 Toronto's Ember Swift is both an individual singer-songwriter and a dynamic trio. Alongside of Ember's elastic jazz vocals and lush acoustic guitar are layers of electric violin, bass guitar, drums, percussion and vocal harmonies. Most notably, Lyndell Montgomery, with infectious charisma and musicianship akin to wizardy, has been performing with Ember Swift for over seven years. On drums and percussion, the tours rotate between two talented players: Adam Bowman and Cheryl Reid. Together, they combine folk, jazz, funk, punk, world (ranging from Middle Eastern to Spanish to Eastern European), pop, classical and reggae. They travel fluidly between genres and easily shrug off any attempts to cloak their music in a style category. Their "style" cannot be contained. Ember Swift and her band speak their minds and their truths boldly and without fear from stages across Canada, the U.S. and Australia. Their songs shed light on issues such as globalization, consumer awareness, food politics, disengaging from capitalist greed, feminism, queer politics, racism and environmentalism. All seven of their independently released albums on their independent record label "Few'll Ignite Sound" weave politics and poetics in and out of daring musical arrangements. They are proud independent artists, by identity not default.
Among recent honours, Ember Swift was nominated for Outstanding Songwriter of the year at the 2003 OUTMusic Awards in New York City and performed at the awards ceremony to uproarious and sustained applause. Her newest album "Stiltwalking" was also [listener] voted #1 in August of 2003 on Outvoice.net , her first ever experience of being number one on a top 40 chart! In recent years, Ember was voted Toronto's Vocalist of the year in 2001 by NOW MAGAZINE and was also one of ten well-known Canadian artists asked to perform at a Joni Mitchell tribute concert for the International World Leaders Conference in late 2001. For this performance, she was awarded high praise from the Joni Mitchell official website.
Her ardent and loyal fan following continues to grow internationally with every performance.
Their label's motto reads: "May the few who ignite sound fuel a change in the night. May the few who fuel change ignite sound into light." It embodies their philosophy that art combined with activism is truly a recipe for hope.
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