Desperate deserts of simple terms Rushing a river of hearing burn. Frantically trying to find a slick rhyme Gimme a dime, and I’ll commit vocal crime. Classical sassy to ruin and rip Maniac monsters with lilting big lips Everyone’s busy at listening good Deep into soul search and knocking on wood. Sinister singing is slicing my dream Beating round body thumps, grunting to seem Desperately trying to find some slick terms Rushing a river of plain simple burn. (from Sinister Singing)
The Voice is the Matter
Original group: Jodi Gilbert (voice, dulcimer), Michael Moore (alt sax/clarinets), Ernst Glerum (bass), Alexei Levin (piano/accordion)
2019- 2021 version: Jodi Gilbert (voice, dulcimer), Michael Moore (clarinet, bass clarinet, alt sax), Kristján Tryggvi Martinsson (piano, accordion), Ernst Glerum or Omer Govreen (bass)
The Voice is the Matter presents a diverse mixture of styles – whimsical vocal improvisations, associative sound poetry, Slavic and Celtic folk melodies, unadulterated jazz and moving melodies composed by Michael Moore. What connects this diversity is a personal and emotional connection with the music which creates an intimate sphere for the listener. The result is eclectic and accessible.
The Voice is the Matter is niet voor een gat te vangen: zij vertolken verschillende genres – van grillige stemimprovisaties en associatieve klankpoezie, tot Slavische en Keltisch volksmelodieën, onvervalste jazz, en ontroerende melodieën van Michael Moore. Wat verbindt deze combinatie van vormen and stijlen is een persoonlijke en emotionele band met de muziek voor de musici en het scheppen van een intieme band met de luisteraar. Het resultaat is een afwisselend en toegankelijk programma.
The Voice is the Matter Reviews
Gilbert is a disciplined singer who can sing old Irish songs like My Lagan Love and Come All Ye Fair and Tender Ladies with the best of them. But she can throw her voice into the cracks and fissures of an improvising musical trio and add immeasurably to its depth and dimension, as she so bloodcurdlingly displays on Shoots And Ladders. Michael Moore’s own writing of texts for Gilbert is canny. His scripting of linguistic lines and phrases pulls his saxophone lines into complete synchronicity and harmonic convergence with her breath and the way she extends a line until it falls into the next, never quite breaking. of which appear seamless on this disc… this is a very special recording worthy of your time and attention. (Thom Jurek)
Vocaliste Gilbert is niet voor een gat te vangen: van grillige stemimprovisaties tot liederen van Poulenc, van Slavische liederen tot onvervalste jazz…! Haar wendbare stem vertolkt moeiteloos verschillende genres: associatieve klankpoëzie, zwoele jazz, een nummer van Fleetwood Mac naast een liedje van Misha Mengelberg. Jodi Gilbert lijkt zich in alle nummers evenzeer op haar gemak te voelen. Een lust om naar te luisteren. Een concert dat zeker boven het maaiveld uit zal stijgen.
Rasp/Hasp
Jodi Gilbert (voice), Wilbert de Joode (cb), Paul Lovens (drums), Anne La Berge (fl), Rochard Barrett (electronics)
Rasp – 1. to scrape or abrade with a rough instrument 2. to utter with a grating sound 3. a coarse file, used mainly on wood 4. grater of cheese
Hasp – 1. a clasp for a door, lid, especially one passing over a staple and fastened by a pin or padlock.
Rasp/Hasp, an initiative of vocalist Jodi Gilbert, is a trio which can function as an independent trio within the framework of “invited” guests who act as wrenches in the mechanism, so to speak. The repertoire consists of loosely composed/ partially improvised pieces, sometimes around a spoken/sung/gargled text, distilled from political, humorous, satyrical articles or stories, and other times coming out of the instrumental abstract world of sound. Jodi Gilbert is an extraordinary improvising vocalist, unafraid of pushing her voice through all sorts of twists and turns (Bruce Gallanter)
She is in particular hard to pin down stylistically, alternating between straight spoken narrative and then also actually sings-pretty rare for an improvising vocalist these days. (Dan Warburton-Paris Transatlantic Magazine)
Spoon 3 + 1 Fork
Jodi Gilbert (voice/ little instruments/ text), Albert van Veenendal (piano, prepared piano), Meinrad Kneer (contrabass), Robert van Heumen (laptop instrument)
A classic trio combination, piano, bass, voice , looking to fit in and subvert this well-known constellation. Add live sampling and electronic sounds and beauty, confrontation, and adventure, teem up with the expressive possibilities offered within this transparent setting.
