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Ridley, Max / Eleanor Elektra / Nat Mugavero: Playing, Praying (577 Records)

The trio of Max Ridley (double bass, voice), Eleanor Elektra (guitar, voice), and Nat Mugavero (drums, voice) create an intimate and spiritually charged improvisation that weaves deep listening, expressive interplay, and moments of resonant silence into a continuous musical communion, recorded live in Cambridge as a heartfelt exploration of sound, stillness, and collective devotion.
 

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Product Information:

Personnel:



Max Ridley-double bass, voice

Eleanor Elektra-guitar, voice

Nat Mugavero-drums, voice

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UPC: 755491354377

Label: 577 Records
Catalog ID: CD-577R-5992-1
Squidco Product Code: 36997

Format: CDR
Condition: New
Released: 2025
Country: USA
Packaging: Digipack
Recorded at The Lilypad, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on April 29th, 2025, by Nnenna Eze.
Descriptions, Reviews, &c.

Artist Biographies

"Max Ridley is musician, composer and educator based in Boston. He first started participating in music by singing in the school choir and playing bass guitar in a punk band after school. He began his formal studies in high school at the Boston Arts Academy and it was there that he first fell in love with improvised music and the upright bass. While at Boston Arts Academy, he was selected out of many other young musicians to perform at Boston's Symphony Hall with the Boston Pops three years in a row. Also during these years, he joined the Berklee City Music program and was able to travel to New York to play for Quincy Jones and his foundation. He was awarded full-tuition scholarships to study at Berklee College of Music for both an undergraduate and graduate degree, earning his graduate degree from the Berklee Global Jazz Institute under the direction of master pianist and educator Danilo Perez. An equally important part of his education was down the street from Berklee at Boston's historic Wally's Jazz Cafe. He began going to jam sessions there in high school and more recently, has been the house bass player every Friday and Saturday night with the Jason Palmer Band.

Ridley has shared the stage with renown musicians such as Jeff Coffin, Kenny Werner, Tia Fuller, Ralph Peterson, Terri Lyne Carrington, Jack Dejohnette, Bruce Molsky, Perico Sambeat, Walter Smith III and Jerry Bergonzi. He has performed in venues such as the Blue Note, Jazz at Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, the Monterey Jazz Festival and the Umbria Jazz Festival. He has played many different styles of music all over the US, Canada and Europe, traveling by plane and staying in hotels, as well as by van and sleeping on couches and floors. Today he is active in New England as a sideman, leader and co-leader for many different groups, both on stage and in the recording studio. He also teaches music as a guest lecturer at different colleges around New England (such as Longy School of Music and the University of New Hampshire) and at the Hamilton-Garrett Music and Arts Academy. He has also spent some time living in Valencia Spain and considers that his second home and musical community."

-Max Ridley Website (http://www.maxridley.com/bio)
2/18/2026

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Eleanor Elektra is an interdisciplinary artist originally from the Pacific Northwest who fuses music and visual arts.

Her practice spans songwriting, printmaking and installation work. Her music combines elements of folk, jazz and classical music within the songwriter idiom to create unique cinematic songs."

-Eleanor Elektra Website (http://www.eleanorelektra.com/)
2/18/2026

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.

Nat Mugavero is a Boston jazz drummer, known for the groups Bob Nieske 3, Bob Nieske's Wolf Soup, and Freedom of Assembly. He also has his own quartet with Dan Blake (saxophone), Leo Genovese (piano); John Lockwood (bass).

-Squidco 2/18/2026

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Track Listing:
Related Categories of Interest:


Improvised Music
Jazz
Free Improvisation
Boston Area Improvisers
Trio Recordings
Unusual Vocal Forms
New in Improvised Music
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