Description
Take Off Collective members Ole Mathisen (sax), Matthew Garrison (bass) and Marko Djordjevic (drums) became friends at Boston’s Berklee College of Music as the second millennium was winding down. Since then, they have built careers as bandleaders; sidemen to world renown notables as well as unique and innovative instrumentalist.
Their eclectic tastes, penchant for honest and unpremeditated improvisation and a thirty-year strong friendship brought them to a musical situation different from any other they have taken part in to date.
Neither leaders nor sidemen, they are real-time composers and performers of music that is invented on stage in front of an audience. Their music has been described as virtuosic, adventurous, intense, innovative, disorienting, provocative, engaging…
Each Take Off Collective concert is a moment ceasing, supremely intimate, music-transcending event.
Having an exquisite voice, a disarmingly wide range and a style that is deeply rooted in the tradition of the great jazz vocalists, Gillian Margot possesses a gift of storytelling and stunning lyrical delivery. A native of Toronto, Canada, Margot studied under a generation of jazz legends including Oscar Peterson, Freddy Cole, Carol Welsman, and Norman Simmons. Equally at home in the musical worlds of jazz, R&B, chamber, and pop, she has been invited to perform in major venues worldwide with a long list of top-tier talent, including rock icon Sting, famed soprano Kathleen Battle, jazz stars Jeremy Pelt and Chris Botti, and pianists Robert Glasper and Geoffrey Keezer. Additionally, her voice can be heard in commercials, feature films, and television programs including Jane Goodall’s Wild Chimpanzees (IMAX 2002), New Year (Doublesee 2010), Lethal Weapon (FOX 2016), The Young and The Restless (2016-2019), and One Good Reason (Alone.Calm 2020). Margot’s new album entitled Power Flower, builds on her unique and emotive interpretations of American Standards. A deeply soothing homage to her influences in the Jazz, Pop, and Funk of the 70s and 80s, Margot spent two and a half years building the work; selecting seasoned titans Geoffrey Keezer, Billy Kilson, Seamus Blake, Ingrid Jensen, and Munyungo Jackson. Included in the liner notes is the phrase ‘All vocals recorded without use of any pitch correction technology,’ which sums up the attention she has paid to Power Flower. The song selection reveals the same care; three rare covers from Stevie Wonder, Wayne Shorter, and Joe Sample are balanced with three originals and a wonderful arrangement of the traditional song “Black Is The Color (Of My True Love’s Hair).” Power Flower released in Japan in December 2019 (Coreport), globally in October 2020 (Ropeadope Records) and on vinyl in March 2021. GILLIAN MARGOT — Artist Bio