We are searching to find real song forms, using texts, absurd, comic, and with a careful dose of pathos, the clichéd anguish of emotions, juxtaposed with a sharp edge, and a
Tongue-in-cheek, and then mixed with the sensibilities of an improvisation. Raw emotional texts, beautiful, poetic, histrionic, and angry, crossing over into vocalise that steers far away from jazz scat singing, but looks for the grooves that underlie it all.
If we can at least once get the audience to bounce in their seats, or smile at the absurdity of it all, then we have touched the heart of the matter.
Rara Avis Trio
Albert van Veenendaal (piano, prepared piano), Tineke de Jong (violin), Jodi Gilbert (voice, little instruments, texts)
3 is a magic number
a trio is a magical configuration
3 string players:
the strings of the violin bowed and scraped
the strings of the piano, hammered and plucked
the strings of the voice articulated through breath and imagination
terrestrial. other- worldly , aerial displays, a strolling cadence
He goes left, she goes right, she connects,
places reversed, combinations transformed.
a full spectrum of vocabulary,
a hidden message of sound.
Translucent and effervescent!
3 is a magic number
a trio is a magical configuration
Rara Avis is, like the name implies, a rare and wonderfully strange world of transparent sounds and universally poetic texts that fly like a bird through the soundscape.
Rara Avis consists of a virtuosic pianist who loves the simplicity of the struck chord and the sustaining note, but does not shy away from a driving rhythmic pulse. A classically trained violinist with the skill and the pure sound that the training gives, venturing in a world of the open sounds and feelings of improvisation; the sensitive response from moment to moment, and a vocalist who is known for imaginative expressive acrobatics as well as pure melodic association with the ability to express through sound and text. This trio is a colorful tribute to the potential to move and touch the listener through melody, through harmony, through text and especially through the subtle interplay of NOW.
https://raraavis2.bandcamp.com/album/how-do-i-listen
All Ellington
Jodi Gilbert (voice), Mo van der Does (alto sax and clarinet), Natalio Sued (tenor sax), Giuseppe Doronzo (baritone sax), Jimmy Sernesky (trumpet), Eric Boeren (cornet), Joost Buis (trombone), Oscar Jan Hoogland (piano), Wilbert de Joode (bass), Frank Rosaly (drums)
The intergenerational Amsterdam collective All Ellington, started by Eric Boeren, has been playing music by Duke, Strayhorn and company since 2013.
They play 1x a month in Amsterdam’s Zaal 100, (interrupted at present by Corona measures), the Bimhuis, throughout Holland, as well as numerous festivals, oa North Sea Festival.
August 38
Improvising choir led by Laura Polence. Group consists of oa Laura Polence, Maryana Golovchenko, Jodi Gilbert, Sanem Kalfa, Julia Werner, Saskia Oving, Marta Arpini. Felicity Provan. Marta Arpini
August 38th is a professional choir formed in Amsterdam on the 7th of September, 2019. The focus of this group is improvisation, exploring different possibilities in creating musical textures, atmospheres and stories by using the human voice. Their performance might make you laugh, cry, imagine colors, shapes, landscapes or remember your childhood dreams.
Fearless Rose
Acapella women’s vocal group under the auspices of Musicians Without Borders.
Beautifully sung acapella arrangements of musics from various musical traditions with an emphasis on songs that embrace messages about the human condition, peace, the protection of planet, women’s power and, of course, love. War divides. Music connects.