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New York vocalist Kendra Shank and Portland guitarist John Stowell have been having musical conversations for three decades, resulting in a deep synergy. “New York Conversations” – their co-led duo CD dubbed “magical…ingenious…original” by the Wall Street Journal – pushes boundaries with a mix of modern jazz originals, reimagined standards, bossas, folk influences, and improvised pieces. Stowell plays pianistic chords and rich unexpected harmonies on a colourful array of guitars: electric, steel string acoustic, nylon acoustic, and fretless. In addition to her soulful interpretations of lyrics, Shank employs electronic looping and effects to improvise multi-layered wordless collages in organic interplay with Stowell.

Shank – who has also performed with Abbey Lincoln, Fred Hersch, Geoffrey Keezer, Frank Kimbrough, and Matt Wilson – sounds like “sunlight shining through a stained-glass window, her crystalline tone illuminating each song. Working her voice like a horn, she phrases inventively, whether crisp and sizzling or sensuously smoky” (Jazz Times). Stowell has also performed with Tom Harrell, David Friesen, David Liebman, Lionel Hampton, Art Farmer, and Larry Coryell who declared “John Stowell plays jazz, but he doesn’t use any of the clichés; he has an incredible originality. John is a master creator.”

With Kendra Shank voice/looper and John Stowell guitars.