Celebrate Memorial Weekend with The Jazz Stylings of Songtress JUJU, Live @ Solomon's Porch May 23, 2009

JUJU

“Music is in every living thing on earth. When we find that music in ourselves we’ll all be connected.”

JUJU is a consummate jazz artist. She is a singer, musician, composer and arranger. Many have followed her illustrious career since the 1970s.

The JUJU Jazz Band performs regularly and includes pianist Yoichi Uzeki, drummer Napoleon Rebels Bay and bass player Mike Fitzbenjamin. JUJU performed for 5 nights in Wash, DC, during President Barack Obama’s inaugural celebration. Juju as a promoter/producer just completed 4 successful weeks of performances at Folukie’s in Bed-Stuy during the Central Brooklyn Jazz Festival.

Drawn to music at an early age her first instruments included the clarinet, saxophone, congas and percussion.

Juju comes from the “Gordon Clan” father Alfred and Uncle Dexter both jazz saxophonists and continues to play the soprano saxophone. JUJU performed as an adolescent throughout New York State’s capital district and beyond: Saratoga, Lake George, the Catskills, Vermont, Toronto and Montreal. Her professional debut at 12 was a notable one. She sang background vocals and played the tambourine on Don McLean’s 1971 folk-rock classic American Pie. She began composing at 13 and won a talent competition at 15 with an original jazz composition entitled Soul Searching. The coveted prize was a performance contract with ABC giving her the opportunity to perform with USO bands worldwide. Nice gig for a teenager!

Over the years she has performed as a background singer for Curtis Mayfield, Lola Falana, Michael McDonald, Michael Franks, Sergio Mendes and Ashanti among others. She has served as a vocal, harmony and basic horns arranger for several artists. She opened for Nancy Wilson at the Coliseum in the mid-1970s, Bette Midler at New York’s Continental Baths in the early 1980s and R & B group Tavares in the 1980s among other known artists. She moved to Atlanta in the 1990s to tour with Ray Charles for 2 years as one of the Pepsi Girls.

Juju is known up and down the east coast from Miami to NYC as “Lady J” or Juju. As a world artist she has performed in London, Italy, Spain, Paris, West & South Africa, Japan, Vietnam and Ireland.

Her repertoire covers all genres and includes the well-loved jazz songs Nika’s Dream, Whisper Not, Jeanine, Night in Tunisia, Ruby My Dear and Stolen Moments. She also puts her stamp on the Beatles’ We Can Work It Out, Carole King’s You’ve Got a Friend and It’s Too Late and Patsy Cline’s I Fall To Pieces. “I am a song stylist who prefers jazz because it allows me to express myself entirely. But I love all types of good music from rock ‘n roll to fusion to pop to country to classical to funk and even hip-hop.”

To date she has written and published 15 songs, titles include Soul Searching, I’m Gonna Miss You When You Are Gone, The Jazz Musician, If This Is Love, I Got News 4 U and Save the World. She’s recorded them all and jazz icon Sarah Vaughn performed If This Is Love at the Blue Note in the 1980s.

JUJU also teaches jazz and vocal performance to students across all age groups and artist levels. In 2009 she is at the helm of several exciting jazz ventures across all media platforms.

Goals for 2009 include completing both a jazz and a smooth jazz CD…having a hit song playing on the radio around the globe… producing a great video…placing her songs in films...shaping a documentary around her composition Save the World…continually working at her craft…flourishing as an artist and being a blessing to others.

“Just as I love the good in all people, I love jazz’s ability to connect us all. I’ve been blessed with the gift of musical talent. I give it the respect it deserves.”
www.jujujazzvocals.com
www.youtube.com/jujujazzchannel

Official Website: http://www.myspace.com/solomonsporchcafe