OMG Artists
CASSANDRA WILSON
Cassandra Wilson is an American jazz musician, vocalist, songwriter, and producer from Jackson, Mississippi. Described by critic Gary Giddins as "a singer blessed with an unmistakable timbre and attack who has expanded the playing field" by incorporating blues, country and folk music into her work. She began playing piano at six, guitar by the age of twelve and was working as a vocalist by the mid-'70s, singing a wide variety of material. After moving to New York City in the early 80’s, Cassandra met saxophonist Steve Coleman and became one of the founding members of the M-Base Collective.
At the completion of her stint with M-Base, Cassandra sought a more acoustic context for her vocal expression. She signed with Blue Note Records in 1992 and released a landmark album titled “Blue Light ‘Til Dawn” which would pave the way for a new generation of jazz singers seeking an approach and repertoire that challenged the supremacy of the American Standard songbook.
Wilson has continued interpreting in fresh and creative ways jazz, vintage blues, country and folk music up until the present day. Her awards include: two Grammys, the Django D’Or, The Edison Music Award, and a marker on the Mississippi Blues Trail. She also performed one of the leading roles in Wynton Marsalis' "Blood on the Fields," the first jazz work to receive a Pulitzer Prize. In 2015, Cassandra Wilson joined forces with the prestigious label, Legacy, a subsidiary of Sony Music. Her latest release, Coming Forth By Day, was released on the 100th anniversary of Billie Holiday's birth - April 7, 2015.
RHONDA RICHMOND
Multi-instrumentalist, singer-songwriter Rhonda Richmond captures the smooth and verdant tones of her native Mississippi in her music. Steeped in the blues, peppered with jazz and a healthy dose of R&B and country, Ms. Richmond's music reveals a powerful spiritual component which illuminates the strong cultural ties between the Mississippi region and the West African nation of the Yoruba. Rhythm And Strings is dedicated to Richmond’s parents who passed on to the ancestor realm within a few months of each other. Velma Richmond, a music teacher, introduced her daughter to music; while her father, Lester Richmond, an educator, imparted great wisdom through country tales and Mississippi folklore. In Rhythm And Strings, Richmond captures the experience and mood of many generations that lived and worked, laughed and cried and celebrated life to the best of their abilities until the final homecoming. Richmond's first CD, Oshogbo Town, was released in March, 2001. The collection of seven original compositions and covers of Duke Ellington, Nina Simone, Muddy Waters, and Grover Washington, is a soul-stirring musical journey through the vast emotional landcape of the deity, Oshun. Her live and recording ensembles, always comprised of the regions best musicians, are an auditory feast of slide, electric and acoustic guitars, Delta percussion, and soulful bass and brass.
LILI AÑEL
Lili Añel considers music a calling. This six-foot tall singer-songwriter grew up in New York City, where she discovered her passion for music. As a child Añel remembers, singing along to her mother’s Cuban, jazz and pop standard albums. It was also her mother who supported Lili’s desire to join the church choir. However it was her grandfather’s recognition of how much joy singing brought to her being, which served to set her feet firmly on the path of a career in music. “My grandfather was very influential and instrumental,” says Lili. “When I sang in the church choir, he would sneak in to the Mass without telling me. I would ask him later, after letting him know that I saw him in the back, why he came to church at all and then left before it was over. His response was: "To hear you sing. I can hear your voice above the others."
On her new CD release I Can See Bliss From Here, Lili teamed up with Dale Melton (“The Melton Brothers) a friend and fellow musician who’d played in her rhythm section for over a year. The collaboration as co-producers has proven fruitful, delivering a profoundly honest and diverse recording. The songwriting on this, her 6th CD, is more musically diverse than any of her previous. Says Lili “these are the songs I want to put out to the world at this time. They reflect where I am right now”. And reflect they do, musically drawing from Latin, Jazz, Folk, Blues and Pop, as much a hybrid as Lili herself, a New York-born Cuban-African American. Supported by some of the area’s top musicians along with musicians who Lili knew and worked with in New York, “I Can See Bliss From Here” proves that Lili Añel continues to be a singer/songwriter at the top of her game and recognized as a recording artist who successfully connects with the world.
