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Ekayani-Beyond the Labels
The Bozone-Nov. 8, 2005
With a make-it-new album and a series of exciting live Downtown NYC performances, a musical transformer is poised for a breakout. It’s a sweet summer night at the C-Note during New York’s annual Howl Festival, and the magic is in full swing for Ekayani and the Healing Band.

Dressed like an urban gypsy, shaking a tambourine and punctuating the music with her long, storytelling arms, the stunning singer and her empathetic band begin weaving a radiant web of story-songs, quasar beats, jazzy riffs and love songs from their debut CD, Full Length. And the packed house on Avenue C responds with cheers, claps and whistles. Something’s happening here, and everyone can feel the buzz. The Healing Band (Jerome Covington, guitar, Matt Aronoff, bass, and Rohin Khemani, drums and tablas) is getting into some serious grooves behind Ekayani’s city-born meditations and recitations, laying down the gamut from pulsating R&B to sparkling jazz inflections to crackling funk. The music cups Ekayani, supporting her as she reaches for another connection, another invitation. And there’s a communal vibe in the air between performers and audience, especially when Ekayani, singing to the crowd, tenderly urges her people to take care of themselves. “There’s a lot of love in here tonight,” she says. What to call this? Throw out all the old categories if you need to find a label for Ekayani, a musical transformer whose magical singing and songwriting are now radiating out of the Downtown musical scene.

World music? Yes, Ekayani’s musical sensibility started taking final shape in the seven years she lived in Paris, and she occasionally sings in French.

Jazz? There’s definitely a glamorous chanteuse spoiling to get out, right beneath the facade of the ultra-modern downtown diva.

Spoken word? No doubt an Ekayani performance can include poetry, singing and chanting in any mix of the three. But none of these categories really defines the nexus Ekayani embodies, the patch cords she joins between the physical and the spiritual, the empirical and the energetic, the romantic and the serious. New labels need to be thought up to describe her. Maybe “jazz word music” or “spoken world groove” are closer to catching the spirit of this truly original musician. Besides her commanding presence on-stage (she retains the grace, style and beauty of her time as a Parisian model), Ekayani is also a serious student of musical styles and composition. She has put in a rigorous apprenticeship over the past dozen years, honing a practiced ear and a voice, serious and sensual at once, that sounds like no one else. During her time in France, she met up with guitarist/composer Paul Mahoux, and his brilliant playing, music and intuitive arranging were the perfect complement to Ekayani’s maturing vocals and songwriting. The result of their partnership, Full Length, is a wide-ranging exploration of themes both physical and metaphysical, ranging from the serenities and anxieties of love to the quest for spiritual equality. Ekayani’s impressive range takes her from a spoken word meditation on a summer day in Paris (“Une Fille Qui Parle De Ses Desires”) to a gorgeous jazz ballad (“La Raihna”) to diva dance music (“Like Fire”) to a poetic, a cappella read on a modern tragic heroine (“Ophelia Drowns”).

Ekayani has supported Full Length with a series of gathering-the-clan gigs in her native New York City and radio appearances and webcasts on stations like WBAI, NPR and WFLO. She has also just recorded a DVD sampler with producer Darrell Briscoe. Ekayani is currently thinking ahead to her second CD, which she has already written all the songs for, as well as planning live shows both here and overseas.

To hear samples from Full Length visit "www.ekayani.com"