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Nicole Mitchell’s JBM: Images Beyond + Next Jazz Legacy Showcase
Nicole Mitchell’s JBM: Images Beyond + Next Jazz Legacy Showcase
October 28 @ 8:00 pm – 11:00 pm
presented in partnership with
First Set: Next Jazz Legacy Showcase
Anais Maviel – voice
Milena Casado – trumpet
Neta Raanan – saxophone
Anastassiya Petrova – Keys
Kalia Vandever – trombone
Keyanna Hutchinson – guitar
Anna Butters – bass
Ivanna Cuesta – drums
Second Set: Nicole Mitchell’s JBM: Images Beyond
Artwork and Poetry by Joan Beard Mitchell
Dramatic Performance by actor/vocalist Maia
Music composed by Nicole Mitchell
Nicole Mitchell – flute
Ganavya Doraiswami – voice
Jeff Parker – guitar
Maggie Parkins – cello
Jeff Gauthier – violin
Anna Butters – bass
Rajna Swaminathan – percussion
Next Jazz Legacy Showcase, co-presented with New Music USA:
Join us for performances by artists selected for the second cohort of Next Jazz Legacy – a new national apprenticeship program for women and non-binary improvisers in jazz for a more inclusive jazz future. Next Jazz Legacy is a partnership between New Music USA and the Berklee Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice with support from the Mellon Foundation and Joe & Nancy Walker.
Nicole Mitchell’s JBM: Images Beyond is a theatrical concert by award winning flutist/composer Nicole Mitchell that celebrates the unrevealed afro-surrealist folk art and poetry of her mother, Joan Beard Mitchell, in the 40th anniversary of her death. Joan Beard Mitchell was born and raised on Chicago’s southside; her works show an aesthetic connection to the experimentalism and afro-surrealist ideals within the Chicago Black Arts Movement. Her artistic development reached merit in Syracuse, New York and she continued to create in isolation after moving to Orange County, California, where she met her abrupt death in 1983.
In Images Beyond, JBM’s words are organized into a dramatic expression played by actor/vocalist Maia and interwoven with original music by Nicole Mitchell, in an environment that visually features JBM’s paintings, watercolors and graphic art.
afro-surrealist folk art by Nicole’s mother, Joan Beard Mitchell
Nicole Mitchell
Nicole M. Mitchell is an award-winning creative flutist, composer, bandleader and educator. She is perhaps best known for her work as a flutist, having developed a unique improvisational language and having been repeatedly awarded “Top Flutist of the Year” by Downbeat Magazine Critics Poll and the Jazz Journalists Association (2010-2022). Mitchell initially emerged from Chicago’s innovative music scene in the late 90s. She started with Maia and Shanta Nurullah in Samana (the AACM’s first all-woman ensemble) and as a member of the David Boykin EXPANSE. Her music celebrates contemporary African American culture. She is the founder of Black Earth Ensemble, Black Earth Strings, Sonic Projections and Ice Crystal, and she composes for contemporary ensembles of varied instrumentation and size, while incorporating improvisation and a wide aesthetic expression.
Next Jazz Legacy
Focused on increasing opportunities for musicians most underrepresented in the art form, the three-year, national program launched by New Music USA and the Berklee Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice – with major funding from the Mellon Foundation – invests in awardees through personalized apprenticeships, financial support, and a mission to inspire waves of lasting change.
Combining individual and group learning opportunities with a comprehensive support package designed to deliver deep impacts on every candidate’s career, awardees receive $10,000, performance opportunities with master bandleaders, two-way mentorship, a learning cohort, and professional promotional support.
With gender and racial justice as guiding principles, Next Jazz Legacy awardees are chosen through an open call process and a meticulous, months-long review process by a distinguished and diverse panel of jazz luminaries, chaired by NEA Jazz Master and Next Jazz Legacy’s Artistic Director, Terri Lyne Carrington.
Once the seven awardees are selected, Carrington and the Next Jazz Legacy team work closely with each of the seven musicians to match them with a pair of master bandleaders for a year-long performance apprenticeship, as well as an additional creative mentorship, both aligned with the awardees’ unique interests.
