Monica Shriver / Monica Shriver Quartet featuring guest artist Rahsaan Barber

Monica Shriver / Monica Shriver Quartet featuring guest artist Rahsaan Barber
Nashville, TN
Grant amount: $15,000

About the Artist

The Monica Shriver Quartet was originally formed in Phoenix, AZ in 2012, and over the next eight years, regularly performed jazz standards and original compositions at area venues including Winfield’s, Sacred Grounds, and The Nash, as well as in communal spaces including churches, museums, community theaters and schools throughout Arizona. Beginning in 2015 and continuing for five years, Shriver annually brought guitarist and composer Stan Smith to Phoenix (from Columbus, OH) as a guest performer for the quartet's shows at The Nash and surrounding areas, including northern Arizona. The ensemble performed a combination of original music and free group improvisations. In 2016, Monica started incorporating her visual art into the concert experience and the MSQ’s concerts became often presented in tandem with her abstract visual art, resulting in a unique and powerful experience of sound and sight. The music of the MSQ draws on experimental and improvisatory forms and settings, and takes much inspiration from groundbreaking artists such as Ornette Coleman, Pharoah Sanders, John Coltrane, Don Cherry, and others, who are at times associated with modern approaches to jazz performance and composition. In June of 2020, Monica moved to Nashville and found success with the current members of the ensemble - Matt Endahl, Jon Estes, and Derrek Phillips - with which she completed recording sessions in April and December of 2022. One of their songs, “Knom (an ode to Thelonious Monk)”, written by Monica Shriver, features Rahsaan Barber and was released exclusively on YouTube in Sept 2022. The ensemble’s first released single, “I Wanna Go Nowhere With You” composed by Monica Shriver, was released in November 2022 and includes one of her abstract art paintings as the cover art. This tour will be in support of Monica's debut album, Acceptance, which will be released July 1, 2023. The personnel for this tour in July would include Matt Endahl on piano and keyboards, Alec Newnam on bass, Derrek Phillips on drums and percussion, and special guest Rahsaan Barber on saxophones.