NORA McCARTHY BIO 

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Creative Vocal Artist, Composer, Poet, Lyricist, Improviser, Author and Educator

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Nora McCarthy is indeed a remarkable figure in the New York jazz scene. She possesses the earthiness of an early blues singer, the articulation, phrasing and timbre of a jazz trumpet. Her unique and original style has made her a prominent vocalist, composer, improviser, and poet.

 

McCarthy’s versatility is one of her strong points. She has demonstrated that she is comfortable with both the inside and the outside of musical expression. And whether she gets into free form, abstract improvisations, or performing standards, McCarthy is as expressive as she is unpredictable. Her adept and adventurous improvising is on a high level; she is a musical colorist eager to push the envelope. With a sound reminiscent of the great voices and horns in jazz, her burnished alto voice is steeped in the classic jazz and rhythm & blues tradition and is rich with a distinctive style that draws on both the spirituality of post-bop instrumentalists and the spirituality of post-bop vocal jazz. Nora’s ever-increasing need to expand her musical consciousness and convey a spiritual awareness through music is her creative motivation and inspiration.

McCarthy performs in every setting from a voice and saxophone duo to a twenty-piece orchestra. Her original compositions and arrangements are stunning works of art and include graphic compositions, soundscapes, and poetic architectures.

McCarthy currently leads the following groups: The Nora McCarthy Trio; Lyrical Duosity; Nora McCarthy Qu’ART’et; The People of Peace Quintet; The Panama Red Trio; Modern Voice Ensemble, and Manna For Thought Improvising Trio. She has been in collaboration with her husband alto saxophonist Jorge Sylvester for the past 23 years and as a result of this intensive collaboration, craftmanship, and discipline, their hard-won synergy has enabled them to create nine distinct creative new music/poetry projects which include the renowned ConceptualMotion 21-piece Orchestra, A Small Dream In Red Innovative Improvising Duo, Jorge Sylvester ACE (Afro-Caribbean-Experimental) Collective and the Extended Edition with Strings; Quartet Imagination; and an improvising octet, Spontaneous Expressions. Mayhem at Large, this group’s first CD was released in late 2021 and is a live performance captured at the Baha’i Center in March 2020.

Nora is a gifted poet and lyricist who has amassed a large body of prose, poetry, and word art that she’s written for her many musical projects as well as lyrics she’s penned for other well-known jazz compositions. Her powerfully moving delivery of the spoken word and interpretation of the lyrics reflect her deep and intense emotional capacity.

McCarthy’s living poem, "Today In America" is one such work that began in 2001 and is a time-lapsed look at ongoing events written in a collage format and delivered in the passionate poetic style of the great activist poets of the '60s and '70s. Written for the composition of the same title composed by alto saxophonist, Jorge Sylvester and performed by their ConceptualMotion Orchestra.

 

The importance of Nora’s work as a member of A Chorus of Poets and her affiliation with its founder, the late Conductor Lawrence D. “Butch” Morris from 2005 to 2015, cannot be overstated.

Nora’s long-term association with the legendary experimental Medicine Show Theatre on 52nd Street in NYC,  allowed her to enhance and hone her acting skills. Inspired and encouraged by its Co-Founder, Actor, and Artistic Director, Barbara Vann, and its Manager, Actor, and Poet, Chris Brandt, Nora was a member of the cast in Listen To Me—an Opera (Music by: Rainy Orteca—Text by Gertrude Stein). In addition, Nora played “Aunt Beth” in Moral Support, a drama written by Bill Considine and directed by Félix E. Gardón. Nora also participated in several on-stage readings at the MST over the years. Under the auspices of her MIC~ART Productions, Nora produced Take It OUT!! Tuesday at the Medicine Show every week between 2017 and 2018, a creative music series that presented New York City avant-garde instrumentalists, vocal artists, visual and movement artists, and poets including her and her creative partner, Jorge Sylvester's ConceptualMotion Orchestra, and their A Small Dream In Red Duo, that featured some of the finest and most highly esteemed musical artists, actors, and poets in NYC and its downtown community.

 
Through her vast experience in the jazz and creative music field, Nora has developed a spiritual and conceptual approach to teaching vocal artistry including unique improvisatory techniques that view singing through the lens of an interdisciplinary art form and published her first book entitled: The Spiritual Path to Finding Your Voice in the summer of 2024.

McCarthy and her groups have performed at the top jazz venues, concert halls, galleries, theaters, performance spaces, concert halls, universities, and music cafes throughout New York City, upstate New York, the Tri-State area, Massachusettes, Connecticut, and Ohio, Europe, and Panama. Some various recent performances with her groups and others: Nublu, NYC; Drom, NYC; Springfield, Massachusetts for North Hampton’s Jazz Shares Concert Series, UMass; Skoto’s Gallery, NYC; Joe's Pub at The Public Theatre, NYC; Gala event at the historic Walker House, Newark, NJ; The Bar Next Door, a well-known jazz listening room in Greenwich Village from 2014-2020. Other prestigious performances include an 18-year association with Mike Longo’s Jazz Tuesday at The Baha’i Center-Dizzy Gillespie Auditorium; The El Taller Latino-Americano, NYC; Arete Venue and Gallery, Brooklyn; 10-year relationship with The Medicine Show Theatre; NYC; Clement's Place Jazz - Newark, NJ, and Michiko Studios Music Series; NYC to name but a few. Nora’s earlier performances with her groups and those of other artists are numerous and include: The Blue Note; The Stone, The Jazz Gallery w/Frank Lacy Vibe Tribe; New School-ISIM (International Society for Improvising Musicians) Performances, Roulette, Queens College; Cuny College; Arts For Arts-Clemente Soto; Brucknerhaus, Linz, Austria; La Platea, Panama; and, the American Culture Center, Podgorica, Montenegro; Smoke; Smalls; The Metropolitan Room; Birdland; and, The Vision Festival, to name a few.

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DISCOGRAPHY

Mayhem at Large - the Last Baha'i, Spontaneous Expressions - (RedZenRecords™)

Manna For Thought  (RedZenRecords™)

blesSINGS  (RedZenRecords™) 

A Time For Love  (RedZenRecords™) 

Spirit Driven  (RedZenRecords™)

In The Language Of Dreams  (RedZenRecords™)

Toward The Hill of Joy  - George Brandon-Blue Unity Ensemble (Blue Unity Music)

Circle Completing  (RedZenRecords™)

A Small Dream In Red  (Sundown Jazz) (RedZenRecords™)

red&blue  (RedZenRecords™)

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