At the famed Montreux Jazz Festival in 2007, Aimée entered and won the vocal competition, recording her debut album with the prize money. It was the first of many such accolades to come, including winning the Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Vocal Competition and becoming a finalist in the Thelonious Monk Jazz Vocal Competition, as well as appearing on the TV5MONDE series Talent Acoustic.

Aimée has also recorded a pair of albums with Brazilian guitarist Diego Figueiredo, followed by a live album featuring trumpet great Roy Hargrove. In 2014, Aimée made her major label debut with the release of “It’s A Good Day” on Mack Avenue Records. Around the same time, the esteemed American composer Stephen Sondheim recognized Aimée’s captivating gift for storytelling through song and hand-picked her to star alongside the legendary Bernadette Peters in an Encores Special Presentation tribute to Sondheim at New York’s City Center in November 2013, backed by Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra.

Recent collaborations include live recordings with Emmet Cohen and his trio at “Live From Emmet’s Place”, a new duo album with Michael Valeanu, the upcoming “Le Petite Fleur” with Adonis Rose and the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra’s NOJO 7, a new recording with Pomplamoose, a duo project with pianist Ryan Hanseler, and more.

PROGRAMMING

**NEW — Cyrille Aimee, Adonis Rose and the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra “Petite Fleur” 

This collaboration tells the love story, musical connection, and history between France and the city of New Orleans. A new album was recorded late last year and is currently being mixed and mastered and is being released via Storyville Summer/Early Fall 2021.  One Sheet | Photos

Songs: the Music of Allen Toussaint press release: https://t.co/yPnLAEmhDY

New Orleans is a musical melting pot that has been cooking up music royalty for nearly a century. The New Orleans Jazz Orchestra (NOJO), now in its seventeenth year, is dedicated to preserving the tradition of New Orleans music and culture while exploring the works of artists that would be considered outside of the realm of jazz. Allen Toussaint and his music have influenced decades of musicians, bands, composers and listeners alike. Not only in New Orleans, but globally. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998. To cover Toussaint’s music with integrity and love was important to NOJO’s Artistic Director, Adonis Rose, especially since he felt it was perfect long before any artists covered it. It is NOJO’s mission and responsibility to honor all New Orleans musicians and expose their music to the world and share the many contributions they have made to the arts.

The renowned New Orleans Jazz Orchestra reflects on the wide-ranging influence of the Big Easy’s own Allen Toussaint, the legendary composer, singer, pianist, and producer, with the March 29, 2019, digital release of Songs: The Music of Allen Toussaint on Storyville Records. The album features six songs by Toussaint and one associated with him, as well as two original tribute pieces. It also marks the NOJO leadership debut of drummer/artistic director Adonis Rose, who assumed the mantle in 2016 to navigate the 18-piece orchestra out of the troubled waters surrounding its now-departed founder.

Toussaint, who passed away in 2015, left his deepest footprints in R&B and rock ‘n’ roll. However, he was also a major figure in the development of New Orleans funk; resonated in country music (by way of Glen Campbell’s smash hit cover of “Southern Nights”); and, of course, was steeped in jazz. “[It] was in his blood,” Rose says. “There’s always some connection to jazz: When you’re from New Orleans, there’s no way around it.”

When frequent NOJO collaborator Dee Dee Bridgewater remarked that she’d never heard a big band take on Toussaint’s music, Rose was instantly inspired and said “You know what? Yes. That’s a great idea. Let’s dig into this and make it happen!”

The results honor not only Toussaint but the broader musical culture of his hometown. The iconic “Working in the Coal Mine” does not feature a singer, but the band members make New Orleans shouts out of its well.

PLAYBILL

http://bit.ly/2tPF2fU

RECORDINGS

Songs: The Music of Allen Toussaint:  Streaming / MP3  (Storyville 3/2019)

PRESS & REVIEWS

SONGS: The Music of Allen Toussaint

Toronto Music Report (Feb2020)

Press Herald (Feb2020)

Adonis Rose and NOJO featuring Dee Dee Bridgewater “Dee Dee’s Feathers”

Dee Dee Bridgewater’s new album, Dee Dee’s Feathers, is her debut album on OKeh Records. It is also the first collaboration of the three-time Grammy Award®-winning jazz singer and the Grammy Award®- winning New Orleans Jazz Orchestra (NOJO). Dee Dee’s Feathers is a modern vision of New Orleans and features traditional songs such as “Big Chief,” “St. James Infirmary” and “What a Wonderful World” along with new compositions “Congo Square” and “C’est ici que je t’aime.” The album transports the listener through the historic New Orleans neighborhood of Treme. The launch of the album will be tied into the NOJO s New Orleans Jazz Market in Downtown New Orleans, which will open in the spring of 2015 as the premier venue for jazz in the city. Dee Dee is serving on the NOJO board and the New Orleans Jazz Market main stage will be named after her marking the first time a major stage in the city has been named after a jazz musician. The city of New Orleans will use music from Dee Dee s Feathers in all of their advertising in 2015.