HANKA G
Hanka G is one of the most admired and well respected jazz singers in Slovakia. She has been performing on the domestic as well as international jazz scene for well over a decade now, with her signature musical style of jazz and soul music fusion.
Her fascination with music dates back to her early childhood in Mongolia, where her parents worked as geologists on an expedition. Growing up, Hanka’s vocals were tested in different musical genres ranging from rock to funk, until she found her niche while living in Washington D.C. having sang with local jazz musicians who had a profound influence on her future musical direction. Once she returned from the U.S., she used every opportunity to perfect her jazz art until her path crossed with one of the most respected jazz pianists in Slovakia, Gabriel Jonáš, who was so impressed with her natural feeling for jazz, that he invited to her to perform with his band.
Hanka was awarded a grant from the Slovak Music Fund to support the recording of her debut album Reflections of My Soul, which was produced by Radovan Tariška, a well-respected saxophone player of the Slovak jazz scene, who also performs on the album together with other elite musicians – virtuoso jazz pianist Ondrej Krajňák, Tomáš Baroš on double bass and Marián Ševčík on drums.
In 2014, Hanka was signed by Hevhetia Publishing House and released in July second solo album produced by jazz pianist Ondrej Krajňák, who also worked with her on her first CD. The album is called Essence and it is a tribute to Slovak folklore songs rearranged into jazzy tunes by Krajňák creating a very unique fusion. Only the Slovak & Czech jazz finest worked with her on this album, such as Josef Fečo (double bass, cymbal), Radovan Tariška (alt and soprano saxophone), Marián Ševčík (drums), Štefan Bugala (percussion), and Ivan Herák’s cymbalo band.
LEKAN BABALOLA
Twice Grammy award winning Nigerian percussionist, Lekan Babalola, is well known for his innovative musical style, using his native Yoruba tongue infused with traditional music, Afrobeat and funky dance overtones. Lekan started his career playing in the Yoruba Christian Church owned by his father. As custodians of Yoruba tradition his family taught him first hand Yoruba art and culture and this has influenced all his work . He also received a cultural and political apprenticeship from the late Fela Kuti. In 1980 he came to Britain and as his skills as a master percussionist grew was invited to join Gasper Lawal in 1982. He continued his career in New York as part of Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers and returned to the UK where he performed with the likes of Ernest Ranglin, Branford Marsalis, and recently African Jazz All Stars, Roy Ayers, The Kate Luxmoore Group, David Byrne, Joshua Redman, Damon Albarn, Tony Allen, The KLLB Band, Axelle Red, Pinse Saul, Queen Salawa Abeni and Jean Toussaint. For me, music is about crossing boundaries and finding commonality globally.
"I love combining ancient and contemporary and my work with The Afrobeat Messengers has given me another opportunity to take traditional vibes and give them a contemporary twist," says Babalola. "Yoruba culture weaves its way through our modern lives through music and rhythm, and this gives me the chance to tell its story making it relevant to everyone today. Awarded his first Grammy in 2006 for performances on the late Ali Farka Toure's album 'In the Heart of the Moon', he was awarded a second at the 49th Grammy awards in 2009 for his work as Associate Producer on the American jazz diva Cassandra Wilson's album 'Loverly'. World press has given him rave reviews for his percussive 'wizardry' and infectious grooves. Lekan now devotes himself to his solo, contemporary and traditional projects with regular appearances at concert venues around the world and has his own album released on the Ojah Media Group label entitled Songs of Icon.
In 1995 Lekan Babalola founded the Ifa-Yoruba Contemporary Arts Trust, a UK based registered charity trust committed to fostering the development of Yoruba arts and culture. As Artistic Director of Ifa-Yoruba he has commissioned and Curated a series of visual arts works, including "16 Pieces " - an exhibition of contemporary Yoruba paintings by artists throughout the African Diaspora and "Erindinlogun" - a collection of 28 batik drawings by Nigerian based artist Taiwo Adediran. In the last few years Olalekan has undertaken education work as part of his artistic programme and has an on-going relationships both in the UK, USA, Europe, Caribbean and Africa as a percussionist, art Curator tutor, band leader / composer and producer.
