ABOUT HEATHER MASSE
Singer-songmaker Heather Masse is a rare artist with “lush velvety vocals, capable of melting butter in a Siberian winter” (All Music). She grew up in rural Maine and was trained at the New England Conservatory of Music as a jazz singer, she is steeped in the jazz tradition, which informs her distinct approach to singing folk, pop and bluegrass.
A member of the Billboard-charting folk group, The Wailin’ Jennys, she has performed at hundreds of venues across the world. She has been a frequent guest on Garrison Keillor’s A Prairie Home Companion,both as a solo performer and as a member of The Jennys. On the show, she has collaborated with artists such as Elvis Costello, Wynton Marsalis, Sheryl Crow, Renee Fleming, and Emmylou Harris.
Heather has performed with the contemporary bluegrass band The Wayfaring Strangers, fiddle virtuoso Mark O’Connor’s Hot Swing, and in 2006, recorded an album with Joy Kills Sorrow, a contemporary stringband. She also released Tell Me Tonight with the Brooklyn-based collaboration Heather & the Barbarians.
In 2008, Ms. Masse released Many Moons, an EP of jazz-inspired folk duets with pianist Jed Wilson. She followed that up with her first full-length solo album, Bird Song. Her solo debut on Grammy-winning indie label Red House Records, the album showcased her luscious alto voice and her superb songwriting. The title track “Bird Song” won her 1st prize at the International Acoustic Music Awards, and in 2012 she also won a prestigious Juno Award for Bright Morning Stars, her latest recording with The Wailin’ Jennys.
Masse returned to her jazz roots in 2013 with Lock My Heart, an album of standards she recorded with piano legend Dick Hyman.
Masse continues to perform with the Wailin’ Jennys and can often be heard joining Garrison Keillor on A Prairie Home Companion.
ABOUT ROSWELL RUDD
Roswell Rudd, aka THE INCREDIBLE HONK, is proudly of the tradition that has given us such jazz trombone greats as Jack Teagarden , Kid Ory, J.J. Johnson, and Joseph Nanton. One of the most imaginative, stimulating players, Rudd is known for his work with groundbreaking groups and musicians like Herbie Nichols, the New York Arts Quartet, Cecil Taylor, Archie Shepp, Carla Bley, and Steve Lacy.
His musical range has expresssed itself in extraordinary musical collaborations and subsequent recordings with musicians from Mali (Toumani Diabate), Mongolia (Buryat Band), the great Puerto Rican cuatrista Yomo Toro, and the brilliant Cuban guitarist/singer David Oquendo.
In 2000 he was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in composition. In August 2010 he was voted #1 in the Downbeat Critics Poll. In 2003, 2004, 2005, 2009 and 2010 he was voted Trombonist of the Year by the Jazz Journalists Association.
His trailblazing on the trombone has influenced an entire generation of trombonists who hear his extroverted gut bucket stylings as the modern incarnation of the New Orleans style. He has equally a passionate lyricism in the tradition of American folk songs and ballads.
Roswell Rudd has received international recognition as a performer, and for his compositions and arrangements ranging from large scale music dramas to instrumental jazz suites. His jazz operas BLUES FOR PLANET EARTH and GOLD RUSH have achieved cult status from their performances in the 1960s.
From 1999 to the present have been his Soundscape years marked by his collaboration with Verna Gillis. He continues to co-lead an ensemble with Archie Shepp, as well as touring with MALIcool, the Mongolian Buryat Band, as well as being a featured guest with a myriad of musicians.
Rudd is one of the giants. His active playing force is to be greatly welcomed, with his larger-than-life individualism.
