Erica Lindsay
Erica Lindsay
New York, NY
Jazz
-
- Songs
| Status |
Michael Jefry Stevens has a show coming up on 11/21/2009 at 08:00 PM @ The ... in Tupelo, MS, MS http://www.reverbnation.com/c./poni/6854354
|
|
Join the Mailing List |
Bio
Referred by her saxophone teacher at Berklee, Andy McGee, Lindsay began performing and touring with Melba Liston & Co. During this time she performed with many jazz legends; Dizzy Gillespie, Joe Williams, Al Grey, Britt Woodman, Mary Lou Williams and others. Lindsay performed with other leaders such as McCoy Tyner, Clifford Jordon, Reggie Workman, Ted Curson, George Gruntz and Amira Baraka, at Carnegie Hall, Avery Fisher, Merkin Hall, La Mama Theatre and other jazz venues. Lindsay has collaborated with poet/playwright Carl Hancock-Rux, poets Janine Vega, Janice King, Mikhail Horowitz and painter Nancy Ostrowski. She composed the book for two off-broadway plays and has written for television and modern dance.
About
 |
Erica Lindsay
Erica Lindsay, tenor saxophonist and composer, currently leads her own quartet featuring Francesca Tanksley on piano, and co-leads a quartet with pianist Sumi Tonooka that features Bob Braye and Rufus Reid. Two new recordings with these ensembles respectively are, "Yes - Live at the Rosendale Cafe" and the soon to be released, "Initiation". She also currently performs with the Oliver Lake Big Band, the Baikida Carroll Quintet, the Howard Johnson, Hojo5 Quintet, the Jeff Siegel Quartet and the San Francisco-based group, Trace Elements. Her most recent recordings with these ensembles are, "Cloth" (Oliver Lake Big Band), "Magical Spaces" and "Live in Europe" (Jeff Siegel Quartet), "Marionettes on a High Wire," (Baikida Carroll Quintet), and "Parallel Universe" (Trace Elements). Lindsay is presently working on releasing two duo projects: one with percussionist Ricky Carter ("Soulcatcher") and the other with drummer Bob Braye ("Oceans").
Royal Stokes, writing for the Jazz Times has called her "a player of enormous gifts and a composer and arranger of striking originality". Nat Hentoff states, "Erica Lindsay plays with such an emotional spontaneity that she is very much in the tradition of those jazz makers who were so evidently taking joy in surprising themselves each night, each song, each bar. She has a distinctive clarity and fullness of sound as well as an acute sense of dynamics. Her compositions are also characterized by an invigorating clarity of form and direction". Bob Margolis for the Kingston Freeman says "Her profound, soul-searching technique straddles Coltrane's spirituality and Joe Henderson's fiery versatility, making hers a name to watch".
Lindsays parents were educators who moved to Europe in the sixties, raising their family in various European cities. She began her compositional studies at the age of fifteen with Mal Waldron in Munich, where she spent her high school years. She deepened her experience of the music through her exposure to jazz expatriates Mal Waldron, Dexter Gordon, Slide Hampton, Jimmy Griffiths, Jimmie Woode, and Benny Bailey as well as the continuing flow of visiting jazz greats. Upon graduating from high school she continued her studies at Berklee College of Music in Boston.
When she returned to Europe, Lindsay focused on her compositional work, writing and arranging for various big bands and composing for the many different smaller groups she performed with. She was involved in the vibrant, free-jazz scene that existed then in Europe and was an original member and composer of the Unique Munich Saxophone Choir. During this period she formed her first quintet and also did guest performances with Frank Zappa and Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers.
In 1980 Lindsay moved to New York City. Referred by her saxophone teacher at Berklee, Andy McGee, she began performing and touring with Melba Liston & Co. During this time she performed with many jazz legends; Dizzy Gillespie, Joe Williams, Al Grey, Britt Woodman, Mary Lou Williams and others. After leaving Melba Liston's group in 1984, Lindsay performed with other leaders such as Mc Coy Tyner, Clifford Jordon, Reggie Workman, Ted Curson, George Gruntz and Amira Baraka .. at Carnegie Hall, Avery Fisher, Merkin Hall, La Mama Theatre and other jazz venues. Lindsay at this time also became involved in performance art, and has collaborated with poet/playwright Carl Hancock-Rux, poets Janine Vega, Janice King, Mikhail Horowitz and painter Nancy Ostrowski. She composed the book for two off-broadway plays, Carl Hancock-Rux's "Song of Sad Young Men," and John Carter's "Feed the Beast," and has written for television and modern dance. While living in New York City she also received a degree in psychology from NYU. She now resides in the Woodstock area and is on the music faculty at Bard College.
-----
| RECENT CD REVIEW |
Erica Lindsay Quartet Yes: Live at the Rosendale Cafe (Artists Recording Collective, 2008)  Tenor saxophonist Erica Lindsay is a veteran of years of uncompromising work with a who’s who of jazz artists. Lindsay, who teaches at Bard College and keeps her chops honed in several bands, has a huge, expressive sound that doesn’t pretend toward fad or contemporary stylings, and her years as a composer and arranger have allowed her to create music perfect for her playing to soar. And soar she does in the eight originals here, offering a modern take on the music developed in the postbop era with perhaps a rare tinge of the underrated Jim Pepper. Outstanding on this recording is pianist Francesca Tanksley, another Hudson Valley resident. Her deep harmonic and rhythmic insights seem to inspire Lindsay as much as support her, and her solos are swinging, thoughtful, surprising, and hard-driving, never failing to elevate the music. Bassist Otto Gardner is strong and supportive throughout, negotiating Lindsay’s compositions with lines thoughtful and melodic. Drummer Bob Braye is also wonderful, clearly enjoying his role and interplay with the compelling soloists and ensemble sections. (Sadly, Braye passed away in 2006.) Often the nuance of a group’s interplay can be lost in a live recording but that never happens here. Surely the piano and bass lose tonal quality in comparison with the studio, but this live 2001 performance wins out for its energy, edge, and spontaneity. www.artistsrecordingcollective.info —Erik Lawrence  Luminary Publishing Inc. All rights reserved. |
-----
Also see: www.EricaLindsay.com
DEBUT RELEASE
| ||
 | ||
This is the debut album by the talented Erica Lindsay. She composes, arranges (all but one of the arrangements are hers) and plays tenor, soprano, flute and clarinet. Erica handpicked the musicians for this session - Howard Johnson, the long acknowledged master of the tuba; Robin Eubanks, well known for his work with Art Blakey; and the exciting rhythm section featuring the vivid Francesca Tanksley on piano, the outstanding Anthony Cox on bass and Newman Baker on drums. |
Recommended
by Erica Lindsay
Contests/Events
