LJO Presents Chicago Singer Typhanie Monique and the Greatest Women Jazz Composers
07/27/22Chicago’s incredible vocal talent, Typhanie Monique, joins the La Crosse Jazz Orchestra for an evening of masterful artistry on Sunday, July 31 at Riverside Park.
“Typhanie’s soul-infused jazz vocal styles, daring rhythmic ideas and unique improvisatory delivery place her in an elite class of vocalists,” says LJO director Greg Balfany. “She has been a force on the Chicago music scene for more than 20 years.”
A fierce bandleader, Monique has shared the stage with jazz’s elite, including Joe Lovano, Chris Potter, the Manhattan Transfer and Mavis Staples, to name a few. Typhanie is a performer, educator and recording artist whose four critically acclaimed, independently produced albums have captured the ears of top jazz critics and thousands of dedicated fans.
Downbeat magazine publisher Frank Alkyers calls her latest album “Call it Magic” a “deep recording about the full range of emotions surrounding this thing called love ... it’s music made with great thought and even more care and, yes, a little magic.”
Women composers and performers have long been an important part of the evolution of jazz music, Balfany says.
“Lil Armstrong is one of the first to come to mind. She wrote and performed on many of Louis Armstrong’s greatest successes. Mary Lou Williams wrote for many of the greatest of the great. We will perform two of her compositions – perhaps the best known is ‘Roll ‘Em.’ New York pianist Dave Marck comes to La Crosse in time to perform Mary Lou’s timeless masterpiece.”
Multiple-Grammy Award winner Maria Schneider contributes her famous “Green Piece” composition to the LJO tribute.
“Pianist Dave Marck and saxophonist Jeff Erickson all show their appreciation of her work through their improvisations, and bassist Karyn Quinn anchors this amazing selection,” Balfany says.
George Von Arx soars on Melba Liston’s composition, “My Reverie.” Liston performed the original with the Quincy Jones Orchestra in Germany in 1959. In addition to writing for Randy Weston, Count Basie, Dizzy Gillespie and countless others, she is among the first female performers to tour with the marquee jazz bands
The 70-minute concert starts at 7 p.m. and is free and open to all. It is the fourth concert in the Gertrude Salzer Gordon Jazz in the Park 2022 Concert Series The rain site for all LJO concerts is the Cavalier Theater, 118 5th Ave N., in downtown La Crosse.
Thyphonie Monique’s performance is made possible by a grant from the La Crosse Community Foundation.
ABOUT THE BAND
The La Crosse Jazz Orchestra is Western Wisconsin's premier big band. Directed by Greg Balfany, the group is best known through its Jazz in the Park concert series. The LJO mission: to promote, preserve and forward the creation of jazz music through free live performances available to all in our region. LJO operates under fiscal sponsorship from La Crosse Community Foundation.