With musicians hailing from around the world, the Maria Chen Ensemble is a hotbed of far-flung influences, specialising in 1930s – 1960s jazz, blues & latin in their signature playful yet intimate style. New Zealand pianist John-Paul Muir is an international award-winning classical pianist who has a not-so-secret illicit love for jazz. British bassist Thomas Bartlett has performed professionally for many years around the London area. Canadian vocalist Maria Chen, like Snow White, whistles while she works, directing a jazz choir (not dwarves) and plotting new music and projects for her ensemble.

 

The Maria Chen Ensemble hosts a weekly Sunday jazz jam in Bloomsbury. They are regulars at the Bermondsey Arts Club. Performance highlights include the Good Fashion Show (the largest off-site London Fashion Week event in February 2012), hosting the jazz stage at the annual Bloomsbury Festival, a sold-out show at Nightjar, Sundays at 'The Bar with No Name' a.k.a 69 Colebrooke Row, and a performance for her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II in autumn 2011.

 

The Maria Chen Ensemble is the final line to this: ‘A Canadian singer, a Kiwi pianist, and a British bassist walk into several jazz, blues, and soul bars.’ But they don’t joke around. They take themselves seriously. Very seriously, indeed.