Jennifer Maidman


Jennifer Maidman is a British musician, singer, producer, songwriter, actor and author who has collaborated extensively with many well known groups and artists. Her work appears on numerous recordings from 1976 onwards. She was a core member of the original Penguin Cafe Orchestra from 1984 until 2007. She is best known as a bass guitarist but also sings and plays guitar, keyboards, drums, percussion, ukulele, cuatro and Chapman Stick. In June 2016 her website announced that she was working on a solo album in Woodstock, New York featuring amongst others, Jerry Marotta, Annie Whitehead, and David Torn. The album, entitled 'Dreamland' was released on 1 August 2017 and features Marotta, Torn and Whitehead, with guest contributions from Paul Brady and Robert Wyatt amongst others.
Since 2017 she has also been collaborating frequently with New York-based arts cooperative The Secret City.

Career

Early years

Maidman's first release was L-L-Lazy Days in 1976, as a writer member of the group Red Hot, signed to Phillips/Phonogram, and produced by Mutt Lange. In the late seventies Maidman also trained as a recording engineer, sometimes assisting John Burns at Escape Studios and notably recording and mixing Marc Bolan's 1976 hit single 'I Love to Boogie' at Decibel Studio, a track later featured in the film 'Billy Elliot'.

Recording and production

Maidman's work as a musician, producer or writer, has since featured on hundreds of recordings, working with artists including Joan Armatrading, David Sylvian, The Penguin Cafe Orchestra, Ian Dury, Shakespears Sister, The Proclaimers, Paul Brady, Sam Brown, Gerry Rafferty, Annie Whitehead, Robert Wyatt, Sniff 'n the Tears, Loudon Wainwright, and Murray Head amongst others.
Notable successes include the Shakespears Sister double platinum album 'Hormonally Yours',, The Proclaimers' 'Letter from America', and producing Paul Brady's 'Back to the Centre' and the follow up 'Primitive Dance'. She co-wrote, arranged and recorded a number of songs with Boy George and Bobby Z, which appeared on the albums 'Hi Hat' and 'Tense Nervous Headache' and went on to work again with Z on the album 'Gobe' by French artist Guesch Patti, on which she arranged and played all instruments. Maidman has also written for Sam Brown, Eurovision entrants Bardo, and Murray Head.
She has written and worked extensively with her partner, the English trombonist Annie Whitehead and produced and played on her albums 'Naked', 'Home' and 'The Gathering'. She produced two albums by the Irish singer songwriter Paul Brady, 'Back to the Centre' and 'Primitive Dance', produced and performed on tracks on Linda McCartney's solo album 'Wide Prairie', and has also produced Murray Head, Dutch African band Pili Pili, The Kick Horns, Northern Lights, and Lund.
Other notable appearances on record include 'When in Rome', 'Union Cafe' and 'Concert Program' with Penguin Cafe Orchestra, extensive contributions to Gerry Rafferty's sixth album 'North and South', Christie Hennessey's platinum selling album 'This is as far as I go', David Sylvian's 'Gone to Earth', Paul Brady's 'Full Moon', 'Oh What a World' and 'Hooba Dooba', Sam Brown's 'Stop' and 'April Moon' albums, and many releases by Murray Head from 1984 until the present. Her distinctive fretless bass playing can be heard on a number of recordings, notably 'Taking the Veil' and 'Silver Moon' by David Sylvian, 'Heaven' and 'Frustration' by Joan Armatrading, 'The Awakening' by Paul Brady, and 'Peril in Venice' by Murray Head. Jennifer contributed guitar and accordion on Robert Wyatt's album Cuckooland, nominated for the 2004 Mercury Music prize.
In 2015 'The Vicar Street Sessions Volume One' was released, on which Jennifer accompanies Paul Brady, Van Morrison, Mark Knopfler, Bonnie Raitt and Ronan Keating amongst others.

Live performance

Maidman has performed throughout Europe, the UK, Ireland, the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, appearing live with amongst others Joan Armatrading, Paul Brady, David Sylvian, Penguin Cafe Orchestra, Murray Head, Bonnie Raitt, Terry Reid, Elvis Costello, Van Morrison, Curtis Stigers, Boy George, Tony O'Malley and Kokomo. Major live performance tours include Joan Armatrading band's 'The Key', a six-month tour which visited major venues in the UK, US, Canada, Europe, New Zealand and Australia, and, following on from her contributions to the critically acclaimed album 'Gone to Earth', an 'eighty day world tour' entitled 'In Praise of Shamans' with David Sylvian, Mark Isham and David Torn. Maidman's performance on multiple instruments can be heard throughout the definitive recording of the first incarnation of Penguin Cafe Orchestra, the album 'When in Rome', a recording of a live performance by the band at London's Royal Festival Hall. She toured extensively with the band throughout the world and played a key role in their reunion/farewell concerts in 2007, when the band played three sold out nights at London's Union Chapel and received a five star review from the Guardian.

Television and film

Major television appearances include a South Bank Show documentary as a member of the Penguin Cafe Orchestra, a six-part RTE series on Paul Brady, and a BBC4 documentary on Robert Wyatt, in which Jennifer appeared alongside Robert on lead vocals, guitar and accordion. She played drums with Salif Keita and the Penguin Cafe Orchestra in Kevin Godley's 'One World One Voice', a global musical chain letter featuring Sting, Lou Reed, Laurie Anderson and many other musicians from around the world. The project became a BBC TV special, a documentary and an album. Jennifer provided music for the soundtrack to the film 'All the Little Animals', starring John Hurt and Christian Bale.

