Jazz re:freshed is working with MQA to amplify the reach of its artists’ live performances at the recent successful livestream of The British Music Embassy (BME) Sessions. Beginning with Noya Rao — other acts to follow as part of a weekly release schedule — you can now enjoy HD video with MQA audio of the live sets. MQA “folds” the full sound of the live studio performance into a stream that fits alongside HD video. Before MQA, only compressed low-quality sound has been streamed with video. Here, for the first time you can enjoy video with original, superior sound.
The BME Sessions will also be available as audio-only tracks on TIDAL. All you need is a TIDAL HiFi subscription, as the TIDAL app will unfold the MQA master file to reveal the full sound captured in the studio.
Click here to view the performance: https://www.mqa.co.uk/mqa-live/bme-sessions/noya-rao
The livestream on March 18 was organized to provide some of the official showcasing artists a platform to remotely connect with fans and the international music industry, who would otherwise have converged at the now cancelled South by South West (SXSW) festival. Despite playing behind closed doors, without an audience of fans and only limited crew in attendance, the musicians put on a very special show. The positivity was perhaps best summed up on the day by Noya Rao’s frontwoman Olivia Bhattacharjee, “It’s so great that we’re not just playing in Austin, but to the whole world!”
Acts who were due to perform as part of Jazz re:freshed’s Outernational line-up at SXSW this year included: Daniel Casimir & Tess Hirst, Noya Rao, and Theon Cross. They each performed a 30-minute set from the Mill Studios in London, which was captured in HD video and 24-bit/96 kHz audio. Jazz re:freshed Outernational is an Arts Council funded initiative in partnership with British Underground, and exists to create a springboard to international career opportunities for world-class U.K. jazz artists. Moses Boyd, Nubya Garcia, and Shabaka Hutchings are just a few of the many artists who have participated and benefited from this support in previous years.
For more information, visit www.mqa.co.uk.
