released December 7, 2019

KAREN LYU JAZZ EXPERIENCE CD CREDITS

bass - Lonnie Plaxico (Chet Baker) - www.lonnieplaxico.com
drums - Mike Melito (Danilo Perez) - www.mikemelito.com
piano - Misha Tsiganov (Clark Terry) - www.mishajazz.com
vocals/solo piano - Karen Lyu (Soli Hughes) - www.karenlyu.com
producer/recording engineer - Dave Anderson - www.saxonrecording.com
CD cover artist - Ta-Coumba Aiken - www.facebook.com/tacoumba
photographer - Fred Sanfilipo


KAREN LYU JAZZ EXPERIENCE NY BAND BIOS

Jazz Vocals/Solo Piano - KAREN LYU

Karen Lyu swings, scats and soulfully savors heartfelt, brave and quirky songs about life, love, and things that matter. Her music is touched by jazz, folk, pop, funk, Motown, 80's, Broadway, classical, Latin, world music, and Korean songs. Her vocal inspirations include Ella Fitzgerald, Janis Siegel (Manhattan Transfer), Sarah Vaughan, Nina Simone, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Eva Cassidy, Youn Sun Nah, Robert Robinson and Bobby McFerrin.

Karen’s singing has been featured on National Public Radio, Democracy Now, film, TV, radio, cable and all kinds of stages. She's also traveled and performed in the US, Korea, Europe, Central America, Southeast Asia, and Brazil. She has won a 2010 MusiCares/Grammy Foundation Emergency Grant, a 2010 NashvilleMuse Songwriter award, a 2007 Minnesota State Arts Board Grant, 3rd Prize at the 2007 Nye’s Polonaise Polish Idol finals, and more.

She is also known as the Holistic Voice Coach, as an actor, a writer, and as former Executive Director of the legendary community music school, the West Bank School of Music.


Bass - LONNIE PLAXICO

The middle child in a family of musicians, Chicago-born lonnie Plaxico inherited a gift for music that was discovered and nurtured early. By the age of twelve he had taught himself to play the electric bass, and he was soon venturing into Chicago's music scene, renowned for its mix of jazz, funk and blues. It was not long before the young musician made his first recording, featuring his family's band. At the age of just fourteen, having already performed alongside several prominent Chicago jazz figures, Lonnie Plaxico turned professional, playing the electric and acoustic bass with equal facility.

In 1980 Plaxico moved to New York and soon began to appear with such artists as Chet Baker, Dexter Gordon and Wynton Marsalis. His first extended tenure was with Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers: between1983 and 1986, lonnie performed on twelve of Blakey's albums, including the Grammy Award-winning, New York Scene. In 1986 he joined Jack DeJohnette's Special Edition, continuing with that group until 1993. Presently, Plaxico is the musical director and featured bassist for Cassandra Wilson; their critically acclaimed and award-winning collaboration has now spanned fifteen years.In 1980 Plaxico moved to New York and soon began to appear with such artists as Chet Baker, Dexter Gordon and Wynton Marsalis. His first extended tenure was with Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers: between1983 and 1986, lonnie performed on twelve of Blakey's albums, including the Grammy Award-winning, New York Scene. In 1986 he joined Jack DeJohnette's Special Edition, continuing with that group until 1993. Presently, Plaxico is the musical director and featured bassist for Cassandra Wilson; their critically acclaimed and award-winning collaboration has now spanned fifteen years.

Plaxico's recording and performance catalog is equally impressive for its caliber, depth and diversity. He has appeared with such luminaries as Sonny Sitt, Junior Cook, David Murray, Alice Coltrane, Stanley Turrentine, Joe Sample, Abbey Lincoln, and Dizzy Gillespie. Just as noteworthy are his performances with younger artists -- among them Steve Coleman, Rachelle Farrell and Dianne Reeves. lonnie has also recorded with Bill Cosby, Lonnie Liston Smith, Ravi Coltrane and Barbara Dennerlein, as well as his Grammy-winning collaborations with Art Blakey and Cassandra Wilson. He has also recorded five critically acclaimed albums as leader;

Drums - MIKE MELITO

Mike Melito hails from Rochester, NY where he keeps an active perfomance, recording, and teaching schedule. Mike comes from a very musical family and started playing at a very early age. He studied with RPO percusionist John McNeill from 5th grade to 11th grade. He credits McNeill with providing him a strong foundation with the drums and invaluable lessons on music in general. Mike's older brother Tom is also a jazz drummer based in NYC for over 25 years. He helped Mike in every aspect of jazz drumming. His father and other brother Chris both play trumpet and played an important role in Mike becoming a musician. They have encouraged him to study hard, listen to the greats and above all be swingin!! Mike names Philly Joe Jones, Art Blakey, Max Roach, Art Taylor, Billy Higgins, Elvin Jones, Jimmy Cobb and Papa Jo Jones as main influences. Mike started his professional career at age 16 playing with Vibraphonist Joe Locke and saxophonist Joe Romano in his hometown of Rochester. Work then started to snowball for Mike, he started getting calls to play all over upstate NY. He started leading a jam session in the mid 80's at the now defunct Rochester jazz room Indigos. He continued to lead many groups in the 90's as well as freelancing. In 1997 he released his first of four critically acclaimed CDs called MY CONCEPTION. From there he started to appear on a lot of CDs as a sideman and in 2001 released his second CD BOUT TIME. His third release, THE NEXT STEP was released in 2005 and garnered much interest overseas. His latest effort IN THE TRADITION 2007, caught the ear of Downbeat magazine and Downbeat wrote an article on Mike in the December 09 issue. Over the years he has gone on to perform and record with names such as James Moody, Barry Harris, Benny Golson, JR Monterose, Johnny Frigo, Phil Flanigan, Harold Danko, Chuck Mangione, Chris Potter, Eric Alexander, John Swana, Peter Bernstein, Steve Davis, Danilo Perez, Cyrus Chestnut, Jon Faddis, Vincent Herring, David Hazeltine, Harry Allen, Pat LaBarbera and many more. He continues to maintain a large private teaching practice.

