Karen Mantler is the daughter of jazz musicians Carla Bley and Michael Mantler. As a songwriter and a bandleader, her style has attracted a world-class list of musicians to her band throughout the years, including Steven Bernstein, Eric Mingus, Hiram Bullock and Arturo O’Farrill. As an instrumentalist and vocalist, Mantler has shared the stage with the likes of Terry Adams, Jack Bruce and Elvis Costello to name a few. She has performed frequently in Europe with various musicians, most notably John Greaves, Chris Cutler and Peter Blegvad. Robert Wyatt included three of Karen’s compositions on his 2003 recording, “Cuckooland”, which also featured her on harmonica and vocals. As a Hammond organ player, Karen has been touring and recording with The Carla Bley Big Band since 1988. In December 2013 Anton Fier hired her to play keyboards and harmonica with his band The Golden Palominos. Most recently she has been performing in New York with her Trio featuring Doug Wieselman and Kato Hideki. They are currently working on a CD, which will be released sometime in 2013 on the label XtraWATT (ECM).
 
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Joseph Keckler, voice: Joseph Keckler is a singer, musician, and artist. His songs and stories are often dreamlike and are sometimes humorous.

Maria Neckam, voice: Maria Neckam is a New York-based vocalist and composer and one of the most original young voices on the international stage. The New York Times describes her as “a jazz singer of composure and purpose” and “clear-water tones”, NPR simply as “lovely”. Hailed as “a natural wonder” by Le Monde and “a valiant trailblazer” by JazzTimes, DownBeat compares her with Joni Mitchell, Mahler and Schoenberg and says she “functions as a coequal instrumentalist and deft storyteller, using a clear fluid voice to convey raw emotions with philosophical detachment.“ Maria has performed all over the US and Europe with her band that features much sought-after talent such as pianist Aaron Parks and bassist Thomas Morgan. In 2010 she made her Sunnyside debut with Deeper, a session that led All About Jazz to name her one of the most significant “New Discoveries” of the year. Describing herself as an artist who uses her vocal and composition skills to cross lines, Maria embraces her youthful energy when she rocks out, but always stays grounded in her musical savvy. As All About Jazz has noted, “She has a natural ability for heartbreaking emotion, in much the same way that Billie Holiday did.” Her latest album Unison, released June 2012 on Sunnyside, captures her in all her kaleidoscopic splendor, delivering a program of exceptionally divergent original songs that sound unlike any other singer on the scene.

Carol Lipnik, voice: Carol Lipnik is acclaimed for her hauntingly beautiful multi-octave voice and her spellbinding performances of darkly humorous and wrenchingly honest songs in which waves of melancholy break on a debris-strewn shoreline of ecstasy. The inimitable Coney Island native has five albums out on Mermaid Alley Music.

Indigo Street, voice: Indigo Street is a NYC based musician. Primarily a guitarist, she also sings, writes songs, composes and works as an actor and voice over actor for film, theater and television. She co-leads the band Shy Hunters (with Sam Levin), and Aye Aye Rabbit (with Ed Pastorini and Gregory Saunier), plays guitar in 101 Crustaceans, and has performed and recorded with: Shahzad Ismaily, Jolie Holland, Yoko Ono, Jeffery Lewis, Marc Ribot, Yuka Honda, Sean Lennon, Jim White, Doug Wieselman, Carla Kihlstedt and Ches Smith, among others. When she grows up, she wants to be a farmer.

Abby Ahmad, voice: A powerhouse vocalist as well as composer/guitarist, Abby Ahmad can be heard all over New York City with countless rock’n roll, blues, jazz and pop groups. As co-founder of the band Fife & Drom, she writes, performs and original songs inspired by the works of blues pioneers Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Jimmy Reed, Son House and beyond.

DJ Dhundee, turntables/Samples: As a DJ, Dhundee serves up the sounds with his signature genre-bending style. He knows how to move a crowd. He has appeared in Berlin, Munich, Singapore, Cabo St Lucas Mexico, St. Thomas, San Francisco, Philly, Miami, Chicago, LA London and has played in New York’s most celebrated clubs and venues. He has shared the decks & stage with many talented artists, has played many special and private events for clients and celebrities both national and international.

