Human
creativity,
shared.

We're drawn to music, not only for the pure enjoyment of sound, but I think most of us feel it’s something far deeper.  Music draws us into soul-searching, and can even bring us to a place of transformation and healing. And science now confirms that what our hearts have always felt is real: music has the ability to heal.

I am launching a project called "American Crow: A Narrative in Notes and Frames." My hope is that this piece, that will be recorded as sound and video, can bring healing. That it will uncover something within us that we’ve probably long taken for granted, something beautiful and deeply human – but as we are learning, that is also fragile and needs to be nurtured and cherished: the art of listening.

Jazz is the perfect illustrator. A true jazz improvisor thrives on listening: waiting, responding, considering, reconsidering, responding again, and maybe in ways that surprise even the improvisor. Jazz is at its best when everyone is vulnerable. Improvisation asks everyone to risk what they think they know, and offers them an opportunity to discover something new in themselves. Jazz shines a light on what we are allowing to slip in our brittle and fractured world, making this art form more relevant today than ever before.

"American Crow" begins with distressed Americana, but soon enough submerges and dissolves into retrospection, a place and time I remember from my Midwestern childhood, when people could listen to one another. Space existed. And generally, people would look for compromise and consensus. People who saw things differently could still speak respectfully – they could like one another, even love one another.

Mike Rodriguez on trumpet will begin his improvisation in a fashion of listening, never talking-over, as he encounters a pastoral theme in the ensemble and rhythm section. But in time, the intensity of language ramps up, the volume increases: spewing, sparring, impenetrable statements, a society at verbal war, screaming from their echo chambers. When the vitriol morphs into just a single churning dark din that feels impossible to untangle, Jeff Miles on guitar longingly recalls the pastoral theme. Mike's response respond to Jeff’s guitar over the dark din, as if to ask, "Do we want to find our way back?" and "Can we find our way back?"

Please join us on our mission to find our way back through notes and frames.

The composition "American Crow" was originally commissioned by Emory University, where it was also premiered by the Maria Schneider Orchestra. 

Welcome to The Hallelujah Project.  By participating in this project you will have the opportunity to be a part of the creation of a LTD Edition vinyl single of Renée's version of Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah remastered for vinyl.

Proceeds will benefit the Renée Fleming Foundation with their mission in helping to build the future of music and health research.

When I conceived the Two-O-Duo project, I wanted to create something that captured the true spirit of jazz collaboration—not just musicians playing together, but artists choosing and creating music specifically for each other. My son Gerald, who has become one of the great pianists of his generation with his own distinctive voice, brings a harmonic curiosity and artistic exploration that continually amazes me. René Marie, the fearless vocalist and composer who started her professional career at 42, represents everything I admire about artists who serve the music first with her truth-telling original songs. Each of us selected pieces and created interpretations with the others specifically in mind.

The beautiful thing about this project is how it represents jazz as it should be: deeply personal, generous, and exploratory. We're three artists at different stages of our careers—Gerald is establishing himself as a major voice in contemporary jazz, and René brings her unique blend of jazz, folk, and R&B with an uncompromising commitment to honest songwriting. But when we come together, it's not about our individual achievements—it's about creating something that could only exist through this specific collaboration. The fact that we also recorded a track with all three of us together felt like the natural culmination of this musical conversation.

This is music that serves the art form first, created by people who understand that the spirit of jazz is always freedom, always looking ahead while honoring the profound traditions that came before us. The Two-O-Duo project (get it?) is our invitation for listeners to experience the intimacy and generosity that happens when musicians truly listen to each other and create something beautiful together.

I hope you will join us.