About

a Ka Di Mi Doo-dn Be-Op Di Mi Ta Ka thom doom DHUM Jaah nu sah pah … “ Don't ask. Just listen. Because you have to hear it to believe it. It’s a staccato swing that’s alive– essential and timeless - passionately explored by an artist named for a river that has spawned centuries of accomplishment and creativity.

For Rhythm Vocalist Loire Cotler, life has always been about the natural rhythm of the universe which has propelled her into a life, like her music, that is defined by pure cadence and pulse. Loire has now done no less than create an entirely new genre using the intimate power of her voice as a rhythm instrument.

She calls a distant past of sacred ritual and echo vocal traditions (the Jewish nigunim, Middle Eastern taksim and Konnakol Indian drum language). Improvising compositions that are both hypnotic and playful, she’s an artist in total command of her unique craft. Phrases like “Peerless artistry” (The Jerusalem Post), “Astonishing” (Chicago Tribune), “Jaw dropping dexterity” (Chicago Classical Review) are commonly used to describe her.

Becoming a Rhythm Vocalist wasn’t the point at the beginning. Loire’s childhood break from the constraints of rote learning like the Suzuki piano method into early study of Music Therapy and eastern philosophies led beyond western discipline and into musics of the world. There was no way to keep a classical leash on her training. An incredible solo by the legendary Cuban percussionist Cándido when she was eleven actuated her own sense of timing and space, launching lifelong karmic encounters with master drummers and percussionists all over the world.

Creating herself as a world class Rhythm Vocalist only happened as a result of first mastering a bold, eclectic repertoire from Medieval to Be-Bop and World Music to Avant-Pop. She sings from the Great American Songbook with a jazz style all her own, and often bridges both in the same performance. She is as adept with piercing Konnakol as she is with, say, her own original compositions or a dreamy interpretation of the Carmichael/Mercer jazz standard "Skylark.” The New York Times has called her work “explosive.”

Her mission then was established- to show the world the power of the voice as a rhythm instrument, and its super-human capacity to deliver to unimaginable. A toddler anywhere in the world instinctively knows what to do with a wooden spoon and an upside down soup pot. She conjures this primal need to connect through sounds and rhythms that have no language barrier. In performance she seeks your eyes and energy and with impromptu call and response, inviting audiences to join her mystical world of complex rhythm and chant.