Jennifer Charles

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Jennifer Charles (b. November 15, 1968, Washington, D.C.) is a singer and composer. With her partner Oren Bloedow, she is the co-founder of the New York band Elysian Fields.

[edit] Biography

While Charles was growing up, her mother was a singer in Washington clubs and her father had a radio show that played jazz songs. Charles studied theater; She appeared in plays and experimental theatre at places like The Studio and The Source.

Upon graduating from N.Y.U. (B.F.A. Tisch Sch of Arts), besides acting, she supported herself with a variety of jobs such as waitressing, working as an artists model, singing jazz and torch songs in a piano bar, and curating a performance/poetry series at the original Knitting Factory.

Elysian Fields were founded in 1995, and have released four full length records (five counting one produced by Steve Albini that was suppressed). They have also contributed to many compilation CDs including the first song on John Zorn's Serge Gainsbourg album. This song, their rendition of "Les Amours Perdues", also appeared in Lea Pool's film "Emporte Moi".

Besides co-leading Elysian Fields, Charles also works on other projects. She and Bloedow recorded La Mar Enfortuna featuring renditions of Sephardic and Ladino songs. [1]

Charles has also recorded with Dan the Automator's Lovage project for which she co-wrote and sung most of the material, and with Firewater, turning in notable performances on "The Circus" and "Mr. Cardiac" from 1996s Get Off The Cross, We Need the Wood for the Fire., as well as guesting on several John Zorn records and the latest Foetus record.

She has studied Classical Indian singing with teacher Gulamji.

Charles recorded in French with the French composer Jean-Louis Murat for the album A bird on a poire in 2004, which was nominated for a Victoires de la Musique award best pop album.

She had a guest spot on ex-Nine Inch Nails drummer Chris Vrenna's solo project Tweaker. She sang and co-composed the track "Crude Sunlight", which appeared on the 2004 album "2am Wakeup Call". Charles also co-composed music with Johnny Klimek and Reinhold Heill (Run Lola Run) for the film Tangled. A version of Bob Dylan's Tangled up in Blue performed by Elysian Fields can be heard in the film's credits.

[edit] Discography

2006 Elysian Fields Bum Raps And Love Taps, Diluvian/Naive (writer, voc, keyboards)

2005 Foetus Love, Birdman Records (voc)

2004 Jean Louis Murat A Bird On A Poir, Labels (voc)

2004, 2003 Elysian Fields Dreams That Breathe Your Name, Diluvian (writer, voc, farfisa)

2004 Tweaker 2 AM Wake-Up Call, IMUSIC (writer, voc)

2003 Ben Perowsky Camp Songs, Tzadik (voc)

2003 Sasha Argov Great Jewish Music, Tzadik (voc)

2003 Foetus A Tribute to the Sisters of Mercy, EFA (voc,writer)

2002 Frank London Scientist at Work, Tzadik (voc)

2002 John Zorn Film Works XII - Three Documentaries, Tzadik (voc)

2002 Sybarite Scene of the Crime, 4AD (writer, voc)

2002 John Zorn IAO Music In Sacred Light, Tzadik (voc)

2002 illy B Drop the Needle, Amulet (writer, voc)

2001 Zoar Clouds Without Water, (voc)

2001 Lovage Music to Make Love to Your Old Lady By, 75 Ark (writer, voc)

2001 Firewater Psychopharmachology, Jetset. (voc)

2001 Oren Bloedow and Jennifer Charles La Mar Enfortuna, Tzadik. (voc, bells, wurli, writer)

2000 Elysian Fields Queen of the Meadow, Jetset. (writer, voc, mini moog, gtr, wurli)

1999 Liminal *unreleased. (writer, voc)

1999 What's the Word vol.1 Various Artists, Deezal. (writer, voc, piano)

1999 DJ Logic Project Logic, Ropeadope. (writer, voc)

1999 Jean Louis Murat Mustango, Labels. (voc)

1998 Great Jewish Music: Marc Bolan Various Artists, Tzadik. (voc)

1998 Elysian Fields The Albini record, *unreleased Radioactive. (writer, voc)

1998 Oren Bloedow The Luckiest Boy in the World, Knitting Factory Works. (bgv)

1997 Elysian Fields Meets DJ Cam, Radioactive. (writer, voc)

1997 Great Jewish Music: Serge Gainsbourg Various Artists, Tzadik. (voc)

1997 Life in a Blender Two Legs Bad, Fang. (phoned in whispers)

1997 Live Secret Samadhi, Radioactive. (bgv)

1996 Jennifer and Kenny Siegel Sessions *unreleased (voc)

1996 Firewater Get Off The Cross...We Need The Wood For The Fire, Jetset. (voc)

1996 Elysian Fields Bleed Your Cedar, Radioactive. (writer, voc, rhythm king, perc)

1996 Elysian Fields Elysian Fields EP, Radioactive. (writer, voc)

1992 Oren Bloedow, Knitting Factory Works. (bgv)

[edit] External links

• blackacres.net fansite dedicated to Jennifer Charles' band Elysian Fields
• [2] Elysian Fields Website