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“DK, When you sing, you possess both the elements of sadness and happiness, major and minor, within the same note and this is good”- Ornette Coleman
DK Dyson (Vocalist / Composer) travels comfortably through music categories such as Jazz, R&B, Pop, Rock and World Music, defying boundaries.
She co-led the Sony / Epic band EYE & I, known for vibrant live shows, with DK as its focal point. The group broke down racial and musical stereotypes with a sound that married heavy Rock and Funk with Jazz smarts. The recording of EYE & I on Epic Records was released to great critical acclaim and Dyson was nominated by the NY Music Awards as Best New Female Vocalist. As one of only a few Women who fronted Black Rock Bands, DK’s place in the Black Rock pantheon has long been recognized.
Her diverse range is documented by recordings and performances with Living Colour, Don Byron, Steve Coleman, Caetano Veloso, Paulinho De Costa, Ornette Coleman, The Ambitious Lovers, Daniel Ponce, Kip Hanrahan, Bill Laswell, and the Jazz Passengers ] (performing with Marvis Staples and Debbie Harry).
DK’s soulful voice can be heard in the film by Thomas Allen Harris That’s My Face. Recently she scored the short film The Task and composed and performed the television theme songs for the nationally syndicated shows “Our World” and “Black Business Report”.
Her voice has been heard on various jingles including Budweiser, Finesse, and Coca-Cola. On her solo album Rising Sun she combines her original song writing and singing with Sanskrit, Yoruba and Native American chants.
She has also flavored the dance companies of Abdel Salaam (Forces of Nature), Bill T. Jones, David Rousseve, Diane Mckintyre, and Ron Brown with her live vocalese stylings.
Dyson has conducted workshops and provided her vocals and recordings to spiritual, healing, and educational organizations such as NAALA on the Lakota Rosebud reservation, HYPE on Riker’s Island Prison and with Def Dance Jam Workshop the dance company that features hearing impaired and physically challenged kids.
As an Educator she is a faculty member of the School for Improvisational Music and has lectured and taught nationally and abroad at Columbia University (NYC), NYU (NYC), Univa (Guadalajara,Mexico) and Virginia Commonwealth University, amongst many others.
“Mother Music is the supreme taskmaster and she responds to me when I continuously evolve and bow at her feet”- DK Dyson
SELECTED PRESS:
D O W N B E A T
“DK Dyson, a charismatic singer with an outrageous streak. She commands the stage like a Goddess. Nefertiti with shades.”
T H E V I L L A G E V O I C E
“ Here is a voice of unfathomable range and nerve-fibrillating sensitivity that could probably just lie back and let itself be groomed. You can almost see an Uncle Clive (Davis) or Tommy (Mottola) beseeching the woman to put down her pen and put on some airs. But you get the feeling that someone who’s never put up anything but a fight is not about to stop now.”
T H E D A I L Y N E W S
“At once forceful and pretty, DK Dyson’s voice is one of the great under appreciated instruments on the New York rock scene. She can hurl a phrase with the fury and scope of Whitney Houston or Mariah Carey, but unlike those pop diva / machines, she’s no mere show-off.”
E N T E R T A I N M E N T W E E K L Y
“DK Dyson is a full fledged diva who nonetheless knows restraint: her warm voice swoops and soars around the songs but never overpowers them. From rock to cushiony ballads that should make Anita Baker consider retirement.”
M U S I C I A N
“DK Dyson has one of the most wailing, gospel tinged instruments since Miss Dinah Washington. If she looks half as good as she sounds, she ought to be declared a controlled substance. The pressure is going to be enormous for her to eventually turn into a Whitney Houston or Anita Baker, because she is a diva.”
T H E N E W Y O R K T I M E S
“She is both an extroverted singer- she would sing gospel and pop ideas, then improvise stream of consciousness babbling- and funny, as when she imitated the stilted diction of an opera singer.”
R O L L I N G S T O N E
“ Eye & I fronted by vocal dynamo DK Dyson is demolishing racial and musical stereotypes with a sound that marries funk, heavy rock, and jazz smarts.”
C R E E M
“With a voice sifted through Eastern sacred music that can arch the rafters and make stained glass weep, DK Dyson like Billy Holiday, imbues simple love songs and authentic messages with intense meaning.”
N E W Y O R K N E W S D A Y
“Listening to powerhouse Vocalist DK Dyson is like watching Michael Jordan a few years ago: breathtaking”. ago: breathtaking”.
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