Biography
Queen Mab originated in the mid-'90s as a Canadian piano-clarinet partnership that earned enthusiastic critical praise for fusing composed structures with spontaneous improvisation across jazz and classical traditions. The original pair featured Toronto pianist Marilyn Lerner, already responsible for a pair of solo albums and known for work alongside such noted jazz figures as Steve Lacy, Jane Bunnett, Paul Plimley, and Paquito d'Rivera, alongside Winnipeg clarinetist Lori Freedman, an award-winning musician whose résumé included appearances with several Canadian orchestras, activity in electro-acoustic settings, and credits on more than fifteen recordings, among them her own solo album Huskless. Their inaugural release, Barbie's Other Shoe, appeared in 1997 on Ninewinds, the label operated by multi-instrumentalist Vinny Golia. A subsequent effort, Close, surfaced several years later on the independent West Coast avant-garde imprint Spool; that album incorporated five guest musicians, each contributing to a single track. Beyond the studio, the duo maintained an active schedule of Canadian tours and festival engagements that ranged from Newfoundland’s Sound Symposium to the Vancouver Jazz Festival.
During 2002 the pair traveled throughout Canada and the United States in the company of Amsterdam improvising violist Ig Henneman, who soon became a permanent member and prompted the ensemble’s rechristening as the Queen Mab Trio. The expanded group visited The Netherlands in 2004. The following year brought the trio’s first recording as a three-piece, See Saw, issued by the Amsterdam-based Wig label, which is directed by Henneman and her husband, multi-reedist Ab Baars. Also in 2005 the musicians undertook an extensive North American and European tour presenting original works drawn from the Queen Mab Scherzo of Hector Berlioz’s Romeo and Juliet symphony. In October of that year they entered Guido Tichelman Studio in the Netherlands to document the Berlioz-inspired program on Thin Air, which Wig released in 2006. In December 2010 the founding duo members rejoined Henneman for the Ig Henneman Sextet, a newly formed group created to mark her 65th birthday and twenty-fifth year as a composer and bandleader.
During 2002 the pair traveled throughout Canada and the United States in the company of Amsterdam improvising violist Ig Henneman, who soon became a permanent member and prompted the ensemble’s rechristening as the Queen Mab Trio. The expanded group visited The Netherlands in 2004. The following year brought the trio’s first recording as a three-piece, See Saw, issued by the Amsterdam-based Wig label, which is directed by Henneman and her husband, multi-reedist Ab Baars. Also in 2005 the musicians undertook an extensive North American and European tour presenting original works drawn from the Queen Mab Scherzo of Hector Berlioz’s Romeo and Juliet symphony. In October of that year they entered Guido Tichelman Studio in the Netherlands to document the Berlioz-inspired program on Thin Air, which Wig released in 2006. In December 2010 the founding duo members rejoined Henneman for the Ig Henneman Sextet, a newly formed group created to mark her 65th birthday and twenty-fifth year as a composer and bandleader.
Albums
