Jupiter Blue

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JUPITER BLUE

From the engine room of Sun Ra's Arkestra [under the direction of Marshall Allen], Jupiter Blue's tone scientists D.Hotep and Jupiter Girl Blue emerge to reveal elements & particles of another kind of language, from another tomorrow, learned from a history of discipline, to be shared in the present. Expect the unexpected from electronics, electric guitar, celestial vocals, percussion, and violin as they call forth jazz-sourced vocals, harmonic soundscapes and shadows of unseen worlds.

Tara Jupiter Girl Blue

Tara Middleton is a 2019 Pew Fellowship nominated vocalist, violinist, and lyricist. She has been the vocalist for the world renowned Sun Ra Arkestra directed by Marshall Allen since 2012. She is currently on the artist registry of the Pa. Council of the Arts, teaches music as part of a federally funded STEAM program, and co-leads her own ensembles -- Jupiter Blue, and The Foundations Singers.

After beginning violin lessons at the age of 4, she studied under several prominent violinists -- including Dr. Shinichi Suzuki and Booker Rowe. And, after transitioning to focus on performing as a jazz vocalist, has studied with Gerald Price, Dr. George Allen, and Patty Wackenhut. Since then she has completed two degrees in the field of music and one in ophthalmologic sciences.

In the 1990s, Tara co-founded The Foundations Singers, which is an African folksong oriented a cappella trio that has garnered wide acclaim throughout the tri-state folk music community. Over the last decade, she has also performed and recorded as a featured vocalist with several ensembles, in a broad range of songbooks and styles including straight-ahead jazz, R&B, Brazilian Portuguese, Afro-Cuban/Caribbean, and Operatic avant-garde.

Most recently she has worked as a vocalist and instrumentalist with Bowerbird's Arcana New Music Ensemble, and as a recording artist and performer with Philadelphia Jazz Project. Tara was commissioned to co-compose (with Rosie Langabeer & choreographer Mathew Neenan) the story & music for the ballet “Twelve Bells”, which was debuted by Philadelphia Ballet offshoot company BalletX. She continues to work with BalletX as an onstage performer for different productions. Her most recent recorded vocal collaborations include Nick Millevoi's Desertion Trio album "Twilight Time" which garnered rave reviews in Rolling Stone magazine, and Jupiter "Blue's Dreams Of Future Memories" and "Fireshow". Tara’s most recent work with Sun Ra Arkestra can be heard on the newly released album “Swirling,” for which she wrote the lyrics for the title track and others.

DmHotep

After leaving behind years of architectural apprenticeship, his professional music experience began in the early 1990s as an integral member of legendary DJ Tat Money's Halfro Productions team. While studying with private teachers such as Curtis Harmon Sr, Steve Giordano, Myrtle Young, and [Dennis Sandole students] Glenn Wallace and Pat Martino, he created his own ensemble -- JazGuardian -- that went on to engage corporate, political and public performances for nearly 15 years. He was also fortunate to begin performing, composing, and teaching with Khan Jamal & Barry Schuck’s Philadelphia Jazz Composers’ Forum, which led to collaborations with a wide variety of forward thinking artists and ensembles around the Philadelphia tri-state region.

Since 2000, he has continued to rehearse, tour internationally and record as a member of the Sun Ra Arkestra, under the direction of Marshall Allen. Through that association, he's received commissions to transcribe and orchestrate the music of Sun Ra for university music programs and international ensembles -- such as the Germany based ensemble MusikFabrik, with whom he subsequently completed a 3-week artist-in-residency program to explore the intersection of Sun Ra composition & performance, Harry Partch instrumentation, and spectral music aesthetics.

Internationally, he has played alongside many seminal Arkestra members and others including Wayne Krantz of MC5, poet John Sinclair, Bernie Worrell, DJ Spooky, bassists John Ore and Juni Booth, violinist Billy Bang, percussionist Rogi Kenyatta, avant-garde multi-instrumentalists William Parker and Kali Fasteau, Tuvan throat-singing ensemble Alash, legendary Tuvan musician Kongar-ol Ondar (star of the Oscar award winning documentary Genghis Blues), and has briefly toured and filmed with Solange Knowles.

In 2018/19 he served as music director & consultant for Philadelphia Jazz Project’s “Satellites Are Spinning” concert series, and worked with afro-futurist multidisciplinary artist Rashaad Newsome. He is currently a participating member of Philadelphia’s Arcana New Music Ensemble (beginning with resurgent performances of the works of Black avant-garde composer Julius Eastman). He co-founded Jupiter Blue in 2017, and has been recording and micro-touring in that duo since then. The last few years has also seen him continuing to work at incorporating remote mixing, media scoring & composition, and instrument tracking services for clients as diverse as ballet companies, independent artists, and music library publishers into his portfolio. He's scheduled to begin teaching a course in improvisation strategies at Curtis Institute of Music during the 2022 school year.