Jennifer Maidman is a musician, songwriter, actress and music producer based in London. She is a multi instrumentalist but specializes in guitar and bass.
Jennifer Maidman is a musician, songwriter, actress and music producer based in London. She is a multi instrumentalist but specializes in guitar and bass.
Her first experience on stage was at the age of seven as Mary in her school nativity play! Hooked on the buzz of live performance, she went on to play child and adolescent parts with the Renegades, Jimmy Cooper's East London based theatre company where Ken Campbell also started out.
As a child she trained on classical piano and guitar before getting involved in rock music in the early seventies, both as a musician and also as a recording engineer for artists including Steve Marriot and Marc Bolan. Since then she has played with many well known artists in the pop and rock field including Joan Armatrading, Gerry Rafferty, David Sylvian, The Proclaimers, Shakespears Sister, Bonnie Raitt, Van Morisson, Sam Brown and Boy George. She co-wrote several songs with Boy George including "No Clause 28" and has also written for other artists including Sam Brown.
Her production work includes two albums by singer songwriter Paul Brady, "Back to the Centre" and "Primitive Dance", both of which topped the Irish chart, two tracks on Linda McCartney's solo album "Wide Prairie", "Pipe Dreams" by Murray Head, "The Other Foot" by funk fusion band The Kick Horns "Uneasy Listening" by Mitt Gamon(featuring Ian Dury) and "Boogaloo" by Jasper Van't Hof's Dutch/African group Pili-Pili.
She was a long-standing member of the Penguin Cafe Orchestra and it was there that she met her partner, trombonist Annie Whitehead. Jennifer has produced and appeared on several albums with Annie.Their first recording together was "This is Rude" a collaboration with Harry Beckett and Liam Genockey, followed by Annie's own albums "Naked", "Home" and "The Gathering" . Jennifer produced the jazz/folk fusion album "Airplay" by Northern Lights (a collaboration with english concertina player Alaistair Anderson) and "Soupsongs" , a live recording of the music of Robert Wyatt on which she also contributed guitar and lead vocals.She appeared in a BBC4 documentary about Robert entitled "Free Will and Testament" and also played guitar and accordian on Robert's recent album "Cuckooland" which was nominated for a Mercury award. Film work includes music for "All the Little Animals" with John Hurt and she has recently written and produced the soundtrack for an independent film "Bass Desires" by Vic Ryder and Stacey Makishi.
Jennifer continues to play in Annie's band and with Rude and the Soupsongs band in which she shares lead vocals with Sarah Jane Morris. She can also be seen live with Carol Grimes' band New Coats and appears on Murray Head's new album "Tete a' Tete". Most recently she acted and sung in "Strange Cargo" at Rich Mix in London, a groundbreaking theatrical piece based on the lives of six people with unuusual experiences, directed by Clare Hodgson and Jamie Beddard and produced by Nick Merwitzer of Diverse City. When time allows she is currently working on her own material for future release.