DIDA PELLED
Brooklyn-based guitarist, singer, and songwriter, Dida Pelled, is widely regarded as the greatest jazz guitarist this side of the Mississippi. Love of the Tiger, Pelled’s upcoming album, is the product of a jazz prodigy gone rogue. It is a love letter to the obscure, weaving across genres, twisting and turning with Pelled’s ever-expanding range of musical abilities and interests.
Pelled’s ambitions took shape as a child, when, entranced by bebop, she sequestered herself from the world and resolved to master guitar, later training at the New School on a scholarship to study jazz. She quickly made a name for herself in the New York jazz scene, recording with Jazz masters like Roy Hargrove and Gregory Hutchinson and touring the world. As her jazz star rose, Pelled felt a pull toward classic American songwriting, shifting her direction and redefining her voice.
By following her intuition and veering off the jazz trajectory, Pelled took a bold and fearless jump into the unknown. In this period of searching, she became intrigued by the sounds of “lost women”, female artists before her whose stars burned briefly or only in the dark, artists like Connie Converse and Mistress Mary. She made an entire show covering eclectic songs rarely ever heard, a show that developed a cult following of its own.
