The word innovative and groundbreaking is dished out a lot these days but in this project the facts speak for themselves. Mn'JAM experiment is a multi-medium performance that places visual arts and music at the same level in an environment where performers' interactivity goes way beyond instruments and music and reaches out to the visual and digital world.
Far-removed from the traditional role of a singer, M (a TC-Helicon ambassador) has created an innovative place for live looping by incorporating it in the band. That and the use of effects, wordless songs, vocal improvisation and looping textures augment the potential way by which this singer can intervene with the music and express herself making it possible to also act as an instrument.
In this project JAM opens up a completely new category within live performance. Besides controlling electronic sounds, he is a live visual artist that acts as a musician. This happens because JAM is on stage pressing buttons, rotating knobs and turntables, "playing" with the band as if he is one of the musicians, but more than sounds, his actions also influence the visual art on screen and even lighting on stage. This way, JAM can improvise visually or even create a visual unison with the band, having the knowledge and proficiency of a musician but reaching out to new mediums with his visual art output.
Mn'JAM experiment released their album "Live with a Boom" in 2016 and have presented it all around the world in jazz festivals in the Netherlands, Czech Republic, Nepal, Egypt, Romania, India, to name a few. They truly believe that after decades of jazz innovators concentrating on the development of musical elements (melody, rhythms, harmonic progression etc) this genre is the perfect vehicle to lead a new world of performance where the same proficiency, expressiveness and creativity can be expressed live through digital and visual elements. They will be performing for the first time ever in the United States and what better way to test their concept than with collaborations with renowned artists such as
Greg Osby and Casey Benjamin.
2018 Mn'JAM Performances
January 17, 2018 - Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, Philadelphia, PA
featuring Greg Osby
(including a workshop in the afternoon as part of the Meet the Masters series)
January 18, 2018 - ShapeShifter Lab, Brooklyn, NY
featuring Grammy award-winning Casey Benjamin
January 19, 2018 - Workshop at the Old Town School of Folk Music, Chicago, IL
January 23, 2018 - The Lily Pad, Boston, MA
Watch Mn'JAM experiment perform live at
Boom Studios, Portugal
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