Born: September 24, 1954 Primary Instrument: Vocal
Lisa Sokolov is a frontline New York jazz vocalist, improviser and composer. Her work embraces the best of new music, free and straight ahead jazz. Her recordings angel Rodeo, Lazy Afternoon and Presence have all received Best CD of the Year citations and press kudos. DownBeat magazine cites “Presence” as 5 stars, Best new Release of 2004 and their 2005 critics poll adds Sokolov onto their rising star vocalist list. Her new long awaited “A Quiet Thing” has once again made the CMJ Music charts and is being met with wide critical acclaim. Her own studies began as a classical pianist and singer with conservatory prep education and traditional musical training. Her intrigue with the music of John Coltrane led her to search out Coltrane's bassist Jimmy Garrison at Bennington College in Vermont. Choosing this school, she found herself able to study with trumpeter Bill Dixon, saxophonist Jimmy Lyons, and drummer Milford Graves, as well as composers Vivian Fine and Louis Calabro.
Arriving on the New York scene in 1977, Lisa began collaborating with bassist William Parker. This collaboration continues. These years included working in trio with singers Ellen Christie and Jeanne Lee. Lisa also was heard regularly with pianists Wayne Horvitz and Robin Holcomb in the days of Studio Henry. Indeed over the years she has worked with many new music and jazz notables including Cecil Taylor, Rashid Ali, Badal Roy, Andrew Cyrille, Mark Dresser, Jimmy Lyons, Irene Schweitzer, Steve McCall, Butch Morris, Gerry Hemingway, Didi Jackson, Blue “Gene” Tyranny, Hilton Ruiz, Mike Richmond, and Jim McNeely.
Her performances include solos, duets, quartets, big bands, (she has recorded with William Parkers Little Huey Orchestra and in duo for William’s Song Cycle) and her own Voice/Movement/Theater work and choral works. She has been heard at the Montreaux Jazz Festival, The Stimmen Festival, Opera House of Lyons, the Spoleto Festival, the Kool Jazz Festival., The Vision Festival, Havana International Jazz Festival, the Tampere Jazz Happening, Brisbane Festival, The Knitting Factory, The Bottom Line, Alice Tully Hall, Symphony Space and many other venues. Lisa has recorded on Soul Note, Uneet, Aum, Boxholder, Between the Lines and Laughing Horse Records.
Sokolov is the originator of the method of Embodied VoiceWork, a vocal improvisation method which she teaches at The Experimental Theater Wing at New York University, Tisch School of the Arts where she is a full professor. She was also on the faculty of The Graduate Program of Music Therapy at NYU for ten years. Ms. Sokolov is invited internationally to perform, teach workshops and master classes in her vocal techniques to artists, therapists, physicians and people just wanting to contact, connect and sing. Her performance and vocal techniques have been written up in magazines, newspapers and in texts on improvisation.. Her work as a lay cantor has been featured in A CBS Special, “Sacred Art; Ancient Voices” Lisa is also acknowledged for her contribution to the field of Music Therapy in her trainings, work and writing on the wider application of the role of voice in this culture. She is the Director of The Institute for Embodied VoiceWork in New York where she trains post-graduate music therapists and physicians and is often the keynote speaker at conferences, institutes and universities throughout the world.
