Jana Herzen

MCC currently continues to be an important force in New York Theater, and now has built and runs a theater on 52nd Street.

Telsey continues to lead MCC, but unfortunately his long time partner, Robert LuPone, died of pancreatic cancer in 2022.

Jana Herzen (born April 24, 1959 in Washington, D.C.), is a singer-songwriter with folk, world, rock, and jazz influences who founded Motéma Music, a record label focused on jazz and world music.

From 1976 to 1980's she worked as a multi-disciplinary theater artist, first in the SF Bay Area, then in London and then in New York City where she became a founding member of the now longstanding MCC Theater Company led Bernard Telsey and Robert LuPone  an influential New York City theater company focused on producing new plays and musicals.

After taking a year off between High school and College to intern in the theater and perform as a musicina in London and Cambridge, England, she attended Stanford from 1977 to 1979 taking mainly pre-med courses.

She then took another year off to work as a theatrical production manager and lighting desinger in the bay area, and then atteneded New York University (NYU) from 1980 to 1982, where she completed an undergraduate degree in drama.

While at NYU, she met fellow student Bernard Telsey and actor Robert LuPone.

Together with five other NYU graduates, they founded the non-profit Manhattan Class Company (MCC), a theater group dedicated to developing and producing new plays and musicals.

She served as a dramaturg, script doctor, lighting designer, actor, director and also sat on the board of directors until 1991.

She also continued to perform as a singer and guitarist and moonlighted as a carpenter and other odd jobs to make ends meet.

Telsey went on to become one of the leading casting directors in New York City.

In 1991, Herzen decided to leave the theater and follow her musical muse.

She also left Manhattan to travel to Japan, Bali, and Australia where, while traveling she worked on songs for her first album, which she eventually recorded in Paris in 1994 with thje Paris based Congolese bassist and producer Shaka Ra Mutela who is best known for his work with Papa Wemba, Ray Lema, Bobongo Allstars, and for writing the song "Yaleo" on Carlos Santana's Multi-platinum album, Supernatural.

After seeking a record deal for several years, she eventually independentlly released that first album.

She called the album "Soup's on Fire", shortened her stage name to Jana Herzen at that time, and released it in 1999 on her own vanity imprint, which she named Motéma Music.

The name Motema she learned from Mutela.

It means "Heart" in the Central African language, Lingala.

As her name also means "heart" (in German) and as Motema sounded a bit like Motown, Herzen thought it was a fitting name.

Before founding the label in 2003, she worked as a musician in San Francisco (her album Soup's on Fire was first released in 1999), as well as an art agent for the renowned collage artist Winston Smith published by Last Gasp of San Francisco.

Smith published two books, was well known for his humorous and often politicized album covers and magazine illustrations.

He also designed the logo for Herzen’s Motéma label.

She founded Motema Music in 2003.

As of this writing in 2023, the label is in its 20th year and has released over 200 recordings and received GRAMMY® recognition for over 25 albums.

As daughter of renowned university professors and researches Leonard A Herzenberg and Leonore Herzenberg, and she was raised on the campus of Stanford University.

She was born musically gifted and began singing as soon as she could talk.

She began piano lessons at 5 and later picked up the harmonica at 8, clarinet at 10, and guitar at 13.

In high school she took a strong interest in theater.

A few years later, she hired a two record industry veterans to work with her (David Neidhart and Suzi Reynolds) who helped her obtain international distribution for Motema, and officially launched the label in 2003 with the albums Soul Pools by Babatunde Lee and Arise by Lynne Arrialle.

As time went on the label developed a strong reputation in jazz, but it has never been limited to that genre.

Herzen's goal was to provide a home for 'artists of power and distinction' who were outstanding composers and performers and who were serious artists and cared about making a positive difference in the world.

Herzen has served as founder, president, and creative leader of Motéma since 2003, in addition continuing to recording as an aritst for the label.

Initially founded in San Francisco in 2003, Herzen moved Motema to New York City from 2005.

The offices were first on 23rd street, then in Chinatown, then moved up to Harlem where the label ran out of Langston Hughes's landmarked home from 2006 to 2008 and then moved into a brownstone office in Harlem until 2020 when Herzen moved back to San Francisco and began to run the label from there again.

Motema is respected internationally as an 'art-first' label focused almost exclusively on releasing composer/performers who are expanding the genre of jazz by fusing jazz with other influences such as world music, soul-music, reggae, latin and classical music.

Via Motema Herzen has been responsible for launching introducing many artists who have gone on to having significant international careers including Gregory Porter, Lakecia Benjamin, Joey Alexander, Deva Mahal, Pedrito Martinez, Shuteen Erdenebaatar, among others.

Motema also is known for working with influential veterans such as NEA Jazzmaster Randy Weston, beloved piano innovator Geri Allen, reggae- jazz innovator Monty Alexander, legendary bassist Rufus Reid, Saxophone legend David Murray, Latin jazz innovator Arturo O'Farrill, and the world-renowned drummer, producer, educator and activist Terri Lyne Carrington, as well as the jazz veteran supergroups The Cookers and Hudson (feat. Jack DeJohnnette, John Scofield, John Medeski & Larry Grenadier).

Additionally, the label is known for working with innovators in contemporary jazz including Ben Wendel, Melissa Aldana, Marc Cary, Mark Guiliana, Kneebody, Gilad Hekselman and Jihye Lee.

On February 10, 2020 she got married (for the first time) to her long time good friend and musical partner Charnett Moffett.

Together they travelled to San Francisco just before the COVID pandemic and chose to weather it out together, running the label together and eventually producing several records and doing multiple online broadcasts while the world was shut down.

When performing opportunities began to open up they performed at Yoshi's in Oakland, where they recorded Moffett's trio album "Live", and after that recorded a residency at Catalina's in Los Angeles in January of 2022, which will be released as an album.