Portland Jazz Composers Ensemble & Jasnam Daya Singh - Ekta: The Unity Project (2020)

Taking the romanized Punjabi word for “unity” as its title, Jasnam Daya Singh's Ekta: The Unity Project is a meditation on the oneness of all people. Commissioned by Portland Jazz Composers Ensemble for the Montavilla Jazz Festival in 2017, Ekta is a meeting of the Brazilian choro and samba of Singh's country of birth, European Jazz and Classical styles, fleet-footed swing, and lush ballads that are filtered and refracted through Singh's cosmopolitan musical perspective.

The release of this recording in 2020 and the message it implies come during a time of intense upheaval in American life, a time when a true feeling of solidarity is rarer than at any other time in recent memory. Singh’s work posits that unity is an ideal to consider deeply, to celebrate joyfully, and to work strenuously to achieve.

- Douglas Detrick, Executive Director