CAPATHIA JENKINS/LOUIS ROSEN
September 2009
The popular duo of outstanding jazz/pop and Broadway vocalist CAPATHIA JENKINS and award-winning songwriter/guitarist and arranger LOUIS ROSEN have become widely known in NYC for their performances at top night club and concert halls including Joe's Pub, Birdland, Iridium Jazz Club and the Great Hall at Cooper Union, and have just announced the upcoming November 2009 release of their third studio album, "The Ache Of Possibility" on the Di-Tone label.
The team's second album, "One Ounce of Truth," (PS Classics) was released in May 2008 to wide and unanimous acclaim, including the all-important New York Times. Capathia, Louis and their septet launched the release with four concerts at The Public Theater's Joe’s Pub, the success of which led to a three-concert engagement at the famed Iridium Jazz Club in New York City.
"One Ounce of Truth," is Louis' thirteen-song mix of jazz, blues, soul, classic pop and American roots music, with words by the world-renowned American poet, Nikki Giovanni (one of Oprah Winfrey’s “25 Living Legends.”) Capathia and Louis co-produced the recording with their long-standing collaborator, Scott Lehrer of Second Story Sound.
"The songs are sly, playful observations that take an off-center, positive view of life and love….Mr. Rosen’s earthy, tuneful songs are notable, a continually shifting musical patchwork of blues, folk, jazz and pop …. As Ms. Jenkins sang in a sweet, sunny voice with an undertone of resolve, a poet in touch with her life force smiled through the music." (NY Times, Stephen Holden). "The blissful collaboration of composer Louis Rosen and singer Capathia Jenkins has found a kindred spirit in Nikki Giovanni, and the combination has charm and beauty to spare.… Rosen [as] songwriter and musician charts an irresistible landscape between pop music and art song…. Jenkins is his perfect muse and foil." (Bloomberg News, Jeremy Gerard.)
Capathia and Louis launched their unique, ongoing collaboration in New York City in March 2005 at The Public Theatre's Joe's Pub with two sold-out evenings of new songs by Rosen written specifically for Ms. Jenkins, the highlights being the highly praised world-premieres of "Angelou Songs" and "Dream Suite: Songs in Jazz and Blues," on words by Langston Hughes, the first two of Louis' five album-length song sets that the duo has premiered over the past four years.
They soon followed with the November 2006 release of their debut recording, "South Side Stories" (RoseCap), a twelve-song suite, with Louis writing both music and lyrics. "South Side Stories" had its world premiere at the Steppenwolf Theater's "Traffic" Festival of Music and Art, and its New York premiere at the Public Theater's Joe's Pub, and on both occasions received high and unanimous praise:
"Jenkins will knock you flat….I've never been so seduced by music completely new to me yet as embraceable as any from the classic American songbook." (Bloomberg News' Jeremy Gerard, Nov.1, 2006); "Something quite magical can happen when a composer has a specific voice to serve as his muse. Consider the case of Louis Rosen and his songbird of choice, Capathia Jenkins performing Rosen's nostalgic, romantic, emotionally charged song cycle, 'South Side Stories'…." (Chicago Sun-Times, Hedy Weiss); "Rosen has created a fine and sometimes somber portrait of heartbreak and survival, joy and its absence, and love that endures even when the objects of that love are long vanished." (Chicago Tribune, Kerry Reid).
Capathia and Louis have made numerous nightclub and concert appearances over the course of their three years together, with highlights including three engagements at the legendary Manhattan nightclub, Birdland; Manhattan's Metropolitan Room; concert appearances at the Great Hall of Cooper Union and the 92nd Street Y; performances at the Brooklyn Library's Dweck Concert Hall (Grand Army Plaza), as well as Brooklyn's new music venue The Old Stone House; their Chicago concert debut at the renowned Steppenwolf Theater; their Washington, D.C. dual concert debut at the Sixth Street and I Historic Synagogue and Theater J; and most memorably, their two-concert African debut at the Harare International Festival of the Arts in Zimbabwe in May 2008.
"The Ache Of Possibility" will be launched with a four-show engagement at what has become the team's New York performing home, Joe's Pub, on Sun. Nov. 8, Sat. Nov. 14, Sat/Sun. Nov. 21 & 22. The twelve tracks include eight new songs with music and lyrics by Louis, and four songs with music by Louis and words by Nikki Giovanni. These are songs of love and politics and choices; songs that capture something of the mood and spirit of this moment--THE ACHE OF POSSIBILITY.
For more information, including audio and video clips, please visit www.myspace.com/jenkinsrosen, and
http://www.capathiajenkins.com/CJLRosen.html
In addition to her work with Louis Rosen, CAPATHIA JENKINS concert work includes recent appearances the Cleveland Orchestra, Utah Symphony Orchestra, Minneapolis Orchestra, Wolf Trap, Michael Feinstein at Carnegie Hall, Alaska Symphony and the 92nd Street Y's Lyrics and Lyricists series. On Broadway she has thrilled audiences and press alike with her show-stopping performances in Martin Short: Fame Becomes Me, the Tony-nominated musical "Caroline, or Change;" Frank Wildhorn's "The Civil War;" and Bacharach and David’s "The Look of Love." Her off-Broadway credits include a Drama Desk nomination for the one-woman show, (Mis)understanding Mammy: The Hattie McDaniel Story, the revival of Godspell, and the upcoming world-premiere of Nora Ephron's new play, "Love, Loss and What I Wore." National and European tours include "Caroline, or Change, Dreamgirls and Bubblin' Brown Sugar. She has also appeared in regional productions of Ain't Misbehavin' and Children of Eden, and on television in guest starring roles on "The Practice," "Law & Order," "Law & Order: SVU," "Third Watch" and "The Sopranos."
LOUIS ROSEN was awarded a 2005-2006 Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship in Music Composition. His song suites for the team of Jenkins and Rosen include One Ounce of Truth: The Nikki Giovanni Songs (PS Classics, released May 2008); South Side Stories (music and lyrics; Rosecap Records, released 2006); Twelve Songs on Poems by Maya Angelou; and Dream Suite: Songs in Jazz and Blues, on words by Langston Hughes. He has also composed It Is Still Dark: Songs of Exile for the singer Darius De Haas, on words by Celso Gonzalez-Falla. Louis' theater compositions include two musical theater pieces: Book of the Night, (music & co-lyrics, Goodman Theatre, Chicago), and A Child's Garden, (music and co-libretto, Melting Pot Theatre, off-Broadway). He is also the author The South Side: The Racial Transformation of an American Neighborhood," part memoir, part oral narrative, published by Ivan R. Dee. Inc., Chicago, in hardcover and cloth. Other awards include the Gilman & Gonzalez-Falla Musical Theater Award; an NEA New American Works grant; the Sloan Foundation's Grand Galileo Prize; a 2006 Puffin Foundation Award; a generous grant from the Anna Sosenko Trust; and numerous ASCAP awards.
Read more...