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About the Project
Portland Jazz Composers Ensemble is thrilled to present two women who have been vital supporting artists in many bedrock musical groups in Portland’s jazz community, this time as lead artists. The Heroine’s Journey features new song cycles from both veteran vocal instrument-turned-lyricist Marilyn Keller and indie-jazz composer/vocalist Rebecca Sanborn on Friday, August 19th at 8:00 pm at the Alberta Rose Theatre as part of Montavilla Jazz Festival 22. “I’ve always had the music presented to me as a fait accompli—it’s already completed, and I get to interpret it. But now I was there at the beginning, from the writing stage. I’m excited and uplifted to be part of it,” Marilyn Keller said about her songs, co-written with longtime collaborator Darrell Grant.
“In some ways, being a singer is the most vulnerable of all musicians, and with these songs I’ll be out front without my piano or guitar. It’s nerve wracking, but also very freeing,” Rebecca Sanborn said about what makes this project unique for her. Sanborn’s songs contemplate and integrate the inseparable lightness and darkness of our nature as human beings in beguiling and joyful arrangements by Douglas Detrick.
Personnel
Marilyn Keller – vocals, lyrics
Rebecca Sanborn – vocals, lyrics and music
Darrell Grant – piano, keyboards, music (Keller/Grant songs)
Quinn Walker, Pablo Rivarola – trumpet
James Powers, Chris Shuttleworth – trombone
Lee Elderton, John Savage, Tim Willcox, Mieke Bruggeman – saxophones
Ryan Meagher – guitar
Jasnam Daya Singh – piano (Sanborn songs)
Eric Gruber – bass
Ji Tanzer – drums (Sanborn songs)
Machado Mijiga – drums (Keller/Grant songs)
Dylan Hayes, Bryn Roberts, Ezra Weiss – arrangements of songs by Keller/Grant
Douglas Detrick – music director, arranger of songs by Rebecca Sanborn
About the Artists
Marilyn Keller: Marilyn T. Keller, 2016 Jazz Society of Oregon Hall of Fame Inductee, is a 38-year veteran of music and stage performance in Jazz, Gospel, R&B, Pop, Blues, and theater, nationally and internationally. Her musical roots are diverse. Marilyn has built a career that has taken her as a feature artist to Denmark, Sweden, Norway, The Netherlands, Spain, Australia, Russia and the UK for concerts, festivals, nightclubs and recording work. Her voice can be heard on multiple recordings, movie sound tracks, commercials and documentaries. Marilyn’s formative jazz training was as a member of the Mt. Hood Community College Vocal Jazz Ensemble and as the vocalist fronting the award-winning MHCC Jazz Lab Band. She can be seen frequently at clubs, restaurants, festivals and holiday events throughout the Pacific Northwest. She remains active, performing with Don Latarski, Darrell Grant, Tom Grant, Black Swan Classic Jazz Band, Pressure Point Band and the Augustana Jazz Quartet, among many others.
Rebecca Sanborn: Rebecca Sanborn began writing songs at six, starting an early pattern of creative straying from sheet music. The love affair with stories and music continued and at eighteen, she left her native Portland to study at the Contemporary Music Program at The College of Santa Fe, in New Mexico. Upon returning to the Northwest, Rebecca met her husband and musical partner, drummer Ji Tanzer. They are both members of the adventurous jazz quintet, Blue Cranes, the art pop trio Swansea, and Portland’s veteran indie group Loch Lomond. Rebecca also plays in the all-female, cape-wearing, fog-machine-loving synth trio, Eccoh Eccoh Eccoh with Kyleen King and Jenny Conlee-Drizos. When she is not playing music or teaching, she can be found chasing after her disco-obsessed three-year-old daughter or trying to get some sleep.
Darrell Grant: Since the release of his debut album Black Art, one of the New York Times’s top ten jazz CD’s of 1994, Darrell Grant has built an international reputation as a pianist, composer, and educator who channels the power of music to make change. He has performed throughout the U.S., Canada, and Europe in venues ranging from Paris’s La Villa jazz club to the Havana Jazz Festival. Dedicated to themes of hope, community, and place, Grant’s compositions include his 2012 Step by Step: The Ruby Bridges Suite honoring the civil rights icon and The Territory which explores Oregon’s landscape and history. Since moving to Portland, Oregon he has been named Portland Jazz Hero by the Jazz Journalist Association, received a Northwest Regional Emmy, and received a MAP Fund grant and the Governor’s Arts Award. He is a Professor of Music at Portland State University where he directs the Artist as Citizen Initiative. Portland Jazz Composers Ensemble is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to create original jazz music that engages and supports our community’s diverse artists, cultures and place. In operation since 2008, PJCE is the only organization dedicated to commissioning and performing original music by Portland musicians, building a broad audience through unique, collaborative and community-oriented programming that builds bridges between communities in this vibrant city. Learn more at http://pjce.org.