Myra Melford The Image of Your Body

A veteran of the New York downtown scene, pianist Myra Melford is one of the elite women in jazz today. Melford's ongoing search for new sounds and new directions in her music led her to the harmonium, a small hand-pump organ traditionally used in Indian and Pakistani classical and devotional music. After returning from her harmonium studies in India, Melford waited nearly a year before she began writing new compositions based on her months abroad. The result is music for her electro-acoustic quartet, Be Bread, which features Pat Metheny trumpeter Cuong Vu and Cassandra Wilson guitarist Brandon Ross along with bassist Stomu Takeishi and drummer Elliot Humberto Kavee. Composing from the melodica, Melford writes music vibrant melodies for the band, which enriches the compositions with the wide range of timbres available through electronically manipulated sound. Placing greater emphasis on songlike forms which the band extends during improvisation, the music depends less on the instrumentation than on the personalities of the musicians involved in performing it.