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LEGENDS AND STARS
JANE IRA BLOOM
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Soprano saxophonist/composer Jane Ira Bloom is a pioneer in the use of live electronics and movement in jazz, as well as the possessor of "one of the most gorgeous tones and hauntingly lyrical ballad conceptions of any soprano saxophonist – Pulse." Performed, recorded, and/ or collaborated with such outstanding jazz/ world music artists as Charlie Haden, Ed Blackwell, Kenny Wheeler, Rufus Reid, Bob Brookmeyer, George Coleman, Julian Priester, Jerry Granelli, Min Xiao-Fen, Mark Dresser, Matt Wilson, Bobby Previte, Jay Clayton, Cleo Laine & Fred Hersch. She has performed at the National Air & Space Museum's Einstein Planetarium, Carnegie Hall, MOMA, the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, The Kennedy Center, Town Hall, Jazz at Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Space Center, the Houston Astrodome, as well as performances at jazz festivals and clubs worldwide. |
Winner of the 2007 Guggenheim Fellowship in music composition, the 2007 Mary Lou Williams Women In Jazz Award for lifetime service to jazz, the 2001, 2003 & 2006 Jazz Journalists Association Award, the 1998 & 1999 Downbeat International Critics Poll for soprano sax, the 1990 Jazz Times Critics Poll for soprano sax & electronics winds, 2001 International Women in Jazz Masters Award, and the 1997 IAJE Charlie Parker Fellowship for jazz innovation. In 1988 Bloom was the first musician ever commissioned by the NASA Art Program and in 1999 was honored by having an asteroid named in her honor by the International Astronomical Union (asteroid: 6083janeirabloom). She has composed for the American Composers Orchestra, the St Luke's Chamber Ensemble, the Pilobolus, Paradigm, and Philadanco Dance Companies integrating jazz performers in new settings involving her signature movement techniques. She has received numerous commissions including the Philadelphia Music Project’s 2003 support for Unexpected Light - a unique collaboration of improvised sound & light with world renowned lighting designer James F. Ingalls. She received two Doris Duke/ Chamber Music America New Jazz Works awards; in 2000 for the creation of "Chasing Paint" a series of compositions inspired by Jackson Pollock's action painting that premiered at the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston and in 2006 for the creation of “Beyond the Brain” for her jazz quartet.
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Bloom has been the subject of a number of media profiles; she has been featured on CBS TV's Sunday Morning, Talkin' Jazz on NBC-TV, Inside Space on the USA's Sci-Fi channel, TIME Magazine's Women: The Road Ahead special issue, in the publication Jazzwomen: Conversations w/ 21 Musicians on Indiana University Press, in the Library of Congress Women Who Dare 2007 calendar, in Life Magazine's "Living Jazz Legends,” in Gilles Corre's French TV documentary Women in Jazz, on NPR's Morning Edition, Jazzset , Live From the Kennedy Center w/ Dr. Billy Taylor, and in the documentary film Reed Royalty hosted by Branford Marsalis. She has recorded and produced 12 albums of her music dating from 1977 to the present. In 1976 she founded her own record label & publishing company (Outline Music) and later recorded for ENJA, CBS, and Arabesque Jazz Records. She is on the faculty of the New School for Jazz & Contemporary Music in NYC. She holds degrees from Yale University and Yale School of Music and studied saxophone with woodwind virtuoso Joseph Viola. Website: www.janeirabloom.com Email: outline@tuna.net Ms. Bloom is listed in the World Who's Who in Jazz, Cabaret, Music and Entertainment. |