Mali Obomsawin
PROJECTS:
QUARTET
Mali Obomsawin is an accomplished genre-defying bassist, composer, vocalist and proud citizen of the Odanak First Nation. Obomsawin's increasingly broad body of work spans jazz and roots music, indie rock and experimental sound, all of which are incorporated into her compositions. An international touring artist and celebrated accompanist, her current projects include her shoegaze duo Deerlady, the Julia Keefe Indigenous Big Band and her eponymous free-jazz ensemble. Obomsawin's expansive and nuanced practice models 21st century Indigeneity, challenging listeners' complacency with the urgency of our times while comforting with lush– and at times haunting– harmonies.
Mali is currently touring with her band Deerlady, now supporting their latest release Greatest Hits (2024); the free-jazz band she leads under her own name, and the Julia Keefe Indigenous Big Band. Mali composed the score of the 2024 Nat Geo documentary Sugarcane, directed by Julian Brave Noisecat and Emily Kassie and streaming on Disney+ and Hulu.
Over the years Mali has been lucky to work with notable musicians including Esperanza Spalding, Taylor Ho Bynum, Dave Holland, Angelica Sanchez, Kris Davis, Billy Hart, Peter Apfelbaum, Craig Harris, Bill Cole, Althea Sully-Cole, Tomas Fujiwara, Mike Formanek, and more.
DEERLADY
Performing as the shoegaze duo Deerlady, Mali Obomsawin and Magdalena Abrego are two improvising artists bonded in the language of experimentation. Their debut album Greatest Hits is a journey through songs penned by Obomsawin that explore decay and delicate moments – cradled by Abrego’s worldbuilding and evocative guitar playing. The band’s first single “There, There” premiered on the hit FX series Reservation Dogs in 2023, and the album, released the following January, has quickly won over audiences across Indian Country and the US. Described by NPR’s Lars Gotrich as a “headbang while you weep” experience, Deerlady is currently touring Greatest Hits throughout 2024.
SUGARCANE
Bassist, vocalist, and composer Mali Obomsawin’s music has been featured in the hit FX series Reservation Dogs and she composed the score to the recent Nat Geo documentary, Sugarcane. In the 2024 film, an investigation into abuse and missing children at an Indian residential school ignites a reckoning on the nearby Sugarcane Reserve. A stunning tribute to the resilience of Native people and their way of life, Sugarcane, the debut feature documentary from Julian Brave NoiseCat and Emily Kassie, is an epic cinematic portrait of a community during a moment of international reckoning and illuminates the beauty of a community breaking cycles of intergenerational trauma and finding the strength to persevere. In this program, Mali and her band perform live with the backdrop of the film. The documentary is streaming on Disney+ and Hulu and the soundtrack is set for release in late 2024 on Nat Geo’s Hollywood Records.
PRESS:
“Obomsawin reminds listeners constantly that folk music shouldn’t be about pliant, pretty subservience, and that Abenaki culture is loudly, proudly living and expanding.”
The Guardian
“The most auspicious album I heard this year”
Larry Blumenfeld, NPR
“A breath of fresh air…It not only works as a potent commentary on Indigenous heritage, autonomy and experiences, but as gripping, dynamic, and thunderous music in and of itself. All that without an ounce of overshowing.”
JazzTimes
“Obomsawin aims to shine a light on the largely hidden history of Indigenous jazz”
WNYC
“One of those albums that utterly defy expectation or convention - it occupies its own universe, arriving from leftfield to blow your mind.”
Folk Radio UK
