Momentum: Portraits of Women In Motion (CD) by ELLEN ROWE OCTET *Genre: Jazz | Instrumental

Jazz pianist, composer and professor Ellen Rowe has created a collection of musical portraits of women heroes in the areas of music, sports, social justice, environmental advocacy and politics. Rowe composed pieces that are orchestrated for varying sizes of chamber jazz ensemble, ranging from quintet to octet. Some of the women included in the portraits include Michelle Obama, musicians Mary Lou Williams and Geri Allen, athletes Billie Jean King and Martina Navratilova, unsung black female heroines of the civil rights movement, singer/songwriters Joni Mitchell, Carly Simon and Carole King, animal researchers Dian Fossey and Jane Goodall, and long distance runners Joan Benoit Samuelson, Kathrine Switzer and Meghan Canfield Laws. The ensemble of players are top jazz players and in addition to Rowe, includes trumpeter Ingrid Jensen, saxophonists Virginia Mayhew, Lisa Parrott and Tia Fuller, trombonist Melissa Gardiner, bassists Marion Hayden and Marlene Rosenberg and drummer Allison Mill