Jane Ira Bloom's New Recording Project: Wingwalker (OTL140)
release date: January 2011

Whether adventuring into interior or outer space in her music, soprano saxophonist/ composer Jane Ira Bloom continues to navigate her unique musical path with creative abandon. Wingwalker, her 14th album as leader reunites Bloom with long-time bandmates Dawn Clement on piano, bassist Mark Helias, and drummer Bobby Previte. After two years since Bloom's last release "Mental Weather" (OTL139), she brought the band together in June 2010 to record new compositions written as a result of a Guggenheim Fellowship. Wingwalker was recorded in Avatar Studio B in New York City with renowned audio engineer Jim Anderson. The album features eleven Bloom originals and a solo sax rendition of Lerner & Lowe's classic "I Could Have Danced All Night." From the groove inspired "Life on Cloud 8" to the spare simplicity of "Adjusting to Midnight," Jane has journeyed further into jazz dimensions without a safety net.

"There's something different about the way the music revealed itself to the band in this recording. We didn't have a lot of preconceptions and that allowed a certain freedom to open up and move the music in unexpected ways. All we had to do was to let it happen."

-Jane Ira Bloom

Jane Ira Bloom soprano sax
Dawn Clement - piano, Fender Rhodes
Mark Helias - bass
Bobby Previte - drums

Pictures by Erika Kapin and Jim Anderson

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Jane Ira Bloom's Trio
w/ Mark Helias & Bobby Previte
live at Cornelia Street Cafe in NYC

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Jane at the United Nations for "Resonations 2010" Performance

Jane was thrilled to be a part of the new music ensemble that performed "Resonations 2010" An International Telematic Music Concert for Peace at the United Nations on Friday, Dec 3, 2011 at 9:00pm. The ensemble performed new pieces by composers Sarah Weaver, Min Xiao-Fen and Yoon Jeong Heo in real time with renowned musicians from Bejing and Seoul South Korea via the internet using telematic music technology. The New York based group featured bassist Mark Dresser, conductor Sarah Weaver, pipa player Min Xiao-Fen, vocalist Jen Shyu, and percussionist Satoshi Takeshi. There was international magic in the air.
Check out a documentary webcast of the project here.

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JANE TEACHES AT THE FIRST JAZZ COMPOSERS ORCHESTRA INSTITUTE

Jane was honored to be one of seven distinguished faculty composers who designed and taught curriculum at the first Jazz Composers Orchestra Institute at the Center for Jazz Studies at Columbia University from July 20 - 24, 2010. The American Composers Orchestra and the Jazz Studies Center at Columbia University with support from the Doris Duke Foundation collaborated in creating a unique seminar which offered a select group of 32 participants an opportunity to explore new directions in orchestral techniques. Along with director George Lewis, Jane was joined by composers Anthony Davis, Tania Leon, Alvin Singleton, Derek Bermel, and Fabian Levy. By promoting the emergence of new composers trained both in jazz and in new orchestral techniques it's hoped that the Institute would point the way to a new kind of orchestral music for the 21st Century.

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JANE WORKS ON SCORE FOR NEW JULES FEIFFER DANCE/ FILM PROJECT

In October 2009 Jane joined Dennae Productions, a collaborative team including film director and producer Judy Dennis, producer Ellen Dennis, writer Jules Feiffer, dancer Andrea Weber, choreographers Susan Marshall and Larry Keigwin for an eight week residency at the Baryishnikov Arts Center in NYC to workshop a new short film reinterpreting Jules Feiffer's cartoon character "the modern dancer." After principal photography was completed in summer 2010, Jane recorded the soundscore for the project at Avatar Studios in NYC in October 2010. The ensemble assembled especially for the project included flutist Keith Underwood, bass clarinetist JD Parran, oboist Diane Lesser, vibist James Shipp, bassist Dean Johnson, and conga player Annette Aguilar. Audio engineer Jim Anderson was on hand to record the project. Look for first screenings in February 2011.

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JANE JUDGES THE 2008 THELONIOUS MONK SAX COMPETITION

Jane was one of five renowned saxophonists selected to adjudicate the 2008 Thelonious Monk International Saxophone Competition at the Kodak Theater in Los Angeles. The other judges included saxophonists Jimmy Heath, Wayne Shorter, Greg Osby, and David Sanchez.

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JANE IRA BLOOM AWARDED 2007 GUGGENHEIM FELLOWSHIP

Jane Ira Bloom an award-winning soprano saxophonist and composer who has pioneered the use of live electronics and movement in jazz has been awarded a 2007 Guggenheim fellowship in music composition. The 2007 fellowship winners include 189 artists, scholars, and scientists selected from almost 2,800 applicants for awards totaling $7,600,000. Decisions are based on recommendations from hundreds of expert advisors and are approved by the foundation's board of trustees. Guggenheim Fellows are appointed on the basis of distinguished achievement in the past and exceptional promise for future accomplishment. What distinguishes the Guggenheim Fellowship program is the wide range in interests, age, geography, and institutions of those it selects as it considers applications in 78 different fields from the natural sciences to the creative arts. Since 1925, according to Foundation president Edward Hirsch, the Foundation has granted over $256 million in Fellowships to more than 16,250 individuals. The new fellows include writers, playwrights, painters, sculptors, photographers, film makers, choreographers, physical and biological scientists, social scientists, and scholars in the humanities. Scores of Nobel, Pulitzer, and other prizewinners appear on the roll of Fellows, which includes Ansel Adams, W.H. Auden, Aaron Copland, Martha Graham, Langston Hughes, Henry Kissinger, Vladimir Nabokov, Isamu Noguchi, Linus Pauling, Philip Roth, Paul Samuelson, Wendy Wasserstein, Derek Walcott, James Watson, and Eudora Welty

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"Mental Weather"

Click Here to view the poster for the concert

Saxophonist/ composer Jane Ira Bloom launched the release of her latest CD "Mental Weather" (Outline OTL139) at the Iridium Jazz Club on Wednesday, Jan 30th, 2008. The quartet featuring Dawn Clement (piano & Fender Rhodes), Mark Helias (bass), and Matt Wilson (drums) brought the house down for an audience filled with celebrities (comic Lewis Black, actors Brian Dennehy, David Strathairn, Jill Eikenberry, Michael Tucker, Maria Tucci, and Joe Grifasi). Photographer Matthew Sussman was there to capture it all.

Jane with Lewis Black	Jane with Brian Dennehy
Jane with David Strathairn	Michael Tucker, Maria Tucci, Jane, and Jill Eikenberry
Mark Helias, Joe Grifasi, and Lewis Black	Matt Wilson
Mark Helias	Dawn Clement
The Jane Ira Bloom Quartet at Iridium	Jane at Iridium