Austin Music Award–nominated musician and composer Carolyn Trowbridge has released “Duchess Of Sheba,” the lead single from her debut album Found Memories. The piece presents elements of Ethio-jazz and Exotica with a hypnotic pulse.
The arrangement sets modal lines for vibraphone and flute against an acoustic rhythm section of guitar, bass, and drums. The recording features Trowbridge on vibraphone alongside Alex Coke (flute), Bryan Sunderman (guitar), Mario Castellanos (bass), and Nick Tozzo (drums and percussion).
Trowbridge’s résumé includes studio and stage work with Grammy Award nominees Black Pumas, Adrian Quesada, Graham Reynolds, Alex Coke, Star Parks, Hard Proof, and Mike Portnoy. Her live performance history includes a performance with Grammy-winning choir A Company Of Voices for a PBS special in 2009, as well as appearances at SXSW and Austin City Limits, most recently with Adrian Quesada’s Boleros Psicodélicos project.
The composer began writing for her own five-piece project in 2023. She defines Found Memories as a set of personal vignettes that reference everything from a spirited grackle encounter to the winding staircase of her Czech childhood home. Alongside her performance career, she maintains a 20-plus-year practice as a music educator, teaching theory, composition, and applied skills, and co-directed the Walsh Middle School percussion ensemble to a win at the International Percussion Ensemble Competition in 2018.
Trowbridge also participates actively in Austin’s steel band community, appearing at private events and weddings, performing with the Inside Out Steel band, and taking part in Trinidad and Tobago’s Panorama steel band competition. “Duchess Of Sheba” is self-released and available now as the first preview of Found Memories.
Author: World Music Central News Room
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