tESSA SOUTER’S NEW ALBUM, SHADOWS AND SILENCE: THE ERIK SATIE PROJECT, COMING SPRING 2025

Taking the French composer’s music as its beating heart, its arteries branching into other vital inspirations, Shadows & Silence: The Erik Satie Project, pairs chamber jazz interpretations of Erik Satie’s most famous melodies with Grammy-nominated lyricist Tessa Souter’s evocative lyrics, along with two complementary pieces from Miles Davis’s seminal ESP album, a Sérgio Mendes/Lani Hall cover and two classic French chansons.

“I simply cannot breathe. I don’t remember ever feeling that way about a song, or a singer, until now. Her gifts in communicating music directly from and to the heart is truly special.” Raul Da Gama, Jazz Journalist

Featuring the combined talents of Tessa’s long-time core band – Grammy-winning pianist Luis Perdomo, recent Grammy nominee, bassist Yasushi Nakamura, and legendary drummer Billy Drummond (plus guest artists Nadje Noordhuis on trumpet and flugelhorn and Steve Wilson on soprano saxophone) – this is Erik Satie as you have never heard him. “I thought it was a great idea of hers to do the music of Erik Satie. I’ve heard the odd Satie piece in a jazz context, but this is the first time I’ve heard a whole album, and with lyrics. I thought it turned out great. It suits her vibe. Tessa’s singing is elegant and very beautiful and it’s for real – the way she is. It makes you feel something and that’s what you want,” says Drummond. Yasushi Nakamura has been playing with Tessa for over ten years in various configurations, from duo to quintet. “Tessa is definitely one of the great singers of New York with a very unique and beautiful voice,” he says. “And I feel very special, because one of the songs, Gymnopedie Number 1 (‘Rayga’s Song’) she wrote the lyrics for my son. I can’t wait for people to hear it.”

“An artist with the talent and the imagination to match her compelling musical visions” Don Heckman

Over the course of six months or so, Tessa would bring pieces she’d written lyrics for to Perdomo and they’d bat around ideas. “It was really interesting for me to work on,” says Perdomo. “One of my teachers, the late Sir Roland Hanna, had played some of this music with his trio in a jazz context, but here we’re taking it to a different level. And then you bring all the sophistication of Tessa and her lyrics. They give you a different point of view as to where the music should be.” Perdomo gifted Souter with two new arrangements of Gnossienne No. 1 (‘A Song For You’) and Gnossienne No. 3 (‘Holding on to Beauty’), which she loved. “I was really struck by how redolent of the lyrics they were. I think you would know what the songs are about even if you didn’t speak a word of English. But you might be forgiven for not realizing they are Satie,” she says. “I listened to a lot of jazz interpretations of Satie while I was researching for this album. But none that took Satie out to the extent that Luis did with his arrangements, or that Billy did in the studio with Gymnopedie No. 3 (‘D’ou Venons Nous’). Everyone on the album is so completely in the moment in the true spirit of jazz and they are all such incredible musicians I trust them completely to go anywhere they want to. I laugh when I tell people what the album is and they say they love Satie, because this is Satie turned on its head.” Shadows & Silence: The Erik Satie Project will be released with full tour publicity support from DL Media (PR) and Groov Marketing (radio)