The jazz singer Nina Mya and UMO Helsinki Jazz Orchestra have released their joint album Searching My Soul on April 21, 2023 (in digital format only). The album is part of the UMO Helsinki Jazz Orchestra’s Great Voices series, dedicated to stellar vocalists from Finland and abroad.
The Great Voices has featured numerous concerts since 2020, and this album is the first recording released in the series. Nina Mya’s rich and dark voice is very unique in the Nordic region and is perfectly suited to open the album series.
The album consists mainly of Nina Mya’s own compositions with new big band arrangements written by UMO’s chief conductor and artistic director Ed Partyka, who also conducted the album.
The album release concert will be held at G Livelab in Helsinki on Monday 8.5.2023. The concert tickets are already for sale, buy here.
The album has been released in digital format only and is available e.g. on Spotify, YouTube, Apple Music, Tidal and Deezer. A music video for the single has also been released on YouTube. The album is released by UMO Helsinki Jazz Orchestra and distributed by Sony Music Entertainment Finland.
– The album has a strong theme of relationships, self-development and finding the inner self. The name Searching My Soul refers to my own way of studying and analysing my selfhood and listening to my inner voice. I do it mainly through the theme of relationships, which can be heard also at this album. I feel that I have always lived against the “this is how you should live” norm. I haven’t been silent and stayed still when that was expected of me, says Nina Mya.
– My compositions get an interesting and fresh angle in Partyka’s new arrangements, and do the songs justice in a completely new way. These big band arrangements give my music a certain richness, with layers and body around it, Nina Mya continues.