One might say Jennifer Cutting has a mystical, under the radar following. Those who know her – ADORE HER. And I do mean SHE REIGNS QUEEN. I should know because I lived for a while in her big, music-filled house in Takoma Park, Maryland when I was working up and down the East Coast. She is a magical blend of brains, beauty and wit that mesmerizes the a popular geek world, and fascinates the rest of us who, then, become geek-wanna-bees just to be part of the her hub-bub. She settles for nothing less than superb when writing a song – hitting her mark of true art every time. Her highly intelligent humor inspires laughter of the tallest and widest order. The song I chose for Glass Half Full is passionate and tribal in nature; powerful enough to be the closing selection. It is called Neptune Reel, and ends the CD with a rich Celtic call to the wild with the addition of a Bulgarian women’s chorus. The listener leaves empowered. Thank you, Jennifer. —Irene Young
From Jennifer Cutting Website:
www.oceanorchestra.com.
JENNIFER CUTTING happily blends careers as a bandleader, composer, instrumentalist, ethnomusicologist, and record producer. Blending the formal training of her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in music with a passion for both traditional and electronic musics, she is one of few women bandleaders working in her genre. With her previous band The New St. George, her recent CD Ocean: Songs for the Night Sea Journey, and her new live band the Ocean Orchestra, Cutting has pushed the boundaries of “Celtic,” “Folk” and “Folk-Rock,” creating arrangements with sweeping orchestral sounds, shimmering ethereal electronics, authentic traditional instruments and a hard-hitting rhythm section.
Cutting is a multiple award winner in all areas of her musical career. The New St. George earned her fifteen WAMMIE awards from the Washington Area Music Association. She won the 2003 WAMMIE for best contemporary folk instrumentalist. Most dramatically, she swept the 2004 WAMMIE awards, winning “Musician of the Year,” “Songwriter of the Year,” and “Best New Artist,” as well as “Album of the Year” and “Best Contemporary Folk Recording” for OCEAN. She has won two Maryland Governor’s Citations for composition, and prestigious national-level songwriting awards, such as First Prize in songwriting at the Merle Watson Festival, and American Songwriter Magazine’s Song of the Year. —from Jennifer’s bio website