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Phoebe Legere, is a jazz composer, pianist, singer and multi-instrumentalist of French Canadian, Mayflower Pilgrim and Native American descent.
She has played with Warren Vache, John Zorn, Don Cherry, Cecil Payne, Charles ‘Bo Bo’ Shaw, Frank Vignola, Earl May, Dennis Charles, Greg Haynes, Billy Joel, Joni Mitchell, Rufus Thomas, John Hartford, Ikue Morie, Morgan Powell, Howie Smith, Jim Staley, Larry Rivers and David Bowie. Legere studied composition with Morton Subotnick, Dinu Gezzo, and Milton Babbitt protege Wayne Oquin; and jazz with John Lewis of MJQ, Ira Newborn, and Rich Shemaria.The New York Times wrote:
'Phoebe Legere plays the piano with enormous authority in a style that encompasses Chopin, blues, ragtime, bebop and beyond, and she brings to her vocal delivery a four and a half octave range, and an extraordinary palette of tonal color and meticulous phrasing.'
Legere started playing the piano at age 3, composed her first song at 6, started playing organ in the church at 9, studied piano at New England Conservatory and sang with the Boston Symphony Orchestra at 16. As a teenager Legere was signed to Epic Records. Phoebe Legere first gained the attention of jazz piano aficionados during her decade-long jazz piano residency at One Fifth Avenue. At midnight, after the gig, Phoebe moved farther downtown, experimenting with new musical forms, electronics and modalities of interdisciplinary performance. Monad, a philosophical concept which means “One,” was Legere's seminal Loisaida jazz/classical/electronic experimental art band.
In 2000 Legere co-wrote a work called The Waterclown for the Cleveland Chamber Symphony that was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. (TNC Recordings) She wrote three epic poems and, in collaboration with the Tone Road Ramblers, a composing collective, set them to music. Dark Energy, The Prairie, Common Root of All Organisms are all available on Einstein Records.
In 2001, Legere recorded a CD that combined experimental electronics, Afro beat, Native American music and blues called “Blue Curtain” (Einstein Records) In 2002, she won a NYSCA grant to compose an opera about the Native American holocaust called The Queen of New England and in 2004 she wrote and produced a musical called Hello Mrs. President about the first woman President of color.
In recent years Legere returned to school: to study orchestration, conducting and film scoring at Juilliard and NYU graduate school. In 2009 she conducted the New York Film Orchestra playing her composition 'Dark Harbor for Ved Mehta.”
Phoebe Legere has played at Carnegie Hall, the Algonquin, and CBGB’S. She has sung with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and with Frank Vignola’s Hot Club USA. As 'Phoebe Songbundle' she has sung and played to thousands of children in Native American education programs.
Legere was the resident composer for the Wooster Group and she has written music for downtown film, theater, and dance companies. She is now the Composer in Residence at the Theater for the New City.Phoebe's Native American name is 'Songbundle' and indeed, she has written a thousand songs including college radio hit 'Marilyn Monroe,' and many songs for other recording artists including mega platinum Sony artist Kelly Chan. Last year she wrote and played on a CD with Brian Eno: her song “Ultra Romantic Parallel Universe” (2009) is available on Mercury England. In the USA she has recorded for Epic, Island, Funtone, Mysterious Ways and Einstein records. She has an extensive discography, both as a composer and a collaborator. Her bass player and friend for 20 years was the late Earl May, the left handed bass player on Coltrane's Lush Life album. Earl May was a founding member of Legere's 9 piece band, Swingalicious.
Her new band is called The Ooh La La Coq Tail. 'I'm putting Musette, Jazz and Blues together. For the past 10 years I've been making New Classical, Native American, and Experimental Jazz records, using invented instruments, wearable computers, and adventurous open structures. Suddenly, I felt like going back to basics: hand - made, virtuosic, and very American jazz music sung in that very North American language: French.'
The Ooh La La Coq Tail plays everything from Duke Ellington to Gershwin to Abenaki/Penobscot traditionals to the music of Phoebe Legere.
Events:
Date: December 21, 2010 - 8pm & 10pmVenue: Iridium Jazz Club, New York, NY 10019Info: 212.582.2121Other Information: The Phoebe Legere Quintet performing Dec 21st and the third Tuesday of every month
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