A more extensive biography can be found in;
Growing Up with Jazz 24 musicians talk about their Lives and Careers Royal Stokes Oxford University Press
More in depth writing about her work in Music Therapy and Human Potential work can be found in;
Music, The Breath and Health:Advances in Integrative Music Therapy Chapter Author; Opening to Breath Satchmo Press 2009
Improvisational Methods in Music Therapy ‘The Sokolov Method” Ken Briuscia Barcelona Press
Awards:
Presence gets 5 star masterpiece from Downbeat and BEst of the Year Sokolov gets listed as Rising star vocalist Downbeat 2005A Quiet Thing
Laughing Horse Records
2009
Sokolov Solo Live DVD
Laughing Horse Records
2008
Presence
Laughing Horse Records
2004
Lazy Afternoon
Laughing Horse Records
1999
Angel Rodeo
Laughing Horse Records
1993
As Featured Vocalist
2007 - SpiritWorld, DVD with William Parker, Oluyemi Thomas, Joe Mcphee, Lisa Sokolov Jeff Schlanger
2002 - Songs, Gerry Hemingway, Between the Lines
1999 - Song Cycle, William Parker, Boxholder
1998 - Live at Irving Plaza, Ellen Christi & Menage, Soul Note
1997 - Sunrise in the Tone World, The Little Huey Creative Music Orchestra, AUM Fidelity
1992 - Better World, Illustrio, Uneet Records
As Contributor
2006 - Sudden Sunsets Live from Alice Tully Hall, Downtown Music Works
2005 - Brazilliance, Derrick Jordan, World Soul Records
2005 - Vision, Vol. 3, [CD/DVD] Various Artists
2004 - Super String Theory, Derrick Jordan, World Soul Records
2003 - World of Love, Ellipsis Arts, Various Artists
2003 - American Lullaby, Ellipsis Arts, Various Artists
2002 - Mother Earth Lullaby, Ellipsis Arts, Various Artists
2001 - Mama's Lullaby, Ellipsis Arts, Various Artists
Disclaimer: All About Jazz is not responsible for the accuracy of the discographical data at the website(s) provided. If a link is no longer valid, please contact discography@allaboutjazz.com. Thank you.
Primary Instrument:
Vocal
Location:
Nyack, NY
Clinic/Workshop Information:
A Workshop in Embodied VoiceWork with Lisa Sokolov
"Voice through the Body to the Self" is a workshop exploring the resources
and the power within the process of finding and freeing one's voice. Through
free vocal improvisation each person connects with their own music, as well
as the experience of improvising with others. The tools of this work are
breath, tone, touch, imagery and vocal improvisation. Through a series of
developmentally sequenced exercises we use these tools to connect to
impulse and information in the body. We then move into a process of
exploration, awareness, release, strengthening and integration of the body,
the voice and the self. Individual work evolves into duet and group work.
The goal of the work is to embody the voice, to come more fully into one’s
body, one’s sound, one’s music and one’s expressiveness.
What is it to bring one’s awareness and breath and sound from the entire
body and being? What process ensues from this experience?
Embodied VoiceWork is about deep listening. It is about connecting into
and sensing our bodies. It is about giving voice to what is heard and felt.
After a five-day session individuals can expect to be more grounded in their
bodies and be able to improvise and sing more freely and expressively. They
will be more fluent in the language of music. Their listening skills will be
awakened both internally and externally. They will have come into a new
relationship with their own process and expressiveness. This work can open
individuals to a powerful experience of emotional, energetic and expressive
aliveness.
This work has been applied in the training of actors, dancers and
musicians in workshops in Europe, the US, Canada and in long-term training
at the Experimental Theater Wing at New York University. This work is also
used for training of therapists, physicians, and has been applied in as widely
divergent contexts as The Big Apple Circus and The Jewish Theological
Seminary workshops.
√ A Workshop in Embodied VoiceWork with Lisa Sokolov
"Voice through the Body to the Self" is a workshop exploring the resources
and the power within the process of finding and freeing one's voice. Through
free vocal improvisation each person connects with their own music, as well
as the experience of improvising with others. The tools of this work are
breath, tone, touch, imagery and vocal improvisation. Through a series of
developmentally sequenced exercises we use these tools to connect to
impulse and information in the body. We then move into a process of
exploration, awareness, release, strengthening and integration of the body,
the voice and the self. Individual work evolves into duet and group work.
The goal of the work is to embody the voice, to come more fully into one’s
body, one’s sound, one’s music and one’s expressiveness.
What is it to bring one’s awareness and breath and sound from the entire
body and being? What process ensues from this experience?
Embodied VoiceWork is about deep listening. It is about connecting into
and sensing our bodies. It is about giving voice to what is heard and felt.
After a five-day session individuals can expect to be more grounded in their
bodies and be able to improvise and sing more freely and expressively. They
will be more fluent in the language of music. Their listening skills will be
awakened both internally and externally. They will have come into a new
relationship with their own process and expressiveness. This work can open
individuals to a powerful experience of emotional, energetic and expressive
aliveness.
This work has been applied in the training of actors, dancers and
musicians in workshops in Europe, the US, Canada and in long-term training
at the Experimental Theater Wing at New York University. This work is also
used for training of therapists, physicians, and has been applied in as widely
divergent contexts as The Big Apple Circus and The Jewish Theological
Seminary workshops.
