Jennifer Berezan, Vicki Noble, Angie Miranda

My lovely friend and healer, Angie Miranda, gifted me with a seat next to her and  Vicki Noble and family at an intimate Jennifer Berezan concert this past Thursday, at the Cayuga Vault in Santa Cruz, CA.

Vicki Noble introduced Berezan saying, "I feel like one of the aunties or midwives to Jennifer Berezan's new CD,  called The End of Desire, having followed it's development from embryonic (the first time she sang one of the songs to me on the speaker phone) to fully birthed (the CD listening party in Berkeley this spring). I'm so proud of her for producing such a gift for us all."

Jennifer Berezan is a multi-faceted singer-songwriter, teacher, producer and ritualist who has been performing and recording for the past 25 years. She has nurtured a loyal international following for her songs of profound depth that tackle contemporary issues with insight and striking melodies.

Her intense and personal approach to music as a transforming experience has brought her strong rapport with audiences from small clubs to large festivals throughout North America and Europe. Berezan's superb voice and her percussive approach to rhythm guitar playing have won her acclaim from a wide range of critics and fans.

Over the course of seven albums, Jennifer has developed and explored recurring themes with a rare wisdom. Her lifelong involvement in activism, in environmental, women’s, and other justice movements as well as an interest in Buddhism and earth based spirituality are at the heart of her writing.

Her songs confront such universal issues as alienation, transformation, and finding a sense of place in a constantly changing world. Home is a recurring subject for the Canadian born singer who today calls Berkeley, California home when not on tour.

Her 1988 debut album In the Eye of The Storm laid the groundwork for what has since become music in a style that then had no label, but today is part of "Americana". The more rock oriented Borderlines (on Flying Fish/Rounder Records), was nominated for a 1993 NAIRD award (the Grammy of the independent record industry). Refuge (1997) emerged as an audience and critics favorite with it's explorations of acoustic arrangements intertwined with Buddhist and vulnerable personal themes.

She Carries Me (1995) was a departure for Jennifer Berezan into the realm of meditative and trance music. This album featured special guest Olympia Dukakis in a spoken word part and acclaimed violinist Darol Anger. The bed of the piece is a multi-layered chant track in honor of the Chinese Goddess Quan Yin, and the Tibetan Goddess Tara.

Jennifer further developed her interest in chant and the transformational and healing power of music through her exploration of original approaches to weaving long playing meditative phrases with contemporary musical elements.

In 2000 she traveled to Malta to create Returning, a long playing devotional piece to the "Mother of us All". This extraordinary and breakthrough work was recorded in an oracle room in one of the world's oldest temples, a 6000 year old underground chamber at the Hypogeum of Hal Saflieni. It includes special guests Linda Tillery and Sharon Burch.

Returning was followed by Praises for the World, 2002, which features special guest Alice Walker and singers from a variety of cultural and spiritual traditions.

Praises for the World took on a larger than life form as Jennifer embraced her love of collaboration and developed it into a full scale live performance/ritual piece, complete with over 50 musicians, dancers, poets, actors and activists. Performances have included guest artists Alice Walker, Gloria Steinem, Olympia Dukakis, Eve Ensler, Wilma Mankiller, Patti Cathcart and many others.

Berezan's breathtaking new work, The End of Desire, reveals her many fascinating sides as it weaves elements of folk, rock, chant and pop with subtle Buddhist themes, joyous songs of love, longing and the struggle for global justice.

Co-produced by Julie Wolf, Jon Evans (of the Tori Amos band), and Jennifer Berezan, it includes a community of esteemed musicians, with special appearances by Bruce Cockburn and Emily Saliers (Indigo Girls).

Jennifer Berezan travels extensively throughout North America and Europe, performing and teaching. She is a faculty member at the California Institute of Integral Studies, and teaches in the Philosophy and Religion Department.