It's not always that albums get reviews that an artist feels that the writer "gets it." Sometimes your music is misinterpreted, being attributed to another artist or a composer you never really listened to. However, I feel lucky because I have been getting reviews and articles written by writers who seem to understand me indeed. A new review came out on All About Jazz a few days ago, and Dan Bilawsky nailed it. Music can communicate what I cannot communicate with words sometimes. And when a writer says "beyond words", it means a lot considering how he is a master of words! read more >
If you are near a bookstore, please check out Meg's featured article by Michael Robert on the JAZZIZ magazine! The music on "Live at The Stone" (Chant) by the NPO Trio - made up of Okura, her husband, saxophonist Sam Newsome and pianist Jean-Michel Pilc - is a thrilling improvisational jazz odyssey that was all about "creating on the spot", she says. In contrast, the self-released "Ima Ima", credited to Okura and the Pan Asian Chamber Jazz Ensemble featuring trumpeter Tom Harrell is a gorgeous, intricately arranged offering that, in her words, "took several years of work putting each note on paper."
Meg Okura's composition Afrasia is now arranged for a big band to be performed by the BMI/New York Jazz Orchestra on June 14 at Marjorie S. Deane Little Theater in New York City. The evening will showcase the top nine compositions by some of today's leading jazz composers in the BMI Jazz Composers Workshop this year. The evening will conclude with Remy Le Boeuf's world premiere piece commissioned by the last year's Charlie Parker Jazz Composition Prize. Meg Okra “Afrasia” Emilio Solla “Sol la, al Sol” Elijah Shiffer “The Underside" Ann Belmont “Shadowplay” Michael Thomas “Illuminations” Jihye Lee “Unshakable Mind” Rafael Piccolotto de Lima “Raiar” Chuck Iwanusa “What If” Jen Allen “Begin Aga