Piano - MISHA TSIGANOV

MISHA TSIGANOV was born in St. Petersburg, Russia, into a family of artists, with his father a sculptor and his mother, a music teacher. He began to play piano at the age of six and graduated from Mussorgsky College of Music. In 1990 Misha received prize-winner-diploma of the All-Russia Jazz Competition. In 1991 he was invited to study at the Berklee College of Music in Boston by legendary vibraphonist Gary Burton and two years later he moved to New York.

Misha worked and recorded with following projects:

1998 - 2008 - with Norman Hedman's Tropique, recorded an album “Taken By Surprise” 2000 on Palmetto records and "Garden Of Forbidden Fruit" 2003 on PowerLight Media,
2002 - present - with Johnny Colon, recorded an album "Keeping It Real" 2007,
2002 - present - with Willie Martinez, recorded an album "I Remember You" 2002, "Family" 2005 and "After Winter, Spring" 2008,
2003, 2004 - with Chico Freeman, recorded an album “Out Of Many Comes The One” 2003 on Arabesque records,
2004 - Misha recorded an album “NGFOOT” (Nine Guys From Out Of Town), produced and directed by Stu Gardner, feat. Michael Brecker, Randy Brecker and Dave Valentin,
2004 - 2008 - with Joe Chambers, recorded an album "The Outlaw" 2005 on Savant records. In 2005 Misha performed 7 days in Half Note Jazz Club in Athens, Greece with Joe Chambers Quartet featuring Gary Bartz,
2007 - present - with Papo Pepin,
2007 - present - with Jed Levy, recorded an album "Travelogue" 2011 and "Italian Suite" 2013 on SteepleChase Records,
2007 - present - with Hendrik Meurkens, recorded an album "Samba To Go" 2009 on Zoho records, "A Night In Jakarta" 2010 on Jawo Records, "Live at Bird's Eye" 2011 on Zoho records, and Hendrik Meurkens - Gabriel Espinosa "Celebrando" 2012 and "Samba, Little Samba" 2014 on Zoho records.
2011 - European tour with Myron Walden Quintet featuring Darren Barrett.
Misha has performed at many international jazz festivals and clubs around the world, such as Carnegie Hall, Blue Note, Dizzy's, Jazz at Lincoln Center, Avery Fisher Hall, National Geographic Concert Hall (Washington DC), BLack Entertainment Television BET (Washington DC), Birdland, Iridium, Minton's Playhouse, Smoke, 55 Bar, Smalls, Zing Bar, Java Jakarta Jazz Festival (Indonesia), Kansas City Jazz Festival, Topeka Jazz Festival, Barbados Jazz Festival, Panama Jazz Festival, Port-Au-Prince Jazz Festival (Haiti), Naguanagua Jazz Festival (Venezuela), Toulouse Jazz Festival (France), Jazz-Transfer Festival (Germany), St.Croix Jazz Festival, Festival JazzInKiev (Ukraine), Scullers (Boston), Jazz Bakery (Los Angeles), Bird's Eye (Switzerland), Duc Lombards (France), Jazzkeller (Germany), Half Note Jazz Club (Greece) and many others.

Misha Tsiganov can be heard weekly as the featured pianist on the Bill Cosby television cartoon Little Bill, where Misha worked 1999-2002, which currently airs Monday-Friday on Nickelodeon on weekends on the CBS television network, which soundtrack features voice-overs by Phylicia Rashad, Rosie Perez, Gregory Hines, the late Madeline Kahn and Bill Cosby. His identifiable Little Bill piano sounds are also featured in Paramount Pictures / Viacom’s newly released Little Bill videos, now available in stores throughout the country.

Misha has performed and recorded with such musicians as Clark Terry, Michael Brecker, Randy Brecker, Wynton Marsalis, Joe Chambers, Gary Bartz, Hendrik Meurkens, John Faddis, Buster Williams, Claudio Roditi, Richie Cole, Alex Sipiagin, Dave Valentin, Chico Freeman, Jed Levy, Bobby Watson, Donny McCaslin, Victor Lewis, Norman Hedman, Vincent Herring, Johnny Colon, Papo Pepin, Ray Vega, Valeri Ponomarev, Bobby Porchelly, Andy Gonzalez, Steve Berrios, Willie Martinez, Bobby Sanabria, Paul Bollenbeck, Porchinho, Seamus Blake, Myron Walden, Joe Lock, Peter Brainin, Darren Barrett, Graig Handy, John Benitez, Adam Rogers, Dean Brown, Ira Coleman, Billy Drummond, Antonio Sanchez, Gene Jackson and others.