Jana Herzen
Encyclopedia
Jana Herzen is a singer-songwriter
with folk
, world
, rock
and jazz
influences who founded Motéma Music
, a Harlem
-based record label
focused on virtuosic jazz and world music. Prior to founding the label in 2003, she worked as a musician (her CD, Soup's on Fire, was the first CD on the label), an art agent for Winston Smith
, who designed the logo for Motéma. Herzen was instrumental in the publishing of Artcrime, Smith's 2nd volume of collected works on the Last Gasp
publishing imprint.
and Leonore Herzenberg, Herzen was raised on the campus of Stanford University
, attended Stanford from 1977–79, and New York University
from 1980 to 1982 where she completed an undergraduate degree in drama. While at NYU, she met Bernard Telsey
and Robert LuPone
. Together with Lupone and Telsey, and 5 other NYU graduates, she participated as a founding member of the award-winning theatre
production group Manhattan Class Company
, for which she served as a dramaturg, script doctor
, lighting designer
, actor
, and director for 10 years. In 1991, she left Manhattan
to travel to Japan
, Bali
, and Australia
where she worked on songs for her first album, which was eventually recorded in San Francisco and Paris
from 1994 to 1997, as produced by Congo
lese expatriate
and worldbeat
bassist
and producer Shaka Ra Mutela, who had served as bassist and musical director for international music stars from Congo, Papa Wemba
& Ray Lema
and whose song, "Yaleo," appeared on the album, Supernatural by Carlos Santana
, in a deal negotiated by Herzen just prior to the forming of the Motéma label.
As A&R Director and President of Motéma, she has grown the label from its early days in San Francisco, where it would release 2 to 3 albums in a year, to an internationally-distributed imprint with over 80 releases by 40 artists including some of the worlds top jazz touring acts such as Randy Weston
, Geri Allen
, and Monty Alexander
.
Singer-songwriter
Singer-songwriters are musicians who write, compose and sing their own musical material including lyrics and melodies. As opposed to contemporary popular music singers who write their own songs, the term singer-songwriter describes a distinct form of artistry, closely associated with the...
with folk
Folk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
, world
World music
World music is a term with widely varying definitions, often encompassing music which is primarily identified as another genre. This is evidenced by world music definitions such as "all of the music in the world" or "somebody else's local music"...
, rock
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
and jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
influences who founded Motéma Music
Motéma Music
Motéma Music is an American record label focused on jazz and world music, as well as other creative projects by virtuosic musicians who also compose. It was founded by Jana Herzen in 2003, and is now based in Harlem, New York City...
, a Harlem
Harlem
Harlem is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan, which since the 1920s has been a major African-American residential, cultural and business center. Originally a Dutch village, formally organized in 1658, it is named after the city of Haarlem in the Netherlands...
-based record label
Record label
In the music industry, a record label is a brand and a trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos. Most commonly, a record label is the company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the production, manufacture, distribution, marketing and promotion,...
focused on virtuosic jazz and world music. Prior to founding the label in 2003, she worked as a musician (her CD, Soup's on Fire, was the first CD on the label), an art agent for Winston Smith
Winston Smith (artist)
Winston Smith is an artist who primarily uses the medium of collage. He is probably best known for the artwork he has produced for the American punk rock group Dead Kennedys...
, who designed the logo for Motéma. Herzen was instrumental in the publishing of Artcrime, Smith's 2nd volume of collected works on the Last Gasp
Last Gasp
Last Gasp is a book and underground comix publisher and distributor based in San Francisco, California.- History :Founded in 1970 by Ron Turner to publish the ecologically-themed comics magazine Slow Death Funnies, followed by the all-female anthology It Ain't Me Babe, Last Gasp soon became a major...
publishing imprint.
Biography
Born of world renowned scientists, Professors LeonardLeonard Herzenberg
Leonard Arthur "Len" Herzenberg is an immunologist, geneticist and professor at Stanford University. His contribututions to the development of cell biology made it possible to sort viable cells by their specific properties....
and Leonore Herzenberg, Herzen was raised on the campus of Stanford University
Stanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
, attended Stanford from 1977–79, and New York University
New York University
New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...
from 1980 to 1982 where she completed an undergraduate degree in drama. While at NYU, she met Bernard Telsey
Bernard Telsey
Bernard Telsey is a casting director and co-founder of MCC Theater. In the 1980s, he began working for Simon & Kumin Casting as an assistant, then a casting director at Risa Bramon & Billy Hopkins Casting...
and Robert LuPone
Robert LuPone
Robert LuPone is an American actor and artistic director. He works both on stage and in film and television. He is the brother of actress Patti LuPone.-Early life and training:...
