Tina Raymond is a unique voice in the contemporary extemporized music scene. The LA-based drummer, composer, bandleader, and educator is known for her ability to unify traditional jazz vocabulary, African polyrhythms, and classical percussion technique.
With a history of collaborations, touring the US, Europe, and Asia as a leader and bandmember, her recordings include Esthesis Quartet’s second album, “Time Zones” (Ears&Eyes 2023), Esthesis Quartet’s self-titled debut album (Orenda 2022), Boom Sessions Volume III with Dan Rosenboom, Gary Fukushima, and Eric Revis (Orenda 2022), to name a few.
Raymond has rightly received much acclaim and recognition, including the DownBeat Educator Achievement Award (2020) Her contribution to music and teaching include a directorship of Jazz Studies at California State University Northridge and supportive roles at Los Angeles City College, The Herbie Hancock Institute, University of Michigan, Bard College, and Idyllwild Arts.
Her latest release for Imani Records, titled Divinations, is released this October. This album, her second record as a leader, is packed with colorful inundations of notes, riffs, and arresting bouts. The track titled Seven of Wands is particularly absorbing, with its sense of full-out and fluid expressionism. Divinations is an exhibition of Raymond’s musical dexterity and responsiveness to original compositions inspired by tarot cards from various decks – A traditional Rider deck, a prairie nature deck illustrated by Lesley Ann Wheeler, and The Gentle Goddess deck created and illustrated by Mariza Ryce Aparicio-Tovar of Mari in the Sky (thegentletarot.com). The album will be released this October 6th, 2023.
For more information on Tina Raymond visit www.tinaraymond.com
Images provided by Chris DiGirolamo
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