Schneider’s ‘Data Lords’ Named Pulitzer Finalist

By DownBeat I Jun. 22, 2021

Maria Schneider’s *Data Lords* was named a Pulitzer Prize Finalist.
(Photo: Brienne Lermitte)

Composer and bandleader Maria Schneider was named a 2021 Pulitzer Prize Finalist in Music for her double album Data Lords featuring the Maria Schneider Orchestra.

Inspired by conflicting relationships between the digital and natural worlds, the album is described in the Pulitzer press release as “an enveloping musical landscape of light and shadow, rendered by the many personalities of a large jazz ensemble, reflecting the promise of a digital paradise contrasted by a concentration of power and the loss of privacy.”

The 2021 Pulitzer Prize in Music was awarded to Stride, by Tania León; Place, by Ted Hearne was also a Finalist. Both are classical works.

Released in July 2020 via ArtistShare, Data Lords has earned the critical acclaim of two Grammy Awards, Le Grand Prix de l’Académie du Jazz, the #1 spot in the 2020 NPR Music Jazz Critics Poll, as well as a place as one of the year’s best albums from Rolling Stone, Slate, Paste, Pop Matters, The Guardian, Chicago Tribune, Minneapolis Star Tribune, Boston Globe, Buffalo News, San Diego Union Leader, Denver Post, JazzTimes, Jazziz and many more.

Most recently, it was named the Album of the Year in the 69th DownBeat International Critics Poll.

Since her first recording, Evanescence (1994), Schneider has earned a reputation for tailoring detailed and personal compositions to the individual voices of her 18-member collective, one that includes the finest musicians in jazz.

Data Lords is available exclusively at mariaschneider.com. DB