Recent projects

Maidman sings lead vocal and plays guitar in SoupSongs, a project devoted to Robert Wyatt's music, put together by Wyatt and Annie Whitehead. Soupsongs have released a critically acclaimed live double album, and performed at London's Royal Festival Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, at many other UK venues, and in France, Germany and Italy. Writing in the Guardian, the music critic John Fordham praised the album and said that "Maidman catches the composer's sense of dishevelled dignity and casually poetic radicalism".
Maidman also performs regularly with the Orchestra That Fell to Earth, plays regularly in France with Murray Head, and with Kokomo, Terry Reid and Annie Whitehead.
She has also appeared at a number of performance poetry events with the beat poet Michael Horovitz, and with Penny Rimbeau's Last Amendment, including a concert at the National Cite' de la Musique Museum's auditorium in Paris. Jennifer also collaborated with Dr James Tartaglia on albums influenced by Tartaglia's philosophy work, 'Dark Metaohysic' and 'Kooky Steps'.

Theatre work

Maidman's first theatre appearances were with James Cooper's Renegades company in East London. She has subsequently appeared on stage in London, featuring in 'Strange Cargo', a devised piece directed by Jamie Beddard and Claire Hodgson for Diverse City, and on the New York stage in Chris Wells' "It Will All Work Out' at Dixon Place, Mannhatan,in 2017.
In January 2019 Maidman appeared in Leah Coloff's musical theatre piece This Tree, which premiered at the Prototype Festival in New York City.

Discography

As Jennifer Maidman :
With Alice:
With Joan Armatrading:
Single:
With Jan Allain:
With Bardo:
With Paul Brady:
Singles:
With Paul Brady, Van Morrison, Bonnie Raitt, Mark Knopfler, Ronan Keating
With Sam Brown:
With Vicki Brown:
With Stan Campbell:
With Boy George:
Singles:
With Maryen Cairns:
With Judy Cheeks:
With Crazy House:
With Chris De Burgh:
With Ian Dury and Mitt Gamon:
With Murray Head:
With Christie Hennessy:
With Hue and Cry:
With Jazz Monk:
With JC001
With Lorraine Jordan:
With Shona Laing:
With Jim Leverton and Geoffrey Richardson:
With Lies Damn Lies:
With Little Bob Story:
With Lund:
With Marco Machera:
With Linda McCartney:
With Loz Netto:
With Northern Lights:
With Guesch Patti:
As member of Penguin Cafe Orchestra:
With Penguin Cafe Orchestra/Salif Keita/Lou Reed/Kevin Godley
  • 'One World One Voice' 1990
With Pili Pili:
  • 'Boogaloo' 1993
With The Proclaimers:
  • 'This is the Story' 1988
Singles:
  • 'Letter From America'
  • 'Make My Heart Fly'
With Gerry Rafferty:
  • 'North and South' 1988
  • 'One More Dream' 1996
With Red Hot:
  • 'L-l-Lazy Days' 1976
With Penny Rimbeau:
  • 'Oh Magick Kingdom' 2011
With Penny Rimbeau Academie des Vanities/Crass
  • 'Yes Sir, the Truth of Revolution' 2016
With Rude:
  • 'This is Rude' 1994
With Phil Saatchi:
  • 'Stripped' 1986
With Shakespears Sister:
  • 'Hormonally Yours' 1992
Singles:
  • 'Stay' 1992
With Sniff 'n the Tears/Paul Roberts:
  • 'City Without Walls' 1985
  • 'Kettle Drum Blues' 1987
  • 'Downstream' 2011
With Soupsongs :
  • Soupsongs 2001
With Lisbee Stainton:
  • 'Sidekick' 2012
  • 'Go' 2012
With David Sylvian:
  • 'Gone to Earth' 1986
  • 'Weatherbox' 1990
  • 'A Victim of Stars' 2012
Unofficial releases:
  • 'Live in Theatre'
  • 'In Praise of Shamans'
Singles:
  • 'Taking the Veil'
  • 'Silver Moon'
With James Tartaglia:
  • 'Dark Metaphysic' 2008
  • 'Kooky Steps' 2014
With T.Rex/Marc Bolan:
  • 'Dandy in the Underworld' 1977
Singles:
  • 'I Love to Boogie' 1976
  • 'Laser Love' 1976
Various artists:
  • 'All the Little Animals ' 1998
With Vitamin Z:
  • 'Sharp Stone Rain' 1989
With Loudon Wainwright III:
  • 'Therapy' 1989
With Well Red:
  • 'Motion' 1987
With Annie Whitehead:
  • 'Naked' 1992
  • 'Home' 1994
  • 'The Gathering 1997'
With Robert Wyatt:'
  • 'Cuckooland' 2003
Sources:''

Writing on humanistic psychology and therapy

Jennifer Maidman is also a trained therapist and member of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy who has written on the subject of Humanistic Psychology for professional journals, and contributed chapters to, and edited "The Future of Humanistic Psychology", described by Professor Arthur Bohart of California State University as "a profoundly important book".
On 21 August 2017 publisher Routledge released 'Humanistic Psychology: current trends and future prospects' in the US and UK. Maidman again contributed chapters and co-edited the book with Dr Richard House and David Kalisch.

Personal life

According to an interview published in 2015, Maidman had gender reassignment around 2000, after a long period of transition, changing her first name from Ian to Jennifer.