PAPERCLIP SCIENTISTS
Mississippi has seen its share of musical adventures and with the upcoming release of their debut album Quest for the 100th Monkey, Paperclip Scientists are helping ensure no one mistakes it for a frozen-in-time landscape of Blues markers. Centered around the songs of long-time song-writing partners, guitarist/lyricist, Vince Johnston, and bassist/guitarist/vocalist, Joey Plunkett, the album is brought to life by the buttery delivery of veteran vocalist/percussionist Adib Sabir and an eclectic cast of musicians. Paperclip Scientists began as a studio project in late 2009, shortly after Johnston heard Sabir sing for the first time. "I knew Adib as a percussionist," Johnston remembers, "but when he booked time at my studio to record a jazz project and I heard his voice, I was blown away. I told Joey that night, 'we've got to put together an album for Adib to sing'."
With key contributions from, among others, ex-Geronimo Rex drummer Ryan Rogers (Jimbo Mathus, Chris Cagle) on fourteen tracks, bassist Bryan Beller (Mike Keneally, Aristocrats, Joe Satriani) on "Teleport" and "Silver Tooth", and guitarist Daniel Karlish, most notably, on "Loony Tune", the album extends beyond the band's Mississippi heritage of blues, rock, jazz, and country and reflects the influences of the Brazilian music and reggae that Vince and brother, percussionist, Ky Johnston were exposed to growing up in Northeastern Brazil. The core group, Sabir, Plunkett and the Johnston brothers, enjoys taking liberties with the material and inviting album contributors and other musicians to aide in the journey. "I don't know what you'd call what we do, but it's jazz in the sense that we don't play the 'record', we play the 'song'," Sabir says. It was the songs that caught the ear of Grammy-winning jazz vocalist and producer Cassandra Wilson and eventually led to a writing and recording collaboration between Wilson and Paperclip Scientists, resulting in her recently released single "Airplane Wine." Both the single and Paperclip Scientists' Quest for the 100th Monkey were released in September of 2015 on Wilson's label, Ojah Media Group.
Cassandra Wilson is an American jazz musician, vocalist, songwriter, and producer from Jackson, Mississippi. Described by critic Gary Giddins as "a singer blessed with an unmistakable timbre and attack who has expanded the playing field" by incorporating blues, country and folk music into her work. She began playing piano at six, guitar by the age of twelve and was working as a vocalist by the mid-'70s, singing a wide variety of material. After moving to New York City in the early 80’s, Cassandra met saxophonist Steve Coleman and became one of the founding members of the M-Base Collective.
At the completion of her stint with M-Base, Cassandra sought a more acoustic context for her vocal expression. She signed with Blue Note Records in 1992 and released a landmark album titled “Blue Light ‘Til Dawn” which would pave the way for a new generation of jazz singers seeking an approach and repertoire that challenged the supremacy of the American Standard songbook.
Wilson has continued interpreting in fresh and creative ways jazz, vintage blues, country and folk music up until the present day. Her awards include: two Grammys, the Django D’Or, The Edison Music Award, and a marker on the Mississippi Blues Trail. She also performed one of the leading roles in Wynton Marsalis' "Blood on the Fields," the first jazz work to receive a Pulitzer Prize. In 2015, Cassandra Wilson joined forces with the prestigious label, Legacy, a subsidiary of Sony Music. Her latest release, Coming Forth By Day, was released on the 100th anniversary of Billie Holiday's birth - April 7, 2015.
RHONDA RICHMOND
Multi-instrumentalist, singer-songwriter Rhonda Richmond captures the smooth and verdant tones of her native Mississippi in her music. Steeped in the blues, peppered with jazz and a healthy dose of R&B and country, Ms. Richmond's music reveals a powerful spiritual component which illuminates the strong cultural ties between the Mississippi region and the West African nation of the Yoruba. Rhythm And Strings is dedicated to Richmond’s parents who passed on to the ancestor realm within a few months of each other. Velma Richmond, a music teacher, introduced her daughter to music; while her father, Lester Richmond, an educator, imparted great wisdom through country tales and Mississippi folklore. In Rhythm And Strings, Richmond captures the experience and mood of many generations that lived and worked, laughed and cried and celebrated life to the best of their abilities until the final homecoming. Richmond's first CD, Oshogbo Town, was released in March, 2001. The collection of seven original compositions and covers of Duke Ellington, Nina Simone, Muddy Waters, and Grover Washington, is a soul-stirring musical journey through the vast emotional landcape of the deity, Oshun. Her live and recording ensembles, always comprised of the regions best musicians, are an auditory feast of slide, electric and acoustic guitars, Delta percussion, and soulful bass and brass.
