Mer Sal

   The “Tiny Circles” singer Mer Sal is committed to quality musicianship.  Since her viral 2021  collaboration “Adjustments” with Scott Kinsey, the Fort Collins native musician Mer Sal has been on the path of fusing her songwriting with jazz fusion.  This kind of jazz informed singer-songwriter music bends many genres, and can therefore be similar but different to Jacob Collier, Hiatus Kaiyote, and Knower, or previous generations of geniuses like Tribal Tech, Weather Report, Joni Mitchell, and Miles Davis.

     In Los Angeles and beyond, Mer Sal is a professional vocalist and songwriter, a budding producer, and a Berklee student transforming her own sensibility.  She gains regular experience meeting with jazz giants often as a side person contributing to the genius music of Scott Kinsey.

     Mer Sal has been fortuitously connected with an anomalous talent pool of brilliant creators in Los Angeles and beyond.  Such musicians play important roles in the album recordings and tours she participates in, and projects she might produce.  Among the bass players she has been fortunate to collaborate with are fantastic musicians such as Francisco Fattorusso, Mohini Dey, Tim Lefebvre, Hadrien Feraud, Junior Braguinha, and her friend and mentor, Jimmy Haslip.  Although she is focused more on singing and writing, Mer Sal herself is a proficient sight reading bass player, and tracked two of Kinsey’s difficult arrangements on “Adjustments."  

     As far as musicians go, Mer has been beyond lucky to share the stage and studio with Gergo Borlai, Gary Novak, Nicolas Viccaro, Justin Brown, Ronald Bruner Jr., Zach Danziger, Dennis Chambers, Dave Weckl, Go-Go Ray, Alvino Bennett, and many other fine drummers.    In the guitar world, Mer Sal has been blessed in collaboration with Pedro Martins, Oz Noy, Scott Henderson, Jamie Kime, Alex Machacek, Alex Sill, Nir Felder, Josh Smith, Jeff Richman, Andrew Renfroe and more!
Mer has worked with sax players Patrick Bartley Jr, Bob Reynolds, Brandon Fields, Katisse Buckingham, and the legendary Steve Tavaglione.    Among other impressive musicians Mer has worked with many times are drummer and musical genius Danny Carey (Tool), and Armenian musician and cultural phenomenon Arto Tuncboyaciyan.

      Her most bespoke collaborations are made to fit, with her soulmate, phenomenal creator Scott Kinsey.  
Scott is a legendary keyboardist and producer first known for his transformative fusion work in the group Tribal Tech (with Scott Henderson, Gary Willis and Kirk Covington).  After that, he was known for his sound on David Holmes’ soundtracks such as the Oceans 11 series and Analyze That, and later largely known for his solo career The Scott Kinsey Group, and side projects arising thereof.  Kinsey produces albums every day, and performs one night monthly at The Baked Potato in Los Angeles, with an inspiring rotation of top musicians.  The first wednesday of each month, Scott invites a few stellar musicians to create his music live in front of an audience, unrehearsed, and this popular night in LA is dubbed “The Kinsey Sessions.”  

     Beyond Adjustments: Mer Sal recorded on "Native Dancer Series" for Wayne Shorter, by Vera's Heartbeat, toured with We Speak Luniwaz: The Music of Joe Zawinul, and in conjunction with the Music of Joe Zawinul, directed the jazz choir of the Bujazzo as a teaching artist and guest singer for a performance at the Koln Philharmonic.  Mer Sal has sung on ARC Trio's record “Arceology” with Jimmy Haslip and John Daversa Big Band, and performed several tracks on The Dream - by Karl Sterling. Mer Sal is featured writing and singing 3 songs on an upcoming MSM Schmidt album.  Mer Sal is regularly singing on recordings remotely, with a few releases from Italy with producers Angelo Russo and Daniele Sorrentino.  

Performing live, Mer Sal is always supported by world class bands. Her live sets can be a mixture of soul, funk, afrobeat, and blues, with original ideas fusing her singer-songwriting with whomever is on the stage, live and in the moment.  Remembered for her unique vocal qualities, Mer Sal is the only Mer Sal.

Here is an excerpt from a review of the album “Adjustments”, by Mike Jacobs, talented music writer for All About Jazz: 

[…]“The fact that Adjustments displays some of Kinsey’s most innovative writing, playing and arranging to date may indeed owe to having Sal as talented muse, but it’s also the singer’s authenticity that effectively grounds Kinsey’s work like never before. Her original songs, such as the opening “Tiny Circles,” display a certain valiant fearlessness for a songwriter whose emotions run so palpably close to the surface.

The icing on the cake for Adjustments is undoubtedly how the proceedings are further raised by having so many of the sought-after, A-list musicians of Kinsey’s world (e.g., Scott Henderson, Oz Noy, Tim Lefebvre, Hadrien Feraud, Gergö Borlai and others) uncommonly colliding with Sal’s. This propels the music beyond today’s retrograde “jazz vocalist” albums that seek to rekindle nostalgia for the singer-fronted jazz band. Nor is it another in the recent stream of barely distinguishable, vocal-forward, jazz/neo-soul hybrids that proliferate in the modern soundscape.

In their own way, what Scott Kinsey and Mer Sal exhibit on Adjustments speaks to an intersection as uniquely compelling as when Jaco met Joni. A modern entity, to be heard on its own terms. And in light of the music that she and Scott have brought forth here, listeners will happily make their own Adjustments.”

-Mike Jacobs, All About Jazz 
 

Some footage of Danny Carey recording drums (2020) at Tool's studio in Los Angeles, as part of the album "Adjustments" (2021).   

Work surrounding Wayne Shorter: