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Jennifer Terran Press:
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Coastal View: 11-26-98
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PERFORMANCE REVIEW
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"Jennifer Terran plays a Roland piano
and is accompanied by Cayenne on drums. She writes her own stuff and sings
like nobody you've ever heard before. Well, that's not quite true. I remember
the Chessmate on the University of Detroit campus in 1965, Joni and Chuck
Mitchell. They played folk music and were a regional hit, but folks outside
of the Ontario and Mid-West region hardly heard of them. But Joni had
a voice back then that did what Jennifer's does. It floats in and out
of falsetto effortlessly. And as Joni left Chuck because she had more
to sing than just 'Four Strong Winds', Jennifer has more to say as well.
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Her lyrics are free form and she lays
her music down under them in playful, atmospheric ways. She's not in a
genre I recognize, but from hearing her perform one time, I'm an instant
fan. She began her first song acappella, which reveals a humoungus confidence.
As her Roland began to tinkle in she slid up to the top of her outrageous
register and hit one of those notes that can only be called transcendental.
She knew it when she hit it. Her eyes were closed and when she felt the
power, she peaked out to see if the audience was still there. That's the
thing with transcendentalism, it hardly lives up to its name unless it
carries you away. Well Jennifer, it did carry some of us away. We just
left our bodies back there on the Plaza Theatre chairs."
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By Gary A. Schlueter
Coastal Review |