BIOGRAPHY

Hi, Ziyna Ember here. I’m in Tien’s place at 186,000 Velocity Street™ to give you a glimpse into Eliyora Entertainment’s™ singer and co-composer of her own unique style she calls TropJazz. Instead of a standard biography, I thought it would be more personal to let you get to know a bit of Tien through her own words.

Ziyna: Hi Tien, thanks for having me!

Tien: Hi Ziyna, nice to see ya! Here, have a Brazilian Lemonade.

Ziyna: Oh, love those — thanks! 
I guess that’s appropo speaking of TropJazz!

Tien: (Laughs) Yeah. I do love adding a tropical spice into just about everything — food, drinks, life and jazz!

Ziyna: Why is that?

Tien: Blame it on the samba.

Ziyna: Samba, huh? How did that happen?

Tien: As soon as samba got into my ears, my hips — and my soul, there was no turning back! So many rhythms in one samba — take your pick! As a musician, I just started craving those rhythms, and started hearing them in my head layered on top of everything I would listen to. I don’t know if I can even dance anymore without my hips adding them in to whatever I’m dancing to! There are so many other amazing tropical rhythms, too, and the more I listen, the more I hear them all layered over the top of my mainstay favorites — jazz, funk, hip hop.

Ziyna: So — wa la — TropJazz?

Tien: Yeah. It sounded so great in my head I had to figure out how to lay it down.

Ziyna: So when do we get to hear your TropJazz?

Tien: Well, happy to say just finished my first album, which we’re calling TropJazz as a sort of introduction — and it’s all instrumentals. I hope listeners will enjoy it as much as I do!

Ziyna: Great! I’ve heard snippets and it sounds tasty — looking forward to listening to the whole album. I understand you co-wrote all of the songs?

Tien: I feel like Sherese Timeless, our very own composer and producer here at Eliyora Entertainment,™ is being generous in giving me co-writing credit, but I appreciate that. Actually, I conveyed ideas and sound snippets I wanted for each song, and she somehow magically translated all of that into songs that were everything I heard in my head and more!  Since I’m mostly a singer used to telling song stories, I’m delighted with the stories I feel listening to these instrumental songs!

Ziyna: So we’ll hear you sing TropJazz in the future?

Tien: Sure. But, honestly, I’ve had so much fun with this process that I’ll likely want to keep doing instrumentals as well. And there is so much more I hear in my head, so much more to explore! I love this freedom!

Ziyna: Freedom is good! So if you were filing your music in a record store, where would you put it?

Tien: That’s funny! The marketing folks keep trying to pin me down on that, too. For sure, all of TropJazz has jazz as it’s foundation, we run into trouble when they want to make me pick a jazz subgenre — but they won’t let me pick more than one! This drink has jazz, with some funk and some hip hop and a tropical umbrella on top — those are the for sure ingredients, but who knows what else I might hear to slip in there as well. All I can commit to is TropJazz — the bottom and the top, leave me the freedom on what I can put in the middle! Put it in Jazz under “Time Will Tell.”

Ziyna: That should be a category – especially for jazz, shouldn’t it! Look how many chameleons we now have in jazz and that’s the beauty of it.

Tien: Ain’t that the truth! Listen, jazz was born of so many different styles, why stop now? I’m really only carrying on the tradition.

Ziyna: Right on! Be bold! We wish you the best, Tien!

Tien: Thanks Ziyna — and thanks for coming by.

Ziyna: Head on over to Ever Entertainment to listen to Tien’s TropJazz free!