."
In the early '90s Melford toured and recorded extensively with her acclaimed trio featuring Lindsey Horner on bass and Reggie Nicholson on drums. Their 1993 recording Alive in the House of Saints was reissued by hat Art in 2001. In the late '90s, she led a quintet, The Same River, Twice, which featured trumpeters Dave Douglas or Cuong Vu, reedist Chris Speed, cellist Erik Friedlander, and drummer Michael Sarin. They recorded two albums, their self-titled debut on Gramavision (1996) and Above Blue (Arabesque, 1999).
Melford currently leads or co-leads four groups, all of which have recorded in the past several years.
Melford's ongoing search for new sounds and new directions in her music led her to the harmonium, a small hand-pump organ traditionally used in Indian and Pakistani classical and devotional music. Melford was awarded a Fulbright scholarship to study North Indian music on the instrument with Sohanlal Sharma in Calcutta, where she was in residency from September 2000 through May 2001. The fruits of her studies are heard in some of her compositions for her groups The Tent and Be Bread.
In addition to leading her own ensembles for more than 15 years, Melford appears as a special guest on Jenny Scheinman's Shaligaster (Tzadik), Joseph Jarman's Lifetime Visions and Jarman's and Leroy Jenkins' Out of the Mist (Ocean Records); Butch Morris' a Move (Sony) and Songs Out of My Trees (Soul Note); and Leroy Jenkins' Themes and Improvisations on the Blues (CRI).
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Geof Bradfield / Myra Melford / Ben Goldberg / Dana Hall: Open Or Close
by Dan McClenaghan
Ornette Coleman may come to mind at the beginning of the spin of Open Or Close. This is understandable. The title song, which opens the set, is from Coleman's pen. Additionally, the jazz collective at work here--reedmen Geof Bradfield and Ben Goldberg, pianist Myra Melford and drummer Dana Hall play loose and free, à la Ornette, with a lot of seat-of-the-pants energy. The sound has a common thread strung out between Coleman's 1968 Blue Note Records album New York Is ...
Continue ReadingSatoko Fujii-Myra Melford: Katarahi
by Doug Collette
The connection(s) between pianist-composers Satoko Fujii and Myra Melford transcend the usual truisms. Not kindred spirits in creativity or even mirror images in technique, the pair are more like twin sisters of different artistic mothers, distinctly their own individuals in style yet complementary as such in almost ineffable ways. Hence this album title, a Japanese term referring to a heart-to-heart conversation between intimate friends, fittingly suggests a deep, meaningful dialogue. Katarahi is the duo's second collaboration, but as ...
Continue ReadingMyra Melford - Satoko Fujii: Katarahi
by Mark Corroto
When four hands meet across 176 keys, is it even possible for pianists to check their egos at the stage door? Piano duets, by their very nature, often invite comparison--even confrontation. Consider the 1977 encounter between Mary Lou Williams and Cecil Taylor, the high-profile 1978 concerts by Herbie Hancock and Chick Corea, or Kris Davis and Craig Taborn's Octopus (Pyroclastic, 2018). Each of these pairings carried the tension of a musical grappling match. Even Bill Evans' overdubbed Conversations with Myself ...
Continue ReadingSatoko Fujii/Myra Melford Together Again + John Hollenbeck and Abate Beirhun
by Hobart Taylor
Satoko Fujii with Myra Melford, Tomeka Reid, Robert Glasper and Abbey Lincoln singing A Cappella.Playlist Host Speaks 00:00 Satoko Fujii /Myra Melford “Signpost" from Katahari (Rouge Arts) 00:21 Brian Dickenson “October Songs Pt. 1" from October Songs (Cellar) 6:45 Abbey Lincoln “Tender as a Rose" from That's Him (Craft) 14:30 Host Speaks 17:29 Abate Beirhun “Des Des" from Adis Ken (Origin) 18:54 Allison Au “You Ordinary Stranger" from Forest Grove (AA 15) 22:30 Blue Moods “Agitation" from Directions ...
Continue ReadingMusic From Favourite Recordings of 2025
by Maurice Hogue
Aside from the two opening tracks from South African drummer Asher Gamedze's upcoming release, A Semblance Of Return, the rest of this show features a track from each of the 25 favourite recordings played on One Man's Jazz in 2025. These were chosen from recordings released by artists from almost 40 different countries. It was a very, very good year! Playlist Asher Gamedze “Air (If Involvedness)" from A Semblance Of Return (Northern Spy) 00:00 Asher Gamedze “Following Up" ...
Continue ReadingAlbum Review
Myra Melford: Splash
by Alberto Bazzurro
Affermatasi ormai oltre trent'anni fa come uno dei nomi nuovi, più creativi e identitari, della scena jazzistica internazionale, Myra Melford, pur assumendo una posizione a volte periferica (defilata?) rispetto all'agone specifico (ogni grande artista ha anche bisogno dei propri spazi di riflessione), ha confermato con regolarità quel primo input, come questo suo nuovo, bellissimo lavoro non fa che ribadire una volta di più. Sono del resto con lei due autentici giganti dei rispettivi strumenti, in un caso (Ches ...
Continue ReadingMyra Melford: Splash
by John Sharpe
Pianist Myra Melford returns to the classic piano trio format for the first time since The Guest House (Enja, 2011), her acclaimed outing with Trio M with Mark Dresser and Matt Wilson. This time, the lineup is no less formidable: bassist Michael Formanek and drummer/vibraphonist Ches Smith--both commanding improvisers and bandleaders--join her for a set that reaffirms the trio as a site for invention rather than formula. As with her 2022 quintet project For the Love of Fire ...
