Boston Survival Guide – 4/27/15

by Julie Stoller

Jaggery Presents The Beautiful and The Grotesque ~ Poster

It’s high time to check back in with my favorite darkly erotic, harp-wielding, siren-luring, viola-beckoning, piano, percussive and bass jazz-jiving exotic ensemble, Jaggery. They have an incredibly special performance coming up on Friday, May 1st at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. It is called Jaggery Presents The Beautiful and the Grotesque: Inspired by Leonardo da Vinci, an evening of original new music that coincides with and celebrates a visiting exhibit at the MFA of rare drawings by da Vinci.

The show is Leonardo and the Idea of Beauty and it features some drawings that have never been shown before in Boston.

Even by Jaggery’s usual ultra-high standards, this is going to be one damned classy gig. Most all the members of Jaggery have written their own pieces for the show and they explain their inspiration as being “everything from Leonardo’s studies of light and shadow on drapery, his forays into flight and flying machines, his bronze horse statue, an essay regarding correspondence between a music theorist and his portrait painter, to our own interpretation of Renaissance music.” Continue reading “Boston Survival Guide – 4/27/15”

Presenting . . . A Leonardo da Vinci-inspired concert extravaganza at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

warm greetings from Jaggery Camp ~ Singer Mali here.

Delightedly & relievedly, we (pretty much almost) finished tracking the new album this past weekend ~ and so, for the remainder of this month, we turn our attention to an extremely and truly and very special and exciting show coming up for us in Boston:

We will be presenting a concert at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston on Friday, May 1st, featuring new material inspired by the life and work of Leonardo da Vinci. We’re calling the show Jaggery Presents The Beautiful & The Grotesque and it coincides with a visiting exhibit at the MFA of rare Leonardo drawings, some of which have never been shown before in Boston (Leonardo and The Idea of Beauty).

This is a “big-deal” show for us — I’d say the biggest deal show we’ve ever had, and it’s been in the works for months. We’ve been immersing ourselves in everything da Vinci ~ the fella was pretty much a genius, and it’s more than a little daunting, to say the least.

That being said, we’ve jumped in neck-deep ~ almost every member of Jaggery will be creating their own piece for this one, we’re planning some never-before collaborations, and in general, THE SHOW IS GONNA ROCK LIKE . . . LIKE . . . like . . . well, I can’t think of a suitable Leo reference that would work well here, but heck, just look at the poster!

We are particularly honored to have the spectacular Rabbit Rabbit (Carla Kihlstedt/Matthias Bossi) start off the night, with special guests joining them, including bass wizard Jon Evans, who we’ve had the privilege of working with as engineer and co-producer on the new album!

So – THE BASICS:

where: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston – Remis Auditorium (Auditorium 161) (we don’t know what that number means, but that’s how the museum refers to the Remis – we aren’t aware of the museum having 160 other auditoriums, pretty sure the Remis is it)
465 Huntington Ave • Boston, MA 02115

when: Friday, May 1st @ 7:30pm

all ages

info & tickets HERE

Facebook Event

We REALLY REALLY hope you can make this one! We can’t wait to share the new songs (well, actually, at this stage we really can wait as they need rehearsing & some still need to be written) as well as the process of seeking inspiration from the remnants, the clues, the artifacts of the process of this very ambitious, revered, brilliant, remarkable artist/inventor/scientist and true Renaissance man.

Come party with us like it’s the fourteenth to seventeenth century!!!

hope you can make it!

Shhhhhhh – Recording In Progress

We are very excited to announce that we’ve begun recording a new album! We’ve been working with the fantastic, ears-of-gold engineer/producer/bassist Jon Evans ~ whose credentials make us blush with excitement and nervousness (look him up) ~ at his beautiful, window-lined, magic-making studio on Cape Cod. This is the first time we’re recording at an actual studio (that is not Mali’s basement) and working with a bona fide professional to over-see the process. It’s been an incredible experience so far. Here are some photos:

JonEvans.Mali.Keyboard — Mali was all business

JonEvans.Rachel.B3 — Rachel got to play the B3 and aced it on the first take

01 IMG_3105 — Tony's basses in the control room

JonEvans.Dylan.HappyDrummer — Dylan was one happy camper

Despite her repetitive strain injury, Petaluma was able to lay down harp on four songs

We will be thrilled to share the fruits of our labor with you when this thing is ready. We’re estimating a late summer or fall album release and will keep you posted on our progress here.

Exposé Online: 2/5/2014

Jaggery — For the Record – Live

by Jon Davis

Boston’s Jaggery have developed a sound that is wholly unique, and it’s only partly due to their unusual instrumentation: piano (usually acoustic), bass (often acoustic), drums, viola, and harp, along with female lead and backing vocals. Their studio releases have presented the intense vision of Singer Mali, with her powerful, acrobatic voice, evocative turns of phrase in lyrics, and imaginative flair for arrangement, along with the considerable talents of her cohorts. For the Record presents them at their best, in an intimate live performance, recorded supremely well. The set includes some of the best tracks from their back catalog along with new tunes. “O Scorpio” and “Come” from Polyhymnia (2006), along with “7 Stone” and “Javelin” from In Lethe (2004) are examples of the former; “Icy” and “Walls Are Windows” are outstanding songs that haven’t appeared on a studio recording to date. Throughout, it is Mali’s voice that rivets the listener’s attention with its extensive range and dead-on pitch, expressive in ways that few singers can pull off. For those new to the world of Jaggery, this is an excellent introduction; for the initiated, it’s a sweet treat and proof positive that the band is a formidable presence live.

article link: http://expose.org/index.php/articles/display/jaggery-for-the-record-live-2

ENCOLE BLOG 9/16/2014

For The Record [LIVE] by Jaggery: A Review

by Tom Steiger

Jaggery is a pretty standard, mainstream 5-piece rock outfit.

Except instead of a bass guitar they have an upright acoustic bass. Or, occasionally, a Moroccan sintir.

And instead of a lead guitar they have a viola.

And instead of a rhythm guitar they have a harp.

And their drummer is a jazz artist who likes to explore time signatures you’ve never heard of.

And their singer is a devotee of Voice Movement Therapy who can do things with her voice that do not sound entirely human – from soaring angelic beauty to demonic possession, often within a few bars. Continue reading “ENCOLE BLOG 9/16/2014”

FOR THE RECORD [LIVE] RELEASED

Our live album, For The Record, has been officially released at last! We are all so immensely proud of this thing & are incredibly excited to share it with the world. We recorded it this past June at one of our favourite venues in Cambridge, MA & finished it just in the nick of time for tour, but have not released it to the general public up until now. It is now up at our bandcamp page for streaming, digital download and/or CD. Enjoy!