"Common Ground"
Click here to see more videos from the Club Bonafide set.
“A Sleeping Bee”
Click here to see more videos from the Luca's Jazz Corner set.
download quote sheet as PDF
The sounds and styles of vocalist/composer Jocelyn Medina cross cultures, creeds and continents. Her original music fuses elements of Brazil, Spain, Africa and India with jazz harmonies, neo-soul/funk grooves and adventurous improvisations.
“Medina offers the jazz listener a musical journey that takes the foundation of Latin and Jazz idioms and successfully redefines the experience with thought provoking lyrics and vocal abilities far beyond the norm. Medina uses her voice as an instrument and storyteller and invites the listener to delve into the corners of their mind with lyrics that reflect life and human conditions...”
-Constance Tucker, All About Vocals
Born into a family of singers, Jocelyn determined her identity as a musician at the tender age of five through choirs and piano lessons. She later pursued opera at Stanford University, earned a Bachelors degree from Berklee College of Music and a Masters in Vocal Jazz Performance from Manhattan School of Music. Further musical explorations brought Jocelyn to Ghana, West Africa, Salvador, Brazil, and Mumbai, India, where she was exposed to more of the wide-ranging elements that continue to inspire her creative projects.
Between her formal studies, Jocelyn gathered much of her eclectic mix of artistic influences during the four years she spent living and performing abroad in Madrid, Spain. Before returning to the United States, she recorded her first full-length CD of original compositions, “The Journey Begun,” featuring fellow expatriate musicians Dan Rochlis (guitar) and Bob Sands (tenor sax), as well as legendary Spanish harmonica player Antonio Serrano. In 2005 she returned to the United States to pursue her Masters studies and in 2011 released her second album of original work, “We Are Water,” combining her jazz and Latin heritage with the rhythms and flavors of Brazilian music. This sophomore release features flutist Rodrigo Ursaia, guitarist Miles Okazaki, pianist Kristjan Randalu, bassist Aidan Carroll, and drummer Bodek Janke, and topped both national and international jazz radio charts. In 2017, she released her third album, “Common Ground,” blending jazz with the world music styles of India and Africa. This latest project features Art Hirahara (piano), Pete McCann (guitar), Evan Gregor (bass), Mark Ferber (drums), Hadar Noiberg (flute), Robert Levin (percussion), and two virtuoso masters of Indian music, Steve Gorn on bansuri flute and Samir Chatterjee on tabla.
“… (on Common Ground) Medina composed nine humid and provocative vocal excursions permitting her pliant vehicles on which to apply her subtle voice and arrangement talents... This is music with a sensuous heartbeat, serious music of depth.”
-C. Michael Bailey, All About Jazz
As a bandleader, she has toured with jazz ensembles at venues and festivals throughout the United States, Europe, Asia and South America, including Spain's JAZZPARLA festival, Alte Feuermache in Mannheim, Germany, Voicingers Jazz Festival in Zory, Poland, the Mahindra Blues Festival in Mumbai, India, and the Goethe Institute in Salvador, Brazil. Her local performance history includes NYC’s Jazz at Kitano, the Iridium Jazz Club, Cornelia Street Café, Bar Next Door, Zinc Bar, and 55 Bar with her own group, Lincoln Center with the Manhattan School of Music Jazz Orchestra, and Carnegie Hall with Calpulli's Music of Mexico. Since moving to New York City in 2005, she has established herself as a unique and powerful voice in the local jazz scene.
“..the ways in which Medina navigates songs lifted from other songbooks proves her capable of making everything she touches her own…”
-Tyran Grillo, All About Jazz
Currently based in Brooklyn, Jocelyn plays regularly throughout the New York City area showcasing her compositions, and curates and hosts a bi-monthly Sunday vocal jazz concert and jam session series at Spoonfed, New York Country. In addition to her original repertoire, she sings, plays percussion and arranges for her Brazilian-Jazz project, sings and drums with the NJ-based Rhythm Monsters West African ensemble, and is a member of the classical Brooklyn Conservatory Chorale. Outside of her performance work, Jocelyn is a committed music educator and teaches workshops in vocal jazz and private lessons in functional vocal technique based on the methods of master vocal pedagogue Jeannette LoVetri's Somatic Voicework™.
download Full Bio as PDF
The sounds and styles of jazz vocalist Jocelyn Medina cross cultures, creeds and continents. Her original music fuses elements of Brazil, Spain, Africa and India with jazz harmonies, neo-soul/funk grooves and adventurous improvisations.
Between her formal studies at Berklee College of Music and Manhattan School of Music, Jocelyn spent 4 years living and performing in Madrid, Spain, where she recorded her first full-length CD of original compositions, "The Journey Begun." Further musical explorations brought Jocelyn to Ghana, West Africa, as well as to Salvador, Brazil. In 2005 she returned to the United States to pursue her Masters and in 2011 released her second album of original work, "We Are Water," combining her jazz and Latin heritage with the rhythms and flavors of African and Brazilian music. Her most recent travels brought Jocelyn to Mumbai, India, where she was exposed to new vocal and instrumental aesthetics, elements that resonate throughout the material on her latest album “Common Ground,” released in June, 2017, blending jazz with the world music styles of India and Africa.
As a bandleader, she has toured with jazz ensembles at venues and festivals throughout the United States, Europe, Asia and South America. Outside of performing, Jocelyn works as a voice teacher and educator, giving classes and workshops in voice and vocal jazz. Currently based in Brooklyn, she plays regularly throughout the New York City area showcasing her compositions and curates and hosts a bi-monthly vocal jazz concert series and jam session. In addition to her original repertoire, she sings, plays percussion and arranges for her Brazilian/World-Jazz project, sings and drums with the NJ-based Rhythm Monsters West African ensemble, and is a member of the classical Brooklyn Conservatory Chorale.
download Short Bio as PDF
