Dot Jazz Series: Myrtle

Greater Ashmont Main Street and Mandorla Music Events are very pleased to co-present the 2019-2020 Dot Jazz Series at Peabody Hall in the Parish of All Saints Ashmont. Dot Jazz will take place on the second Thursday of the month from September 2019 until May 2020, with the exception of April when we’ll be on the third Thursday. Doors will open at 7pm.

Our March event will feature Myrtle, an experimental pop jazz ensemble featuring the vocal harmonies of Claire Dickson and Camila Ortiz and formed under the mentorship of the great vocalist and bassist Esperanza Spalding. Guitarist Magdalena Abrego and drummer Ian Askew will round out the band for this show.

Of their contribution to NPR Music’s 2019 Tiny Desk concert, ‘Shifted,’ WBUR’s Amelia A. Mason wrote, “In ‘Shifted,’ Myrtle casts a spell — and promptly breaks it. Singers Claire Dickson and Camila Ortiz begin in unison, with a soft chant that lifts into a dreamy melody. Things go as expected for a while: sweet harmonies; the barest brush of piano; some kind of ambient, tinkling percussion. Then, the singers land abruptly on a jarring, dissonant chord. They idle there, a little painfully, until at last the drums enter and the band begins a circuitous crescendo. Is it jazz disguised as folk? New Age with a sense of rhythm? Really quiet prog rock? The old categories are useless here. ‘Shifted’ is at once lovely and strange, a lullaby that lingers in discomfort.”