Biography
Saxophonist Maria Grand approaches modern creative and spiritual jazz as a bold improviser whose expansive ideas push conceptual boundaries. She has earned widespread praise for her recordings Magdalena from 2018 and Reciprocity from 2021 while also collaborating with forward-looking figures such as Vijay Iyer, Nicole Mitchell, and Mary Halvorson.
Grand entered the world in Geneva, Switzerland, in 1992, the child of vocalist Colette Grand and Argentine saxophonist Eduardo Kohan. She took up the saxophone at age ten and committed herself to a professional music path during her teenage years. After a short period at the Professional Conservatory of Music in Geneva, she relocated to New York City and shared an apartment with saxophonist Ohad Talmor, another musician who had grown up in Geneva. While based there, she enrolled for several months at City College and immersed herself in the city’s dynamic jazz and creative-music community. Eventually she withdrew from formal study to devote herself fully to performing, quickly establishing a solid presence alongside musicians including Dan Weiss, Antoine Roney, Miles Okazaki, Vijay Iyer, and others. Her first solo project, the TetraWind EP, appeared in 2017 and showcased her ensemble of Román Filiú, Rashaan Carter, David Bryant, and Craig Weinrib; that year she also received the Jazz Gallery Residency Commission.
Her debut full-length album, Magdalena, arrived in 2018 and employed figures such as the Egyptian goddess Isis, Mary the mother of Jesus, and Mary Magdalene as emblems for examining cultural ideas surrounding femininity, authority, and trauma. The recording again featured Carter and Bryant, with additional contributions from guitarist Mary Halvorson, rappers Jasmine Wilson and Amani Fela, pianist Fabian Almazan, and drummer Jeremy Dutton. Further recognition followed, including the 2018 Roulette Jerome Foundation Commission and the 2019 Roulette Residency. Between appearances with Halvorson’s Code Girl, drummer Devin Gray, and mridangam player Rajna Swaminathan, Grand refined her personal language and began instructing others in the SoliLunar Method, an improvisational system derived from solar and lunar cycles. She issued her second full-length album, Reciprocity, in 2021; captured when she was five months pregnant, the project examined themes of birth and renewal with her trio of bassist Kanoa Mendenhall and drummer Savannah Harris.
Grand entered the world in Geneva, Switzerland, in 1992, the child of vocalist Colette Grand and Argentine saxophonist Eduardo Kohan. She took up the saxophone at age ten and committed herself to a professional music path during her teenage years. After a short period at the Professional Conservatory of Music in Geneva, she relocated to New York City and shared an apartment with saxophonist Ohad Talmor, another musician who had grown up in Geneva. While based there, she enrolled for several months at City College and immersed herself in the city’s dynamic jazz and creative-music community. Eventually she withdrew from formal study to devote herself fully to performing, quickly establishing a solid presence alongside musicians including Dan Weiss, Antoine Roney, Miles Okazaki, Vijay Iyer, and others. Her first solo project, the TetraWind EP, appeared in 2017 and showcased her ensemble of Román Filiú, Rashaan Carter, David Bryant, and Craig Weinrib; that year she also received the Jazz Gallery Residency Commission.
Her debut full-length album, Magdalena, arrived in 2018 and employed figures such as the Egyptian goddess Isis, Mary the mother of Jesus, and Mary Magdalene as emblems for examining cultural ideas surrounding femininity, authority, and trauma. The recording again featured Carter and Bryant, with additional contributions from guitarist Mary Halvorson, rappers Jasmine Wilson and Amani Fela, pianist Fabian Almazan, and drummer Jeremy Dutton. Further recognition followed, including the 2018 Roulette Jerome Foundation Commission and the 2019 Roulette Residency. Between appearances with Halvorson’s Code Girl, drummer Devin Gray, and mridangam player Rajna Swaminathan, Grand refined her personal language and began instructing others in the SoliLunar Method, an improvisational system derived from solar and lunar cycles. She issued her second full-length album, Reciprocity, in 2021; captured when she was five months pregnant, the project examined themes of birth and renewal with her trio of bassist Kanoa Mendenhall and drummer Savannah Harris.
Albums
Singles