. Together with Lupone and Telsey, and 5 other NYU graduates, she participated as a founding member of the award-winning theatre
Theatre
Theatre is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music or dance...
production group Manhattan Class Company
MCC Theater
MCC Theater is an Off-Broadway theater company located in New York City, founded in 1986 by artistic directors Robert LuPone and Bernard Telsey along with six graduates of the New York University drama department, including Jana Herzen...
, for which she served as a dramaturg, script doctor
Script doctor
A script doctor, also called script consultant, is a highly-skilled screenwriter, hired by a film or television production, to rewrite or polish specific aspects of an existing screenplay, including structure, characterization, dialogue, pacing, theme, and other elements...
, lighting designer
Lighting designer
The role of the lighting designer within theatre is to work with the director, choreographer, set designer, costume designer, and sound designer to create an overall 'look' for the show in response to the text, while keeping in mind issues of visibility, safety and cost...
, actor
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
, and director for 10 years. In 1991, she left Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
to travel to Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
, Bali
Bali
Bali is an Indonesian island located in the westernmost end of the Lesser Sunda Islands, lying between Java to the west and Lombok to the east...
, and Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
where she worked on songs for her first album, which was eventually recorded in San Francisco and Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
from 1994 to 1997, as produced by Congo
Democratic Republic of the Congo
The Democratic Republic of the Congo is a state located in Central Africa. It is the second largest country in Africa by area and the eleventh largest in the world...
lese expatriate
Expatriate
An expatriate is a person temporarily or permanently residing in a country and culture other than that of the person's upbringing...
and worldbeat
Worldbeat
Worldbeat is a music genre that primarily refers to a blending of Western pop music with traditional/folk or world music influences...
bassist
Bassist
A bass player, or bassist is a musician who plays a bass instrument such as a double bass, bass guitar, keyboard bass or a low brass instrument such as a tuba or sousaphone. Different musical genres tend to be associated with one or more of these instruments...
and producer Shaka Ra Mutela, who had served as bassist and musical director for international music stars from Congo, Papa Wemba
Papa Wemba
Papa Wemba was born Jules Shungu Wembadio Pene Kikumba in 1949 in Lubefu . He is a Congolese rumba musician, one of Africa's most popular musicians, and prominent in World music.-Zaiko Langa Langa:...
& Ray Lema
Ray Lema
Raymond Lema A'nsi Nzinga, known as Ray Lema, is a Congolese musician born March 30, 1946 in Lufu-Toto, Bas-Congo Province.Lema is a pianist, guitarist, and songwriter. He worked for the National Ballet of Zaire, as it was then called, and in 1979 was invited to the United States by the...
and whose song, "Yaleo," appeared on the album, Supernatural by Carlos Santana
Carlos Santana
Carlos Augusto Alves Santana is a Mexican rock guitarist. Santana became famous in the late 1960s and early 1970s with his band, Santana, which pioneered rock, salsa and jazz fusion...
, in a deal negotiated by Herzen just prior to the forming of the Motéma label.
As A&R Director and President of Motéma, she has grown the label from its early days in San Francisco, where it would release 2 to 3 albums in a year, to an internationally-distributed imprint with over 80 releases by 40 artists including some of the worlds top jazz touring acts such as Randy Weston
Randy Weston
Randy Weston , is an American jazz pianist and composer, of Jamaican parentage.-Biography:Weston studied classical piano as a child. After serving in the U.S. Army during World War II, he ran a restaurant that was frequented by many of the leading bebop musicians...
, Geri Allen
Geri Allen
Geri Allen is an American composer/pianist educator jazz pianist, raised in Detroit, Michigan, and educated in the Detroit Public Schools. Allen has worked with many of the greats of modern music, including Ornette Coleman, Ron Carter, Ravi Coltrane, Tony Williams, Dave Holland, Jack DeJohnette,...