Brittany Anjou Official Website | Brittany Anjou on Facebook | Brittany Anjou on Twitter | Brittany Anjou on Instagram

Brittany Anjou was born in 1984 in Minot, North Dakota, moving to Seattle as a very young child. Her mother was a pianist, flutist, and music teacher, and Brittany began playing piano herself at age five. Her mother also played a lot of jazz recordings around the house, and at 12, hearing a solo by the Panamanian pianist Danilo Perez, Brittany was inspired to begin studying jazz.

As a high school student, she joined and toured with Seattle’s Roosevelt High School Jazz Band, meeting and performing with Wynton Marsalis in New York. Attending the Stanford Jazz Workshop at 16, she worked with Clark Terry, who became her idol. It was around that same time that Anjou began composing — including much of the material that eventually became Enamiĝo Reciprokataj

Arriving in New York to study music at NYU, Anjou studied with Stefon Harris, Tony Moreno, and Sherrie Maricle, as well as with Jason Moran and Vijay Iyer at School for Improvised Music. She also studied classical music in Prague with composer Milan Slavický, and West African gyil music in Ghana with master player Bernard Woma and his protegees. She has since performed in 13 countries on three continents with a number of ensembles including the New York Arabic Orchestra, the Shaggs, Bi TYRANT, and the LARCENY Chamber Orchestra (founding and leading the latter two).

Anjou began performing selections from Enamiĝo Reciprokataj while living in Prague in 2005 and continued honing it thereafter, including in a well-received performance with Bi TYRANT at New York’s Zinc Bar during the 2018 Winter Jazz Festival. In the fall of 2018, she returned to Kuwait to teach piano and jazz ensembles as part of a nine-month residency at the Sheikh Jaber Al-Ahmad Cultural Center opera house, in an experimental music program, the first of its kind in the country.

Brittany Anjou is a pianist, vibraphonist, improviser, vocalist, and composer. She leads four projects in NYC: the L.A.R.C.E.N.Y. Chamber Orchestra, The Brittany Anjou Trio, BI TYRANT, and BEWAA (traditional Ghanaian xylophone ensemble for jazz). She has toured and performed 13 countries in North America, Europe, and Africa. She was inspired early in life by Danilo Perez, Bill Evans, Gene Harris, Wynton Kelly, Oscar Peterson, Jill Scott, and Erykah Badu. She is continually inspired by 20th century avant-garde composition, Ghanaian Xylophone, 1950’s film scores, free improvisation, jazz, death metal, experimental, outsider music, trip hop, hip hop, traditional West African drumming, Balinese gamelan, dubstep, jungle, trance, & punk. While living abroad in Prague and Accra, she studied with contemporary composer Milan Slavicky and traditional Ghanaian repertoire with master xylophonist Bernard Woma. She has worked with The Shaggs, The Dot Wiggin Band, Elysian Fields, Hazel-Rah, The Friendly Bears, Monocle, Sondre Lerche, Stick Against Stone Orchestra, Mara Rosenbloom, Eve Ensler, Joseph Keckler, Erin Markey, Karen Mantler, Carol Lipnik, DJ Dhundee, Darius Jones, Jean Carla Rodea, John Loeffler, Maria Neckam, Abby Ahmad, Terry Dame, Jesse Krakow, Adam Minkoff, Ravens and Chimes, and many others.
 
The L.A.R.C.E.N.Y. Chamber Orchestra, founded in 2013, performs MD Brittany Anjou’s compositions and arrangements as well as classic jazz and contemporary music. The LCO is conducted by MSM conductor Brady Hearn. Consisting of heavily active NYC musicians, composers, engineers and producers, their collective musical mission statement is committing L.A.R.C.E.N.Y.: Lethal Activist Revitalization & Creativity Enaction in New York. LCO members have worked with artists such as Karl Berger, the Books, Zammuto, Elysian Fields, Me’Shell N’degeocello, and The Machine.