Vocalist and saxophonist Elena Maque was born in St. Petersburg, Russia.
A university-trained musician, Maque has spent years honing her craft and wowing audiences throughout Russia, Europe, and the United States. Her ability to cross-pollinate jazz with funk and pop has been a magnet for fans globally. As a result, it is not unusual to find a guest DJ scratching beats as Maque spices an up-tempo swing tune with sophistication while honoring the jazz vernacular in her execution.
Maque was already an established musician upon graduating from Mussorgsky College of Music in St. Petersburg, Russia. For a few years, she toured Russia and Europe with jazz Big Band led by Gennady Golshtein, “Saxophones of St. Petersburg.” This foundation gave her a strong focal point of style that illuminates her writing and informs her playing.
After moving to the U.S., Maque began collaborating with various musicians and bands throughout Seattle, Los Angeles and New York. She formed the Elena Maque Quartet, garnering enthusiastic fans and ample work in the USA. In 2017, Elena and D’Vonne Lewis started SoulCanvas, - an art project that featured and promoted talented artists. Their desire was to create a platform where various musicians, dancers, artists, poets could present one of their original pieces in the context of SoulCanvas vision and style. Every few months, SoulCanvas put up social events that featured finest performers and gathered all kinds of art lovers to celebrate beauty and creativity. This same boundless creativity can be found in Elena’s transformative music.
In 2019, Maque began collaborating and recording her debut album Feel Again with Los Angeles-based legendary keyboardist and producer Scott Kinsey. The album is filled with six well-crafted originals and three innovative interpretations of well-known classics from the jazz, Brazilian and pop idioms.
Titled Feel Again, Maque as executive producer, and Kinsey as the music producer, collaborated on the project, taking a few tunes Maque had tracked with local musicians in Seattle and combined them with new sessions tracked in Los Angeles. Featuring heavyweights such as Gary Novak (George Benson, Chick Corea, Alanis Morrisette), Hadrien Feraud (Thundercat, Chick Corea, Kamasi Washington), GRAMMY- winning guitarist Leonardo Amuedo (Herbie Hancock, Stevie Wonder, Chris Botti), the result is a tasteful blend of jazz, funk, Latin, and pop genres.
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