LILI AÑEL
Lili Añel considers music a calling. This six-foot tall singer-songwriter grew up in New York City, where she discovered her passion for music. As a child Añel remembers, singing along to her mother’s Cuban, jazz and pop standard albums. It was also her mother who supported Lili’s desire to join the church choir. However it was her grandfather’s recognition of how much joy singing brought to her being, which served to set her feet firmly on the path of a career in music. “My grandfather was very influential and instrumental,” says Lili. “When I sang in the church choir, he would sneak in to the Mass without telling me. I would ask him later, after letting him know that I saw him in the back, why he came to church at all and then left before it was over. His response was: "To hear you sing. I can hear your voice above the others."
On her new CD release I Can See Bliss From Here, Lili teamed up with Dale Melton (“The Melton Brothers) a friend and fellow musician who’d played in her rhythm section for over a year. The collaboration as co-producers has proven fruitful, delivering a profoundly honest and diverse recording. The songwriting on this, her 6th CD, is more musically diverse than any of her previous. Says Lili “these are the songs I want to put out to the world at this time. They reflect where I am right now”. And reflect they do, musically drawing from Latin, Jazz, Folk, Blues and Pop, as much a hybrid as Lili herself, a New York-born Cuban-African American. Supported by some of the area’s top musicians along with musicians who Lili knew and worked with in New York, “I Can See Bliss From Here” proves that Lili Añel continues to be a singer/songwriter at the top of her game and recognized as a recording artist who successfully connects with the world.
HANKA G
Hanka G is one of the most admired and well respected jazz singers in Slovakia. She has been performing on the domestic as well as international jazz scene for well over a decade now, with her signature musical style of jazz and soul music fusion.
Her fascination with music dates back to her early childhood in Mongolia, where her parents worked as geologists on an expedition. Growing up, Hanka’s vocals were tested in different musical genres ranging from rock to funk, until she found her niche while living in Washington D.C. having sang with local jazz musicians who had a profound influence on her future musical direction. Once she returned from the U.S., she used every opportunity to perfect her jazz art until her path crossed with one of the most respected jazz pianists in Slovakia, Gabriel Jonáš, who was so impressed with her natural feeling for jazz, that he invited to her to perform with his band.
Hanka was awarded a grant from the Slovak Music Fund to support the recording of her debut album Reflections of My Soul, which was produced by Radovan Tariška, a well-respected saxophone player of the Slovak jazz scene, who also performs on the album together with other elite musicians – virtuoso jazz pianist Ondrej Krajňák, Tomáš Baroš on double bass and Marián Ševčík on drums.
In 2014, Hanka was signed by Hevhetia Publishing House and released in July second solo album produced by jazz pianist Ondrej Krajňák, who also worked with her on her first CD. The album is called Essence and it is a tribute to Slovak folklore songs rearranged into jazzy tunes by Krajňák creating a very unique fusion. Only the Slovak & Czech jazz finest worked with her on this album, such as Josef Fečo (double bass, cymbal), Radovan Tariška (alt and soprano saxophone), Marián Ševčík (drums), Štefan Bugala (percussion), and Ivan Herák’s cymbalo band.
