Naomi Moon Siegel is out to Shatter The Glass Sanctuary with her trombone on her creatively risky and personally revealing new album — showcasing today on Tinnitist.
The trailblazing artist’s third album is a set of adventurous original works that chronicles her adjustment to small-town living in Montana after residing for many years in Seattle. Meticulously crafted and expertly rendered, her music follows her inward journey of emotional highs and lows, propelled ever forward by a stellar sextet of acclaimed Seattle musicians including pianist Marina Albero, guitarist Andy Coe, percussionist Christopher Icasiano, trumpeter Ray Larsen, and bassist Kelsey Mines. Produced by award-winning drummer and mentor Allison Miller, Shatter The Glass Sanctuary is Siegel’s most ambitious and sweeping statement yet, and a showcase of her prowess as a composer, improviser, bandleader, and trombonist.
“The title Shatter The Glass Sanctuary comes from a time when I was struggling to create a musical and personal home in Missoula,” Siegel says. “Writing this music was a catharsis for me, as I broke down and broke open to allow myself to feel the grief and heartbreak of leaving a city and community I loved, even as I was so curious about living in a smaller community more integrated with nature. This music is about not holding things so preciously on a pedestal. It’s about knocking down cultural walls and emotional silos to make space for a wide spectrum of feelings from depression and isolation to joy. It is about my life in Missoula, letting myself experience this expansive place. It’s about grief, paradox, and unexpected connection.”
Throughout the album, Siegel’s compositions interweave improvisation with written material seamlessly. The music spans a wide range of styles from a slow, lyrical ballad to raucous free jazz, holding paradox as a central premise throughout the album. The emotional centerpiece is the title suite Shatter The Glass Sanctuary Suite, which sets the tone for the entire record over its three movements.
An award-winning musician, improviser, composer and educator, Siegel is committed to creating a positive, transformative culture beyond conventional genre norms. Her original musical vocabulary draws on the richness of a variety of global musical traditions and the sonorities of the natural world. Born in western Massachusetts, she grew up in the Chicago and Boston areas. She has been an innovative performer and recording artist since graduating from Oberlin Conservatory in 2006. Siegel kicked off her professional career on the West Coast in Oakland, and came of age as a composer and bandleader in Seattle’s thriving improv scene.
Siegel explores the trombone as a vehicle for sonic expression colored by breath, spit, and physicality. A longtime collaborator with Wayne Horvitz, Siegel has performed with such luminaries as Jessica Lurie, Matthew Golombisky, Carmen Staaf, March Fourth Marching Band, Allison Miller, Julian Priester, The California Honeydrops, Martha Scanlan, Stuart Dempster, Skerik and Thione Diop. With saxophonist Kate Olson, Siegel formed the folk punk jazz duo Syrinx Effect, which has released four albums and performed around the United States.
Siegel is a recipient of Chamber Music America’s Performance Plus Grant, the Jazz Journalists Association’s Jazz Hero Award, Montana Art Council’s Artist Innovation Award, and Earshot Jazz’s Golden Ear Award for Emerging Artist Of The Year. She was honored to be selected as a member of Mutual Mentorship for Musicians fourth cohort — a program to empower and commission compositions by historically underrepresented gender identities in music.
An adjunct professor of trombone at the University of Montana, Siegel is a dedicated music educator. She also teaches guest artist clinics, private lessons, and is a faculty member at the Stanford Jazz Workshop. Siegel is a staunch advocate for intersectional gender justice in jazz and music settings, leading workshops to build awareness and work towards positive systemic shifts in our music culture.
Listen to Shatter The Glass Sanctuary below, watch some of her videos above, and join Naomi Moon Siegel on her website, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
