Maggie Nicols

Maggie Nicols ( born February 24, 1948 in Edinburgh as Maggie Nicholson ) is a Scottish jazz singer (Free Jazz, Improvisation New Music ) and dancer. " With her warm, soft voice," it can Martin Kunzler, according to seamlessly switch " between melody, sound, noise and language" and " to unite the claims of free improvisation and Liedhaftigkeit " the. The critic Rainer Koehl pointed out that it is also an individual use Art of Maggie Nicols, " their own actions, which spontaneously musically to comment on their Musizierpartner or the audience. Delightfully ironic, highly virtuosic "

Life and work

Nicols left with 15 years of school and started as a dancer (including the Moulin Rouge) to work. Then you also sang in nightclubs and began to work with the bop pianist Dennis Rose. In 1968 she went to London and became as Maggie Nichols Member of John Stevens ' Spontaneous Music Ensemble "(together with Trevor Watts and Johnny Dyani ) and performed with the group on even the first Total Music Meeting in Berlin. Around 1970 she organized vocal workshops at the Oval House Theatre in London, where she appeared in some independent theater productions. Shortly thereafter, she became a member of Keith Tippett's large-format " Centipede ", where she first worked with Julie Tippett. With it, Phil Minton and Brian Ely, she founded the vocal quartet Voice. At the same time, they began a collaboration with drummer Ken Hyder and his group Talisker, with whom she maintains a duo until today, which reflects Scottish folk music.

In the late 1970s she founded together with Lindsay Cooper, the Feminist Improvising Group, which occurred successfully throughout Europe. She was also the organizer of a multi-media performance group Contradictions, which began its work in 1980. Together with the pianist Irène Schweizer and Joëlle Léandre bassist she has worked since the 1980s in the trio Les Diaboliques. Together with pianist Pete Nu they formed a duo; with the avant-garde interior Charlotte Hug and Caroline Kraabel she played as well as with penguin Moschner and Joe axis in the trio. On the Moers Festival she is alone, in a solo concert, occurred. She works regularly with a great improvisation workshop The Gathering. In recent years she was with Cat's Cradle and Sean Bergin's Song Mob ( with Han Bennink, Minton and Michael Moore) on tour. In the early 1990s she was a member of the Dedication Orchestra.

Nicols has worked in numerous other projects. She is interested on the one side by the radical expansion of vocal expression and links them lyrically and scenic with views of the everyday woman and tap dancing, on the other hand Nicols sings but also like melodic songs.

Lexical entries

• Ian Carr, Brian Priestley, Digby Fairweather (eds.): Rough Guide to Jazz. The ultimate guide to jazz. 1700 artists and bands from the beginning until today. Metzler Verlag, Stuttgart 1999, ISBN 3-476-01584- X
• Martin Kunzler: Jazz Encyclopedia. Rowohlt, Reinbek 2002 ( 2nd edition ), ISBN 3-499-16512-0 Vol 1; ISBN 3-499-16317-9 Vol 2