Continue ReadingNew Frequencies Fest: Jazz@YBCA San Francisco February 4-7, 2015
Source:
Marshall Lamm Promotions & Public Relations
Yerba Buena Center for The Arts announced programming for New Frequencies Fest: Jazz@YBCA running February 4-7, 2015 New Frequencies Fest: Jazz@YBCA is a radical exploration of jazz's future through the lense of its pioneering spirit. The entire program is dedicated to jazz in the present tense while paying homage to the legacy of visionary artists of the 1960s and 70s through their impact on contemporary jazz and improvisational music. The past, current, and future San Francisco jazz scene and New ...
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Myra Melford Presents Two Benefit Events for U.C. Berkeley Jazz and Improvised Music Fund
Source:
Marshall Lamm Promotions & Public Relations
The Department of Music at The University of California, Berkeley, today announced two special fundraiser events for the Jazz and Improvised Music Fund (JIM). The first event on Friday, April 23 at UC Berkeley's Hertz Hall will feature The Contemporary Improvisation Ensemble (CIE) comprised of UC Berkeley students, alumni and guests directed by Myra Melford followed by a performance by Trio M with Mark Dresser, Myra Melford and Matt Wilson. The second event on Saturday, April 24, “Cooking it Up-Connections ...
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Jazz Musician of the Day: Myra Melford
Source:
Michael Ricci
All About Jazz is celebrating Myra Melford's birthday today!
JAZZ MUSICIAN OF THE DAY Myra Melford
“From her first album in 1991, it was clear that this pianist and composer would stay around," the New York Times said of Myra Melford. Melford has not only stuck around, but she has flourished. She has appeared on more than 20 recordings... more
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Marty Ehrlich/Myra Melford Duo Coming to Firehouse 12 October 26th
Source:
Improvised Communications
On Friday, October 26th, the long-standing duo of reed player/composer Marty Ehrlich and pianist/composer Myra Melford will perform at New Haven's Firehouse 12 in support of its new CD, Spark! (Palmetto Records). This is the second release by this pairing of acclaimed veteran talents, who have been performed together as a duo since 2000. Critics called their 2001 debut, Yet Can Spring (Arabesque Recordings), “revelatory" (David R. Adler, All Music Guide) and “the ultimate duet recording...another triumph for two outstanding ...
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Mike Schwartz/KSJS December Guest List Includes Aaron Goldberg, Myra Melford and Reuben Rogers
Source:
All About Jazz
The weekly “Straight No Chaser" Broadcast each Sunday on 90.5FM KSJS San Jose, CA and www.ksjs.org 6-10AM Pacific/9AM-1PM Eastern times Hosted by Mike Schwartz. The Artist Feature utilizes the final hour of the program devoted to the guest 9-10AM Pacific/12-1PM Eastern. 12/03 Pianist/Composer: Aaron Goldberg new “World" CD [Sunnyside] 12/10 Pianist/Composer/Bandleader: Myra Melford new “Be Bread" CD [Cryptogramaphone] 12/17 Bassist/Composer/Bandleader/sideman extarordinaire: Reuben Rogers latest CD “The Things I ...
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Cryptogramophone Records to Release New CDs From Guitarist Nels Cline and Pianist Myra Melford September 12
Source:
All About Jazz
Los Angeles-based creative jazz label Cryptogramophone Records announces exciting new autumn releases from guitarist Nels Cline and pianist Myra Melford. Nels Cline's New Monastery is Cline's interpretation of the music of Andrew Hill; Myra Melford's The Image of Your Body features trumpeter Cuong Vu and guitarist Brandon Ross.
Nels Cline is one of the most versatile, imaginative and original guitarists active today. Combining breath-taking technique with an informed musical intelligence, Cline displays a mastery of guitar expression that ...
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Vandermark 5 + Leroy Jenkins/Myra Melford/Kahil El'Zabar at The Cinema in Philadelphia
Source:
All About Jazz
Ars Nova Workshop presents: Tonight. Thursday, February 2 | 8pm VANDERMARK 5 with Ken Vandermark, reeds; Dave Rempis, saxophone; Fred Lonberg-Holm, cello; Kent Kessler, bass; and Tim Daisy, drums
The Cinema (formerly CineMagic) | 3925 Walnut Street $12 General Admission MacArthur fellow Ken Vandermark formed the Vandermark 5 nearly 10 years ago as an outlet for the concepts he developed over the years working with NRG Ensemble, the Peter Brotzmann Chicago Tentet, and ALLY. During the ...
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Myra Melford and "be bread' at VJC on 2/14/03
Source:
All About Jazz
Myra Melford and “be bread" to perform at the Vermont Jazz Center on Friday, February 14th at 4:00 PM
Pianist Myra Melford has a voice all her own, she is a an anachronism, a musician whose compositional and playing styles embrace free music, tight arrangements and strong melodies all within the context of a single musical composition. Myra's music is deep yet playful, she creates koans of sound. Her music leaves plenty of space to encourage her fellow musicians to ...
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From: KatarahiBy Myra Melford
Aspiration
From: KaleidoscopeBy Myra Melford
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Myra Melford
Instrument: Piano
Born: January 5, 1957
Publicist: Fully Altered Media
