Creating With Intention
My latest recording, "Playfully," was made with the intention and purpose: of lifting people up. I wrote it as a specific response to...
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Playfully has been awarded Two Global Music Awards for Outstanding Achievement in the categories of:
Best Female Vocalist and Best Vocal Jazz Album
Awards
Reviews of Playfully
"...intelligent and meaningful lyrics...cloaked in an air of optimism, a valuable quality in today’s troubled world...
...Ryan’s vocal sound is rich and appropriately expressive and goes to the heart and soul of the songs..."
"...clear, street wise and effortless, mixing conversation and vocal swoops...clever... Cole Porterish mood ... She coos her way around...the noir alley..."
George Harris, Jazz Weekly
New Music
Playfully
I invite you to experience the joy right in front of you, or right inside of you. Take a breath. Keep it light and mellow, slip out if you need to, grow where you're planted, and live thoughtfully, here's a reason to be happy, to find abundance in each other, to be here now, to love fully, to observe all of the big and little magic, and I am here wishing YOU Whole and resounding love. This album is for you! It's a hug, a laugh, a pick me up, a friend. It's whatever you need it to be right now.
Listen now...
At its core, "Playfully" embodies its name, including musical morsels that are as much a recognition of jazz’s past as they are a fresh and modern contribution to the lexicon — "delightfully accessible and thought-provoking."
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Features
"Slipping Out" and "Reason To Be Happy" from "Playfully" was featured on
A Broad Spectrum, A weekly Jazz radio show celebrating women composers and lyricists hosted by Mary Foster Conklin.
I am honored and humbled to be included in this incredible company. With deepest gratitude.
Tune in to US MODERNEST RADIO to hear Monika as this week's guest. airing on September 4, 2023
Listen to Monika's appearance on The JAZZIZ Magazine Podcast, airing September 5, 2023
"Ryan is a versatile vocalist and works the material in that chic space where the frontiers of jazz, theater and cabaret converge."
-John McDonough, Downbeat
News
Things are percolating in Monika's musical kitchen...
Playfully is out and streaming everywhere! Thank you for listening!
Tune in to US MODERNEST RADIO to hear Monika as this week's guest. airing on September 4, 2023
Listen to Monika's appearance on The JAZZIZ Magazine Podcast, airing September 5, 2023
On the horizon...
Monika is currently writing new music for a project that she will be recording in the fall in Europe with a celebrated colleague, to be revealed at a future date. :)
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A short introduction
Monika Ryan is an award-winning New York-based recording artist, singer, songwriter, producer, arranger, and conceptual creative across multiple genres. Monika's heart and artistic voice are firmly rooted in the jazz idiom. She was a private student of the late great Jackie Paris and she took classes with Sheila Jordan while she was a student at The New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music, graduating in 1997. She is also a Voting Member of The Recording Academy (GRAMMYs®).
As a songwriter, she is playful, philosophical, and clever. As a performer, Monika is engaging, delightful, buoyant, intelligent, and sophisticated
"A wonderful singer whose music will help keep the flame of jazz alive." -Sheila Jordan
"Monika's performance is adventurous, relevant, and fresh, every night. A fine live music experience."
- Benoit Glazer
McGill University, Cirque du Soleil, Founder, Artistic and Technical Director at Timucua Arts Foundation
Listen...
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"Quality art becomes part of us and goes with us everywhere, enriching every part of our lives."
-Monika Ryan
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