, and Monty Alexander
Monty Alexander
Monty Alexander is a jazz pianist and melodica player. His playing has a strong Caribbean influence and swinging feeling, but he has also been influenced by Art Tatum, Oscar Peterson, Wynton Kelly, and Ahmad Jamal.-Biography:Alexander discovered the piano at the age of 4, taking classical music...
.
as side artist
- Babatunde LeaBabatunde LeaBabatunde Lea is an Afro-Cuban jazz and Worldbeat percussionist. Michael Lea was raised in Englewood, New Jersey, while regularly commuting to 116th and Amsterdam in New York, where the rest of his family lived after moving from his birthplace, Danville, Virginia. His aunt was one of the first...
—Soul Pools (Motéma, 2003) - DJ Jackie ChristieDJ Jackie ChristieDJ Jackie Christie is a DJ, songwriter, and music producer based in New York City. She is well known for her work at MTV's The Grind and The Limelight in New York City. She began releasing singles in 1997, originally under the alias, Shine, and her first album, Made 4 U, in 2004. The first...
- Made 4 U (Motéma, 2004) - Patrick Stanfield JonesPatrick Stanfield JonesPatrick Stanfield Jones is a musician and singer-songwriter whose music is a mix of rock, jazz, and blues. He is a brother of transsexual jazz percussionist Koko Jones, and they have performed and recorded together. He has been a member of the touring casts of Jesus Christ Superstar and Oh,...
– A Heart and an Open Road (Motéma, 2010) - Charnett MoffettCharnett MoffettCharnett Moffett is an American jazz musician who plays piccolo bass, double bass and bass guitar.Moffett's given name was created as a combination of that of his father and that of Ornette Coleman...
– Treasure (Motéma, 2010)
as producer
- Babatunde LeaBabatunde LeaBabatunde Lea is an Afro-Cuban jazz and Worldbeat percussionist. Michael Lea was raised in Englewood, New Jersey, while regularly commuting to 116th and Amsterdam in New York, where the rest of his family lived after moving from his birthplace, Danville, Virginia. His aunt was one of the first...
—Soul Pools (Motéma. 2003) - Amy LondonAmy LondonAmy London is a jazz singer from Teaneck, New Jersey, United States.London grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio. She moved to Manhattan in 1980, and moved to Teaneck with her husband, guitarist Roni Ben-Hur, and daughters, Sofia and Anna, in 1998....
– Let’s Fly (Motéma, 2011) - Monty AlexanderMonty AlexanderMonty Alexander is a jazz pianist and melodica player. His playing has a strong Caribbean influence and swinging feeling, but he has also been influenced by Art Tatum, Oscar Peterson, Wynton Kelly, and Ahmad Jamal.-Biography:Alexander discovered the piano at the age of 4, taking classical music...
- Harlem - Kingston Express Live! MTM-67 (Motéma, 2011)
as executive producer
- Babatunde Lea - Level of Intent 8-20320-0047-2 (Diaspora Records, 1996)
- Babatunde Lea - Soul Pools 7-09363-7136-2 (Motéma, 2003)
- Lynne ArrialeLynne ArrialeLynne Arriale is an American jazz pianist. She was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She received her Master's Degree from the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music and in her initial training was classical. However her interest in the works of Keith Jarrett and Herbie Hancock led her to jazz. She gained...
Trio - Arise MTM71372 (Motéma, 2003) - DJ Jackie ChristieDJ Jackie ChristieDJ Jackie Christie is a DJ, songwriter, and music producer based in New York City. She is well known for her work at MTV's The Grind and The Limelight in New York City. She began releasing singles in 1997, originally under the alias, Shine, and her first album, Made 4 U, in 2004. The first...
/DiscomindDiscomindDiscomind is a band that is a fusion of disco, house, and rock featuring vocals by Sheila Horne of George Clinton's P-Funk All-Stars. The band also includes Kraze, Shane, Lanny Ward, and Danny Jam....
– “Beautiful Day” [single] (2003) - DJ Jackie Christie - Made 4 U RAD 90079-2 (Motéma, 2004)
- Babatunde Lea - Suite Unseen: Summoner of the Ghost MTM 00002 (Motéma, 2004)
- Marc CaryMarc CaryMarc Cary is a post bop jazz pianist based out of New York City. Cary has played and recorded with several well-known musicians, including Dizzy Gillespie, Betty Carter, Arthur Taylor, Abbey Lincoln, Erykah Badu, Meshell Ndegeocello, Stefon Harris, Lauryn Hill, Ani DiFranco, Jackie McLean, and...
