Myra Melford's Fire and Water Quintet (US)

"Make a list of today's most inventive and respected players in improvised music (or creative music or free jazz) and you will inevitably mention the musicians of Myra Melford's Fire and Water Quintet" - New York Times)

Visionary pianist Myra Melford has assembled an all-star quintet with five leading figures from today's improvised music scene in the form of guitarist and composer Mary Halvorson, German-American tenor saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock, Chicago cellist Tomeka Reid and free-thinking drummer Lesley Mok.

A quintet with great musicians in their own right

All five are innovative composers, band leaders and teachers in their own right and have received a wide range of awards and accolades, e.g. both Mary Halvorson and Tomeka Reid were recently named MacArthur Genius Grant recipients. In addition, they are also all gifted improvisers with a contemporary palette of expression that moves across improvised jazz, graphic notation, chamber music and performance-based dance/theatre, placing Myra Melford's Fire & Water Quintet at the forefront of new, improvised music at festivals/venues worldwide.

Art-inspired improvisational music

The quintet was formed in connection with a unique first meeting at New York's The Stone in the summer of 2019, and since then Myra Melford has released two albums, both inspired by the American visual artist Cy Twomblys and specifically by his graphic works and calligraphy in the series "For The Love of Fire and Water”, which has also given its name to this new supergroup in American jazz.

Their latest album “Hear the Light Singing“ was released in November 2023 and was called “a true masterpiece” by Salt Peanuts and “spikily beautiful, gracefully shapely themes” by The Guardian.

Participants

Myra Melford, piano
Ingrid Laubrock, saxophone
Mary Halvorson, guitar
Tomeka Reid, cello
Lesley Mok, drums