Originally from Boston, Massachusetts and based in San Francisco, Karen played with Marilyn Mazur (Miles Davis) and Suzanne Fasteau (Bill Evans) in Copenhagen as a teenager. She co-founded the acid-jazz band “Red Clay” with David Brown (Brazzaville, Beck) in Los Angeles in the early 1990’s. Karen has studied with teachers including Dean Brown (Marcus Miller), Ray Copeland (John Coltrane), Cedric West (BBC Radio Orchestra) & Jean Marc Belkadi.
Karen has been developing her original project in the Bay Area since 2002, including collaborations with Perry Thoorsell, Fred Randolph, Jonathan Ferris, Marcus Shelby, Alan Hall, Babatunde Lea, Sameer Gupta, Ricky Carter and Jef Labes. Karen Segal Trio's two CD recordings: “In The Moment” and “The Mystery Of Life” (lilleskat) have been described as "a prodigious leap in jazz fusion" (JazzTimes 2009) and "a particularly free spirited style of jazz." (JAZZIZ Oct 2009). Karen was awarded a Fullbright-Hays grant in 2010 to bring her trio to perform in Denmark at the Århus Jazz Festival. Karen's recording "Come With Me" was included on the JAZZIZ compilation disc: "Sign of the Times: Women 2010" which describes her as taking "her toneful predecessors (Wes Montgomery and Kenny Burrell) in intruiging new sonic and rhythmic directions."
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