- Focus MTM-00005 (Motéma, 2006) - Amy LondonAmy LondonAmy London is a jazz singer from Teaneck, New Jersey, United States.London grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio. She moved to Manhattan in 1980, and moved to Teaneck with her husband, guitarist Roni Ben-Hur, and daughters, Sofia and Anna, in 1998....
- When I Look into Your Eyes MTM-00011 (Motéma, 2007) - Rufus ReidRufus ReidRufus Reid is an American jazz bassist, educator, and composer. He lives in Teaneck, New Jersey.-Personal history:...
Quintet - Live at the Kennedy Center MTM-00009 (CD+DVD) (Motéma, 2007) - Roni Ben-HurRoni Ben-HurRoni Ben-Hur is a Tunisian-Israeli bebop jazz guitarist who emigrated to the United States in 1985. His third CD, Anna's Dance, was rated by The Village Voice as one of the best jazz CDs of 2001...
- Keepin' It Open 232537 (Motéma, 2007) - Pete LevinPete LevinPete Levin is a jazz keyboardist, composer, and horn player with a 15-year association with the Gil Evans Orchestra and an 8-year association with Jimmy Giuffre. As a bandleader, he produced the album Deacon Blues in 2007...
- Deacon Blues MTM-0008 (Motéma, 2007) - Roni Ben-Hur, Gene BertonciniGene Bertoncini-Biography:Bertoncini was born in New York City, where he was raised in a musical family. His father played guitar and harmonica. Bertoncini began playing guitar at age seven and by age sixteen was appearing on television. He graduated from high school and attended the University of Notre Dame,...
- Smile: Jazz Therapy, Volume 1 MTM – 00018 (Motéma, 2008) - The New Jazz Composers OctetThe New Jazz Composers OctetThe New Jazz Composers Octet is an all-acoustic jazz ensemble founded by trumpeter/arranger David Weiss in 1996. NPR's Josh Jackson described them as "part New York hustle and part writer's workshop, all of it redolent with the aroma of newness." The title track of The Turning Gate won the group...
- The Turning Gate MTM-00019 (Motéma, 2008) - K.J. Denhert - Dal Vivo a Umbria Jazz MTM – 00017 (Motéma, 2008)
- Antonio CiaccaAntonio CiaccaAntonio Ciacca is an Italian-American jazz pianist, Instructor at the Juilliard School, and Director of Programming at Jazz at Lincoln Center.-Biography:...
Quintet - Rush Life 232536 (Motéma, 2008) - Alexis ColeAlexis ColeAlexis Cole is a New York City-based jazz vocalist with five albums to her credit. She has performed at Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola , Smoke, The Oak Room, and The Kitano, among others...
- The Greatest Gift MTM-26 (Motéma, 2009) - Babatunde Lea's Umbo Weti: A Tribute to Leon ThomasLeon ThomasAmos Leon Thomas Jr was an American avant garde jazz singer from East St. Louis, Illinois.Thomas studied music at Tennessee State University. In the 1960s he was a vocalist for Count Basie and others....
MTM-25 (Motéma, 2009) - Tessa SouterTessa SouterTessa Souter is an English and Trinidadian singer-songwriter based in New York City, one of New York's leading jazz vocalists. Her music has Spanish, Northern African, Middle Eastern, Indian, Brazilian, flamenco, and Celtic influences...
- Obsession MTM-27 (Motéma, 2009) - Lynne Arriale - Nuance: The Bennett Studio Sessions MTM-00022 (Motéma, 2009)
- Charnett MoffettCharnett MoffettCharnett Moffett is an American jazz musician who plays piccolo bass, double bass and bass guitar.Moffett's given name was created as a combination of that of his father and that of Ornette Coleman...
- The Art of Improvisation MTM-21 (Motéma, 2009) - Randy WestonRandy WestonRandy Weston , is an American jazz pianist and composer, of Jamaican parentage.-Biography:Weston studied classical piano as a child. After serving in the U.S. Army during World War II, he ran a restaurant that was frequented by many of the leading bebop musicians...
