The 21-musician Erica Seguine & Shan Baker Jazz Orchestra (ESSBJO) seeks to immerse you into a deep sensory experience, creating large, original musical landscapes influenced by various facets of life. Founded in 2011, the ESSBJO has over 30 charts in their book, all compositions and arrangements by Erica and Shan, and they have performed over 40 times in the NYC area over 8 years.In 2017, New York Music Daily has said “In terms of majestic sweep, cinematic scope, and clever outside-of-the-box humor, it’s hard to think of a more interesting group in big band jazz...” They were also written about in a 2019 New York Times article by Giovanni Russonello about the current big band scene. In August 2019, the orchestra went into Oktaven Audio to record their debut album, with Darcy James Argue producing and Brian Montgomery engineering. It is expected to be released in 2020.
Erica's and Shan's music is cinematic in nature, transforming raw emotion and experiences into sound, drawing from influences as diverse as Jazz, Classical, Celtic, Rock, and Tango. Some compositions are about personal internal struggles, some are influenced by the joy of outside experiences, and yet others are inspired by our healing journeys.
Courageous, heart-driven, and often immersing the listener into darkness, with moments of light, Shan Baker writes music from an intuitive awareness of how energy influences the human psyche. Feelings of grief, loss, isolation, and brokenness emerge to the surface through their music, resulting in clarity, hope, beauty, and healing.
Whether it is the joy of hearing violins and tin whistles at an Irish session, the terror of first-hand encounters of depression, or the tranquility of a ravine flowing in the middle of NYC, Erica Seguine strives to capture the essence of that experience into music. She considers composition as a way of painting with sound and listens to which colors and textures will best serve the moment. Winner of the 2013 BMI Foundation Charlie Parker Prize for Jazz Composition/2014 Manny Albam Commission as well as three ASCAP Foundation Herb Alpert Young Jazz Composer Awards (including the 2014 Johnny Mandel Prize), amongst other awards, Erica’s music has been performed by the Metropole Orchestra, the Symphonic Jazz Orchestra, New York Youth Symphony Jazz, the J-Orchestra, and the Millennium Jazz Orchestra, amongst others.
Learn More: http://www.essbjo.com