Featuring the voices of Emilie-Claire Barlow, Laila Biali, Michelle Willis, Lydia Persaud, Robin Dann, Felicity Williams, and Alex Samaras

Kelly Jefferson: soprano sax (1)
Allison Au: alto sax (1, 6)
Aline Homzy: violin (2-5, 7)
Beth Silver: cello (2-5, 7)
Jeremy Potts: viola (7)
Laurence Schaufele: viola (7)
Alex Goodman: guitar (3, 5, 6, 8)
Amanda Tosoff: piano
Jon Maharaj: bass
Morgan Childs: drums

Merging the deep, powerful messages of poetry with adventurous modern jazz, Toronto-based pianist/composer Amanda Tosoff leads a hybrid ensemble with strings and seven rotating vocalists on Earth Voices, the follow-up to her Juno Award-nominated 2016 release Words (“a grand achievement” – CBC Radio). The album is being released by Empress Music Group, a label and company founded by award-winning vocalist Emilie-Claire Barlow.

Earth Voices is Tosoff’s sixth album as a leader and the second to feature vocals. But whereas Words featured the marvelous singing of Felicity Williams straight through, Earth Voices adds six additional vocalists to the lineup in turn, each ideally suited to the song at hand. The compositions and orchestrations are sonorous, texturally rich, with a string quartet, guitarist Alex Goodman, and guest saxophonists Allison Au and Kelly Jefferson augmenting the lineup. The performances, full of eloquence and fire, are centered by Tosoff’s assured and lyrical pianism, revealing an artist at the peak of her powers.

Featuring the poetry of: Edgar Allan Poe, Walt Whitman, Rumi, Pablo Neruda and more;
plus Tosoff’s arrangements of songs by: Joni Mitchell, Mike Ross (Soulpepper Theatre), and Yo-Yo Ma’s Goat Rodeo Session project

amandatosoff.com

Release Date: Friday January 29th 2020 on Empress Music