New Orleans Artist Mykia Jovan Shines at Essencefest

                                                                       Mykia Jovan

By Shelah Moody

Photo by Douglass Washington

Mykia Jovan performs at 8 p.m., Friday, July 6, Good Vibes Superlounge, 2018, Essence Festival, Mercedes Benz Superdome, New Orleans, LA. essence.com.

She’s a bit Erykah Badu, a bit Ledisi, a bit Teena Marie and a bit Nina Simone. She’s a bit R&B and a bit jazz, she says, but most importantly, Mykia Jovan is a storyteller.

Jovan, one of the hottest young stars to emerge from New Orleans, performs for the first time at the 2018 Essence Festival at the Mercedes Benz Superdome on July 6.

For Jovan, who maintains a regular Sunday night gig at the Blue Nile on Frenchman Street in New Orleans, performing at Essencefest  on the bill with the likes of Janet Jackson, Mary J. Blige, Fantasia and Ledisi is a dream come true.

“I have so much in my back pocket that I’m going to take some chances on for this performance,” Jovan said. “It’s only 45 minutes, so I’m gonna go big!”

Born and raised in New Orleans, Jovan studied theater at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts. She ventured into music because she was trying to avoid auditioning through the theater process, she said.

“Music has definitely helped me build my confidence,” said Jovan. “I’ve been privileged to work at the Blue Nile and cut my teeth on the stage and take my time and figure out my craft.”

In April of this year, Jovan performed at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, affectionately known to locals as Jazzfest, for the for the first time as a solo act with her own band.

“I’ve done Jazziest a few times with Kermit Ruffins and the Barbecue Swingers, but this was my first time being able to present myself and my original music,” said Jovan. “It was very exciting and I had a great time.”

Sunday nights at the Blue Nile, Jovan and her band perform songs from her debut album, “Elliyahu,” independently produced and recorded in New Orleans. Once you hear tracks from “Elliyahu,” such as “Creep,” “Feast on the Flower,” “Idle Mind”  and “16 Shots,” which addresses the long running obsession with race, class and skin color in the south, you will be hooked. Here’s a clip of her Blue Nile performance:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=cwQtR1W1fNI

“Blend in, and stay out the sun, because the darker you are, the shorter the run,” Jovan sings in soaring soprano.

“The title means ‘highest, most exhausted one,’  but I added an ‘L’ to the name to kind of take away the idea of me speaking about God and more about idolatry—how we find God in people and how interpersonal relationships affect personal growth and development as individuals,” said Jovan.

“The whole album is centered around times in my life where I felt that I was looking outside of myself for something that was already the inside. That’s what you heard tonight—a bunch of love songs reaching for someone, and then eventually, I figure out how to reach within myself.”

Follow her @ mykiajovan.com.

"Alexander’s blend of jazz and reggae makes for an outrageously good time" 
— The Wall Street Journal

Monty Alexander
Harlem-Kingston Express

THU, JUN 8 · 8PM
HERBST THEATRE

During this year's 35th Annual San Francisco Jazz Festival, Jamaica-born jazz great Monty Alexander, who has garnered acclaim for bridging American jazz and the music of his native Jamaica. Over six-decades, pianist Alexander has created a unique blend of reggae and jazz, and has been described by The Wall Street Journal as “the first—and certainly the most successful—musician to combine Jamaican music with North American jazz.”

The pianist’s 2011 GRAMMY-nominated Motéma Records release Harlem-Kingston Express stands as the ultimate expression of Alexander’s unique perspective on jazz, featuring his trio (including SFJAZZ Collective drummer Obed Calvaire) as well as a Jamaican rhythm section, embracing reggae, dub, bebop, and Afro-Cuban approaches.

› MONTY ALEXANDER: 'ON PIANO JAZZ'

Trumpet Star Joins the SFJAZZ Collective
Group will perform new arrangements of music by Michael Jackson
Sean Jones joins the SFJAZZ Collective, replacing long-time member and trumpeter Avishai Cohen, as the group prepares for its 2015 Fall Tour which will feature new arrangements of the music of Michael Jackson and new original compositions.

For the remarkable composer, trumpeter, and educator Sean Jones, the pursuit of jazz is a most serious endeavor. Deeply influenced by his immersion in Gospel music in the church as a youth, Sean had an epiphany at the age of 19 while he was a student at Youngstown State University. The awakening was his first hearing of the magnificent John Coltrane’s masterpiece A Love Supreme. After receiving his Master’s Degree from Rutgers University, Sean performed with Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra for six years, participating in two recordings. During that time, Sean started touring and performing regularly with his own ensembles and began his longtime relationship with Mack Avenue Records, for whom he has just released his seventh recording.

SFJAZZ Collective will perform new arrangements of Michael Jackson music and original compositions at the SFJAZZ Center from October 22-25 and will be recording that material for a future release.
"...I know in the end, my body of work is going to show a progression of who Sean Jones is in its most honest form. What I’m hearing, what I believe and what I have to say." — Sean Jones

The Music of Michael Jackson & Original Compositions SFJAZZ Collective THU-SUN, OCT 22-25 Miguel Zenón alto sax · David Sánchez tenor sax Sean Jones trumpet · Robin Eubanks trombone Warren Wolf vibraphone · Edward Simon piano Matt Penman bass · Obed Calvaire drums SFJAZZ’s resident all-star ensemble presents new arrangements of music by the King of Pop, Michael Jackson, and new compositions by the band. Much like the approach took with Stevie Wonder’s material a few years ago, the Collective brings the same probing intelligence, incisive lyricism, harmonic insight and rhythmic energy to well-crafted pop tunes as to material conceived for jazz settings. Buy Tickets

SFJAZZ’s resident all-star ensemble presents new arrangements of music by the King of Pop, Michael Jackson, and new compositions by the band. Much like the approach took with Stevie Wonder’s material a few years ago, the Collective brings the same probing intelligence, incisive lyricism, harmonic insight and rhythmic energy to well-crafted pop tunes as to material conceived for jazz settings.