Genevieve Artadi (born July 1, 1982) is an American singer, songwriter, and producer. She is best known as the co-founder of the
jazz-funk
Jazz-funk is a subgenre of jazz music characterized by a strong back beat ( groove), electrified sounds, and an early prevalence of analog synthesizers. The integration of funk, soul, and R&B music and styles into jazz resulted in the creat ...
duo
Knower, along with
Louis Cole. She was also the lead vocalist of the
electro-pop
Electropop is a hybrid music genre combining elements of electronic and pop genres. Writer Hollin Jones has described it as a variant of synth-pop with heavy emphasis on its electronic sound. The genre was developed in the 1980s and saw a rev ...
band
Pollyn, which formed in 1998. Additionally, she has recorded and performed with
Jacob Collier
Jacob Collier (; né Moriarty; born 2 August 1994) is an English singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist. His music incorporates a combination of jazz with elements from many other musical genres, and often features extensive use of reha ...
,
Snarky Puppy
Snarky Puppy is an American instrumental band led by bassist Michael League. Founded in 2004, Snarky Puppy combines a variety of jazz idioms, rock, world music, and funk and has won four Grammy Awards. Although the band has worked with vocalis ...
, and
Thundercat.
Early life
Genevieve Artadi was born on July 1, 1982, in Los Angeles.
Her parents, who had immigrated to the United States from the
Philippines
The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no),
* bik, Republika kan Filipinas
* ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas
* cbk, República de Filipinas
* hil, Republ ...
, were both musicians who toured in rock bands when Artadi was a child.
As a result, Artadi had an unanchored childhood, moving every two or three years.
As a student, Artadi took classical piano lessons and Polynesian dance classes.
Her first exposure to jazz came in seventh grade, when she listened to
Natalie Cole
Natalie Maria Cole (February 6, 1950 – December 31, 2015) was an American singer, songwriter, and actress. She was the daughter of American singer and jazz pianist Nat King Cole. She rose to success in the mid-1970s as an R&B singer with the h ...
's 1991 album ''
Unforgettable... with Love''.
She attended
California State University, Northridge, where she received a degree in Jazz Studies, before continuing her studies at
California State University, Long Beach.
Career
Artadi first performed as lead singer, bassist, and keyboardist of the
indie
Indie is a short form of "independence" or "independent"; it may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
Gaming
*Independent video game development, video games created without financial backing from large companies
*Indie game, any game (board ...
electro-pop
Electropop is a hybrid music genre combining elements of electronic and pop genres. Writer Hollin Jones has described it as a variant of synth-pop with heavy emphasis on its electronic sound. The genre was developed in the 1980s and saw a rev ...
trio
Pollyn, which formed in Los Angeles in 1998 and released their first EP in 2003.
Her primary influences for the band included
Portishead and
Massive Attack
Massive Attack are an English trip hop collective formed in 1988 in Bristol by Robert "3D" Del Naja, Adrian "Tricky" Thaws, Andrew "Mushroom" Vowles and Grant "Daddy G" Marshall.
The debut Massive Attack album '' Blue Lines'' was releas ...
.
In 2009, Artadi met multi-instrumentalist
Louis Cole through saxophonist Robby Marshall.
Artadi and Cole soon began making music together, forming the
jazz-funk
Jazz-funk is a subgenre of jazz music characterized by a strong back beat ( groove), electrified sounds, and an early prevalence of analog synthesizers. The integration of funk, soul, and R&B music and styles into jazz resulted in the creat ...
duo
Knower. They began releasing
covers of pop songs online before releasing their first album of original music as a duo, ''Louis Cole and Genevieve Artadi'', in October 2010.
In 2016, Artadi and Cole performed on
Snarky Puppy
Snarky Puppy is an American instrumental band led by bassist Michael League. Founded in 2004, Snarky Puppy combines a variety of jazz idioms, rock, world music, and funk and has won four Grammy Awards. Although the band has worked with vocalis ...
's live album ''
Family Dinner – Volume 2
''Family Dinner – Volume 2'' is an album by American jazz fusion group Snarky Puppy that was released on February 12, 2016.
Track listing
All songs arranged by Michael League.
Bonus DVD and digital download tracks
Personnel
* Michael Leag ...
'', featuring on two songs as Knower. Artadi also featured on the song "When You're Ugly" on Cole's 2018 album ''
Time
Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, ...
''.
In 2015, Artadi self-released her debut solo album ''Genevieve Lalala'', which she fully produced herself.
Her second solo album, ''Dizzy Strange Summer'', which she completed in 2020, was originally planned to be self-released, but Louis Cole brought the album to
Brainfeeder, who immediately signed Artadi and released the album under the label later that year.
The album, which also features Cole on the track "Edge of the Cliff," was mostly recorded in 2016 and 2017 and features elements of
jazz
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...
,
pop, and
trip hop
Trip hop (sometimes used synonymously with " downtempo") is a musical genre that originated in the early 1990s in the United Kingdom, especially Bristol. It has been described as a psychedelic fusion of hip hop and electronica with slow tem ...
.
In 2021, Artadi appeared on the fifth season soundtrack for the
HBO series ''
Insecure'', featuring on the track "Satellite" with Cole and
Thundercat.
In March 2023, Artadi released her third solo album ''Forever Forever'', her second Brainfeeder release. The album was recorded at El Desierto Studio in Mexico and features Cole, guitarist Pedro Martins, keyboardist and vocalist Chiquita Magic, and pianist Chris Fishman.
Artadi said the theme of the album is love, partially inspired by her on-and-off relationship with Martins at the time.
Half of the album's tracks were originally written for
big band
A big band or jazz orchestra is a type of musical ensemble of jazz music that usually consists of ten or more musicians with four sections: saxophones, trumpets, trombones, and a rhythm section. Big bands originated during the early 1910s ...
, following Artadi's collaborations with the Norrbotten Big Band from Sweden.
AllMusic
AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databa ...
's Paul Simpson awarded ''Forever Forever'' an Album Pick, praising it as "a kaleidoscopic, highly disciplined sound filled with knotty arrangements and detailed solos that always seem to fit naturally and logically within the songs."
''
Pitchfork
A pitchfork (also a hay fork) is an agricultural tool with a long handle and two to five tines used to lift and pitch or throw loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves.
The term is also applied colloquially, but inaccurately, to ...
'' included the album on a 2023 "Great Records You May Have Missed" list, noting its "mathy full-band chops and
psychedelic giddiness of the highest order."
Artadi has since begun work on her fourth solo album, which she says "is going to be
anime rock inspired."
Discography
Studio albums
* ''Genevieve Lalala'' (2015)
* ''Dizzy Strange Summer'' (2020)
* ''Forever Forever'' (2023)
With Knower
* ''Louis Cole and Genevieve Artadi'' (2010)
* ''Think Thoughts'' (2011)
* ''Let Go'' (2013)
* ''Life'' (2016)
* ''Knower Forever'' (2023)
References
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Artadi, Genevieve
Living people
1982 births
American jazz musicians
American musicians of Filipino descent
American women jazz singers
American jazz singers
American women jazz musicians
21st-century American musicians
21st-century American women singers
American multi-instrumentalists
Brainfeeder artists
California State University, Northridge alumni
California State University, Long Beach alumni
Jazz-pop musicians