Ingrid Laubrock

Ingrid Laubrock (born September 24, 1970) is a German-born jazz saxophonist, who plays soprano, alto, tenor and baritone saxophones.

She studied with Jean Toussaint, Dave Liebman and at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.

Laubrock moved to London, England in 1989 and became a member of the F-IRE Collective, and in 2008 relocated to New York, where she currently resides.

In 1998, she released her first solo album Who Is It? and was subsequently nominated for the 'Rising Star of the Year' award at the 1999 BT Jazz Awards. She was also nominated for the BBC Award 'Rising Star' in 2005 and in 2009 won the SWR Jazz Award for her recording Sleepthief.

She has played and recorded with Brazilian singer Monica Vasconcelos' band NÓIS and the Brazilian quartet NÓIS4 of which she is a founding member. Other musicians she has made guest appearances with include Kenny Wheeler, Norma Winstone, Siouxsie and the Banshees and Polar Bear.

Discography

As leader/co-leader

As sidewoman

References

Chinese guardian lions

Chinese guardian lions or Imperial guardian lions, traditionally known in Chinese simply as Shi (Chinese: 獅; pinyin: shī; literally: "lion"), and often called "Foo Dogs" in the West, are a common representation of the lion in imperial China.

Description

Statues of guardian lions have traditionally stood in front of Chinese Imperial palaces, Imperial tombs, government offices, temples, and the homes of government officials and the wealthy, from the Han Dynasty (206 BC-AD 220), and were believed to have powerful mythic protective benefits. They are also used in other artistic contexts, for example on door-knockers, and in pottery. Pairs of guardian lion statues are still common decorative and symbolic elements at the entrances to restaurants, hotels, supermarkets and other structures, with one sitting on each side of the entrance, in China and in other places around the world where the Chinese people have immigrated and settled, especially in local Chinatowns.

The lions are usually depicted in pairs. When used as statuary the pair would consist of a male leaning his paw upon an embroidered ball (in imperial contexts, representing supremacy over the world) and a female restraining a playful cub that is on its back (representing nurture).