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Virtuoso jazz guitarist, singer, and composer Monnette Sudler was born June 5, 1952, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The daughter of a pianist and singer, she was first exposed to jazz music by listening to her great uncle play the piano. She studied the piano with her mother but switched to the guitar when she was 15 years old, taking lessons at the Wharton Center in Philadelphia. She continued her musical studies at Berklee College in Boston, Massachusetts. She met vibraphonist Khan Jamal, and they formed the jazz group Sounds of Liberation in 1970. The group released their debut album, New Horizons, in 1972 and recorded a live album at Columbia University in 1973, but the recording remained unreleased until 2018. Monnette Sudler collaborated with Sunny Murray and Sam Rivers, took part in the Newport Festival in 1976, and released her first two jazz fusion albums: Time for a Change (1977) and Brighter Days for You (1978). Recognized by the jazz community, she became a popular session musician and played on recordings by Kenny Barron, Hugh Masekela, Archie Shepp, Ike & Tina Turner, Byard Lancaster, and Shirley Scott. She did not record as a leader again until the 1990 album Other Side of the Gemini, which featured Grover Washington Jr., Steve Turre and Reggie Workman. She followed that album with Word to the Wise (1993), Live in Europe (1996), The Sun's Peeking Over the Mountain (1998) and Just One Kiss (1999). After a six-year break, she returned with the rap-infused Meeting of the Spirits (2005), followed by Let the Rhythm Take You (2008), which featured her son Erik ‘Abyss’ Honesty. Further albums include Where Have All the Legends Gone? (2009), Live in Japan (2016), This Is How We Get Through (2018), Stay Strong (2021), and In My Own Way (2021), which consisted of recordings from 1978. Monnette Sudler died on August 21, 2022, at the age of 70.
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