First Monday Jazz with JoVia Armstrong & Eunoia Society

First Monday Jazz with JoVia Armstrong & Eunoia Society

To celebrate 10 years of First Monday Jazz, Arts + Public Life audiences will be treated to a year of live jazz performances.

EUNOIA SOCIETY is comprised of Detroiters JoVia Armstrong (percussion), Leslie DeShazor (violin/viola), and Damon Warmack (bass). All are accomplished musicians whose collective artist rosters include Stevie Wonder, El DeBarge, Bob James, Roy Hargrove, Frank McComb, Martha Reeves, Res, Pat Metheny, Diane Schuur, Regina Carter, Omar, Les Nubians, Maysa, Rahsaan Patterson, and more. JoVia and Leslie are also members of Detroit’s all-female Global Jazz group, Musique Noire.

JOVIA ARMSTRONG founded Eunoia Society in 2019 to support her dissertation research in the Integrated Composition, Improvisation, and Technology program at the University of California-Irvine.

Armstrong’s work interrogates contemporary music’s usage of time-based processing, repetition, and drones. Her research is partially informed by how and why ancient societies performed their rituals and ceremonies in caves. The ensemble demonstrates working models of how composers, including beat-makers, can explore techniques to create music for immersive environments, such as performing through multi-channel audio systems for spatial performances and performing within augmented spaces such as virtual reality. Eunoia Society’s current music aims to offer therapeutic groove-based music for listeners while possessing an innovative and audacious spirit, utilizing the latest technological advances in audio while composing music that engages its audiences.