LEKAN BABALOLA
Twice Grammy award winning Nigerian percussionist, Lekan Babalola, is well known for his innovative musical style, using his native Yoruba tongue infused with traditional music, Afrobeat and funky dance overtones. Lekan started his career playing in the Yoruba Christian Church owned by his father. As custodians of Yoruba tradition his family taught him first hand Yoruba art and culture and this has influenced all his work . He also received a cultural and political apprenticeship from the late Fela Kuti. In 1980 he came to Britain and as his skills as a master percussionist grew was invited to join Gasper Lawal in 1982. He continued his career in New York as part of Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers and returned to the UK where he performed with the likes of Ernest Ranglin, Branford Marsalis, and recently African Jazz All Stars, Roy Ayers, The Kate Luxmoore Group, David Byrne, Joshua Redman, Damon Albarn, Tony Allen, The KLLB Band, Axelle Red, Pinse Saul, Queen Salawa Abeni and Jean Toussaint. For me, music is about crossing boundaries and finding commonality globally.
"I love combining ancient and contemporary and my work with The Afrobeat Messengers has given me another opportunity to take traditional vibes and give them a contemporary twist," says Babalola. "Yoruba culture weaves its way through our modern lives through music and rhythm, and this gives me the chance to tell its story making it relevant to everyone today. Awarded his first Grammy in 2006 for performances on the late Ali Farka Toure's album 'In the Heart of the Moon', he was awarded a second at the 49th Grammy awards in 2009 for his work as Associate Producer on the American jazz diva Cassandra Wilson's album 'Loverly'. World press has given him rave reviews for his percussive 'wizardry' and infectious grooves. Lekan now devotes himself to his solo, contemporary and traditional projects with regular appearances at concert venues around the world and has his own album released on the Ojah Media Group label entitled Songs of Icon.
In 1995 Lekan Babalola founded the Ifa-Yoruba Contemporary Arts Trust, a UK based registered charity trust committed to fostering the development of Yoruba arts and culture. As Artistic Director of Ifa-Yoruba he has commissioned and Curated a series of visual arts works, including "16 Pieces " - an exhibition of contemporary Yoruba paintings by artists throughout the African Diaspora and "Erindinlogun" - a collection of 28 batik drawings by Nigerian based artist Taiwo Adediran. In the last few years Olalekan has undertaken education work as part of his artistic programme and has an on-going relationships both in the UK, USA, Europe, Caribbean and Africa as a percussionist, art Curator tutor, band leader / composer and producer.
PAPERCLIP SCIENTISTS
Mississippi has seen its share of musical adventures and with the upcoming release of their debut album Quest for the 100th Monkey, Paperclip Scientists are helping ensure no one mistakes it for a frozen-in-time landscape of Blues markers. Centered around the songs of long-time song-writing partners, guitarist/lyricist, Vince Johnston, and bassist/guitarist/vocalist, Joey Plunkett, the album is brought to life by the buttery delivery of veteran vocalist/percussionist Adib Sabir and an eclectic cast of musicians. Paperclip Scientists began as a studio project in late 2009, shortly after Johnston heard Sabir sing for the first time. "I knew Adib as a percussionist," Johnston remembers, "but when he booked time at my studio to record a jazz project and I heard his voice, I was blown away. I told Joey that night, 'we've got to put together an album for Adib to sing'."
With key contributions from, among others, ex-Geronimo Rex drummer Ryan Rogers (Jimbo Mathus, Chris Cagle) on fourteen tracks, bassist Bryan Beller (Mike Keneally, Aristocrats, Joe Satriani) on "Teleport" and "Silver Tooth", and guitarist Daniel Karlish, most notably, on "Loony Tune", the album extends beyond the band's Mississippi heritage of blues, rock, jazz, and country and reflects the influences of the Brazilian music and reggae that Vince and brother, percussionist, Ky Johnston were exposed to growing up in Northeastern Brazil. The core group, Sabir, Plunkett and the Johnston brothers, enjoys taking liberties with the material and inviting album contributors and other musicians to aide in the journey. "I don't know what you'd call what we do, but it's jazz in the sense that we don't play the 'record', we play the 'song'," Sabir says. It was the songs that caught the ear of Grammy-winning jazz vocalist and producer Cassandra Wilson and eventually led to a writing and recording collaboration between Wilson and Paperclip Scientists, resulting in her recently released single "Airplane Wine." Both the single and Paperclip Scientists' Quest for the 100th Monkey were released in September of 2015 on Wilson's label, Ojah Media Group.