- The Storyteller MTM-51 (Motéma, 2010) - Geri Allen and TimelineTimeline (band)Timeline is a contemporary jazz band consisting of Kenny Davis, , Kassa Overall , and Maurice Chestnut . They have been touring with Geri Allen since 2007. Their live album with Allen was a 2010 nominee for the Independent Music Awards. The group received the Monterey Jazz Festival's 2011 grant...
- Live MTM-42 (Motéma, 2010) - Patrick Stanfield JonesPatrick Stanfield JonesPatrick Stanfield Jones is a musician and singer-songwriter whose music is a mix of rock, jazz, and blues. He is a brother of transsexual jazz percussionist Koko Jones, and they have performed and recorded together. He has been a member of the touring casts of Jesus Christ Superstar and Oh,...
- A Heart and an Open Road MTM-39 (Motéma, 2010) - Charnett Moffett - Treasure MTM-43 (Motéma, 2010)
- Rufus Reid featuring Steve AlleeSteve AlleeSteve Allee is an American jazz musician and composer.Allee attended Ben Davis High Schoolin Indianapolis, Indiana. Allee was in a band during the early 1970s called the Baron Von Ohlen Quartet which self-released an album of the same name...
& Duduka da Fonseca - Out Front MTM-36 (Motéma, 2010) - Geri AllenGeri AllenGeri Allen is an American composer/pianist educator jazz pianist, raised in Detroit, Michigan, and educated in the Detroit Public Schools. Allen has worked with many of the greats of modern music, including Ornette Coleman, Ron Carter, Ravi Coltrane, Tony Williams, Dave Holland, Jack DeJohnette,...
- Flying Toward the Sound MTM-37 (Motéma, 2010) - Tomoko SugawaraTomoko SugawaraTomoko Sugawara is a harpist from Nara, Japan who grew up playing classical and Irish harp before learning to play the kugo or angular harp. With Swedish professor Bo Lawergren, she engineered a fully working model of a kugo and hired American harp builder Bill Campbell to construct it...
- Along the Silk Road MTM-31 (Motéma, 2010) - Antonio Ciacca Quintet - LagosLagosLagos is a port and the most populous conurbation in Nigeria. With a population of 7,937,932, it is currently the third most populous city in Africa after Cairo and Kinshasa, and currently estimated to be the second fastest growing city in Africa...
Blues MTM-32 (Motéma, 2010) - Monty AlexanderMonty AlexanderMonty Alexander is a jazz pianist and melodica player. His playing has a strong Caribbean influence and swinging feeling, but he has also been influenced by Art Tatum, Oscar Peterson, Wynton Kelly, and Ahmad Jamal.-Biography:Alexander discovered the piano at the age of 4, taking classical music...
- Harlem - Kingston Express Live! MTM-67 (Motéma, 2011) - Jean-Michel PilcJean-Michel PilcJean-Michel Pilc is a self-taught French-born jazz pianist currently residing in New York. His technical ability has drawn comparisons to Michel Petrucciani, McCoy Tyner, and Cecil Taylor. Of particular note is Pilc's left-hand technique, which provides an almost ambidextrous approach to the...
- Essential MTM-61 (Motéma, 2011) - Nilson MattaNilson MattaNilson Matta is a premier Brazilian bassist and composer. He has been based in New York City since 1985. He is also known for his work with Trio Da Paz, Don Pullen African Brazilian Connection, Joe Henderson, Yo Yo Ma and Nilson Matta's Brazilian Voyage....
and Roni Ben-Hur with Victor LewisVictor LewisVictor Lewis is an American jazz drummer, a major force in the genre since the 1980s.-As leader:*1992: Family Portrait - with John Stubblefield, Edward Simon, Cecil McBee, Don Alias, Jumma Santos...
and CaféCafé (musician)Café is the stage name of Edson Aparecido da Silva, sometimes credited as Edson da Silva or Café da Silva, a percussionist, singer, composer, and music producer born in Villa Maria, São Paulo, Brazil. He moved to the U.S...
- Mojave - Jazz Therapy, Vol. 3 MTM-64 (Motéma, 2011) - Pilc Moutin Hoenig – ‘’Threedom’’ MTM-72 (Motéma, 2011)
External links
- Official site
- Jana Herzen at AllMusic
- Jana Herzen at albumcredits.com